Happy Moment #2: Jim

In some ways, I feel terrible labeling Jim as a #2. There is no doubt that he is my best friend and my favorite human on earth so in so many ways he is my #1. Last week, I blogged that my friends were my first favorite "moment" of this #50for50 experience, but I imagine that Jim will be popping up a lot in these blog posts -- so here is for his first major appearance!

Today was a day where I worked at neither job -- no teaching, of course, since it is Sunday and no working at the fabric store. Instead, we got up late (well, after I got up earlier in the morning and took Stella out for her bathroom walk). We then made breakfast (we made omelets together after watching the pros do it on America's Test Kitchen) and decided to visit the zoo, a place here in St Louis that we both love but don't get to very often.

I know that I could qualify what I am about to say by arguing that Jim's motivation in doing what he did was for tax purposes but I think it still proves that he is a pretty awesome human being. Jim decided to sign us up for the Marlin Perkins Society at the zoo, which is one of the highest levels of membership. We did something similar a few years and loved it (let me just say that the BEST cupcakes I have ever eaten in my life was at the birthday party for the baby tigers a few years back). But how cool is Jim that he decided to actually do this instead of us saying we "should" so something like this and never getting around and doing it?

After completing the paperwork at the membership desk, we then walked around the zoo a bit and since it was rainy, there just weren't a lot of people there. We checked out the new grizzly bear enclosure (way better than the old one), walked by Kali, the polar bear who also has the coolest enclosure, and visited the penguins and puffins at one of my favorite spots at the zoo.

Here are some of the pics that I took:

We then watched the sea lion show -- which was pretty awesome especially since there wasn't a big crowd at the zoo. The bonus for this was that Jim got us some hot chocolate (the first we have had this season) and some yummy, crispy fries (okay, not healthy but perfect with the hot chocolate!). And, of course, the two sea lions were so much fun to watch!

After the show, we strolled around the African section so we could see the elephants and rhinos -- I have never gotten as close to them as we did today. The only negative was some stupid teenage kid who was feeding the rhino some crackers. I told him to stop and he did while we were still standing there. As soon as we went around the corner to see the rhinos from the other angle, I noticed that the kid has started throwing crackers again, many times hitting the head of the poor rhino. It took just a few seconds for Jim to go back around the corner and yell at the kid (whose parents, by the way, were doing nothing). Little actions like this show you how passionate Jim is about animal life (maybe not so much annoying teenager life, though).

So today was really a regular average day for us, other than the fact that we got to spend some time together (which is always an awesome thing). I don't think that I could ever adequately describe the impact that Jim has had on my life -- I was lucky to stumble on to him 15 years ago -- and I love the passion that he shows for making this world a better place. I know that he doesn't think that he is doing anything special in the acts of kindness that I see him doing all the time -- but I notice, others notice, and I am pretty sure that the world is a better place because of him.