Entombed

Social Science is the opportunity for adults to drink in a children's environment. At least that was my interpretation. Neither me nor my mother drank, but we had a good time.

The Science Museum of Minnesota closed its doors to the public at 4pm yesterday to prepare for the event. It started at 6 and we strolled in at 6:30 and we're I.D.'d by the police to get through the doors. Neat.

We were greeted by a gigantic space man that towered over everything. Mom was hungry so we proceeded down to the third floor where we were told was a restaurant and where we could hear a large dance party in progress. As it turned out, it was an empty dance floor and a table with a lone D.J. whose name was, I believe, Sasha DuJoúr, or Sasha of the day in English. The music was loud.

We ate and started our tour with dinosaurs.

Allosaurs looked like velociraptors to me so I took this picture. I wonder if these former rulers of the world actually stood around with their mouths agap, or if this look is created to strike fear in the observer.

This is not a turtle. Actually it looked more like a pig than anything. I don't recall it's name, but it was pretty cool-- my favorite fossil.

This here is fossilized Dino poo. Somewhere exists a picture of me taking this picture. It was the most popular display by far of the dinosaurs.

These are holograms. I couldn't get them to look 3D on my phone camera until I actually took the picture and my mom stepped in and it appears as if the picture lept out and grabbed her face.

And then there were mummies. We each paid an extra $8 to see this exhibit. I had mixed feelings before I walked in. I mean, how much could I learn from a dead guy in a blanket?

These are skulls of adults whose heads were bound as children. Yes, people actually wanted their heads to look like butts 2,000 years ago.

His whole life story was written over the body in hieroglyphics. You didn't need to be rich or famous to have an elaborate tomb, this was very common practice back in the day.

This one really got me. I stated for minutes. It's just a head. But one day, this head held thoughts, talked to and loved people and his family. And years later, he was ripped to shreds by grave robbers looking for treasure. His head was torn off and discarded with no respect or remorse. His eye sockets were empty, but I envisioned a stream of tears cascading down his gaunt cheeks.

Here's another one I couldn't walk away from. This is a very lifelike recreation of an Egyptian boy who was entombed thousands of years ago. D.N.A., X-RAY, and some acronyms I can't recall were used to estimate his features. I had a minor acid flashback. Synesthesia kicked in when my brain told me this was a real person even though I knew it wasn't. I saw a flicker  then I know I saw his eyes move. Colors started to change around me. I was locked in.

I looked closer into his eyes. We started at each other for a full minute. I swear I heard him breathe. I could see pores on his skin, each one with a micro-hair protruding. The detail was phenomenal. I nearly got sick because of the effect it had on my brain. No joke. We left.

Upstairs we found the place where you can bring things in to trade. Things you find out in nature. They assign a point value to what you bring then add on points for what you know about it, then you find something worth that many points. These agates are an example of what you could bring in or leave with.

And finally, I discovered I could put my face and name on the space man. It's the coolest thing I've ever seen or done. I'm an astronaut now.

In the long run this was a  important night. Aside from the unexpected L.S.D. flashback, it was an opportunity to be in an environment where normal people were drinking normally. I didnt have any urges to sneak off and find a private place to down a quick beer or empty out a pop can and fill it with wine. I had a fun time and paid attention to the exhibits, not the people. Another small success for me.