Sea -Monkeys love you back
It’s Easter Sunday, and I’m trapped inside writing a research paper on the legal definition of e-mail in archives. Outside, the sun is shining, and little kids are running up and down the Charles River banks with their parents and new puppies and full Easter baskets full of eggs, while I get to learn about the National Security Archive, Iran-Contra, and the U. S. District Court System. Hooray.

Well, at least there’s sunlight coming in from the window. And I have Sea-Monkeys now, because of all my hard research work. Here’s how I became their proud mama:

Last week was a pretty good one. I got my projects turned in on time and started immediately on the next thing that’s due, this monster research paper. I want it to be extra-well written because I’m trying to impress my professor so she’ll give me some help next fall on something else – but that’s another story.

Anyway, I had Friday off from my internship because of the holiday, so I promptly walked to school and locked myself in the library with 8 rolls of microfilm and dozens of other periodical cites to work through, looking for the information I need. Of course, I had already been reading some on the subject, and had found that all the articles referenced one book on the law that I just assumed Simmons had. I mean, it’s a book on archival law, and Simmons has every other book on Library Science, so they should have this one, right?

Wrong. And I panicked. The paper is due Tuesday and there wasn’t enough time to get the book I needed by inter-library loan. The great people down in Reference calmed me down and were a great help though. They told me the book was at the Boston Public Library, so of course I ran out of the building to get myself downtown to retrieve the thing.

At first I was pissed at having to leave the college library to go get something I though should have been there, but as soon as I got outside I changed my mind. Friday was gorgeous. It was the first day I could wear a short sleeve shirt with no jacket since September. The sun was shining, I found the book I needed at the BPL right away, and although I should have hopped right back on the T to get back to burying myself at school and research right away, I just couldn’t. It was too pretty outside, and it was a holiday weekend. All these people were walking around with their arms full of gifts and toys in Copley Square. And into my head popped the fact that I hadn’t been to FAO Schwartz since Christmas. And suddenly I really needed to go.

I told myself I was going to the toy store just to look around, and maybe to pick something up for my boyfriend for Easter, to surprise him with a visit from the bunny. The store is great – if you’ve never been to an FAO Schwartz, it’s the toy store in the movie _Big_ that Tom Hanks dances on the piano in. It’s just fabulous, and outside the one in Boston they have a giant bronze Teddy Bear with blocks that kids can climb all over. And their store windows are always full of these amazing toy displays that move and look like the toys inside must be the most fun toys in the world, better than anything else. So I walked in, and there they were, right up with the science toys: Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys.


And I thought to myself, “Elizabeth, if you don’t get yourself Sea-Monkeys, no one else will. Nobody else is going to just suddenly up and buy you Sea-Monkeys, and if you don’t get them, you’ll just go on wanting Sea-Monkeys for the rest of your life.”

And suddenly I knew this to be true. I’m 24, and the Easter Bunny doesn’t know where I live anymore. There would be no surprise baskets for me this year. So I got myself some Sea-Monkeys. And they are fabulous. Saturday night I brought them to life with Ryan and my neighbor Courtney watching. Everyone I know was fascinated by them – and had to look at them right away. And I’m getting a lot of joy out of them. Sometimes you just need a new toy.
The Sea Monkeys made me happy, and I’m still working on my paper.

The Easter Bunny brought Ryan a paper airplane kit. He seemed reasonably pleased by it.