We had a mega-huge event for Engaged Encounter on Saturday night. Mega-huge makes it sound like a car sale at a dealership or something, but it was actually a much classier extravaganza then that. We’ve needed to do a recruiting event for some time now, but no one has stepped up to plan it. Now, let me introduce to you the mastermind behind our stress: Michael Martin. The event was all his brainchild. The original idea was to have a Prom for married couples. He wanted to take me to Prom! That idea, however, was immediately shot down by some of our older team couples – they said there was no way they were going to get dressed up in formals and tuxes and it would, therefore, be a turn-off for perspective new couples as well. So, the idea morphed into a Valentine’s dinner and dance. We invited all the married couples who had attended the retreats in the last several years and had filled out a ‘yeah, we’d like to get involved someday’ volunteer form. Panic started to set in when we sent the evite out and realized we’d invited hundreds of people! In the end we had 84 people RSVPed to attend though we only had 64 actually show up. (I guess there are ten couples still driving around Issaquah trying to find St. Joe’s Catholic Church).

The evening was a HUGE success. Everything really did go off without a hitch. We spent four hours in the morning decorating the hall and totally transformed it, we came home for two hours, beautified ourselves (and man, do we clean up good!), and went back to St. Joe’s. We had a marvelous time and met some fantastic couples who all seem pumped to join our group. (Or married persons’ cult, if you will). I had the pleasure of MCing the event, and well, you know me and a mic. And Mike. I love ‘em.

Considering that we’d abandoned our boys pretty much all day on a Saturday, we thought that a family outing on Sunday (despite our fatigue) was in order. So, after church, we headed to the zoo. Ma and Pa Buckley got us a membership for Christmas and we’ve already put it to good use. The boys and I actually took them with us on Friday (so this was our 2nd trip to the zoo in three days)! On Friday, our trip was all about the gorillas. Sunday – it was the bats. Matthew was finally feeling brave enough to venture into the Nocturnal house for the first time. In the end, he decided that bats are really cool.

The gorillas have always been one of my favorite animals. There was a time – circa 6th grade – that when I grew up I was going to move to Africa to live with them in the jungle. I think dad provided me with the wake-up call that I would really miss the luxuries of home, but more than that was the mention of huge jungle-y spiders that sealed the deal. I do have a stuffed gorilla still, so between that and the zoo, I get my primate fix.

On Friday, shortly before we departed the zoo, we made a stop at the gorilla camp. We were watching them when a woman started walking by behind us on the zoo path. She had a poodle. A poodle?! Dogs aren’t allowed at the zoo! But this poodle was an in-training helper dog. (I didn’t know poodles did that, they always seem too high maintenance and froofy to me). As she hurried by she spoke out loud saying, “I know. I know. We’re getting out of here as fast as we can. Don’t worry. I know you don’t like dogs.” I think we were all wondering, “What the heck is up with this dog chica?” Within moments we had our answer.

The gorillas flipped out! They obviously watch us and are way more aware of what’s going on our side of the glass than we give them credit for. Several of them stood up and glared that dog all the way down the path. It looked as if one of them had been posted on guard, had alerted the others of the potentially dangerous predator (POODLE…what a killer!) and On-Guard Gorilla held a stick – ready to defend his turf should he need to. It was fascinating!

The next group of gorillas (the two groups are always kept separate) had a new baby to show off. The little four month old ape baby (would that be a bapey?) was clinging tight to his mama. Two of the bigger gorillas suddenly started to scuffle over some food and mama gorilla turned into protective mode, roaring and breaking the two apart while she ran to the other side of the glass. (Right in front of where my mom and I stood). We had a perfect view of the baby gorilla; unfortunately we also had a perfect view of the mama gorilla. She proceeded to turn around and answer a call of nature so to speak. Then she, uh, how to put this delicately? She was impatient for the call to conclude on its own, so she reached up and, um, pulled the remainder of the call out…OK, yeah, it was gross. And I’ll just stop there. I don’t know who said it, (could’ve been me) but someone said, “Wow. That’s Mother Nature at her finest.” When you gotta go, you gotta go.

While I do often refer to my children as “monkeys” and I do occasionally feel like I live in a zoo – watching the mama gorilla made me glad to live in a place with things often taken for granted: plumbing, toilet paper, privacy.