Hi all! Becca from Prep Lab again~!

I've discovered in the last week that one of my favourite aspects of working in Prep Lab is when people ask questions. Specifically, when kids ask questions. More specifically, when kids ask questions and get beyond excited about the answer.

Some days it's next to impossible to get visitors at the window asking about the specimens or the equipment or the hours or anything else in the lab. Or it's impossible to hold people's interest for more than a few minutes before they're off again chasing little toddlers or simply moving on to the next exhibit.
Other days, I'm admittedly totally overwhelmed by the number of people dropping by and asking questions. And I prefer it that way (more funny stories, anyway~)!

Today, a little boy wandered up to the Prep Lab window and looked around. I said hi and pointed out some of the cool stuff in the lab-- he was particularly curious about the Apatosaurus vertebrae -- and it wasn't long before he asked the ever-popular question, "How long does it take to finish cleaning one of these fossils?"
I told him it'd taken two years to get the Apatosaurus vertebrae about halfway out of the rock so far.
His reaction?
He screamed and ran away, hopping up and down, dragging his parents over to the window from where they'd been in the next room, demanding they look at two years'  worth of work and himself completely overwhelmed at the concept that anyone could actually work on something for two years. He was very insistent that "that's crazy!" and kept asking, "How do you DO that?", meaning work for that long on anything (because he made it very clear that two years is basically an eternity).
Very slowly, is the best answer I could come up with.

I've decided I really love it when kids have questions. Adults who visit the museum are very polite and curious and ask some really brilliant questions, but kids are the only ones who will scream and run around in excitement as if your patience is superhuman.
Which, I suppose, it is. I mean, really, people work on one specimen for years? That's crazy!

~Becca