Visiting Pangaea Algaea with Mr. Escher

Our health teacher warned us about flashbacks! He said our brains would be melted, fried, and crispy. Our memories would dissolve in a crockpot of primordial stew, he warned. Crawly, slimy, big-eyed bumpy reptiles would crawl out of the woodwork and slither up the velvet-covered bell pulls. We would gorge ourselves on salty-sweet munchies in our substance-induced states until we were too fat for our shorts.

Well, at least he was right about the shorts. I had to go to Cabela's to find big-enough moisture-wicking shorts, and the stuffed hunted animals all through the store were a bad trip. You may want to start a pool on the date I will accidentally send my new pedometer through the laundry cycle.

In the Earth Cycles exhibit we have a Pangaea puzzle sort of like this:

As a lover of jigsaw puzzles, the whole continental drift/South America meets Africa concept of always tickled me. Plate tectonics less so. Patterns and tessellations amuse me on an aesthetic level, playing tricks with smoke and mirrors. A wetlands of Texas video warns about alligators in the Caddo Lake swamp over and over in its three-minute loop.

Adult dragonflies emerge from the exoskeletons of their nymph stage in the pond ecosystem. We wish our health teacher had faith in this process instead of only dire warnings right before the lunch bell.

The algae clumps, falls over the waterfall, breaks apart, drifts back together. The lizards tesellate and shimmer in the bubbles on the surface. Mr. Escher is polite, but he has seen it all before. He suggests a water bottle refill and some salty pretzels. Stay under the shade umbrella, he advises.

Back home and puzzling the maze of flights to LaGuardia, a squiggle in the carpet puzzles me. That health teacher warned the wallpaper might boogie even after many years! It's just a 1.5" gecko playing optical illusion tag and suggesting it's way past time to dustmop.

© 2014 Nancy L. Ruder