There is, I suspect, a fine line between goofy-weird and creepy-weird. I am comfortable with my goofy-weird status. I honestly hug trees, read about hydrology for fun, and eat plain raw tofu on a daily basis. Goofy-weird. But then there’s creepy-weird. And nothing says creepy-weird like taxidermy and basements. Last spring Katy, Stephen, and Tom found a fully intact dead mole. After keeping it in our office freezer next to the free bagels (shhh, don’t tell OSHA) for several months, Katy and I decided to hike up our skirts and do something about it. So we let it thaw, then we skinned it (we’re both bio/anatomy nerds), regrettably chucking the inside bits (we should have kept the skull), tanned its wee hide (easier than you’d think), and stretched it on a piece of cardboard to dry. Then, due to the, um, inappropriate nature of an animal skin in the workplace, I put it in an unused drawer of my desk for safe-keeping.
There were big plans for this mole skin, but, well, things change, people move to different states, other people become spastic, forgetful stress-cases, the world turns…So yesterday I consolidated offices and came face to face with the tanned skin of a mole that had been sitting in a drawer of my desk FOR SIX MONTHS. Say what I want about who I am and where I stand on the goofy- v. creepy-weird rubric, I am the kind of person who doesn’t mind (1) dealing with a dead animal, (2) thawing and skinning a found dead animal, then tanning it, and (3) KEEPING IT IN A DRAWER OF MY DESK.
But times must change and my new desk is much smaller, so I yet again found myself alone in a basement with a dead animal skin, a picture frame, and the uncomfortable realization that I wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Here is our handiwork. We don’t know the species, because, well, you need a fleshless skull for that. So it is just a mole. Framed, on the wall of the interns’ office.
There were big plans for this mole skin, but, well, things change, people move to different states, other people become spastic, forgetful stress-cases, the world turns…So yesterday I consolidated offices and came face to face with the tanned skin of a mole that had been sitting in a drawer of my desk FOR SIX MONTHS. Say what I want about who I am and where I stand on the goofy- v. creepy-weird rubric, I am the kind of person who doesn’t mind (1) dealing with a dead animal, (2) thawing and skinning a found dead animal, then tanning it, and (3) KEEPING IT IN A DRAWER OF MY DESK.
But times must change and my new desk is much smaller, so I yet again found myself alone in a basement with a dead animal skin, a picture frame, and the uncomfortable realization that I wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Here is our handiwork. We don’t know the species, because, well, you need a fleshless skull for that. So it is just a mole. Framed, on the wall of the interns’ office.
Yeah...probably creepy.
2 comments:
i hope you did a good job or that think gon' be crusty. I think you should get more and make a stole (stoal?). then wear it around.
Do not question my taxidermy skillz.
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