I went to the American Museum of Natural History on my recent trip to New York City.  It was an amazing museum, but it was also the source of a lot of stress.  I wanted to remember something I saw in the gift shop right before we left, so I snapped a photo of it.  Then I set my camera down.  Then I walked off.  I didn’t realize until a good 3 or 4 hours later that I left the camera behind.  I was horrified!  I NEVER set my camera down like that, and that particular camera had been my dad’s, i.e. irreplaceable.  I called and left a message with the lost and found office that included a description of the camera itself and the photos, that they started with a bunch of ladybug photos and ended with a bunch of museum photos.  I didn’t get a call back, but the next day I decided to pop in and see if they’d found it, just in case.  After a very long wait in the lost and found area, two security guards walked down to the desk with a couple of cameras and asked me to describe mine.  I gave them the same description that I had left in my message, including the photos that were on the camera.  The security guards laughed heartily and one said, “Oh!  You’re the LADYBUG lady!  You called yesterday.”  They giggled a little as he pulled the camera out of the bag and held it up for me to see.  Then he leaned over the counter as he handed the camera to me and said, “You know, those ladybug photos aren’t too good.”  I laughed and told them why I had a hundred crap photos of ladybugs on my camera while I signed their paperwork.  At any other time, I might have been a little offended, but I was so happy to have my camera back I didn’t care that they were laughing at me and my bad ladybug photos.  So, I give you a photo of a ladybug that isn’t too good, one of the ones that got me my camera back after leaving it in a very crowded museum in New York City:

Bad ladybug

Thank you bad ladybugs!

_______________