Science Museum of Minnesota Social Science Event

WARNING This may will be a long post. I only say that because heh heh heh I have to kind of give you an introduction as to what I “thought” this event was going to be. *grin*
I was invited to attend the first ever Social Event at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Let’s stop there because that’s where I got confused. No, I’m not blonde at the roots.
Being a blogger and having been invited to go the Science Museum for other blogging opportunities, and I thought that’s what this was also. I knew there were a limited amount of tickets to go through the Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs. We were told we could take photos for the first hour in the exhibit and then enjoy the rest of the evenings activities.I got to the Museum as it was closing to the public and was personally escorted to the exhibit. I was the only one at that point going in and watched the introduction video, narrated by Harrison Ford (good choice by the way) on my own. Then I entered into the exhibit where there were a few people lingering about.
I went through the exhibit at a leisurely pace. There were signs everywhere not to touch anything, but you can NOT believe how much I wanted to reach out and just hold one of the items. I mean, these artifacts are so old. It’s as if the history was calling out to me to touch it and be part of it if only for a moment. These were all actual pieces from Egypt. They were so remarkable. The craftsmanship, the detail, the sheer perfection of each piece was breath taking.
At about five minutes to 7 the employees started walking around telling us our time was about finished. I was like, “What? My hour’s already up?” I had just made it to King Tut’s tomb area. I started hurrying along snapping photos (that turned our blurry) and blazing a trail, no longer reading and soaking in the history. Rush, rush, rush. It sure didn’t feel like I had been in there an hour.When I came out, there were a LOT more people milling about. Hmmm, interesting. All these people were at the Science Museum for this Social event?
I went to a couple of the booths and had some samples of tea and hummus. I walked around looking at the activities I’ve seen before with my boys. Then all of a sudden I realized I was supposed to be taking a behind the scenes tour. I ran up to the 5th floor and was told it was I should be on the 3rd floor. So back down to the floor I had started at!
I got there and waited. There were only three of us; me and a couple. We waited about 10 minutes or so to see if anyone else was coming. No one showed so off we went on our tour. We went into the lab and they had stuff strewn all over the place. I had no idea that there is a treasure trove of Native American history in Southern Minnesota. It was really fascinating.Then off to the storage area. Rows upon rows of artifacts waiting to be displayed or examined. We weren’t allowed to take our cameras in with us. Every Museum needs their secrets.
When we came out of our tour, the amount of people at this social event had escalated! I started to have this suspicion that this wasn’t a social MEDIA event, but a “social” hey-lets-get-together event. There were people everywhere. That’s really when I had wished a couple of things:

1. I hadn’t come alone
2. I would’ve realized this to begin with because I would’ve had a more journalistic view of the event
3. I wouldn’t have worn make-up

It was about 8:30pm and the Social Science was supposed to go until 11pm. What was I going to do with my time and was I going to stay ‘til the end?I have to admit, I started to feel really awkward. I mean, I haven’t been in a crowd of adults, by myself, with no children, in years. Mind you, crowds don’t bother me one iota. I kept trying to find spots to just hang out on my own and send out some tweets. There were things to do that sounded really fun, but I had become this odd wall flower that I’ve never really been. Maybe this should be saved for another post.
I looked through my event sheet and decided to head back up to the 5th level and find the Minnesota Herpetological Society. They had some sand boas, and alligator, a Silicota Tortoise, and a Euromastic lizard. I was curious if we were going to get to touch or hold any of them. No holding, but definitely touching. I was definitely game.
Right next to them was Bruce the Bug Guy. He had tarantulas and scorpions. The Bug Guy was letting people hold his tarantula and kept offering to let someone hold the scorpion. No one held the scorpion while I was there. I planted it firmly in my mind I was going to hold the tarantula. I kept waiting, not really wanting to say anything, but wanting to hold it. LOL I was really a chicken.This gal who had been there said to him, “She wants to hold the tarantula so you need to give it to her while she’s brave.” I just grinned at her and asked her to take a photo. As SOON as he handed me the tarantula I started shaking and sweating. Like profusely sweating. It was scary and exciting all at once. I’m more frightened of those teeny tiny spiders than I was of this tarantula. I think if it would’ve started walking or dashing I would’ve freaked OUT, but it didn’t and I didn’t! Whew!
After that excitement I decided I was going to head home. I was totally wishing I had brought someone because there were a lot of fun activities:

• Pictionary and Science Live Theater
• Tut Like an Egyptian: hip-hop dance
• Human Shadow Pong
• Boris Karloff’s The Mummy (1932)

Now, the one thing I did overhear from some of the people was about the food samples. There was a HUGE line for the restaurant Crave and I think all the people in line got was a meatball. Obviously there’s a budget, but I have a feeling there was a bigger expectation of what the samples were going to be. I tried hummus from Golden Fig and cold tea from TeaSource. Good stuff!
The next 3 Social Science events will be:
June 22, 2011
September 21, 2011
December 7, 2011
I’d like to thank the Science Museum of Minnesota for inviting me down to their 1st ever Social Science event. I was given permission to take photos in the King Tut exhibit and a ticket into the event. All opinions expressed are mine and never influenced by the company.