Shaking my head at the kids today

SueG's daughter is a senior. She's deciding on colleges, and I volunteered to travel with them to Orlando to visit the University of Central Florida. That was not one of the state colleges we toured with my girls, and with Maddy down with COVID, I agreed they needed my expertise in any and all things college related.

Plus, I have the Wyndham! 

We opted to spend a few days there. Unfortunately, I was a paranoid COVID/monkey pox worrier. The pools were packed. No one wore masks. I preferred to stay locked away in our room until we absolutely had to venture outside.

Like for the college tour. We were up early, unsure how long it would take us in the Orlando work traffic. We were at IHOP right when they opened, and with bellies full, we continued to the campus. 

Sydney had instructions, which included paying for parking, and since that lot was one of those we could leave our car in, we did so. It was right across the street from where we needed to go first, so off we went.

As we walked to the crosswalk, I noticed a baby opossum in the road on the opposite side. He wasn't quite in the middle, but he was close, huddled into himself and frightened. Off to the side stood a girl attempting to coax the animal from death.

Now, Sydney attends high school at a veterinarian school where she will soon have her tech license. She zoomed in on this situation, and the two of us watched as we crossed the street.

Me: "Okay, first of all, that is a nocturnal animal which leads me to believe it is not healthy. Monkeypox!"

Sydney: "What is she doing?"

Me: "She's trying to keep it from getting run over."

Syndey: "No, what is she doing now?"

I turned. The girl had entered the road and was nudging the animal with her foot. Syndey and I were lucky we weren't run over ourselves since our attention was totally on this and not the road.

Then the girl knelt AND STROKED THE OPOSSUM'S TAIL!

I was beside myself, muttering about how monkeypox started with an animal and how these UCF kids were not the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree.

Syndey was outraged!

Syndey: "I'm going over there to educate her. You never touch a wild animal."

Too late. Now, the girl was petting the opossum like a cat. ON ITS HEAD!

SueG: "No one is going anywhere. We're ignoring this and going where we need to go. She is a dumbass. Keep walking."

Me: "If she comes on this tour, I will tell her to wash her hands."

Syndey: "I really need to go over there."

But her mother shut down that request, and while we did keep walking, Sydney and I both kept watching. As if it could get worse.

It did.

The girl PICKED UP THE OPOSSUM and carried it to safety. 

Sydney went nuts. I went nuts. SueG kept telling us to keep walking. 

The girl did not come on the tour. Nor was she wounded or dead on the side of the road.  

There, also, was no opossum--probably because the student took her as a pet.

UCF is at the bottom of my list for Sydney.

Syndey: "Why? I can only help these idiots by coming here."

Good point.