For the last few weeks Gage's "thing" has been rocks. Yup...I said rocks. He had a unit on them in school and after that it was all rocks all the time. At the end of the unit the class was having a Rock Show and Tell and so Gage began collecting rocks. I asked my Dad if we could borrow his Geodes because they are really big and I thought Gage would think they were cool. When we went to his house to pick them up he had a strange black rock that he said Gage could keep. It was super heavy for it's size and black. I joked that it might be a meteorite and asked my dad if he was sure he wanted to give it to us. He said yes and we took it home.
Well, I'm a nerd so I started researching meteorites and our little rock was checking yes to all the right boxes. It was black, it was heavy, it had rust on it and the cu de tah was that a magnet stuck to it! I was thrilled to see that meteorites can be valued at over 50k. Can you say mission and college fund? But what to do now? When I told Gage about it in the morning he said, "Oh no, Grandpa's going to want it back!"
I decided to call up to the University of Utah's Geology Dept and see what they could do for me. After being laughed at by the lady on the phone, at the idiotic thought that I found a meteorite, she told me that I could come up and talk to the curator. So sure was I that we had a meteorite that the whole fam damly schlepped up to campus last Friday. If you have ever set foot on the U's campus you know that parking is a nightmare, but we endured it all because hey, I'm carrying around 50k in my pocket!
When we got to the Geology Dept the secretary said that the curator would scare us and instead sent us to a professor's office. When we presented our prized possession we were sad and dismayed to find out that it was NOT a meteorite but magnetite. Which is some dorky mineral that is magnetic and most importantly not worth 50K. The professor was so nice and talked to Gage like a adult and he loved that. Although, he looked at me very accusingly when she broke the news. Give me a break kid....I majored in Economics not Geology. She let us hold a few real meteorites and after the comparison it was obvious that our rock was just that....a rock...that attracts magnets. So really, we missed it by that much! I'm holding my thumb and forefinger really close together.
We thanked her profusely for her time and she told us that there was a pile of rocks that the Geology Dept was done with outside the building and that we should take some home with us. Sweet! Claire and Luke also found a few rocks that attracted magnets so it was worth the parking after all. As we were leaving I told the professor that Gage was so excited to talk to a real scientist and that he was fascinated by rocks. Then she turned to Gage and said, "Well, maybe I'll see you again in about 10 years." Hold the phone? 10 years? Is that all my baby has until he is college age? What kind of cruel joke was that? I know she meant it nicely but it felt like a death sentence.
