The days are dwindling

July 23, 2013

Today was good. Like always. The monkeys were very well-behaved today and yesterday. I took a million pictures of them and they all posed as if aware of their appearance. Even the babies seemed to care how sweet they would look to my American family and friends. My PowerPoint presentation is coming along great.

Vanessa the sweet mouse is back. Turns out she doesn't even need that shelf to climb down into our room. And we thought we were so smart. Two nights ago she was on my bed by my toes wiggling around. Of course, she was on the outside of my mosquito net... But she was still wiggling against my toes enough to wake me from slumber. I knew it was her when I awoke, so I just wiggled my toes back at her to scare her off. And so she was indeed scared enough to run out of the room. 

I've been hanging with the family a lot. Especially the little three year old named Leo. We had a Photoshoot today. I'm scared I won't see these people again... So I don't want to forget them.

It occurred to me yesterday that I haven't seen myself from the neck down in two and a half months. I have to stand on my tippy toes to see my face in one of the two mirrors here... And the other mirror lets me see my collar bones. 

I've never showered so much in a summer... Yet I've never been so consistently filthy.

I'm reading this new book by Amy Tan called "Saving Fish from Dying." It is superb so far...!!! 

I'm scared to go home. I like my schedule here!! I like waking up at 5:30 and eating supper at 7! I like this routine! And I like the monkeys. I even like the bugs. Actually... I really REALLY like the bugs.

Oh, today I threw banana pieces at Mansinho and he caught them. Allison scolded me for it later when I confessed, so don't think bad of her. Think bad of me. But I couldn't help it! He was the only one in the area when we were doing the banana call, so he was right there and able to eat as much as he could before the mean alpha male showed up! So I needed to give him them quick! And he was standing right in front of me! So I just tossed them down to him- and he caught them with both hands. Standing straight up on his two legs, checking behind him every chance he could to make sure Jatoba wasn't there yet. He loves me (for my resources). 

Que mais, que mais... Oh! I'm getting back in the USA at 5:40 am on the 29th. So just know that. That is the time for you to go ahead and say to my face everything you've said behind my back all summer.