Departure day.

July 27, 2013

Today we leave Boa Vista at 3:30 for Gilbues. In Gilbues we will catch a bus at 5:00 that will take us on a 14 hour journey to Brasilia. We will arrive in Brasilia at 7:30 am tomorrow. Then, we will wait all day at the airport for our plane to leave at around 9:50 pm.

We are at our last breakfast right now. Actually, we finished eating about 20 minutes ago. Now we are sitting here teary-eyed because we just said goodbye to our main field assistant- Arisomar. He stopped to tell us bye on his way out to work. My heart was beating so fast when I hugged him that I will never forget it. He kept us safe every single day this summer. He is the sweetest and kindest man... Allison and I both owe him so much more than what we have here to give him. I'm sad.

....        ....          ...............

Time was passing so slowly. We were  all thankful for that. I began packing soon after breakfast. Packing was easy- I just threw everything in my bags. Needle grass, dirt, and ticks included. Real quick. Lunch was wonderful. We took pictures. We all talked and cried randomly.

Junior have me a ring he made for me. Maria gave me a golden grass keychain and told me to always think of her when I see her. Of course I will. I cried when she gave it to me. 

I didn't have anything to give anyone.... But I dug through my packed bags to find makeshift gifts. I gave Maria my Brazilian flag. She said she would hang it up in the living room next summer during the World Cup. I gave Marcio my UGA hacky sack. I gave Mara a golden locket mirror that I've had for years. I wrote a little message in it for her too. I gave Marta my blue Polo Club sunglasses. She absolutely LOVED THEM! I was happy to be able to give them something... But they all deserve so much more than I had available to give. 

I've never been so sad to leave a place in my entire life. The tears were so real. Marcio cried so hard... He held us each and cried. Like a baby. We each held him back and cried. (It's made me tear up to reminisce about his sad eyes.) 

Maria told me to come back again. She laughed and said that I was such a surprise... She said I was so quiet and shy at first. She said, "we had no idea that you were like this!" She made me feel so happy. And thinking about hugging her goodbye right now is making feel horrible. 

Marcus told me good luck. He meant something to me. 

Marta smiled her beautiful smile while telling us each goodbye. She is such a sweetheart. 

In all, it hurts me. It hurts me to know that we barged into those people's lives, connected with them, then ditched them. Who are we to do that? "It's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all." I've always had a problem with that saying. Losing love hurts and is not much better than anything. But...Maybe it makes sense in this instance. Even though we are all miserable now, knowing them and loving them is a good thing. 

We have all added each other on Facebook. And I will see them again.

Then we rode out to the bus stop in the truck we arrived in. Then onto the bus, 14 hours. Then a whole day in the airport of Brasilia... Where I spilled beer all over my pants. Security knew what was up. Oops.

Then I sat on the plane with a newly engaged couple. Two gorgeous people. They were holding their hands out admiring their matching rings. Congratulations, kids. And good luck. It wasn't even annoying sitting with them all cuddly. It was sweet. 

Then I got off of the plane. And here I am, in Dad's kitchen. And I'm not even scared of you humans. And I'm not scared of my future. The whole summer is over... But besides that- you know what I learned this summer? That I'm kinda cool. A lot have things have changed for me, you  guys. I'm happy. Thanks for reading this. 

Last day in Boa Vista

July 26, 2013

Okay, let me try to explain how I feel right now. I feel miserable. I feel exhausted. I feel scared. I feel like I'm on the verge of being forgotten. I just laid down to sleep here in Boa Vista for the very last time. My heart hurts. And my head hurts from crying for the past four hours. 

Three hours and 40 minutes, to be exact. And I know that because it was 5:00 pm when Claudio came to our veranda to tell us goodbye. He said he was going to Gilbues and wouldn't be seeing us again before we left tomorrow. This first goodbye opened the flood gates.

We then decided to climb up that cliff so that we could watch our last sunset. Me, Allison, Natalie, Yonat, Marcio, and Mara. Marcio played his obnoxious music while we all talked and cried. I will never forget how I felt up there today... I couldn't even look at any of those people in the face. 

Climbing down that cliff with watery eyes is one my top 10 most dumbest ideas this summer. Dangerous.

And then we told Mara goodbye. She was off to Gilbues too. She gave me a ring that I put on immediately. This ring brought tears to my eyes every time I saw it for the rest of the night. Mara is special to me. I'm scared she doesn't know that.

I feel so sad right now. These people. I've been focusing so much on being scared of returning to the USA... That I didn't even realize how hard it would be to say goodbye. I wasn't prepared for this part of it.

I spent the rest of the night trying to memorize every crack in the cement and hole in the ceiling. These sounds that I'm hearing now... The constant insect undertones with donkeys, frogs, and Portuguese words from Maria's house. Will I forget this?

I couldn't even bring myself to look at those southern stars on our walk back from supper.

Will I come back? Mara told me to. Maria even told me to. Marcio said not to leave in the first place. Maybe I can come back. I have so much to say to these people... I'm irritated that I won't be able to tell them by myself. If I come again I will know more Portuguese. 

I need to return. Tomorrow's goodbyes will be awful.

Today was beyond.

July 24, 2013

Today started normally. The monkeys were in the blind. They greeted us upon our arrival. They were well-behaved and responded to our banana call just like we've been practicing. Perfect. We left the woods and returned to our summer home. I tanned a little bit and drank flavored water. Then everyone left. As in, Allison and Natalie went to one cliff to read/tan/text and Yonat went way out to another cliff to fetch cellphone reception. So I was alone at the house in the hammock reading for a half hour. Until Junior came to get me.

Junior is one of Maria's sons. I told him yesterday that I wanted to ride on the dirt bike before I left Boa Vista. So now he had come to get me.

He had to tell me that Noemi learned to drive the dirt bike before I would agree to learn. The bike is huge and the roads are of dirt! I was nervous to try... He showed me the gears and the breaks and all of the necessities. I sat in front of him and drove down the path. The language barrier was an obstacle of safety. I was driving through the sand. Until the sand got too deep, that is. When that happened Junior would grab the handles and maneuver us through without spinning out. Eventually I ran us straight off the road and into the vegetation. It was his turn to drive again, I explained.

He took me down the sandy roads of this place. For miles. We drove through a humungous section of land that had been cleared since our trip to Gilbues last month.... Cleared. All of the trees were chopped down. It was at least a square mile wide... At LEAST. We had heard this happened when Patricia arrived, but none of us have been all the way out there since Gilbues. It was a shock to see so much of the forest destroyed. We just drove past it all because there was nothing we could do.

He kept asking me where I wanted to go. I kept telling him to surprise me because, what the heck, I don't know what there is to see here! Just surprise me! 

He pulled out of the longggg drive way and onto the paved highway. This was rather scary. I was scared, ok? I was doing exactly what I always get onto my mother for doing- riding a motorbike with no helmet. The road was very wide, so when other buses or trucks would pass we would pull all the way over to the right to avoid them. I kept thinking it was unnecessary. 

He slowed down eventually to point into the woods. He would say things like, "that's my father's land" or, "that's my land." Then eventually we pulled off the big highway and into a gravel driveway. He parked the bike and I had no idea where I was. 

"This is my work," he said. We walked through a gate and into a plant arena. I don't know how else to explain this place, 'arena' is the best I've got. Rows and rows and rows of little black baggies filled with dirt lined the ground all around us. And a man stood in the middle of it all. Junior said that trees were being planted in each bag and that the man was his father. I'd never met his father...! I shook his hand because I'm a lady. Then, we left.

I was puzzled because when we pulled out of the tree arena's driveway we turned out and away from the direction of the house. Again, I had no idea where I was going. And I didn't know how fast we were going. All I know is that I saw 50 vultures eating a large dead cow on the side of the road.

Finally, after a short journey on this highway, we plunged down into another dirt driveway. We stopped to open the wooden gate, then continued onto the sandy road. 

Soon we found ourselves right next to a soccer game! Several boys were playing a pickup game on full-length sand soccer field. There were two goals, each made out of chopped down branches and four benches fashioned in the same way. Half of the boys were wearing cleats and scrunched-down socks. The other half were barefoot. "Want to play?" Oh, I would have! I shook one of the players hands, but then we had to go. Adventure!

Down the jagged road we went. I was in flipflops and plants kept whipping my feet. 

Next stop- a small pond river. Junior said it was a river. Looked more like a pond to me. He said it was the same river as the river we all swam in earlier in the summer. Remember? I was shocked to learn that we were six kilometers away from that part of the same river. There were fish here. And a strict army of ants lining the sides of the pond. "Want to swim?" I would have done that to! But it was time to go. 

Down the roads. I thought I had been all over this part of town... But today I learned that there was so much more to this place than I had seen. In fact, we were in Zangado's territory. Zangado is the alpha male of the other monkey group. Twisting and turning and sanding of the roads. And then- we stopped. Right there in the middle of one of them. Junior hopped of the bike and headed into the woods. I followed because it was implied that I do so. 

Soon after we entered these woods, they ended. And out from the ground shot up a semi-huge stack of rocks that I was about to climb all over. It was only when I got to the top of those rocks did I realize what a beautiful valley we were in. And that's when the macaws flew above us. On two opposing sides of us stood massive cliffs, and between them lay kilometers of the green forests I've been trekking in all summer. But not these exact forests... I've never been here before. This place was new. So I carved my initials into the rocks and left. 

Wait, before I left- remember, Leigh Anna, that you dropped your radio all the way down the rocks. It bounced straight to the ground. 

Then, back on the dirt bike. The sun was about to set. We were flying. And I was still uneasy about going as fast as we were. Regardless- that is exactly where I wanted to be. 

We stopped on a hill to watch the sunset's colors change the sky. This is the part that almost made me cry.

But then we needed to start heading home. We passed several houses that I'd never seen before. I was scoping out each of them. Each had their own arrangement of buildings, fences, wells, chickens, blue water tanks, and clothing lines. Gorgeous. 

One house had a pair of very sweet dogs. I was admiring their napping spots before they noticed us arriving. And as we were passing their home they transformed from being cute cuddled-up puppies to raging beasts of fury. They chased us. And not in the loyal dog way. More like in the purebred police drug-hunting dog way. And they were going fast. They made it three feet away from me before Junior could hit full speed on his bike. The dogs around this place are hungry- basic knowledge. These two were barking and chomping their yellow bloody teeth at me and my friend. (Ok, I just made the 'bloody' part up.) I was legit scared, and Junior was legit going only just fast enough. One of the scariest moments of my life, without a doubt. I survived though. Geez, will I EVER die? 

After the dog incident it became dark. And we cruised along through the woods.  We would stop every once in a while to open and close a gate. When we got close to the wetlands the temperature would drop. When we finally pulled up to the house, I was exhausted. 

There is no doubt in my mind that I need to return to this place.

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.

Party Animals

July 21, 2013

Yesterday we had a party all day long. Lotsssssss of people from all over came. We drank beer and played music and some of us danced!! I played soccer so much. I was very tired and very dirty. So I showered then put on my party clothes! And we had a great time. But now I wanna tell you about my favorite part:

 A little girl was at the party. She was 10- I asked. She didn't have parents here and I actually don't even know how she got here. There was no one at the party that was her age, so she looked lonely. Very lonely, in retrospect. But she was just here sitting and observing all of the drinking adults. But also she was really watching us, the foreigners. Intently, sometimes. When Allison got up and walked to the restroom, the little girl walked up to her, grabbed her wrist, and asked where she was from. Allison was moved by this, I think. Very soon after this the little girl came over and sat by me. That was when I asked for her age. She was such a beautiful kid. Stunning. She could be a GAP Kids model or something. So we told her. She was shy about that. We were sitting there observing the party-goers together when I pulled out my iPhone to check the time. She saw and said, "your phone is very pretty." So I let her hold it. I showed her how to swipe through the screen and to tap on icons. Then I let her look at my photos. I showed her how to watch the videos. I have 1,300 photos on my phone... And she sat there and looked at every single one of them. And I know that because she finally looked up from it to show me how she couldn't swipe any further. I explained to her that there were no more. She seemed sad. I showed her which games she could play. She played. Then I showed her how to take pictures. I'm pretty sure she loved that. She took pictures of everyone at the party. Every once in a while she would come back up to me to show me the pictures she'd taken. She was having fun. That was my favorite part of the party. 

Now I am hungover and in this hammock. Lucas is leaving within the hour. I'm sending these blog posts with him.  I wonder if I will ever see Lucas again in my whole life. He is a great person. A musician. He's inspired me play guitar again. Bye, Lucas. 

... But... But the routine!!?

July 19, 2013

Now that we have collected all the data Allison needs... We are starting to have lots of strange days. Today we only stayed out in the woods for four hours. We didn't follow a monkey, we just stayed with the group. I took data for my project too. It's just... I'm used to this schedule. I'm used to eating and waking and doing things on a schedule. Slowly but surely, things are changing. Soon we will be back on an airplane on the way to a very unpredictable place- home. Uh oh. 

A few hours ago I saw the largest spider I've ever seen in the wild. Except it wasn't in the wild- it was behind our refrigerator. It was the closest thing to a tarantula I have ever seen outside of a pet store. He was hairy.

As supper was being prepared, I played with little Leo. He is Maria's grandchild. So sweet. 4 years old, and we can't understand each other. Lol but we don't need to understand each other to play!! We had fun! Lol and 'That's So Raven' was on the TV.

Marcio was fixing my hair today in the woods. He pushed it all in front of my face, stepped back and said, "Justin Bieber" in his thick accent. I can't escape. 

Tomorrow we will be having a party for Lucas at 3:00 pm. Lol... So who knows how that's gonna be. I predict I will need to drink lots of water. And then he will leave the next day. I hope I can see him again one day somehow. 

I'll go ahead and tell ya- these posts are about to get sadder and sadder. 

Two girls, one megaphone... And no monkeys

July 18, 2013

Today was weird. We went out as usual, but we tried the banana experiment outside of the blind. This is strange because the monkeys have never been given food outside if the blind. And honestly, I think that was one reason why they didn't end up choosing to come to the other side of the pond for bananas. But we tried to convince them with the megaphone and marimba ringtone for a whole hour. They were hollering and some of them were trying to come to us... But ultimately- Jatoba and the alpha female decided not to come. This was sad for us. So later we decided we needed to practice the banana outside of the blind so that they KNEW we would give them bananas even when they weren't at their normal food spot. And it worked. So, maybe we will try again very soon. We left the woods early because of all this. 

Today Allison got sooooooo many ticks during the whole banana call. She apparently had them all over her arms and armpits. :-( And she had a lot in her socks. This made me sad. I found one attached in between two of my toes too. 

Oh, Vanessa the mouse didn't show up last night. HAHA!! Or the night before!! I think we won! But now I feel bad... Because remember I said she was adorable? So I got a stale cookie and broke it into three pieces and hid each one in a different spot in the office for her. Hopefully she finds them. Also, don't tell Natalie that I did that because I told her I didn't. Poor Vanessa!

Today we played soccer with Mara and her sister Marta. It was really fun!! They played in dresses, lol. My ball is flat and I'm really sad about it. I brought my pump with me and it works!... But there is a hole somewhere that I can't find. So, I covered the entire ball with masking tape. It didn't work. We played with a flat ball.

But honestly all I do here in Brazil is follow monkeys and scratch my ankles. Bugssss.

 

Me: "Everyone has a gay cousin."

Natalie: "Really? Do you have a gay cousin?"

Me: "No, I AM the gay cousin."

Vanessa the RAT

July 16, 2013

Remember the pet mouse we have over here that comes to visit at night? Yeah, screw that. She is not my friend anymore. 

For the past four nights this little skank has been bothering us without any mercy or relief. She climbs all over the beams that connect the three rooms in this building. She climbs down into our room at night and bites all of our belongings! My tube of Neosporin is bleeding out of its side!! (Should I put a bandaid on it?) She scrambles and trots all around me and Natalie's room making racket and chomping items. All night. Last night we were woken up intermittently from 1:30 until 4:30. The problem is that she is never to be seen when we finally get irritated enough to untuck our mosquito nets to come chase after her. I have only seen her little booty once. And one time I saw her preciously cute little eyes. I startled her and she was scared! So I couldn't be mad at her after seeing her lil face. However... That was before last night. When she stole my LAST LEMON CANDY!!! And I know that she stole it because I heard the easily distinguishable crinkles of the thick plastic wrapper walking across my entire room on the floor. There was nothing I could do. By the time my sleepy self sure that it was my candy was walking away... it was too late.Candies don't walk alone. Alejandra gave me that piece of candy with another one. I already ate the other one, then my tooth fell out- so I was saving this one. And that RAT stole it! Now, if that wasn't evidence enough for you- Natalie told me this afternoon that she SAW Vanessa with my candy piece. Natalie said she saw her run with it dangling across the floor in her dirty mouth. Then she said she saw Vanessa stop on top of our shelf and nibble on it a little before she took it up into the rafters. Is this a joke?! Tonight we rearranged our room so that Vanessa would have no way to climb down into our room. Let's hope it works. 

Sorry! That was the story of my day. Also we followed the alpha female today out there in the wetlands. Honestly... I don't even mind walking around there anymore. I also did some of my project today. It felt good getting my own data for my own project, you know? I kinda feel like a scientist when I do it. 

Allison and I are friends- Let it be known. She and I talked about how it will be when we get back to the USA. I hope everything goes well. I'm very nervous for it. Only thing I know for sure is that I miss CNN and Google. I'm gonna miss the woods when I leave too. Anyone wanna have a picnic in the forrest with me?

Brazilian TV

July 14, 2013

First and foremost- HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BABY SISTER LAYLA!! Yesterday, I mean. You are so sweet and cute. You better be being good and brushing your teeth. I hope you got a lot of presents. And to all the readers out there- send Layla a present for her birthday if you haven't already. 

"Born to blossom. Bloom to perish."

-Gwen Stefani

Hello. What's up. I just ate mango so I'm happy. Yesterday I was not happy. Tomorrow I will be happy like today. 

Today is Sunday so we didn't work. And therefore I was slightly bored. That is- until lunch when I was invited to eat inside Maria's house! First I need to clear up a rumor I started before I left home about Maria's kitchen; she does NOT have a dirt floor. Instead- it is of stone. So anyways, I ate in there with Maria and Lucas. It was quite nice! She cooks on a fire with actual wood. I need to take some pictures before I leave. It smells great in there! It was cool.. And afterwards we watched TV. I watched Brazilian TV for SEVERAL hours today. In fact, TV was the only other thing I did besides eat said lunch and said mango. But I don't feel guilty about spending my whole day watching tv because it was an experience!! Serious Portuguese day. Mara and I watched all kinds of shows. She and I would talk about them so that I could grasp what the heck was going on, lol. Mara is a very nice person. And a sarcastic one. We played checkers and she beat me... Even after I cheated by placing two of my pieces back on the board when I only had one left. She still doesn't know I did that. But I just wanna point out that rules of checkers are different here and I was struggling to adapt. 

Other than that we watched TV. Everyone in Brazilian TV dances. Mainly we would talk about who on the TV was pretty and cute and who wasn't. We have completely opposite tastes in humans. As in- we absolutely NEVER agreed. Which is very interesting to me... But I know that I need more samples before I can assume a significant cultural difference in mate-preference.

Today I was watching the family's wild bird eat a cracker that Lucas gave her when I thought- Omg, how can a bird live with no arms? That must be so difficult. Arms are important to animals. But then I realized that if a bird can successfully balance on one foot- the other foot becomes a hand. Problem solved. Go watch a bird. 

In all, today was good for me. Maria told me to come back to Boa Vista if I'm so sad about leaving.

Rude

July 15, 2013 

Look, I don't know why those monkeys are acting so bad lately!! What is the matter with them! We couldn't find them anywhere this morning. I don't know if their foot/hand prints were erased or what... But we didn't see any evidence of them anywhere. They are so bad. But I guess if I wanted to hang out with obedient monkeys then I shoulda just worked in a laboratory this summer ;-). 

So after we walked all around and after we tried calling and calling with our iPhone (literally) we gave up and came home. Our field assistant/guide/friend said he thinks they are in the wetlands. So I reckon that's where we'll be at tomorrow!... Better tuck your pants into your socks. -sigh-

After I got home I had another cup of coffee. Wow, cool story. Ok here is a better one- I ate an orange with Lilly the captive monkey after I had that coffee. That poor baby. She is literally crazy... And it makes me so sad. There is nothing the family can do about her now; all they can do is wait for the officials to come rescue her. Have I told you about her? I forget. She was rescued by one of Maria's sons. A man had her in town in awful conditions. So now she is in a cage in the backyard. She is crazy though, unfortunately. She is nothing like Jatoba and the other wild monkeys we know; she would die out there. She is very abnormal. But so sweet! So I shared my orange with her. She really enjoyed it. I would just hand her one piece after another. I would eat one, and she would eat one. It took her much longer to finish one little orange piece than it took me. She would tilt her head waaaaaay back to drink the juice the way our other monkeys drink sometimes. I gave her the last piece, then I peaced out.

I got to talk to some of y'all today. Hi, Mom. Hey sisters. Hey Dad in Europe- you better be back in America to rescue me from the airport! Chad and Dya- CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR NEW BAYBAY! I wanna see Basia ASAP!! Speaking of Chad- hello David, if you're reading! I think you would really like this place!! I could totally see you out here having a good time!  I heard my grandma Nanny is reading!! I was so happy to hear this!! Hi, Nanny!!! I love you! 

You guys are so sweet acting like you miss me. ;-) Y'all are gonna make me wanna leave more often. 

 

And to finish up, here is a small humorous story:

Natalie was just over at her shelf as she prepared for bed. She was sorting through her items and belongings and then said to me in a relieved voice, "Phew! I thought this giant beetle was a turd," and then walked away. Don't worry, Natalie, it's just a giant beetle. 

Bananas and bumblebees

July 13, 2013

Today we woke up super early and left the house just as the sun was starting to rise. We had to find the monkeys before they got to the blind so that we could call them and map how they ran there. Ya see? So it was a James Bond type of morning. We were trying to find them! I had binoculars! Fun. We found them waaayyyy up on the ridge by our house (with my binoculars, so that made it even better)... So we had to run to catch them as they were descending. We did. Then, Natalie helped us by playing the marimba ringtone over the megaphone. We followed Dita as she RAN to get herself a banana breakfast! They looooovvveeeed the banana breakfast. Yay.

Then I was exhausted because I didn't get coffee because we left too early. I have been on the exact same strict eating and drinking schedule for two months- so I was about to die. But luckily we got back and the coffee was still out on our table. I had two full cups. Her coffee is strong. I was extremely jittery for the next two hours. So I ran around and did laundry. I tried to relax by putting on my bathing suit and tanning. My heart was beating out of my chest. So I got up and cleaned random useless items and completed my daily chore of picking all the needle grass out of my boots, socks, and needle grass guards. Is this boring to read? Sorry.
I also played soccer by myself and listened to my iPod while doing so. I always feel relaxed when I do that. I feel happy and creative. I wonder why I stopped doing that two years ago... Luckily, I have recovered my juggling skills.
Sorry, is this still boring? Here is something even more boring to read: There is this one bumblebee that lives in a hole in our roof. He is sweet and never bothers us. He leaves every morning and returns every evening. Of course, he comes home to rest sometimes throughout the day. Sometimes when I see bees out in the field I wonder if they're him. However, several weeks ago he died. Natalie said he ran into the lightbulb too many times one morning. I found him lying on the floor below said lightbulb. I got a shovel and buried him in alignment with the piece of wood his home was carved into. Now he is in our back yard. I fashioned a cross with two sticks and a blade of grass to serve as a headstone. Poor guy.
At first I was pissed when I noticed that a new bumblebee had moved into my late friend's abandoned home. But over time, I grew equally as fond of this bee. He never bothered us.
I bring this up now because it was only twenty minutes ago that I realized that multiple bees live in this same hole. I'm not sure how many, but I know that I just watched three bees go into my old friend's cave. So in reality- I've always loved them all the same.