Memory in Motion

I was up most of the night, sick to my stomach. I ended up going in to work late today and now I’m just trying to make it to bedtime.

So, Thursday morning I am minding my own business at work, drinking my coffee, when I spot a huge brown and black grasshopper on the top edge of my cube wall. He stayed there for a few hours, then quietly crept down onto the actual wall, where he was perfectly camoflauged against the black and brown pattern. Several people noticed him, and a couple of macho guys offered to “get rid of him” for me, but I decided to just let him be. Live and let live. He wasn’t hurting me, so I just let him hang out.

Much to my surprise, he was still there when I came in Friday morning. So, I reluctantly said hello, was struck with the strong intuition that his name was Fred, and went about my day. About 4pm, I realized he would probably starve to death over the weekend. I thought about taking him outside and releasing him, but I couldn’t figure out how to pick him up without breaking one of his legs. And I thought if I put him in a cup or something and tried to walk him outside, he would probably leap out into someone’s desk and start a riot.

Finally, I did what any rational person would do, and googled “grasshopper care”. Apparently all they need to live is grass or lettuce; no water required. I was out of excuses. I went outside, picked a handful of green grass and put it in the lid to the container I keep my pushpins in, about 6 inches below where Fred was hanging out. Within 10 minutes, he moved with a great sense of purpose down to the container of grass and hopped right in. The rest of the day I could hear him crunching and see him shoveling grass into his little mouth with his pincers.

I am sure he will be gone when I come in on Monday. But, I feel better knowing that he didn’t starve to death at my desk. Many people would see this behavior as eccentricity. I tend to think it’s our responsibility to care for those creatures around us and do what we can to make their lives a little better, even if that creature happens to be a grasshopper named Fred.

We had the perfect weather for our New Orleans Cemetery tour back in March. I finally go the film back and I’m really happy with how these turned out.

It is so unbelievably hot. It’s 102 outside, and 80 in my house, even though I have it set on 69. My poor heat pump just cannot keep up. Every year about this time I start wondering why in the world I live in Texas.

You know, I used to worry that Ian would grow up lacking some fundamental social skill because he is an only child. After all, I ended up pretty spoiled and anti-social, and I don’t think I could have done that if I’d had a brother or sister to interact with on a daily basis.  But, little did I know that Ian would create his own learning experiences! He has 2 older sisters and an older brother already- our cats. 

Sasha (our 9 year old calico) just had to go to time out because she hit him. Earlier today he reported that “Sasha won’t share the blanket with me” and yesterday, I had to tell him to stop singing the tease song to Kyra. It’s hard not to laugh- he takes it all so seriously and has this well developed since of justice about how he is treated by them.

I survived a birthday party for one of Ian’s 4 year old friends at Chuck E. Cheese’s today. I came home and took a long nap, then started with the wine coolers. My new goal in life is to avoid that place like the plague.

Ryan is having his kidney stone broken up into a million pieces on Wednesday. it’s outpatient surgery, and they say we will be there from about 10am until about 3pm. He plans to go back to work the next day. I hope everything goes as flawlessly as expected. I’m worried about him.