Did I Really Just Do That?

"Wisdom begins in wonder."--Socrates

For those of you who read my blog this is a semi sequel to "Why dogs will always be better than cats..." For the first time readers out there, I pet sit for one of my best friends, Whitney. She has 2 dogs and a cat that is intent on eating me alive. Whitney usually leaves me a key in a specific area... this time I went to the house the area had been completely removed from the house itself... hence my confusion and slight panic. I was already running late and I MAY have panicked slightly.

Whitney has a house that luckily for me and the dogs has a doggy door. As I walked into the backyard hoping that her neighbors weren't thinking I was robbing the house, I hoped beyond hope that the doggy door had not been locked. This was after I moved every potted plant in the yard looking for a key. Let me tell you, that girl has a lot of potted plants and doormats. It was a robbers nightmare, but lucky for me I wasn't a thief...even though I undoubtedly looked like one.

What did I do next you might be thinking? I committed my first B&E. That's breaking and entering. For the police officers reading this... my friend would've wanted it this way...and she found it amusing. Yes. I did crawl through the doggy door. Yes I was scared half to death as I climbed in and got slightly stuck after coming face to face with the cat who whacked me in the face with its tail then immediately tried to eat my hair. So there I was, on all fours, half stuck in a doggy door, getting my hair eaten by a murderous cat, and my butt getting jumped on and licked by 2 overly excited dogs.

Guess who was told where the key was ahead of time but neglected to read the entire message? This girl. The lesson here folks is always read the entire message unless you want to be locked out of a house when the key is sitting 10 feet away to your unknowing self and have to climb in through a doggy door. Or don't and have an awkward and mildly entertaining story to tell. However, the only thing I regret is not having a really good picture of me climbing through the door...

I realized 2 things. 1 I am crafty and if all else fails I have an absolutely horrible future of crime ahead of me. Just kidding. 2. I feel like most people would resort to something less drastic and weird. 3. because number 1 wasn't real.... I'm proud of myself for going to the gym so much because it would've been awkward to wake up to my friend wondering why I was sleeping on her deck with the dogs.

So I finally got inside and all seemed normal. I was unpacking my bag to get my shower stuff when out of nowhere the cat decides it wants to eat my shirt. Here's picture proof:

Besides this encounter and the doggy door fiasco the cat tried to put up a facade of cuddliness and pretended to enjoy my company. I wasn't fooled, but I played along. The dogs brought loving me to a whole new level. Sleeping on my face was a new obsession of theirs. It wasn't a subtle meandering closer and closer. It was a oh hey! I'm going to walk up to you, look you in the eyes then head butt you and stay that way the rest of the night. That okay with you? I'm going to do it anyway. So that was my night.

My morning was on the same level of WTF. Cicadas had come out in DROVES that night and were buzzing around in the morning like they were preparing for battle. When I was walking the dogs I was constantly bombarded. I called my Dad and what does he tell me? "Put some in a bag and bring them back for me. I want to put them in the freezer."  My response? "....................you're kidding right?"  But I knew better. My Dad has been putting bugs in the freezer ever since I can remember because he likes preserving "cool" ones. We even had dead birds in our freezer at one point. I remember one of my friends coming over and opening the freezer for ice and screamed because a frozen bird was staring her in the face. That's my life ladies and gentlemen.

There I was in the backyard of Whitney's house holding a stick and a ziplock bag trying to coax grumpy cicadas into a bag. I'm sure they knew they were going to a cold death, but they only were going to live another 24 hours ish... If the neighbors hadn't worried about my sanity the night before I'm sure they were making sure their children went no where near me or Whitney's house until I was completely gone.

Yes I got multiple because I'm a good daughter. No not all of them were alive. Yes I had to stick them in my glove compartment because I got freaked out by their buzzing the plastic bag around the passenger seat. Glad I remembered to take them out. Yes it was hysterical and completely worth all of that after hearing my mom yell in horror about bugs in the freezer :)

Anyone else have a weekend to top that on the scale of weird and unfortunate? Didn't think so.

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."--Unknown

Culture Shock

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."--Barack Obama

I have been back in the States for almost 2 weeks now. I haven't really had a chance to sit down and relax because I've been freakishly busy visiting ECU and seeing everyone I haven't seen in ages. BUT posts will be more regular now.

Here's some things I've realized and that have happened that seem noteworthy:

1. The American accent sounds slightly harsh to me and this is how I feel about it in a picture

That sums up how I feel when I hear a particularly twangy accent.

This sums up the thought of "Oh dear god did I sound like this to everyone? And why do the English think my accent is fancy?"

2.  Roosters, male turkeys, guinea fowl, and billy goats all find me attractive. Yes I was chased across a lawn by several in their full on mating mode complete with what I'm sure was their most attractive screech.  

There they are in all their glory...

I realized it might seem like I was just walking around where I live and all of a sudden a really random assortment of birds came around a corner, got aroused and ran after me. Not quite. My Dad wanted to look at a building to date it for a friend and we were on their property. I walked around a corner, saw tons of birds headed right at me and said "DAAAAAAAD we're about to get attacked." I'm pretty sure he was expecting something much more ferocious when he turned around to discover a puffed up turkey, rooster and a guinea fowl strutting their stuff at me. They weren't interested in my Dad. I was chased around the yard throwing my Dad god awful looks and ended up near a billy goat cage... turns out they like me too. When he started bleating my Dad about lost it and was bent over laughing at me and I made a bee lone for the front of the house and ultimately the car. As amusing as it was I was not amused at the time. 

3. We have a new kitten that I call the beast/terrorist. She likes to attack anything and everything in my room then looks cute while doing it. Last night I discovered she is a fan of zumba. I was trying to learn a new song for the classes I teach and I was practicing in my room while she was on the chair. Before this I couldn't get her to give me any attention unless I had some string in my hand. The second I started bopping around, as you do in zumba, she froze, stared at me, then starting rolling over in the chair, turning in circles and trying to swat me everytime I went by. She was pretty much doing the cat version of dancing until I came near and she had to at least keep up cat appearances by attacking my leg until I moved out of range. Sadly I do not have a picture of this, but I'll try again tonight and see if I can sneak one in of her awesome dance moves. 

4. I've had another one of my infamous "ideas". I've been obsessed with Cirque du Soleil ever since 2009 when I saw a show in Florida. I've still never seen something so creative, imaginative, and mind blowing ever since. I don't have delusions of grandeur that I can make it into that ridiculously amazing show, but I set a goal for myself that within the next year I'm going to submit an audition video. I've decided to aim high. Go big or go home right? Should be a challenging time, but I am really excited for it!

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened"--Dr. Seuss