well since you’re sleeping

I’ll eat my orange and tell you some things. Like thank you for your words that arrived recently via air mail. I ponder them daily. And the book, which arrived yesterday. There was a dedication from a former gift-giver on the inside cover that inexplicably, horrifyingly employed the word “moisten,” so I had to rip that page out. And I hated the author photo, so I threw the jacket out, too. Oh, are we talking about random acts of nonsensical by yours truly? Because I also experienced a 12-or-so-hour period of panic over the thought of having to shop for shoelaces today. But then J.Lo said it could wait, and I immediately felt better. I think it’s fallout from two consecutive trips to Walmart Monday/Tuesday. Someone should do a study on the psychological effects of big box stores. They could include those endcap TVs that loop a commercial over and over by the cereal aisle, and how they incite homicidal feelings. Thank your lucky stars they don’t have those in Jeju. I mean I’m assuming. They’re on par with the dog farms, I am telling you.

There was a nest filled with baby birds who cried cacophonously (loved) in the bush outside our door, but they are gone already. And the children found another nest with an empty robin egg under the trees. It all happens so fast – spring, eggs, born, boom. fly away, little ones. Go find the birdfeeder and jockey for position with the asshole squirrels. I hate those squirrels, btw, and I want a bow so I can learn to be Katniss. Right between the eyes! But until I learn to operate a bow without shooting the wrong thing or jamming the feathers in my hand (it’s happened. gym class, circa 1996), it’s Vaseline and cayenne on the feeder pole. Which works for like, a day.

Also, the ticks are back. I feel them crawling on my face, my leg, my scalp. But then they’re not there. Only sometimes can I find them. Brainless, bloodsucking creatures of the insect world – they are entomology’s zombies. Nature vexes me. As do zombies, which is why I had to reject my latest book selection, even though I liked it up until chapter 10. But also, the hummingbirds are back! So nature delights me too. And the library awaits this afternoon, so zombies be damned.

Time to go walk in said nature.

Love to you ~ sleep well in Jeju!

penelope