Zoology is Ruining My Life.

Today was beautiful, one of those crisp spring days that starts frosty and freezing and mellows to perfect, and being a college student, the afternoon found me and my boyfriend skipping our afternoon classes and walking along the river. We strolled out to the small metal dock, hand in hand, and settled down on against the railing, enjoying the warm sun on our skin. The sun was glittering against pristine, truly crystalline water tinkling by at our feet, and nearby two kids (apparently out of a picture book or something equally cliched) splashed in the water with their golden retriever. My boy was reclined on the dock, half-dozing adorably, and I.. Well, I was hanging over the edge of the dock, my nose a half inch of the surface of the water, flipping over sticks and rocks looking for flatworms as my fingers went numb in the fresh snow-melt.

They’re actually surprisingly cute, in my defense. They have triangular heads, and big (for their body size) jellybean shaped eyes. But still, the zoology induced madness I seem to experience more and more frequently is not always as easily defensible as that. Last night, out with my two best friends, I casually interjected into the conversation “Did you know male crickets have penises?” Awkward silence followed, and finally one of them responded, “Oh, that’s interesting..”

It really is, though.

Dipsosaurus dorsalis and Death

Today, I watched a lizard die. I didn’t know that was what was happening until it was over, but it left me feeling strangely affected. I’ve never watched anything die before.

A friend and I were sitting in our Zoology classroom alone, finishing up a lab, and watching the reptiles in their tanks. (The zoology teacher also teaches Herpetology, and loves reptiles, so he has 5 snakes, and a LOT of different lizards. These are very intriguing, particularly when you are answering questions about the scientific method.)

Directly next to me was a glass tank with three Desert Iguanas in it. The bottom was covered with sand, and it was scattered with fake rock formations. Under the heat lamps, one lizard slept (which they do standing; it’s quite bizarre really,) one basked, and one climbed across the rocks. Or attempted to  – it kept slipping off, and eventually just slid all the way down the side. As I was running on Dutch Bros., I found this frankly hysterical, but my laughter faded off as it crawled slowly forward and rolled onto its back. I looked around, concerned. “Is that normal?” The anatomy student in the back of the room looked at me for a long moment and then back at her work, without saying a word, and my friend said “Huh? Yeah, sure.”

“But I don’t think lizards do that!” I said, a bit urgently. “It’s only breathing like every thirty seconds..”

No one responded, so I looked at my worksheet for a moment and then decided to watch the newts. But the poor little lizard kept catching my eye.

Hesitantly, I asked if anyone else thought it looked dead. My friend responded, a little doubtfully, that she was sure it was just resting. I looked closer; it had stopped breathing, and there were little teeny bugs crawling all over it. When I pointed this out, my friend finally came over and looked. “Maybe they just do that when they’re, uh, sleeping, or..” She trailed off as another lizard walked across it, and it didn’t move. “Oh,” she said.

When the professor returned to the room and asked if we had any questions, I responded awkwardly, “Well, nooo.. But, uhm, your lizard is dead.” He reassured me that while one of the juveniles was sick, he was sure it was just laying still. “But it’s on its back.. and not breathing.” I said quietly. He walked over and looked. “…Oh. Well, bummer.” and walked off.

A little alarmed, I asked if he was going to remove it. “Oh, sure, a little later,” he said, “after I get a jar set up. I want to use it in a lab.”

I am now terrified that my little friend who spent his last moments with me is going to appear in front of me on a dissection table.

Strange day, to say the least, and feel a little weird that I saw the poor little iguana’s last moments. But still, I find myself laughing as I retell the story.

My Original Intent

I have been somewhat neglecting the blog, largely due to the depressing number of views it’s received, but I figure if I just keep posting people will eventually start reading (fingers crossed!)

Anyways, my first thought when starting this blog was to share some stories that I capture in everyday life. I ride the local bus to the college, and I shamelessly eavesdrop while I sit there attempting to study. About the third conversation I overheard was interesting, and made me think a little, so instead of the psychology notes I meant to be typing up on my laptop, I found myself writing a description of the people around me and their conversations, and from then on I was hooked. The amount of information people share about themselves in conversations with strangers is truly amazing, and I walked off the bus every  time feeling like I understood people a little better.

I started this blog intending to share those stories, and hopefully you take away a little bit of insight or inspiration from them. I’m just going to paste them in as is, so forgive the style which I took them down in (which seems rather irritating, reading back.)

A bit of backstory on the bus ride: I take two buses, the first from the small town that I live in on the outer limits of the bigger city, which is mostly full of old ladies and drunks, and then transfer to a second which takes me to the college. This one is always more interesting, because most people on it are community college students just like me.

Here’s one of my favorites, because it seemed like a splash of fairytale in everyday life:

On the second bus, my mentally challenged friend greets me, question what I’m doing (psychology notes) but seems distracted in talking to someone else: a plump, beautiful friendly girl towards the back of the bus. At first she’s responsive, but I wince as she starts ignoring my friend and brushing off his questions and comments. On further observation, I realize this is because she’s talking to the young man across from her avidly. As both of them start to lean towards one another, laughing and smiling as the conversation intensifies, I smile. He talks about his major, his internship, and his passion for psychology; how some day he dreams of moving to the “big city.” She tells him (and us) what we already know: she’s really good with people, thinks maybe she’ll go into personal relations. She shares a story of her downward spiral in high school, becoming a student at the continuation school, and how she found her niche by joining the leadership committee and executing the first successful dance in the history of the school. As her story winds down, we reach the young man’s stop. He leaves reluctantly, and I hear him tell her to call him sometime. I smile, thinking how perfect this must seem to her, but luckily for them, it’s a timestop (where the bus is required to wait until they are at the scheduled time to leave.) He gets off, begins to walk away, then turns around. “Sir,” he ask the bus-driver, “Would you by any chance have a lighter on you?” The bus-driver shakes his head, and here she comes, jogging from the back of the bus to hand him a sparkly bejeweled lighter. “I knew you couldn’t resist my rhinestones,” she laughs, and they smile together, holding eye contact until the bus driver impatiently coughs. As we roll off, she settles back into her seat with a happy sigh, and I think to myself that this could be a beautiful story to tell to their children (apart from the lung-cancer encouraging aspect.)

Humility

Killing time on Flickr today, and happened to notice a new year’s photo accompanied by sort of a year’s progress letter from one of my contacts. Anyway, this guy does some really amazing work, and I tend to look to his photo stream as inspiration, sort of like  “when i grow up i wanna take pictures like this..” Imagine my feeling upon discovering that he only upgraded from a point and shoot to a “real” camera a year ago.. His stuff is like, really really really reallyy really really REALLY good.

At first I was embarrassed, because I’ve been working on my photography nearly as long as him, and I’m nowhere near that level, but thinking it through this just makes him more of an inspiration

Was feeling in a portrait mood today, after sooo many hours of landscape shooting yesterday, and came up with something decent of my little brother (with lots of help from Adobe Photoshop.)

Camera Fun

So today, armed with a new book on picture exposure from my grandpa, a tripod, my new camera bag, camera (of course) and my boyfriend, I headed down to the river to test out some new techniques. I felt like a complete idiot, as within ten seconds of opening the book, i realized why I’ve been unable to successfully take long exposure photos (such as letting water blur past, or the typical car headlight streaks.) I’ve completely forgotten to change my ISO. I’ve been running it on around 400, which is just where it was when I first switched to manual, and thus anything long exposure is completely washed out.

Embarrassing.

But I spent hours at the river, and while I didn’t get anything particularly great out of it, I feel MUCH more confident when it comes to my photography, so yay .

 

Here’s how today looks in my head:

Morning After Feeling

Christmas is my absolute favorite. I love the sparkling lights and giving presents and wrapping paper and general feeling of happiness (however much it’s founded on a commercial basis.)

But when December 26th comes around, it’s a day of misery. As a small child, it didn’t matter because I got to play with my new toys. But now, I emerge from my room, and the first thing  I see is the cold barren tree, with the lights off. My parents are grumpy, thinking of their post-Christmas bills, and the living room is a mess. We spend the whole day breaking down wrapping paper and boxes, and cleaning the house, and I desperately just want to go out and buy more presents for people and pretend it isn’t all over.

Anyway, right now I had to invent a new toy to distract myself with, which is this blog; so in the spirit of not forgetting merriness and good cheer, here are some of my favorite Christmas photos.

These homemade petit fours were the product of two solid days of kitchen time, 3 bags of powdered sugar, and stickiness everywhere. The worst part? They didn’t taste very good.

The packaging said it was a deer. I disagree. This is most definitely a pink llama.

The World of Blogging…

is new to me. But I have pages of random observations and rants that I’ve been saving on my computer, and I need to feel somewhat productive as I sleep through my two years of community college until I can transfer. So, hi. I’m Jill. I’m 17. I’m already in college because I skipped first grade, before you ask why I’m so young. I like to read and I love my camera.

I’m inclined to be very sarcastic, and not too sympathetic. I laugh when I shouldn’t, I feel superior to many,and I judge most people too harshly. I apologize in advance if  I offend you.