the princess and the peas

Sunday night I had the opportunity to rescue my neighbour's girlfriend. Kind of. I had put Cam to bed, and was enjoying my alone time while browsing Pinterest. At least, I was until I heard what (I imagined to be) a person being thrown to the ground and start crying. After going through the possibilities (zombies, thieves/plunderers, domestic dispute between my neighbour and her boyfriend who live across from me, or something else) I decided to brave the unknown and poke my head out my door. It was not zombies, or thieves, or my neighbour's boyfriend beating up on her, but what appeared to be a basket of laundry spilled across the grass and sidewalk. That would explain the sound I thought. The door to the apartment next to mine was open, and that was where the crying was coming from. I knocked and called in, "Are you okay?" She answered, but I couldn't tell what it was she said. I walked through the house, idly musing that it was a mirror image to mine. She was in the back bedroom sitting on the floor with the lights off. I turned on the lights and looked her over, but I couldn't see what was wrong. "What happened?" Apparently, she had been carrying laundry to her car and stepped off the porch wrong. She told me she heard something snap. I winced inwardly, having just recently done about the same thing (I sprained my ankle pretty badly right before Valentine's day). Quickly, I ran back to my place for a bag of ice. Except, I don't have ice. Or an ice pack. I did, however, have some frozen peas. I poured those into a Ziploc bag, wrapped it in a dish cloth, and ran it back over to her. "Do you have a phone to call your boyfriend?" I asked her. She did; that was what she was after before I came over. While she called her boyfriend, I stepped out to give her some privacy (partly because she started crying again when she told him what had happened) and decided to pick up her laundry for her. After I made sure her boyfriend was coming to help her, I told her I picked up her laundry, closed her front door, and walked the few steps back to my place. And I sat there wondering if she'd just sprained her ankle or if she'd broken it. A few minutes passed and I heard her boyfriend's Jeep pull up, and the sounds of him helping her to her car, then them both leaving. This morning, I saw her boyfriend and asked him how she was. He said it was just a sprain. Thank goodness for that!

Just writing...

I keep telling myself I'm going to get back in to the habit of writing here... But then my life goes crazy, or I just spend several boring days where there's nothing to write about. And when something does happen that I'd like to write about, I can't seem to find the time.

Such as: last week Camden and I planted strawberry plants. While my parents were here for my recital, we stopped at a garage sale, and I found a strawberry tower planter...thing. Of course, it was freezing cold and you can't plant strawberries when it's cold! But it warmed up (kinda) so I bought some fresh potting soil and four and a half strawberry plants (one had a runner that was already sprouting roots: two for one!) and Camden and I planted them. Now we are looking forward to fresh home-grown strawberries... if it ever warms up enough for the strawberry plants to bloom. (Which reminds me, my parents house is surrounded by HORDES of wild strawberries, and it seemed like EVERY SINGLE PLANT was blooming. Nom wild strawberries!)

And another: I think NEMO worms are suicidal. Those things are all over the sidewalks, and it hasn't even rained for... two whole days! Okay, they're not all over the sidewalks. But today I had to throw one off into some shaded grass. Yesterday, I found one. The day before that Camden and I found one on the way to the park trying to cross a road. What is with these guys? Don't they know they'll get caught in the sun and burn to such a crisp that even the birds won't eat them?! Luckily for them, though, I haven't lost my youthful compunction which leads me to pick worms out of mud puddles or off of sizzling frying pans sidewalks.

Oh, yeah. Happy Beltane! One of these days, I'll actually get the post on the holiday instead of 1-7 days late. :)

Good deeds. Ah, Rats!

I don't do a lot for others. I try to take care of my friends, but that is usually as far as it goes when helping others is concerned. It's not that I don't want to help others, though. My time is limited between school and school work and taking care of Camden, so it's not like I can volunteer once a week at the Humane Society (which happens to be one of the few places to volunteer around here--no soup kitchen/homeless shelter/etc). I am generally broke, so I can't donate lots of money to organizations. I try to drop change into the Salvation Army buckets every year (actually, I make Camden do it), but that's about my limit.


(Photo not by me)


Well, a month ago I offered to help transport some rats who needed a home. In the rat world, I guess this is called a "rat train", getting rats from one place to another via multiple people. The rats were in St. Louis and needed to go to Ames, IA. I'm somewhere in the middle of all that, and (stupidly?) offered to pick the rats up in Columbia, MO, then drive them to Ottumwa, IA. All that equals out to be about 6 hours of driving for myself. And if I had thought about that before, I might not have done it. But, I said I would, and I did. And I feel good about doing it. I helped two girlie rats (who were likely at least slightly under-cared for: no fun toys, poor socialization, icky cage) find a forever home, with someone I know (well, very much suspect) will care for them and love them.

So I'm counting this as my one good deed for the year. Well, the big one. It was worth it.