This morning I made a most horrifying discovery. My mother was working from home and decided we ought to do a bit of spring cleaning in my bedroom, so we took the pillows and covers off of my bed so that they could be washed or aired. When I looked at the black sheet that is under my mattress...I saw little white things covering it. At first I was just disgusted, thinking it was just dust, pillow fluff, or perhaps my own dead skin. But then I took a closer look and noticed that a few of the little tiny white things were moving.
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Labels: bed, bed bugs, bugs, cleaning, dandruff, dead, decay, dust, dust mites, food, house, insects, larvae, problems, rotten, signs, skin, termites, white

Secret might not be the right word in this case, seeing as I see bees in public places like near the post office and at schools.

I just felt like using this title. I once read a book called The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. (Unfortunately, I can't quite remember how the ending went because it was a few years ago. I guess if you read a lot of books and if you get distracted by daily life, it's easy to forget the specifics of books you've read.) Apparently there's a movie now, too.

Some time back, I was at the place I usually spend my brunch break at school, when it seemed that a few people were looking at something. I heard someone say, "Oh no! You've killed it!" so I went over to investigate. It was a very weak-looking bee on the ground. It was still alive, but it was unable to fly and grew more and more pitiful until it couldn't even bother to twitch a leg. One of my friends and I tried to bring it back to life, and transported it using a stick to a leaf. It seemed like the bee was unable to hold on to the leaf - it slipped downward little by little, and we became fearful that it would tumble in to the bushes, never to be seen again. But it seemed to regain some semblance of life and started to move a little.

We tried to put it on a flowering tree, but the bee was not interested and fell onto the ground. Then another girl came along, seemingly out of nowhere, and picked up the bee with her hands. The bee seemed to be much more energetic upon being touched by a human and began to move actively. The girl started to walk off, so we followed her to the grass field, where she set the bee down on the grass.

Today I came across another bee, though it was not so close to death as the one I had seen previously. It was still moving along, though it seemed to also be unable to fly. My friends and I tried to get it interested in a flower, but the bee was not interested. It would turn and change directions every time we shoved the flowers in its face. We also tried leaves and sticks but the bee would fall off every time we tried to move it from one place to another. One time it seemed as though we had been successful, as the bee was finally displaying interest in the flowers, but then the bee fell off again. My friend insisted on handing whatever stick or leaf the bee was climbing on to me because she feared the bee would sting her. I think it's fine as long as the bee is unable to move quickly and if you avoid the rear end of the bee. After seeing the girl from before handle a bee, and as they seemed to get along quite well, I am less fearful of bees (at least, bees that are walking on the ground, not the very active bees flying about at the speed of light).

I am hoping to use such logic to convince my mother to let me have a dog. If you are not familiar with something, it is not unusual to be fearful of it. In fact, I was intimidated by dogs, but I've met several of them and realized there is nothing to worry about (except for perhaps abused dogs and dogs with rabies). I've petted dogs and been licked by them and they have not bitten me. Be sure to pay attention to body language of animals, though...If a dog is growling at you, it's best to keep away from it.

My mother hasn't really been around dogs, and she dislikes them. I think it also has to do with my grandma getting bitten by a dog. I wish my mother would give dogs a chance and spend some time with them. She might feel more kindly towards them if she'd only interact with them a little. (If she still dislikes dogs after that, then I can't hold it against her.) My mom continues to say that I can have a dog...When I'm a responsible adult. That will still be quite a few years away. And I'm not patient. Especially when I could die anytime and lose my chance forever.

Labels: bees, bite, book, chance, danger, death, dog, family, fear, ground, humans, insects, interact, life, safety, sting, stubborn, the secret life of bees, transportation, wish

This is meant to be a play on the song "Leave the Kids Alone" by Pink Floyd. In this case it applies to a fly instead, as la mouche is French for "the fly". I know I talk too much about French class nowadays, but the class has been having problems with mouches.

We usually have at least one fly in our class. The students, including myself, become distracted when the fly is near us. The teacher eventually said that we should leave it alone and not be distracted by it, and she brought out her mouche assassin (apparently one of the words for killer is the same in French as in English, scary!), in other words, a fly swatter. I think she has a total of three fly swatters. We once used two of them to play a game in class to use our vocab. The teacher wrote some French words on the board and two people would stand up there at a time, facing away from the board. The teacher would then call out a word or phrase in English. The two contenders would then try to swat the correct word first. I actually played a similar game in Japanese class in the summertime. I guess this is a universal way to learn languages or something.

Sometimes I have some panic when I forget something in a certain language. It seems like it is important to me and so I get stressed even though it's not a big deal. For instance, I was going over Japanese in my head because I am worried I am losing it. I can't speak it at home since no one understands, I can't write or read it so I can't practice by reading manga, and I haven't been watching much anime lately (except for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which I already watched - and this is the original season, not the new Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu) and so I have started to forget here and there. I was trying to remember the word for "You're welcome" and I couldn't get it and I was getting mad because I kept thinking of the wrong thing. Eventually I remembered by accident. I was really relieved.

Learning a language such as French, which has relations to English, is easy but at the same time confusing, because sometimes words that mean one thing in English mean something else in French. Examples:
1) In French, collège is high school.
2) Crayon is pencil. (So "crayons de golf" is golf pencils. It's weird since we used golf pencils in cooking last year.)
3) Chat is the word for cat.
4) Singe is the word for monkey. (And singe is an English word that means burn... o_O;; Maybe...it's because monkeys are troublemakers! And they can be found in train stations in India? So I hear)
5) This I found out using Google Translate (I know, not reliable, but oh well)... Apparently "chic type" could be used to describe a prince. XD Though chic type really means more "nice guy" than prince necessarily, as not all princes are nice.

But anyways, the point is, I am wondering, does anyone have those times when they forget the specific word they were trying to think of? This could be in your native tongue (which is English, for me at least). It happens to me often and it's really annoying. I suppose I ought to be glad that I even have enough brains to think, though. My dad said he once heard, "You complain about wanting new shoes? Some people don't even have feet!" It's the kind of phrase that sounds like the reason for Thanksgiving.

Something has been bothering me lately about Blogger. Earlier you could only put ten labels on your posts, I think, instead of the previous twenty? And not only that, but when I start typing a label in, it doesn't automatically come up with a small...window? (dunno what to call it) that shows some possible options based on what you have already used as labels. It's really bugging me and I hope Blogger will return to what it used to be. I am not fond of change in general.

Labels: blogger, chic type, crayons, english, flyswatter, forgetful, french, games, grateful, haruhi suzumiya, insects, japanese, la mouche, label, language, monkeys, prince, quote, school

PE was a real misery today. First we had to run, which is the usual, but I needed to go to the bathroom (Except I couldn't, since the teacher might think I'm making an excuse to get out of PE) so it got harder and harder to run. And then we had a choice between watching a movie in the boys' locker room (I decided not to. We'd seen the movie already - it was one about how sports and science are related or something - and the boys' locker room smells funny. At least to me). I chose basketball, which turned out to be not so nice...The basketball didn't bounce well when it hit puddles, and every time I dribbled, mud splattered onto my legs. If I try to shoot baskets, I usually have to stand in a puddle, which is very unpleasant. My shoes didn't stand up well to the water and I ended up with soaked socks.

At the very least, cooking was delicious today. We finally finished making the streusel coffee cake. (Streusel meaning crumb, I think). We made some mulled apple cider to go with it (Apple juice with some cloves and cinnamon, simmered in a pot). Sounds delicious, but unlike the cake, it wasn't. It was slightly bitter and had a strange aftertaste. I would rather have plain apple juice, personally.

I keep putting off getting a new layout for the blog. I really want to have a change since it's fun to customize things. (At least for me. On video games or websites I like being able to change stuff as I see fit.) Maybe I'll do it this weekend if I have time. I'm not sure if I will. I need to do my last cooking project, plus start research for my Japan project, and maybe do a little brainstorming for my factoring story.

Science class was a bit different than usual. We were watching "The Eyes of Nye" which is apparently similar to Bill Nye the Science Guy, except the old Bill Nye is meant for elementary school kids, and The Eyes of Nye is meant for high school kids? (Nothing for us "in-betweener" middle schoolers, I guess.) It was sort of funny, but sort of disgusting and confusing and sad sometimes. Like for the sad kind: The mating call of crickets also attracts a kind of fly. The fly latches onto the cricket and burrows into its body. Flies grow inside the cricket until they burst out and the cricket dies. What a sad life...But sickening too, if you get eaten from your insides out. Bleck.

Labels: basketball, beverages, bill nye, blog, choice, cooking, custom, dessert, exercise, homework, insects, layout, life, movie, mud, panic, school, socks, weather, weekend

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