02/12 - 02/18

I worked a lot again this week, but I actually did my homework this time because now that it's nearing the end of the month it's all due. I listened to an ungodly amount of Rammstein. Valentine's Day happened but I don't really give a fuck about that. 

It snowed a lot on Friday, about 4 inches in total, and I didn't expect it at all. When I got to campus at 8:45 it was mild temperature and a little cloudy. It was still like that when I went to work at textbook rental at 10:00 in the university center basement, and when I went upstairs at 12:30 to clock out there was at least 2 inches of snow on the ground and a lot more coming down. My last class is in one of the science buildings, and the walk from the there to the parking lot is about a quarter-mile. All I had on was a thick jacket and converse, so that wasn't fun at all. After class I had to pick up my sister from her girlfriend's mother's house and almost got stuck in the driveway, which would have been super embarrassing.

I FINALLY finished the PJO show yesterday after being about a month late to the last episode's release date. I'm so bad at watching TV shows. I thought that they did a wonderful job of adapting the book into an episodic form. The characters kept true to their nature and the events were mostly accurate to how they occurred in the book (although, to be honest, I haven't read the book since 7th grade and couldn't remember many of the details very well). My only criticism is that they should have shown more of Percy and Annabeth interacting with Luke at camp so his betrayal would have felt more impactful.

Today the Wildlife Conservation and Biology Club was supposed to take a field trip to the zoo but they cancelled because of the weather, so me and my Mom went instead. I had such a good time :) The grizzly bears were out and I went inside the insectarium for the first time in years. I took two pictures while I was there, one of the grizzly and the other of the puffins. While I was in the insectarium there was a sign talking about wheel bugs and how they prey on the invasive shield bugs. I recognized it as an insect I found while taking a walk on a chilly day last November. It was attempting to hide itself in the cracks of the sidewalk, but it was way too big to even fit a little bit. I was like "You are obviously cold and miserable and need a good place to hibernate. Let me take you to an undisturbed flower bed in my back yard that is covered in leaves so you can have a peaceful rest until it gets warm again." So I just picked it up and carried it home without incident. I looked it up after it was identified to me today and learned that normally, if you tried to pick it up it would stab you with its mouthpiece and inject you with a venom. The bite itself it not that painful, but for the following days the venom causes the affected area to feel like it had been smashed with a hammer. I guess it was just so cold and sad that it didn't want to expend the energy to fight against me. It actually didn't want to let go of me when I was trying to transfer it from my hand to the ground, probably because I was warm and salty. I included a picture of it in my hand below. If the quality isn't completely ruined you'll probably be able to see it mouthpiece and how large it is.

While we were driving to the zoo I saw a coyote for the first time and there was a bald eagle flying above the zoo while we were there, so that was pretty cool.