reptile sightings

Happy Earth Day to all of you out there who don't work for environmental groups! To those of you that do work for environmental groups, have a cold one on me tonight (I'll pay you back later).

I love the earth, I really do, and I want everyone to know how they can do their part by recycling and not using pesticides and riding a bike and not buying so much stuff. But spreading the word can get tiring. April is always such an exhausting month for an enviro, because we go to our normal office jobs Monday through Friday, and then we go "celebrate" Earth Day at community events every weekend.

This weekend I "celebrated" Earth Day by working Sunday at a children's earth day fair about 3 hours away. And it was fun, it really was. Next Sunday I will "celebrate" Earth Day again at a church here in town, while my co-worker hauls it to Fayetteville to "celebrate" out there. We are celebrating our tuchuses off, but the only hangover I have is the hangover of the introvert who has talked cheerfully with too many festival-goers.

Despite all my belly-aching, there were some really good parts of the earth day weekend extravaganza: a huge thunderstorm on Saturday (the real official Earth Day holiday), wildlife sightings, and the crazy dream I had Saturday night.

First, the wildlife sightings: On the way in to the state park where the festival was held, I had to stop so as not to run over a big black rat snake who was sidling down the road. He was about 7 feet long, making big S shapes with his body. Then while we were at the park, HWWLLB saw lots of cute lizards sunning themselves in the woods (I missed them). And then afterwards, we took a country road home, and I had to stop again so as not to run over a huge snapping turtle who was crossing the road. He was all covered in red mud as if he had just emerged from underground hibernation, clacking his giant claws on the street as he crossed, looking utterly unconcerned with us. He was the size of my next-door neighbor's poodle (and I'm sure he would have enjoyed a poodle for lunch).

The crazy dream: First it involved yard sales and swapping, where I met a new friend. My new friend asked me if I would mind taking her dog for a walk that evening while she was away. Naturally, I said yes, and then we took the dog out for a preliminary walk so that I could meet it. Except... it wasn't really a dog. I don't know what the heck it was. It was sort of like a very large bat with a long tail, and it was friendly. As we walked it swooped all around us in the sky, and then she called it over to give us "kisses," which meant that it clung to our necks with its claws (like a bat!) and sniffed our faces all over the way Simon does when I've been eating tuna fish. Yech! It was very strange. The bat/dog also communicated a message to me (I'm not sure how - telepathically?) that it appreciated some public comments I had sent in to the EPA the year before arguing for better protection of endangered bats from toxic pollution. I guess this was a very civically-engaged bat/dog.

So was this an Earth Day dream, brought on by festival fatigue? HWWLLB thinks it was the result of the delicious dinner we had on Saturday night. See, after coming home from the grocery store, he left the fish out on the counter by accident all afternoon. Does unrefridgerated fish cause crazy dreams? Or maybe it was Simon snoring next to my pillow, making snurfling noises like a bat/dog giving kisses. Or maybe the little ladybug temporary tattoo on my hand is infusing me with hallucinogenic toxins.

I'd really like to celebrate Earth Day by becoming a decent crocheter. Then I could crochet those string grocery bags out of torn fabric strips or plastic bags and be an even better enviro. I'll have to post the annals of my pathetic crochet attempts soon. Til then... don't buy anything. It's bad for the earth.