Yesterday morning, while i was brushing my teeth, i saw a spider cautiously making his way across the sink counter. I don’t have an arachnophobia, so that’s no problem, but i’m also not always pleased to see spiders in my home, especially if they’re not the harmless daddy-long legs, but of possibly menacing, biting variety. A few years ago, i would have had no problem taking a bit of tissue off of a toilet roll, grabbing the spider, and tossing him into the toilet ball. But yesterday morning, i knew i couldn’t do that, because of a lovely individual i came to be friends with while living on Okinawa, and her voice rings in my ears every time i see an insect that i don’t have to kill to be rid of. She’s a vegan, and a lover of all that’s alive, and would never hurt a living soul on purpose (or unless they really really got to her, like ants during rainy season, and even then with tremendous remorse). She taught me how to catch giant and furry brown spiders on Okinawa with tupperware and she did the same for roaches in her apartment (i vacuumed them up—less humane but more distance). And so thanks to her, yesterday, i grabbed an empty toilet roll and some tissue, tricked the spider to walk into the roll, covered one end with the tissue and quick walked to the front door to release him before he managed to crawl out. The front door is rarely used in my house but it was closer to the bathroom, and i am squeamish about the thought of the spider crawling on me so the closer, the better. As i opened the front door, the spider was nearly out of the roll and making his way to the edge, so i tipped the roll and held on to the tissue covering one end while trying to maneuver the screen door open and that’s when i noticed a package in between the two doors. My mind split in two for a second—one half was enthusiastically shaking the spider loose and trying to make sure he didn’t land on me in the process while the other was reading the label addressed to me! and wondering what was inside. Two very exciting seconds later, the spider was outside, and i had a yellow, somewhat heavy package from my friend Shelley in my hands. I opened it in the bedroom and found a framed photograph she wanted to give me while i visited her in Denver last month but couldn’t find at the time. It’s a photo of me with a tiger pup taken in Thailand, and i don’t know when i would have discovered the package and the photo if i hadn’t decided to be more like my other friend that morning and let the spider live. And i’m very happy to have moments in the day when i know that i have thoughtful and caring friends who delight in surprises and teach me to be better. And with that uplifting story, on to other (related) news.


An American Robin (type of bird) decided to build a nest in the most unlikely of places, on top of a giant, rusted metal rake hanging outside our garage. The baby birds hatched a month ago and have already flown away but it was a great process to observe from nest building, to egg sitting, to tiny squeaking and then worm feeding and eventually to me coming over and spooking the biggest of the three chicks into taking his first ever flight. :)
I know i've always enjoyed noticing little things in nature--stopping to smell the roses and all that--but i think living on Okinawa has really given me a deeper appreciation of the environment in which we live and all the other living things that call it their home and do so irregardless of whether we exist and observe them or not. it's nice to think about how insignificant i am sometimes.
so here are a couple of pics of the nest and the baby american robin after his first flight from the nest to a nearby tree.




also, this week i mostly got paid to read, which was nice, and the book i read and finished is Leon Litwack's "How Free is Free?: The Long Death of Jim Crow," a poignant and devastating narrative on the development and institutionalization of Jim Crow Laws in the American history. It's beautifully written and I'm going to look for other books by him. Today, I picked up from the library "Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism" by George Akerlof and Robert Shiller and am looking forward to it. Been on a non-fiction kick lately and am excited about that, 'cause that's never happened to me before but I guess all it takes is for me to be very curious about the topic and really good writing.

tomorrow i'm going to my first ever teacher interview at a charter school here in milwaukee, so hope it goes well and is a good experience. With the fierceness of the competition right now, i'm not expecting much but just to get my foot in door and my face seen. so hope your day goes well too.

love
-e