Creepers gonna creep

Well. Yesterday was great. Today? Not so much.

By yesterday evening, I could tell I was getting Angela's weirdo disease. And indeed, I woke up this morning with a headache and a sore throat. Hopefully that's all it will amount to, but in case I wind up with something worse (lol swine flu) I am continuing to down as much orange juice as physically possible.

But that's actually not the worst thing that's happened so far today. No, this morning, Amelia and I went out grasshopper hunting. I gave her one, she caught one herself, then she tried for another and missed. I went to go retrieve her and she decided instead that she wanted to fly a bit farther away. So I pulled out the lure and called her as I walked toward her, and she took off. I don't know why she did this, nor will I ever, I suppose. She headed for the trees by my house, where I lost sight of her. I have since spent the last, oh, nearly six hours walking around the field, through the trees, around my house, etc. whistling and swinging the lure, and have not yet had any sight of her. I'm going to try again this afternoon around 4, since that's when her afternoon feeding usually happens, and hopefully she'll remember that she's hungry and will come down when I call, wherever she is. Wayne is sympathetic, of course - he lost his favorite Merlin once when she bolted for no apparent reason and never returned. At some point, it will happen to anyone who's ever flown a bird. The best thing I can do is to keep going out and looking for her over the next few days. If she decides she'd rather catch her own grasshoppers though, well, there's nothing I can do.

I'll admit that I'm not terribly hopeful - there are a lot of bugs out for her to survive on. And although she normally loves the lure, and usually won't let me get away from her if she sees it, the way she ignored it completely in the field today makes me sort of doubtful that she's going to come down out of a tree for it. But then again, you never know.

So, James, I don't think I'll be going to Todai this evening. Sorry about that.

And ugh, this feels so trivial to post about after all the above, but I watched Chapter 14 again this morning, and noticed something that may be plot-relevant, so go look at my previous post for the edit as I don't really want to put it here and spoil people.

Went out to fly Amelia about an hour ago. The cold air and the mist in the trees mean one thing only - fall is here. I know it's supposed to get warm and sunny this afternoon and stay that way for a couple of days more, but I suspect that will be the end of it.

Much as I like summer, I've always enjoyed having a fall birthday. Something about that morning chill, the fog and the falling leaves is really beautiful. I know I don't have the same understanding of fall that those who live in the Northeast do, but here in the Northwest it's still a fun time of year despite the many conifers. There are corn mazes and pumpkins and cider, and the hawks migrate and the flock of eagles descends on Sauvie Island. And I suppose that typically, fall means time to go back to school, but I've never really associated the two, luckily enough. I'm one of those strange academics who doesn't actually like school. Sure, I'm eager to go back next fall so I can get my MS degree - speaking of which, agh, today is e-mail graduate professors day, so scary - but I'd much rather be out in the field, counting, tracking, catching, or flying hawks. Research and falconry go hand-in-hand, haha.

Anyway, I'll stop boring all of you with my rambling musings on the weather.

Oh, and apparently I'm 24 now. And I know people always say "oh I'm a year older, it doesn't feel any different" but, well. Since over about half of the past year I couldn't remember whether I was 23 or 24, and occasionally had to do the math in my head to remind myself, it really definitely feels the same to me. :D;

CHURCH SHIRT ♥ I love getting awesome mail. Even if I paid for it. Now I can declare my love of the most fail sniper in Blood Gulch with a t-shirt! I think this is a good thing.

Amelia and I just got back from her first epic road trip to Sauvie Island to have her certified by the state. So finally, all my bird paperwork is done (until December anyway) and I can just focus on training her and making her the happiest little kestrel in town, woo. The guys up at ODFW thought she was pretty cool, and one came out of his office while we were at the front desk so he could see her and take pictures, haha. A leucistic kestrel is indeed a strange thing.

Not much else to report lately. I kind of want to go to Music Fest NW, at least for long enough to see Blind Pilot, Portland Cello Project, and Arctic Monkeys play, although those three are going to be some of the hardest shows to get into. And Blind Pilot's set doesn't even start until midnight Friday/Saturday, argh. Oh hey, also, I kind of want to go to that PDX Whitties party that's coming up. You coming, Angela?

Looks like rain this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for Curtis!

... Huh. I use this icon a lot to post with, don't I?

So I gave in and ordered the Church shirt I'd wanted. Bwahaha. I am excited. Also, tomorrow is spazz day, wooo~ Unless it ends up being PSA day. Also, no RT Short this week? Guess the guys are in too many different places right now to pull that off. Ah well, the ODST videos make up for that. :D

I hereby officially declare the kestrel's name to be Amelia, after Amelia Earhart. Coincidentally, there is a film coming out about Earhart this fall, and Eccles is in it. So, that should be fun.