Creature Needs

Last night, I had retired (heh, heh, and I am also retired, get it) to my OPC (Old People Chair) to watch TV. I hadn't been there long. I was watching a DVR of My Big Fat Fabulous Life, halfway wondering why Buddy was being such a ignoramus to his ex-girlfriend while he was away in rehab...and mainly waiting to see if the sudden death that was foreshadowed at every commercial break was Mr. Pigglesworth. Not really paying attention. The other half of my mind was on the next morning, when I was taking some of Hick's storage unit loot over to the house of my sister the ex-mayor's wife.

Sis's daughter Niecy is a kindergarten teacher. We all know that teachers often dip into their own pockets to provide thing for their students and their classrooms. If we don't know that, then we've never been teachers, or had one in the family. Hick had found two boxes of crayons. BOXES. Also in those boxes were scissors and markers and pencils. Some of it brand new. Hick said he'd give the whole thing to Niecy, and she could sort out what she could use, and throw the rest away, or pass it on to her teacher friends if her kindergarteners couldn't use it.

As I sat there, considering what time I'd go, because I didn't want to interfere with the nap time of Babe, Sis's granddaughter who is 4 now...something caught my eye.

EEK! Something was ON me! YIKES! I'd just killed a big spider on the floor the night before! Oh! Please...don't let that be a spider on me!

It's hard to get out of my OPC (Old People Chair) in a hurry. I didn't even reach for the remote control. I just sat up straighter, and yanked out the front of my old ratty baby blue sweatshirt (Ol' Blue is still hangin' on) to see what it was, and flip it off me.

Whew! Not a spider! It was a ladybug. Friend, not foe! You wouldn't believe how hard it was to get a picture. That bug ran back and forth, from side to side, then kept trying to scale Mt. Val. I tried to redirect it with one hand, while taking a picture with the other. Sometimes I got it in frame. Barely.

This bug was as hyper as it was nearly comatose a few days ago, on Saturday night. I could barely keep it from ascending to my neck and probably face.

I finally put the phone down and used both hands, trying to get it on one finger or the other, to get it off my old ratty baby blue sweatshirt. I spent another five minutes or so trying to get that bug off my hand, where it would rather run around and find my wrist and head up my arm toward my face again.

Finally, I got it off my hand and onto the TV tray table, where it ran a couple laps around my yellow bubba cup full of ice water...and then settled down at the edge of that TV tray table next to me.

For the next 90 minutes, that bug didn't move. I swear it was watching TV with me. Then I looked again, and it was gone.

I guess all creatures need companionship every now and then.