Flippin' Floyd

I am forcing myself to blog. I have lots of other things I could be doing at this moment, but I've decided to spend some time trying to fix my "broken blog" as Aaron so candidly put it. I'm curious to see if I remember how to form a complete sentence without succumbing to the frivolous temptation of slamming my fist down on the keyboard for no particular reason.

jhymnjhymn.

Nope.

And before any of you smart alecks contest the fact that I have, in fact, completed two sentences already before battering my keyboard with a barrage of brutal blows, stop thinking so hard.


Erica and I went to the Greek festival over at St. Paul's yesterday because she had to write a report about a specific culture for her anthropology class. Of course, there are the typical booths you see at any festival, carnival, or restaurant with an exceedingly corpulent clientele. We went to those first to look at all the crosses and ornate jewelry they were showing off. As we progressed along one side, I looked across the way to a booth where there were dozens of what appeared to be small rectangular fish tanks. Since Erica already has David IV and I've had my fill of sushi throughout the years, I passed along without giving it much regard.

We continued along, looking at various food, clothing, and jewelry booths, watching a Greek dancing exhibition, and wondering where the games and carnival rides were that the brochure promised. Giving up my hope of finding a bounce house, we headed back towards the entrance to look at the things we had missed on the other side. As we approached the booth where the aforementioned rectangular mini-quariums were, my attention perked when Erica exclaimed, "Sean, look! Turtles!"

As I helped up the poor unfortunate people I plowed over in my attempt to instantaneously place myself from my former turtle-deprived position to a more advantageous turtle viewing point next to the newly christened "Turtle Booth" with utter disregard to the basic properties of matter, namely, that two forms of matter cannot occupy the same space at the same time, I glued my eyes on what were now manifesting themselves in front of my very eyes as tiny turtles!

(For those of you who do not know, turtles are my favorite animal.)

There were dozens of them! Tiny red-eared sliders, no more than two inches in diameter, each in their own colored mini-quarium with gravel and a little plastic plant for decor/exercise. Of course, I was intrigued. But, seeing as I already have Floyd, who up until today has been hibernating...in the middle of summer/beginning of fall...I was reluctant to impulsively buy one. However, contrary to my usually indecisive ways, there was one little guy who stood out immediately to me. He was climbing up his little plant, which is about 3 inches tall, and he made it to the top, and just sat there for a bit, basking in his triumph.

This reminded me of Floyd, who once climbed up to the top of some books on the first level of a large wooden bookcase we have in our house. Some of the books are anywhere from 6-12 inches high, yet somehow, Floyd managed to climb his way to the top of them, only to look around imploringly, wondering who would get him down from this precarious spot.

So naturally, I was immediately drawn to this little turtle, this natural climber. But I still wasn't sure if I should buy one yet. However, after much deliberation, I finally decided that this was going to be the water turtle I've been wanting for a long time. As we walked back to the car to temporarily store my new friend, Erica decided she wanted one too. So we went back, and she picked out a female who happened to be climbing up her plant also, and the next thing I knew, there were two tiny turtles in the car waiting to get to their new homes.

And right now, little Flip the Red-Eared Slider is hanging out between his plastic tree and a flat rock I gave him to bask on, waiting for me to go to a pet store and get him a bigger place so he can have even more glass to bang his shell against in a vain attempt at liberation.

And what does Floyd think of this new addition to the family? He's asleep in my closet.