buggy

this past sunday we went on a hike at garret mountain (a park garret went to a lot as a kid that i jokingly insist is his namesake).  i wanted to get out of the city, so we rented a zipcar and away we went for a hike with little murgs.

a tired little murgs on our hike.

while we were eating our picnic lunch on the top of the mountain, i put a bottle of water down for murgy.  about a minute later, i looked down at the bottle, became horrified, and quickly exclaimed "OH MY GOD! there's a huge ANT! on murgy's bottle!"  garret chuckled as he took a bite of his sandwich and said, "are you sure you want to move to the woods?"

it's true, i'll have some adjusting to do!  growing up in upstate new york i had perhaps just become used to killing spiders and the like (babysitters have to be brave and kill bugs for kids, and babysitting was my thing) before leaving for college.  in brooklyn, the bugs i do see are supremely scary ("that's a waterbug!" is landlord rhetoric for "COCKROACH!!") and are to be avoided at all costs, which i have done successfully.  meanwhile, i've become less used to the little crawly things.

garret and murgy on the hike.

i've been out of practice for a while.  when i lived in orlando for a stint, i attended the "it's a bug's life"show in the tree of life at animal kingdom and literally cried at the part the "stingers" come out of the back of the chair to startle the audience.  in short, i'm a baby.

my dad - similarly new yorked and not in touch with nature - recently moved into a home rental in texas, where he has geckos.  "they're AN INCH!" he exclaims, as though i should be scared.  i make fun of him i think most people would hear "just an inch" not a "a whole inch," which is how he says it.  i'll be eating my words soon...

i did okay on the rest of the hike, though the fact that i congratulated myself, out loud, for "walking right past a daddy long leg and not even squealing" should probably be an indicator as to many squeals to come.

atop garret mountain - in the distance, between the trees, you can see new york city.