#morrigan irl

[six-improbable-things]

I think you guys would appreciate this stuffed animal my sister bought at a fair trade store recently. It's a guinea pig made of alpaca wool and it just looks SO ANGRY. But it's also just a round puffball with a face on it.

Behold! The world's angriest cotton ball!

[memento-morri-writes]

get to know me - extremely unimportant things edition

I was tagged by @oh-no-another-idea. Thank you!!

which color is most prevalent in your wardrobe?

Absolutely hands down black. I really don't wear many other colors.

do you own enough journals that, when stacked, would reach your height?

No, not even close. But also, tbf, I'm 5'10" / 178cm. I do own quite a few journals and notebooks, though.

what food do you most often crave when already snuggled up in bed?

In bed? Usually nothing. I always eat a snack before bed, so I'm never hungry when I'm trying to sleep.

are you more likely to attend a social function if there are guaranteed animals to pet?

It depends. If I really, really don't want to attend the function, I will not budge and nothing will make me go. But if I'm on the fence about it, maybe?? Depends on the animal, though.

if you had to choose a different color for the sky to be normally, what would it be?

Hmmm. I think purple would be kind of cool.

what object or objects do you see out in "the wild" that you feel most compelled to take pictures of?

So, I pretty much never take any pictures unless I'm inside my home (and even then it's literally just cat pics). So I really don't know. When I'm at work, I will take pics of the animals I'm observing if they're doing something cute or silly, though.

please summarize your sense of humor in a run-on sentence:

When I was a kid, The Princess Bride, Septimus Heap, and the Bartimaeus Trilogy were essential to shaping my current sense of humor, along with a good heaping of stupid puns and dad-ish jokes, but now there's also a hefty dose of tumblr-flavor humor added to the mix.

on a scale of -10-10, how is your spice tolerance, and what do you feel when you encounter unexpected spice in a dish?

-9. I have NO SPICE TOLERANCE. I know, I know. Not surprising for a white person. I just never ate anything spicy growing up (my parents did on occasion, but I didn't like the way it felt in my mouth, so I avoided it). I do NOT like encountering surprise spice. I will probably stop eating the thing, unless it otherwise tastes REALLY good, in which case I will eat very slowly and probably drink as much water as I eat food.

if all your books had to have titles of one single type (a noun of noun and noun, the adjective noun, noun, the noun verbs adverbly, etc.) what would you go for?

Am I allowed to choose song references as a title type? Because that's technically what ATQH was, as well as MOST of the titles (at least in part) that I use for my D&D OC fics.

can you quote any lines from (one of) your favorite books and if so please do:

I'll go with the one that is my blog header: "At first we only want to be seen, but once we're seen, that's not enough anymore. After that we want to be remembered." And also, "No one thinks they're truly awful, even people who actually really are. It's some kind of survival mechanism." Both from Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. (I wouldn't call it my single favorite book, but it does mean a LOT to me.)

what's a conventionally healthy snack that you genuinely love?

Does guacamole count?

if you made a video-based account for your niche interest, what persona would you embody to maintain a proper parasocial distance from your audience?

Hm. It's not niche, but my interest in D&D, so I guess I would probably make myself some kind of fictional character inside a D&D setting and pretend that I was talking in-universe.

what comfort food do you always have on hand at your residence?

I always have some kind of crunchy snack. Usually goldfish crackers, but not always.

just eyeballing it, how many pens do you own?

In this apartment? ZERO. Hence why I have a check I have yet to mobile deposit, and also why I never filled out the "what was the condition of your apartment when you moved in" thing. (Tbf, I blame my dad for that one, because I didn't actually start living here until 2-3 weeks after my lease started. So my dad, who moved all my stuff in and is a cosigner on the apartment really should have filled that out. Because the apartment company doesn't care I wasn't living there for the first 2 weeks.) Back home at my dad's, easily over 50.

does your place of residence have any suspicious or weird sounds that you can't determine where they're coming from?

I mean, I know where they're coming from but every so often something bangs on the wall or ceiling (people in the apartments next to and above me), and it really unsettles me, because I spent the first 21 years of my life living only in freestanding houses, and my last apartment I lived on the top floor and the people next to me never banged on the wall. And it's always just like, one single bang, not like, people fucking or whatever. So it always makes me jump because it seems so random.

what would the monster in your closet/under your bed have to say about the state of your room if it were the harmless chatty type?

At my dad's house: "A complete mess, but she seems to know where everything is. I don't know how she does it, to be honest." At my mom's: "This place is so empty. Nothing in the closet, nothing on the floor except for a few folded clothes. FOLDED CLOTHES!! Who leave folded clothes on the floor of their bedroom??? There's a perfectly good closet RIGHT HERE!" At my apartment: "I hate these stupid box spring things. They make it real difficult for us monsters under the bed, you know. They should pass a law getting rid of them. Prevent the habitat loss."

Putting the last one under the cut bc it's long

share a random memory that you think will make people smile:

I got my dad and sister hooked on playing Metazooa (sort of like wordle, but you have 20 guesses to guess a species of animal, and it makes a phylogenetic tree of your guesses), and the one for today was a tarantula, which immediately reminded my sister and I of this really fucking stupid song, and so I texted her the lyrics of the song. But I couldn't figure out how to send a voice message, so I just sang into my phone's mic and dictated it instead. It did a surprisingly good job. The song lyrics in question: Tarantulas, tarantulas, everybody loves tarantulas. If there's just fuzz where you hamster was, it's probably because of tarantulas. [something I don't remember] All of mine got free but don't you fear, no don't you worry, 'cause they're crawling up your wall in a big hurry. Don't look now, but I have a feeling, there's one above you on your ceiling. But when they crawl, they never fall, unless the person under them is nervous at all. My dad then proceeded to mention that he had seen a spider in his basement the other day and Not Killed It, which my sister made a face about, so I had to remind her about the text conversation I had with my dad a few years ago:

Dad: *sends a pic of a millipede on the ceiling* Dad: One Million Legs Me: Oh wow, that might actually be close. Dad: I let it meander on. I felt bad putting it outside in the cold. Me: Oh dear. Dad: Maybe it will go inside and say hello to the boys [the cats]. Me: Well, I don't want it in the house. Dad: If I see it again, I'll let it know.

[potatoplace]

LOOK AT HER. SHE. IS. MORRIGAN.

[six-improbable-things]

Not a work story, but my biggest "There's good in this world Mr. Frodo" moment of the day was the very kind middle aged woman at the tire shop who very matter-of-factly explained that I needed a new tire, then asked if I was okay with getting a discount (the question was a joke, the discount was real). She also chatted with me while they swapped my tire.

I never learned her name, but I appreciated hearing about her glass elephants, and I could not possibly have been happier that I got to be the one to tell her that Binturongs smell like popcorn.

Thank you, random tire shop lady. You have no idea how much I needed you to be... you.

[six-improbable-things]

Best part of working at a zoo is that I get to meet so many super-passionate kids and teens AND young people automatically think I'm the coolest person ever.

Yesterday I met a gaggle of kids who absolutely PEPPERED me with questions for like, 20 minutes. They were very curious, and super polite.

One of them mentioned having a bearded dragon, and I got kind of nervous because a lot of people don't take good care of their pets (especially herps) but he started talking about monitoring the temperature and humidity and having a 120-gallon tank, and it sounded like he'd just done so much research and put so much effort into this lizard and it made me very happy.

After talking to these kids about reptiles and amphibians for 20-ish minutes, and them helping me find a pair of birds (I was too tall), they all thanked me and offered me fist bumps, which I eagerly accepted. Their parents tried to apologize for taking up so much of my time, and I told them "Excited, polite kids are my favorite people in the world to talk to. Don't apologize. Your kids are awesome."

And then later, I was on my way out of the kangaroo yard, and I saw the group again and they were on their way in, and the kids all yelled "HI [name]!" and I waved and they all yelled "BYE, [name]!" And on my way out I had to walk above where they were so I waved at them again and got another small chorus of "HI [name]! BYE [name]!".

It was a very "There's good in this world, Mr. Frodo" moment for me, and I didn't stop smiling for at least half an hour.

Later the same day I talked to one of the older teen volunteers for a good 20-30 minutes. She reminded me a lot of me when I was in high school, albeit a little less lonely -- but only because of the zoo and the teen volunteer program.

And then today I was walking around the zoo near the end of the day, and I almost collided with a small gaggle of teenage volunteers. I asked where they were going, and they told me where and asked if I wanted to tag along. I said that unfortunately I couldn't, because I had to go to the insect building. They said "well, what if WE join YOU?" and of course my response was "HELL YEAH, the more the merrier!"

Which is how I ended up being followed around by a gaggle of 5-10 teenagers for the last half hour of my day. They were all lovely, so I told them to come pester me any time they see me and that I'm down to chat if any of them have questions about college / career stuff. I genuinely hope they take me up on it. (I walked about 15ft away and they immediately started filling their friends in on who I am and how I'm cool and nice, which was really funny because I could still hear them.)

I don't want kids, and I don't want to work exclusively with kids full-time or even live with kids in my space, but I will take the utmost GLEE in talking to excited, curious, and polite kids/teens. Genuinely my favorite people to interact with.

(A special shoutout to the young girl from a few months ago who talked to me about giraffes for 15-20 minutes. At one point I realized I didn't see her mom and looked around, only to see that mom had decided to take advantage of her daughter's distraction to sit down in the shade about 10-15ft away from us. She recognized the "oh shit, where's your parents" look in my eyes and waved and gave me a "Yep, that's my kid, you're good!" gesture and I went back to talking to her daughter.)

[six-improbable-things]

I had the funniest interaction with a kid at work today.

Kid: How old is the little one [youngest gorilla] again? Me: She's 7 or 8. Kid: So she was like, just born! Me, suspiciously: Not quite... how old are you? Kid, somewhat sheepishly: ...10

a couple minutes later, same kid: Kid: Why does [the silverback] have such a big head? [cue (amused, not mean) laughter from the small cluster of adults around me] Me: That is a VERY valid question! [brief and simple summary of sexual dimorphism of gorilla skulls]

[six-improbable-things]

I've seen people post about bronze statues getting worn shiny where people have touched them, and usually it's like, dogs getting headpats, or people getting their hands shaken, etc. But I need you all to know that at the zoo where I work, we have a statue of a lioness and her cubs. And despite the fact that it's the perfect height to be crawled on by kids (and often is), the only parts of her (and the cubs, but especially mama) that are shiny are her ears.

Everyone sees the Mama Lion and her babies and thinks "I must give her ear scritches" and that makes me very happy.

[six-improbable-things]

funny child encounters from work:

the adhd mood

Parent/Chaperone: [child], don't forget your bag! Child, with great enthusiasm and sincerity: I will!

the rubber girl

[*little girl (about 5) trips and faceplants into a raised planter bed, HARD*] girl, popping up immediately with a smile: I'M GOOD! [*she enthusiastically gives her parents a thumbs-up*]

the kid who had a Realization

kid: How did you get catch [the tiger]? me: We didn't catch him. He came from another zoo. kid: Oh. But how did you get him here? me: We gave him some medicine to make him sleepy and then we put him in a truck and drove him here. kid: You kidnapped him! me: Do you have a dog or a cat? kid: ... yes. me: Do you take them to the vet? kid: Yeah. me: How do you get him to the vet? kid: We put him in the carrier and take him in the car... Wait a minute. We kidnap him to the vet!