Sua SponteMy law school odyssey: the ongoing narrative.
From the moment I arrived at my new law school on Labor Day, I was struck by the profusion of fauna on campus. There was a cohort of shrieking shiny black birds that would wake me up in the morning with an array of noises, one of which resembled a New Year's Eve party favor (how the heck does a bird do that?). Perfectly-balanced squirrels would bound along electrical wires in neat gray sinusoids, putting their fat brown California cousins to shame. There were spiders the size of my thumb, busily fashioning webs as tall as I was between trees sticky with humidity. And, most excitingly for me since I hadn't seen these since leaving New Jersey, there were big floaty orange monarch butterflies. All over the place.
Now the season is beginning to shift. The spiders seem less prevalent; maybe they've gone into hibernation. The whooping, screaming birds seem to prefer parts of town other than the Ramada. The squirrels are off squirrelling, or something. A stray butterfly will appear every now and then, looking lost and perplexed. And yet now I'm seeing more wildlife than I'd even noticed before, everywhere I go.
The surge in animal population seems to consist entirely in small flying beetlelike bugs. They're everywhere -- on campus, downtown, all along the waterfront, clouding the air like giant gnats, busily buzzing around as though they were late for an interview or something. I was a bit put off by them at first, since there were just so many of them, everywhere you looked. Then one landed on my elbow.
They're ladybugs.
This city has an infestation of airborne ladybugs.
I can only imagine what sort of massive-scale good luck this must indicate.
thus spake /jca @ October 9, 2003 08:45 AMMichigan had ladybugs - by the millions, it seemed. I always thought they were fun. Meant fall. Apple cider, and donuts, and leaves changing. I miss home....
Posted by: Catherine at October 11, 2003 08:18 PMThe ladybug plague happened at Penn State a few years ago... At least ten of them took up residence in my dorm room... and about three million more covered the outside of the building. That's actually kind of creepy, now that I think about it. Hope they bring you luck! :)
Posted by: m at October 12, 2003 07:15 AMIn the city in which you've moved to, the ladybug invasion is an annual event. With fall come the ladybugs. Year in and year out.
Apparently, though, some of these ladybugs aren't true ladybugs; there was some infestation of foreign beetles a while back--I think they were from Asia--and these are ladybug imposters. They look like ladybugs, but there are differences. I think the 'ferner bugs don't have spots and are moe orange than red. People in your new town get a little bent out of shape about this turn of events. :)
Indeed they do get bent out of shape. . . but maybe if you stick around long enough, you'll be able to catch the area's much-more thrilling every-seventeen year investation of cicadas. Now, that stuff's GROSS!
Posted by: hK at October 13, 2003 05:39 AMIndeed they do get bent out of shape. . . but maybe if you stick around long enough, you'll be able to catch the area's much-more thrilling every-seventeen year investation of cicadas. Now, that stuff's GROSS!
Posted by: hK at October 13, 2003 05:39 AMHere's a great link that describes why there are so many damn beetles! I live in Minnesota...they are here, too. My brother and his wife (In Wisconsin) have literally thousands of them around their house in the fall and spring...the only way to get rid of them is to vac. them up. If you sqish them they stink, and leave a yellow/orange splotch on the wall (or you!)
http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/Entomology/entfacts/trees/ef416.htm
Love the blog...It's good to hear about other people's law school experience!