Xin nian kuai le, Turandot, pics, and lists

This was written during five minute intervals over the last two days, so forgive me if it's disjointed and about eighteen different things at once.

Xin nian kuai le! I wish I was in Chinatown instaad of going ot say goodbye to my dolphin today, but hey. Happy Year of the Boar. :D I'm a water rat, born in the hour of the rat, to boot. What's everyone else?

Moving on. Okay, so first I want to talk about Turandot last night. My friend Nancy and her husband Dan, and Dan's sister Gale, took me out to the opera. (Do I have cool friends, or what?) But first we went to a Turkish restaurant. Holy crap, can I just take a moment to say that Turkish food has a new fan? It's a little like Greek food what-with pita bread and hummus and feta cheese, that kind of thing, but a different selection. The littlest bit was filling. Everything was spicy and weird. I drank a peach drink that was like eating a real peach. And the dessert was like WHOA. This thing called baklava, with the sweet green stuff on it? (Currants or something?) Oh, YUM. Moving on.

( A review of Turandot: )

But technical things like that aside it was truly awesome, and a great experience. I'm glad that Turandot was my first opera and I'm glad that I can finally pronounce it with confidence. ;) Oh, one more thing: I'm going to have to look up when Puccini died. I know it was after Nessun Dorma but before the finale and that someone else finished it, but I'm curious as to where it was. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say it was right after Liu's death, because then the poetry seemed to change. It got more florid, I guess. In college I rightly guessed exactly where in the Requiem Mozart had left off, so I wonder if I still have that touch. I'll have to check. ^_^

This is a huge entry, because I'm not nearly done yet. I have some pics to upload and share, too.

Pictures:

( Lookie what I got today! )

Finally, huh? And I am just about to finish Twilight Princess on GC tonight after I come home from my last day of dolphin-sitting. Then, just as soon as I desire, I can hook up Ye Olde Wii and play it again--mirrored. Yes, I am that much of a fangirl! (But I go to the opera. I'm at least a cultured fangirl. ;D ) Two things you can also see in this pic: that I've got a beeotch of a headcold and my eyes are all puffy, and that Sano is pawing at me and trying to bite the Gamecube. LOL Sano.

( Ice storm FTW! )

That first one is the front yard leading to my door. If you look at the garden light, you can get an idea of how thick the ice is. The garden light is about six or seven inches high. That's about 4 inches of ice right there. The second one is the backyard, with my door. The entire yard is like that. It starts to melt around 1-4ish, then as soon as the sun goes down it re-freezes. The dogs aren't liking it too much. Yesterday, Trisky did a Bambi move with all her legs splayed. Sano tried to run, and skidded out for about five feet, taking a header right into the fence. Actually, that was pretty funny. Haku is generally okay on it, with some skidding, but he hasn't done his laps around the yard in about a week. I won't let him, either. That's a busted leg waiting to happen.

Oh, you thought I was done? Hells, no! I have LISTS! Gacked from lovely Sooz, lists! (And, like Sooz, I'll probably add to these daily, too, as I remember more things.) And I tag all of you guys on my f-list, too. All of these are in no particular order.

Stuff I love,: Dinner with family, shopping with Mom and Gran, yardwork with Da, having a movie/video game weekend with SB and Jo-chan (I miss the crap outta you guys, come by, 'kay?!) chatting with cousin Chrissie in the middle of the street, playing with my dogs, watching my dogs sleep, going to Disney with my family who crack me up, the smell of baby birds, living by the ocean, the way the smell of ocean air mingles with flowers, my ever-blooming jasmine, my entire garden, my new living room, slippersocks, green tea, Balsam fur trees, giant hawk feathers, giant hawks!, the sunset out my window, sunrise over rte 105, ocean beaches, Ponquogue Bridge, a movie and a pint of Ben and Jerry's, working with funny, witty, snarky and perverted people, being kama 'aina to ka Mokupuni Lo'ihi nani, being hanai haumana, writing the perfect scene, long talks with my friend Kim, Edge of the Earth, The Mission, The Kill (best music video EVAR!!!11), meeting friends after concerts, the concerts themselves!, the broadsword form, hardcore Kung Fu drills, doing Small Wheel right, bluejays and other corvids, O Keahi A Lonomakua, fire goddess Pele and Kilauea, firedancers, Michael Palin, Monty Python marathons, Cloud Strife, my favorite jeans, listening to Bob Marley by the pool in July, coconut Malibu rum, Disney's Polynesian resort, all my Hula brothers and sisters, my Kung Fu family, tiki torches, summer parties, Makaha Sons, the smell of chlorine, pea soup, smoked Tofurkey sandwiches, pomegranate juice, Legend of Zelda, going to fancy places with my friends, going out dancing, chocolate soy milk, dying my hair, the first time of the year you feel the sun, the first time of the year you feel the chill, my bed, laughing at work on a Friday, Non-Creepy Backrub Day, making videos, Stephen King (Roland of Gilead!), my car (or, ku'u lovely ka'a!), the necklace Kim made me, the sound Gamecube makes when it starts, orchids, "That Place Where We Love Flowers" (:D Jo-chan!), garlic string beans, Hula seminars, my iPod, surfing, hot baths in the winter surrounded by candles with some music playing, Leonard Cohen (the voice, the words, the poetry, the man himself,) my Kung Fu Assassin jacket, Jared's red and black coat that matches his hair (Hello, Lovely Silly!), Engrish.com, OpenCanvas Plus, Tuesday nights, Beatrice the rooster, Fifty Cent the pidge, Ewan McGregor, JOAQUIIIIIN!, Captain Hook, Captain Jack Sparrow, Ariel the dolphin, Chinatown, Alex Krycek, when the sun sets at 3:45, when the sun sets at 9, birds that everyone else hates, Mitsukoshi and all of Epcot Center, hilarious typos, tomb warriors, the perfect witty phrase (especially if I said it :P ,) Quantum phyics, string theory, JW Waterhouse, honey graham crackers...

Stuff I miss: Grampa, Pendragon and everything involved in his life, hanging out regularly with Tricia, when SB and Jo-chan were always over here, when they were small, Cassidy, video games with Jeremy, AIM chats with Min, my Hula love Hini, upstate NY, days off, Gundam Wing, college theater, being a pirate, being 12 years old with The Rockin' Five, waiting for the ice cream man, playing pretend with my cousins until way past bed time, nightswimming, the way things looked when I was small, when fandom was new and exciting to me, writing for days on end and loving every second, Kung Fu with Lao Shir, doing a spell and believing it enough to make it work, Ariel...

Stuff I hate: Cigarette smoke, the aviary on a hot day, mites on birds, ticks, laggy internet sites, the current administration, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism, animal cruelty, the neighbors behind me (rednecks in general,) when people I love move away, when I'm driving and some schmuck cuts me off and then drives really slowly to make it worse, whitefly on my houseplants, having to go somewhere when I'd rather stay home and veg, the fact that I can never get an orange tree to grow in the sunroom, when people think they're funny and they're just stupid (though the same could be said of me some of the time, at least,) when people think they're funny and they're just cruel, real person fanfiction, wasps and yellowjackets, people who leave their dogs outside, SUVs and Hummers, Drunken Stupid Fratboys, my own neurotic worry, finding out a product I like is from a company that tests on animals, Alice in Chains without Layne Staley (FAIL!), football, bars, people who drive drunk or even buzzed, that no one can accomodate me with the tattoos I want...

And because I've been reading a book that says you should acknowledge your desires and list them, because you never know what good might come of it, an added section--Stuff I want: To get a magazine interested in an interview with 30 Seconds to Mars, and then get that interview for myself! (no one knows of any good music webzines that might be interested by any chance, do they?), a bigger aviary (perhaps that I could use in the winter), a book deal, for talented people to sketch my characters, a job teaching Hula, a baby (eventually), a baby for Chris and Tim (NOW!), my car reupholstered (the seats are the only thing in my life that are leather, since I bought the car before I went all anti), another Zelda game soon (no one said it had to be realistic!), to go to Chinatown again soon, more time with SB and Jo-chan, some days when I don't have anywhere to be...

I have to leave those off where they are with ellipses, because I can go on forever, especially with stuff I love. I'll probably just keep adding to it.

Currently it is snowing in the backyard--though the sun is out--and not the front. But I'm writing this before I go say goodbye (for three hours) to Ariel, and will probably post this after, so take "currently" to mean "a good number of hours ago."

Xin nian kuai le, Turandot, pics, and lists

This was written during five minute intervals over the last two days, so forgive me if it's disjointed and about eighteen different things at once.

Xin nian kuai le! I wish I was in Chinatown instaad of going ot say goodbye to my dolphin today, but hey. Happy Year of the Boar. :D I'm a water rat, born in the hour of the rat, to boot. What's everyone else?

Moving on. Okay, so first I want to talk about Turandot last night. My friend Nancy and her husband Dan, and Dan's sister Gale, took me out to the opera. (Do I have cool friends, or what?) But first we went to a Turkish restaurant. Holy crap, can I just take a moment to say that Turkish food has a new fan? It's a little like Greek food what-with pita bread and hummus and feta cheese, that kind of thing, but a different selection. The littlest bit was filling. Everything was spicy and weird. I drank a peach drink that was like eating a real peach. And the dessert was like WHOA. This thing called baklava, with the sweet green stuff on it? (Currants or something?) Oh, YUM. Moving on.

( A review of Turandot: )

But technical things like that aside it was truly awesome, and a great experience. I'm glad that Turandot was my first opera and I'm glad that I can finally pronounce it with confidence. ;) Oh, one more thing: I'm going to have to look up when Puccini died. I know it was after Nessun Dorma but before the finale and that someone else finished it, but I'm curious as to where it was. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say it was right after Liu's death, because then the poetry seemed to change. It got more florid, I guess. In college I rightly guessed exactly where in the Requiem Mozart had left off, so I wonder if I still have that touch. I'll have to check. ^_^

This is a huge entry, because I'm not nearly done yet. I have some pics to upload and share, too.

Pictures:

( Lookie what I got today! )

Finally, huh? And I am just about to finish Twilight Princess on GC tonight after I come home from my last day of dolphin-sitting. Then, just as soon as I desire, I can hook up Ye Olde Wii and play it again--mirrored. Yes, I am that much of a fangirl! (But I go to the opera. I'm at least a cultured fangirl. ;D ) Two things you can also see in this pic: that I've got a beeotch of a headcold and my eyes are all puffy, and that Sano is pawing at me and trying to bite the Gamecube. LOL Sano.

( Ice storm FTW! )

That first one is the front yard leading to my door. If you look at the garden light, you can get an idea of how thick the ice is. The garden light is about six or seven inches high. That's about 4 inches of ice right there. The second one is the backyard, with my door. The entire yard is like that. It starts to melt around 1-4ish, then as soon as the sun goes down it re-freezes. The dogs aren't liking it too much. Yesterday, Trisky did a Bambi move with all her legs splayed. Sano tried to run, and skidded out for about five feet, taking a header right into the fence. Actually, that was pretty funny. Haku is generally okay on it, with some skidding, but he hasn't done his laps around the yard in about a week. I won't let him, either. That's a busted leg waiting to happen.

Oh, you thought I was done? Hells, no! I have LISTS! Gacked from lovely Sooz, lists! (And, like Sooz, I'll probably add to these daily, too, as I remember more things.) And I tag all of you guys on my f-list, too. All of these are in no particular order.

Stuff I love,: Dinner with family, shopping with Mom and Gran, yardwork with Da, having a movie/video game weekend with SB and Jo-chan (I miss the crap outta you guys, come by, 'kay?!) chatting with cousin Chrissie in the middle of the street, playing with my dogs, watching my dogs sleep, going to Disney with my family who crack me up, the smell of baby birds, living by the ocean, the way the smell of ocean air mingles with flowers, my ever-blooming jasmine, my entire garden, my new living room, slippersocks, green tea, Balsam fur trees, giant hawk feathers, giant hawks!, the sunset out my window, sunrise over rte 105, ocean beaches, Ponquogue Bridge, a movie and a pint of Ben and Jerry's, working with funny, witty, snarky and perverted people, being kama 'aina to ka Mokupuni Lo'ihi nani, being hanai haumana, writing the perfect scene, long talks with my friend Kim, Edge of the Earth, The Mission, The Kill (best music video EVAR!!!11), meeting friends after concerts, the concerts themselves!, the broadsword form, hardcore Kung Fu drills, doing Small Wheel right, bluejays and other corvids, O Keahi A Lonomakua, fire goddess Pele and Kilauea, firedancers, Michael Palin, Monty Python marathons, Cloud Strife, my favorite jeans, listening to Bob Marley by the pool in July, coconut Malibu rum, Disney's Polynesian resort, all my Hula brothers and sisters, my Kung Fu family, tiki torches, summer parties, Makaha Sons, the smell of chlorine, pea soup, smoked Tofurkey sandwiches, pomegranate juice, Legend of Zelda, going to fancy places with my friends, going out dancing, chocolate soy milk, dying my hair, the first time of the year you feel the sun, the first time of the year you feel the chill, my bed, laughing at work on a Friday, Non-Creepy Backrub Day, making videos, Stephen King (Roland of Gilead!), my car (or, ku'u lovely ka'a!), the necklace Kim made me, the sound Gamecube makes when it starts, orchids, "That Place Where We Love Flowers" (:D Jo-chan!), garlic string beans, Hula seminars, my iPod, surfing, hot baths in the winter surrounded by candles with some music playing, Leonard Cohen (the voice, the words, the poetry, the man himself,) my Kung Fu Assassin jacket, Jared's red and black coat that matches his hair (Hello, Lovely Silly!), Engrish.com, OpenCanvas Plus, Tuesday nights, Beatrice the rooster, Fifty Cent the pidge, Ewan McGregor, JOAQUIIIIIN!, Captain Hook, Captain Jack Sparrow, Ariel the dolphin, Chinatown, Alex Krycek, when the sun sets at 3:45, when the sun sets at 9, birds that everyone else hates, Mitsukoshi and all of Epcot Center, hilarious typos, tomb warriors, the perfect witty phrase (especially if I said it :P ,) Quantum phyics, string theory, JW Waterhouse, honey graham crackers...

Stuff I miss: Grampa, Pendragon and everything involved in his life, hanging out regularly with Tricia, when SB and Jo-chan were always over here, when they were small, Cassidy, video games with Jeremy, AIM chats with Min, my Hula love Hini, upstate NY, days off, Gundam Wing, college theater, being a pirate, being 12 years old with The Rockin' Five, waiting for the ice cream man, playing pretend with my cousins until way past bed time, nightswimming, the way things looked when I was small, when fandom was new and exciting to me, writing for days on end and loving every second, Kung Fu with Lao Shir, doing a spell and believing it enough to make it work, Ariel...

Stuff I hate: Cigarette smoke, the aviary on a hot day, mites on birds, ticks, laggy internet sites, the current administration, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism, animal cruelty, the neighbors behind me (rednecks in general,) when people I love move away, when I'm driving and some schmuck cuts me off and then drives really slowly to make it worse, whitefly on my houseplants, having to go somewhere when I'd rather stay home and veg, the fact that I can never get an orange tree to grow in the sunroom, when people think they're funny and they're just stupid (though the same could be said of me some of the time, at least,) when people think they're funny and they're just cruel, real person fanfiction, wasps and yellowjackets, people who leave their dogs outside, SUVs and Hummers, Drunken Stupid Fratboys, my own neurotic worry, finding out a product I like is from a company that tests on animals, Alice in Chains without Layne Staley (FAIL!), football, bars, people who drive drunk or even buzzed, that no one can accomodate me with the tattoos I want...

And because I've been reading a book that says you should acknowledge your desires and list them, because you never know what good might come of it, an added section--Stuff I want: To get a magazine interested in an interview with 30 Seconds to Mars, and then get that interview for myself! (no one knows of any good music webzines that might be interested by any chance, do they?), a bigger aviary (perhaps that I could use in the winter), a book deal, for talented people to sketch my characters, a job teaching Hula, a baby (eventually), a baby for Chris and Tim (NOW!), my car reupholstered (the seats are the only thing in my life that are leather, since I bought the car before I went all anti), another Zelda game soon (no one said it had to be realistic!), to go to Chinatown again soon, more time with SB and Jo-chan, some days when I don't have anywhere to be...

I have to leave those off where they are with ellipses, because I can go on forever, especially with stuff I love. I'll probably just keep adding to it.

Currently it is snowing in the backyard--though the sun is out--and not the front. But I'm writing this before I go say goodbye (for three hours) to Ariel, and will probably post this after, so take "currently" to mean "a good number of hours ago."

Endings: LOZ and dolphin-sitting

Before you say, "OMG, how can you even put a video game in the same entry with the departure of a living thing that you loved!" well, try to keep in mind that A) Ariel, for as much as I always called her "my dolphin", was never actually mine and I didn't actually get to interact with her too much, and B) seriously, I've been playing Legend of Zelda sine the first game came out. Dude, that's a LONG time. Twenty years or so. And that this is the game I've been waiting for since they started teasing us with trailers for it back in '01 or maybe even '00, before cheating us with WindWaker and then making us wait all this time. So Twilight Princess has a special place in my blog, and the ending of it is significant for me.

Thoughts: Well, it was a terrific game. For this moment, it doesn't feel as all-encompasing as Ocarina of Time did, but it did fill a void and I guess technically was a superior game. It was really frustrating in some parts, and there are definitely parts I am so NOT looking forward to repeating, like for instance the city in the sky or whatever the hell it was. I loathed that temple-like thing. The runaway cart through Hyrule field early in the game. Ugh. And Dark Horseman Ganon, oh man, that was the hardest boss in the whole thing, harder than the Water Temple boss. The easiest boss battle was actually the last Ganon one. He played just like a Darknut and I took the slightest bit of damage while cheesing him to death with a backslash. Ganon's death always has an odd sort of beauty in all of the games. It's always creepy, subtle and significant. This time was no different.

The ending was decent for a Zelda game, and I specify "for a Zelda game" because they don't go as all-out with their wrap-ups as, like Final Fantasy for instance. It was a 15 or so minute ending, but that was mostly just scenes of fields I spent the last month riding around in, with credits over it. The kids went home and that was nice but totally expected. They didn't wrap up at all about Renado or Telma (an unrealistic part of me wanted her to thwack him in the head or something. He started out as one of my favorites, then became one of my least favorites.) They didn't wrap up about the little detail of Link being a werewolf for godsakes.

Zelda was beautiful, but OMG Link / Midna! :P I loved Link's :-O look when he saw her at the end.

I wonder if I could download all the cut-scenes and do a music video. For that matter, I wonder what people would think if I poked my head back into the fandom for a second to whip out one more LOZ fanfic. I'm not sure I have it in me, (though it looks like Link went back to work, is my guess, and also can no longer change into a werewolf but now knows that animals talk and does he still sort of understand them? Does he want to? Or can he totally not at all? Does he miss Midna, what's Zelda doing at the Castle, are her parents alive? How does she explain this to the Hylians? Does she remember ( cut for spoilers )

, does that still keep her awake at night? Does Link visit the group at Telma's bar? Did Zelda thank them? Are they like knights or something now? What's Ashei up to these days? What's Midna up to? This is the first game where it seems everyone pretty much knows that Link saved the world, what must that be like?) but I guess that a handful of people would smile about it if I did it. Ahh, fandom. Ahh, LOZ, how you leave so much open to the players' interpretation. Ahhh, how I do not need distractions from the book I'm supposed to be working on. >_>

Anyway, no less significant today was my last day with Ariel. It was cold, not as cold as last week but oddly it felt colder. It only started to drop below 30 after 5 or so, and then the snow started to come down like mad. Still, I was wearing long-johns under my jeans, two pairs of socks under my boots--with hand-warmers in them--two thermal shirts, two fleece sweaters and a coat, and I was still freezing. Ariel was in a fine mood today, she sped around, breached, leapt, twirled, did head-stands and everything. She spent a lot of time biting her toys, bumping them into each other, diving with them, and generally being a character. I might have mentioned that last week she looked right at me for the first time, and that was weird, because she's never really looked at people around the outside of the tank before. (The girl who was in the tank with her was surprised by it when she saw her do it.) Today she looked at me quite a bit. Then I did two things I wasn't supposed to do, because we were never to interact with her from outside of the tank. (But dude, they were also supposed to let me swim with her--it's why most of us signed on in the first place, not to stand outside in the cold writing everytime she took a crap.) She was hanging around really close to me and just staring, rolling onto her side and really eyeballing me. Then she'd nudge her yellow skip disk a little and still look at me. The first naughty thing I did was to reach in and take the disk to see if she'd take it from me. She didn't seem to be interested in that. Finally, I took off my glove and just reached down and pet her, which is actually the first time I've touched her. (I've touched dolphins before, but never her.) She wiggled like it tickled, then she just went back to playing with her toy. I watched her for a few more minutes, thanked her for teaching me so much about dolphins, then said goodbye and took my leave of her.

I did get a video of her with her eyes open, watching me, and I got some caps from that video. They're small. And although I did take some pictures of her after this, they all came out dark, so for my purposes, these are my last pictures of Ariel:







Now she's off to the Gulfarium, where she will be a show dolphin. It's that or death; people are the only thing she knows, she thrives on the attention, and she'd never survive in the wild. She's going to be a great show-girl. Good luck, Ariel!

Endings: LOZ and dolphin-sitting

Before you say, "OMG, how can you even put a video game in the same entry with the departure of a living thing that you loved!" well, try to keep in mind that A) Ariel, for as much as I always called her "my dolphin", was never actually mine and I didn't actually get to interact with her too much, and B) seriously, I've been playing Legend of Zelda sine the first game came out. Dude, that's a LONG time. Twenty years or so. And that this is the game I've been waiting for since they started teasing us with trailers for it back in '01 or maybe even '00, before cheating us with WindWaker and then making us wait all this time. So Twilight Princess has a special place in my blog, and the ending of it is significant for me.

Thoughts: Well, it was a terrific game. For this moment, it doesn't feel as all-encompasing as Ocarina of Time did, but it did fill a void and I guess technically was a superior game. It was really frustrating in some parts, and there are definitely parts I am so NOT looking forward to repeating, like for instance the city in the sky or whatever the hell it was. I loathed that temple-like thing. The runaway cart through Hyrule field early in the game. Ugh. And Dark Horseman Ganon, oh man, that was the hardest boss in the whole thing, harder than the Water Temple boss. The easiest boss battle was actually the last Ganon one. He played just like a Darknut and I took the slightest bit of damage while cheesing him to death with a backslash. Ganon's death always has an odd sort of beauty in all of the games. It's always creepy, subtle and significant. This time was no different.

The ending was decent for a Zelda game, and I specify "for a Zelda game" because they don't go as all-out with their wrap-ups as, like Final Fantasy for instance. It was a 15 or so minute ending, but that was mostly just scenes of fields I spent the last month riding around in, with credits over it. The kids went home and that was nice but totally expected. They didn't wrap up at all about Renado or Telma (an unrealistic part of me wanted her to thwack him in the head or something. He started out as one of my favorites, then became one of my least favorites.) They didn't wrap up about the little detail of Link being a werewolf for godsakes.

Zelda was beautiful, but OMG Link / Midna! :P I loved Link's :-O look when he saw her at the end.

I wonder if I could download all the cut-scenes and do a music video. For that matter, I wonder what people would think if I poked my head back into the fandom for a second to whip out one more LOZ fanfic. I'm not sure I have it in me, (though it looks like Link went back to work, is my guess, and also can no longer change into a werewolf but now knows that animals talk and does he still sort of understand them? Does he want to? Or can he totally not at all? Does he miss Midna, what's Zelda doing at the Castle, are her parents alive? How does she explain this to the Hylians? Does she remember ( cut for spoilers )

, does that still keep her awake at night? Does Link visit the group at Telma's bar? Did Zelda thank them? Are they like knights or something now? What's Ashei up to these days? What's Midna up to? This is the first game where it seems everyone pretty much knows that Link saved the world, what must that be like?) but I guess that a handful of people would smile about it if I did it. Ahh, fandom. Ahh, LOZ, how you leave so much open to the players' interpretation. Ahhh, how I do not need distractions from the book I'm supposed to be working on. >_>

Anyway, no less significant today was my last day with Ariel. It was cold, not as cold as last week but oddly it felt colder. It only started to drop below 30 after 5 or so, and then the snow started to come down like mad. Still, I was wearing long-johns under my jeans, two pairs of socks under my boots--with hand-warmers in them--two thermal shirts, two fleece sweaters and a coat, and I was still freezing. Ariel was in a fine mood today, she sped around, breached, leapt, twirled, did head-stands and everything. She spent a lot of time biting her toys, bumping them into each other, diving with them, and generally being a character. I might have mentioned that last week she looked right at me for the first time, and that was weird, because she's never really looked at people around the outside of the tank before. (The girl who was in the tank with her was surprised by it when she saw her do it.) Today she looked at me quite a bit. Then I did two things I wasn't supposed to do, because we were never to interact with her from outside of the tank. (But dude, they were also supposed to let me swim with her--it's why most of us signed on in the first place, not to stand outside in the cold writing everytime she took a crap.) She was hanging around really close to me and just staring, rolling onto her side and really eyeballing me. Then she'd nudge her yellow skip disk a little and still look at me. The first naughty thing I did was to reach in and take the disk to see if she'd take it from me. She didn't seem to be interested in that. Finally, I took off my glove and just reached down and pet her, which is actually the first time I've touched her. (I've touched dolphins before, but never her.) She wiggled like it tickled, then she just went back to playing with her toy. I watched her for a few more minutes, thanked her for teaching me so much about dolphins, then said goodbye and took my leave of her.

I did get a video of her with her eyes open, watching me, and I got some caps from that video. They're small. And although I did take some pictures of her after this, they all came out dark, so for my purposes, these are my last pictures of Ariel:







Now she's off to the Gulfarium, where she will be a show dolphin. It's that or death; people are the only thing she knows, she thrives on the attention, and she'd never survive in the wild. She's going to be a great show-girl. Good luck, Ariel!