Day of the Fly

Today started like any other weather-challenged day.  There was a thick layer of clouds covering the city when I woke up, making it difficult to see the buildings across the street, and when the clouds slowly faded, they gave way to torrential downpours.  The rest of the day saw more clouds, wind, rain, humidity and other "fun" weather.

I ended up going for lunch at Potbelly, since I chose to leave for lunch at the exact moment Mother Nature decided it should rain.  I didn't bring an umbrella since it wasn't raining when I left for the elevator, but the hard raindrops began pelting me in the head almost immediately.  Potbelly is in the Rockefeller Center Concourse, and when I go by the concourse, it means I only have to walk 1.5 blocks outside and can walk the rest underground.  Even taking the concourse, my already curly hair (which seems to get curlier the older I get and which I did not bother straightening today since it was raining) got even bigger.

On the way back from Potbelly, I chatted with my mom about last night's (completely awesome) episode of Scandal, filling her in on everything she missed in the first season.  I hung up because our elevators have terrible reception, and called her back as I unpacked my lunch at my desk.  We continued to chat about Scandal but I couldn't tell you exactly what because what happened next wiped those memories from my brain.

While we were talking, I heard a buzzing noise pass my ear.  I was annoyed, thinking a fly had followed me into the office and now I had to battle it and try to get it to leave before I ate my lunch.  I didn't see anything flying around though, and a buzz that loud could only come from a decently large fly.  I heard the buzz a few different times but each time couldn't see anything flying around.  I have decent peripheral vision though and I suddenly saw something black drop out of my hair.

Out. Of. My. Hair.

I barely had time to consider the fact that the large black object had fallen out of my hair, because I realized that said large black object was sitting on my upper arm. I grabbed one of the napkins off my desk and tried to swat it off my arm.

Didn't move.

If you don't already know, I cannot handle insects. Bit of a phobia here. Everything after that was a bit of a blur. I remember screaming on the phone when it dropped out of my hair and onto my arm. I remember swatting at it with a napkin like a crazy lady before I finally knocked it off my arm.

But I couldn't find it anywhere. I didn't see it fly off but it was nowhere to be seen.

My office neighbor came by to see if it was a rodent because I guess she heard me scream through the wall.  I could deal with a mouse. I cannot deal with a big fly.

Not wanting to eat lunch near a fly that clearly loved to torment me, I escaped to our office cafeteria and finished off a (very) late lunch while watching NY1.  I returned to my office, looked all over the floor, but still couldn't see the fly.  Every so often throughout the afternoon I would hear a buzz, turn around, shake out my hair, look into the air, but I didn't see anything.  I started to get more comfortable and thought that maybe it had finally flown off.  I still couldn't believe that while I was on the phone with my mom it was buzzing and flying around in my hair.  I guess that's the problem with thick and curly hair. I figured that, as panicked as I had been and how traumatic it had been, one day this would be something I could laugh about.  A bug taking up residence in my hair and flying around inside it?!  My hair's not that big!

Once my guard was down, I started to hear loud buzzing again and saw something black fall onto my desk. I think it must have been watching me from the ceiling because it tumbled from quite high.  I started to panic again but this time grabbed the Pledge multi-surface cleaner spray bottle from inside my desk drawer and started spraying in the general direction of the fly.  I kept spraying, it kept buzzing, I kept spraying, it kept sputtering, and then it finally stopped.

I was thinking maybe it was not your normal large fly because it didn't seem to fly as much as others. When it fell to the desk, it kind of flew around between things on my desk but didn't go very far (lucky for me).  I thought maybe it was sick, felt a little bad, then remembered they spread disease and it was on my arm, and then thought maybe it was having babies (I know nothing about insects in this department and I've been scarred for life by Charlotte's Web (and yes I know this is not a spider)) and there would be little flies all over my office.

A was very kind and came over after work to clean up the fly for me.  After the spray bottle incident, I kept looking over to see if it was still there. I guess I thought it would just start flying again because I was that afraid of it.  Once the fly was gone, it was time to clean my stapler, my mirror, my poor page-a-day gallery calendar of islands pictures, all of which got a little bit drowned in my fight the fly campaign.

What an afternoon.

Poor Little Cub

Today was not a good day in the panda world.

If you hadn't guessed by our blog name, A and I are panda fans.  While we have always had a soft spot for the furry black and white animals, our "addiction" really began with Tai Shan (aka Butterstick), the panda cub at the National Zoo in DC that we visited back in 2006.  He was adorable, playful and just clicked with us (and so many others).  After visiting the zoo, we plunged headfirst into a world of panda lovers - meeting new people, participating in forums, watching the panda cams all day, staying up to date on worldwide panda news, making return zoo trips. We loved it.  Eventually as time passed we became less involved as there just wasn't enough time in the day, but it didn't mean we loved pandas any less.

Since Tai Shan, there hasn't been another cub at the National Zoo.  (Unlike San Diego, which has seen so many cubs thanks to the amazing Bai Yun and Gao Gao match.)  Tai Shan is now an adult and living in China, but his parents, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, are still at the National Zoo.  We had heard rumors that they could be sent back to China soon if there were no cub, which made us sad, as they were our first "panda family."

Then last week, there was great news.  There was finally a new cub at the zoo!  We were so thrilled and began thinking about when we would go to DC.  We planned on the spring so that we would be there at the time cubs are cutest.  (When they're about 6 months old, they do the cutest waddling around. It's absolutely adorable.)  There's a cub in San Diego this year too, born in July, but it's a little easier for us to get to DC.

I was watching soccer this morning and reading Twitter when I saw a tweet with breaking news that the cub had died.  It said it was news reported by the AP but I was still thinking it had to be some sort of sick joke, that someone had played a prank on the news sources.  How could a cub at the zoo die?!  Of course I had heard before of cubs who didn't make it but I never imagined that it could happen to "our" pandas.  I kept searching like crazy since everything referred back to the AP.  Then I saw a tweet from the National Zoo's official account and my heart sank.  I felt the tears coming for a cub that I had barely even seen, except for a few photos on Facebook, and didn't know at all.  I ran in to tell A the heartbreaking news - that the tiny cub that we couldn't wait to get to know and love was gone.

The more I read, the sadder the news got.  The panda lovers from the group that we had been part of were commiserating over the news.  I guess earlier in the morning people trying to catch a glimpse of the cub on the panda cam had seen Mei Xiang, the momma bear, in distress, and then the panda cams were abruptly disconnected.  After they reconnected the cameras, she was clearly still distressed, looking for her lost baby who would never return.  I won't go to the panda cam to watch that, and I don't want to imagine how that is. I know some people object to us placing such human emotions on animals, when we don't know all the details of how they think and feel, but I definitely believe that a mother animal knows when its child is in trouble and feels loss and anxiety when it's missing. I feel so awful for Mei.  I can't even imagine what it's like for the zookeepers.  This is their life - taking care of the animals and helping to keep watch over the new cub. It has to be devastating.

I don't know what's going to happen with the pandas in DC now or if we'll see Mei or Tian again (or if they'll be sent back to China). I don't know if they'll ever know what happened with the cub (since they said they saw no signs of trauma or infection). There are so few pandas in the world right now and every cub loss is incredibly sad.  Poor little cub.  Sorry that we'll never get to know you.