The Lazy Gnome...

My sister asked me to repost my entry about the sudden passing of Mr. Pop's (and Charles) on her BLOG.

So, without further ado, let's revisit that plastic habitat one last time where turtle and hippo once lived together side-by-side:

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My sister has a turtle named Mr. Pops, which she acquired a little over a year ago while she was a student at THIS SCHOOL.

Well, actually, I should say that my sister had a turtle named Mr. Pops. Mr. Pops died last Thursday. I am told that he went peacefully in his sleep.

If you read my sister's blog you already know that we had a memorial service, and it was well attended. We buried him underneath the big oak tree in my father's front yard (don't tell the Highland Park police). My aunt brought her Bible and read a prayer, I was selected to read a poem, my father helped with the "burial", my sister cried, and the three dogs watched from the car (I have it on good authority that Gypsy Kitty prayed for the recently deceased).

It was a beautiful service for a loving member of the family (even if he was just a turtle).

Anyway, Mr. Pops shared his plastic habitat with a hippo named Charles. Mr. Pops and Charles are very close (I'm using the present tense on purpose because we buried Charles-the-hippo with Mr. Pops). Charles, you see, was never a really-real hippo. He was, in reality, a toy hippo - a zoo replica, if you will. But Mr. Pops always thought of Charles as being a really-real hippo (much in the same way that the Velvetine Rabbit was a really-real bunny). They were best friends and roommates, and it makes us all feel better to know that Charles accompanied Mr. Pops on his journey over the rainbow. I don't think that anyone would want it any other way.

As a tribute to Mr. Pops and Charles I would like to offer the following story about another turtle-hippo friendship:

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.

"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.

I love that we live in a world where turtles and hippos - both great big and very, very small - can not only coexist, but live side-by-side like family.

So, goodbye Mr. Pops and Charles! Your legacy lives on and we will never-ever forget you!

I love the first day of school because there is no penalty for showing up a little late, you don't have to lug any heavy books or spirals around yet, there is no homework, you get to buy new school supplies, AND you get to see what kind of people are in your classes. SMU is stereotyped for having very attractive-looking students, but (unfortunately) none of those people ever seem to end up in any of my classes. In the past I have gotten stuck in classes with some pretty nerdy, not-so-cute looking people. You'd think this would be good because there would be fewer distractions and the nerds could help you study in exchange for getting to associate themselves with you...but this is never the case. Nerds are competitive bastards! They do not want to help you. They want to intimidate you with their intellect, make you look stupid, and watch you fail. So, I was relieved to see that most of my classes are packed to the brim with the sorority and fraternity crowd (who I had plenty of time to study during rush). I know what their intentions are. They simply want to attend as few classes as possible and still pass the class...and maybe get a date or two in the process. They are no threat to me socially or intellectually. I like the color pink damnit! I have a good feeling about this semester.

I'm so glad that rush is over...even if that means starting school again. I know that rush is supposed to be this great opportunity to bond with your sisters (since you're trapped in the house all day with them against your will), but sometimes you really just want to have "alone" time...which I quickly discovered is unacceptable in the sorority world. Every time I would go sit alone somewhere to relax, one of the girls would run over to me so fast you'd think I was having a seizure or something. I guess they felt sorry for me because I was sitting alone rather than in a large cirlce of girls. They would always try to drag me over to join in whatever dramatic gossip about people I don't even know was going around at the time. Girls are weird because they have this ridiculous fear of sitting/eating alone. We are too self conscious...which is why we feel the need to talk so much in order to avoid any awkward silences in a conversation. I was definatly on girl-overload, and was happy to see boys walking around campus again. I'm glad I have a year to destress before rush starts again.