LXXII : Be Braver

Can't I be ok with being less stingy sometimes? I have one week left of my internship, which I hope I will post about more specifically some other time, and I wondered (or more like, Nino, one of the analytical group members, asked me) what I was going to do for the week I have before going to LA for orientation (and then Pharm!!). I really want to go somewhere fun, maybe spend two days somewhere, do a road trip or something. Unfortunately, I don't particularly like driving, and I feel like no one else here (Tiffy? StephR?) does either. Also, I don't want to spend much, even on once-in-a-lifetime places-- museums, national parks, etc. Santa Cruz beach sounds fun since I haven't been there since... probably the Santa Cruz Band Review way back in high school. Napa Valley sounds fun, with the wine-tasting and tour of the wine-country, which reminds me, I haven't gotten used to the taste of wine yet. One of my goals this summer--fail. I'll just continue taking my teensy tiny sips.

I feel silly thinking to myself "I want to go somewhere and do something. Get outside! Into the WORLD~!" and then here I am, on the computer in my room. At night. I read the little book Tiffy gave me called Open Your Mind. Open Your Life. Just bunch of sayings, some I disagree with and some I completely understand now... and some I'm not so sure of. This is what I feel like and have felt like for this past year, especially when I was in LA:

There is a bird that lives deep in the snowy mountains. Tortured by night's numbing cold, it cries that it will build a warm nest in the morning. Yet, when day breaks, it sleeps the day away, basking in the warmth of the sun. So it continues, crying vainly throughout its life. People are often the same, lamenting their circumstances yet passing by every opportunity to change. -Taro Gold

Seriously, when will I finally feel braver about getting away from the shelter of my parents? of home? of known comfort? I want to know what else is out there, but I don't try to expand into the unknown. Yet, I tell myself, "you won't know until you try." So, TRY more often.

Today, while I was clocking back in after lunch, I walked by a lady who was holding the door open and staring at something. I asked her what she was looking at, and she said "a bird fell from the roof and now it's lying there in the corner. The mom just came to feed it." I looked for it, which took a while because I didn't expect it to be so close, and saw the baby huddled next to the cement block holding plants. After I watched it for a good few minutes, I went back to my cubicle and got my camera.

While taking pictures, I pointed it out to another lady coming back from lunch, and she told me Aaron (another person from my analytical group) had previously taken care of a baby bird that was left at the door by a cat. I went back to my building and decided I should ask Aaron to take care of this one, too. It's a good thing I did because when I walked back to show him where the bird was, I saw a cat just about to pounce on the baby bird. I also noticed the mom (or dad) was watching close by, but it was sad to see she couldn't really do anything. When I approached, the stray cat ran away, but it stayed near in the bushes.

Aaron went to get a box while I watched the bird (and took more pictures. hehe). When he came back, he handed me a nitrile glove that we use in lab and I picked up the baby and placed it in the box. Aww, it was so light and cute, but quite ugly. The parent bird flew around the building when I picked up the bird and put it in the box. So sad for the parent to have to lose this baby, but I hope it survives. Aaron took the bird back into our building, where I kept hearing it chirping. Poor little one, probably was super hungry. Aaron said he'd give it to a wild animal shelter in Fairgrounds(?), where he gave the other one before. They feed it and release it back into the wild. So they say.