"some people, they like to go out dancing. and other peoples, they have to work..."

in the third grade there was a girl who was an overachiever.  she was good at soccer and wore her tie-dyed all star soccer jersey as proof.   a lot of the boys liked her.  i was one of them.  she wanted to start a group that would read books on mammals and do reports/presentations about them.  she asked her best friend, another boy in our class, and me to join the group.  flattered, i joined, but was a bit shaky on some of the details.  i hated oral presentations and did fine on my schoolwork, but have never enjoyed it much, so doing extra reports disagreed with my idea of fun.  the group never went far.  i believe we got as far as checking out a couple of books from the library.  soccer girl became increasingly more controlling, and the other boy in the group became more vocal about how silly the whole thing was.  it all ended when soccer girl told us we would have to stay inside during recess to work on our unnecessary assignments.  i don't remember what was said after that, but i do remember how i felt after hearing the worst idea of all time.  the colors of her tie-dyed all star jersey seemed to bleed into one.  mammals never seemed less interesting.  football wallball at recess was never more fun.  sometimes you just want to do exactly what is expected of you, especially when going above and beyond doesn't make any kind of sense/cents.

i mostly told that story because i was reminded of it when i sat down to type this next part.  i was walking out the front door the other day after it had rained and i saw a bee crawling slowly across the doormat.  it's wings were wet and heavy from the rain.  it is nearly impossible to fly with heavy wings.  i thought about the struggle of the bee as i drove away.  this led me to do some research on the internet.  i enjoyed this the most.  i had heard that bees die soon after stinging a person, but i wanted some confirmation.  only female honeybees do, because male honeybees don't have stingers.  the skin of a mammal is too thick and the stinger stays inside while the bee pulls away.  this action causes a tear in the abdomen, which in turn causes the death.  this is only the case with mammals; bees can sting other insects "with impunity."  the stinger contains a pheremone that gets other bees in the area "riled up."  the pheremone that i use is called "bod."  queen bees only use their stinger to keep other queen bees out of their hive.  they have millions of babies and will leave and take worker bees with them if the hive becomes overcrowded and once a new queen is born.  

i've been stung twice in my life.  bees are said to only sting when provoked.  the first time i was stung the bee had flown into the collar of my shirt, got caught, understandably felt provoked, and then stung my neck.  the reason for the second sting is a bit of a mystery.  it's the 4th of july and i'm sitting poolside with my feet in the water, relaxed as i've ever been and all of the sudden there's a bee on my thumb.  i look at her.  she stings me.  as simple as that and i'm left wondering why she felt so provoked.  was it my "bod" bodyspray that drove her wild?  maybe some water splashed her?  maybe she was feeling just as relaxed and needed a place to sit and as she plopped down she accidentally stung me?  whatever the reason, she flew away dying.  and if her reasoning involves getting splashed with water, she crawled away dying.  i was too preoccupied with the shock to watch her go.

i can only imagine the rapid thoughts going through her head as she took her last flight: "i overreacted, jumped to conclusions, and now i'm dying.  stinger's gone, abdomen's torn and i'm dying.  the mammal's skin was too thick, i don't know what i was thinking.  hindsight, i would have just stung other insects with impunity."  

she landed in an open window where all flying insects go to die.  with her body rested against the window screen she no longer had time to think about her fatal mistake.  she moved her wings slowly for the last time while watching a tree sway with the wind as five eyes went blank.

keep your wings dry and your nose clean, folks.

and that's it.

hey, i want you and your friends to meet some of my friends over here.  you might recognize them, because they can be seen around here from time to time.  they're not my only friends, so don't feel left out.  this isn't about exclusivity.  

the pictures are how they looked in 2009.  some appearances have changed during this young decade, but they're still great people with the occasional bad day(s) just like you and me.   

if all goes as planned, there should also be a song for you over here.  when you're listening, imagine we're all playing scrabble in outer space or at the bottom of the ocean and you just placed the word "fun" across a triple word score.