Current mood:

whaaat

Diplomacy with the insect kingdom
In other news, the English building's vending machine that gives me half-assed hot cocoa for fifty cents has been out of order for at least two weeks. They finally got it back to work, but now it appears to be infested with tiny ants.

Initially I was prepared to drink the cocoa anyway, but it appears to have worsened to the point where anything coming out of that machine is going to have visible dead ants floating in it. I'm not sure I'm willing to be quite that complicit in drinking ants. ...But I really like that cocoa. :(

Today I found a butterfly that I, though not an entomologist by any stretch, had to assume was at the brink of death, given its extreme reluctance to move at all. So I got it to sit on my hat. Coincidentally, I had recently thought of getting some sort of hat-butterfly; I was considering the far more sensible plan of getting a fake one, which surely ought to be available among craft supplies. So this was a serendipitous meeting, and despite its weakened state the butterfly hung onto my hat just fine. I feel bad for the creature and all, but it was also rad.

It stayed there for a few hours, but I'm pretty sure it's dead now. Godspeed, little butterfly; here's hoping I made your last moments interesting in a way that wasn't too uncomfortable. Anyway, I'd hoped that its little claws or whatever the hell bugs have would stay stuck to the fabric, but sadly no -- maybe I poked it to check its vitals too many times. (I also couldn't persuade it to die with its wings open. Some animals just don't understand fashion.)

A part of me is seriously considering just finding a safety pin, but that route seems gauche at best and possibly disrespectful. Or unhygenic. Ah well. I may remember sometime to look for craft supplies after all, but my late first hat-butterfly will be the best.

(ETA Epilogue: After posting this and intending to go out, I was surprised to find the butterfly lurching around a bit with more animation than I'd seen from it. However it still couldn't really stay upright or do anything else, so I decided it was time to end this silliness. I brought it outside and stepped on it properly. RIP.)