On his face is a map of the world.

Last night was very fun. I showered; then Sonja, Chris (recent grad, not my adviser), Bill (just met him, he's working on his Ph. D. here), and I joined Chris and his class to go catch bats! We went up and Bill and Chris set up three nets across the water, where Chris knows they stop to drink before they hunt at night.

In the process, we found a salamander. Apparently the ones with wider heads like that are the ones that have mutated into a cannibalistic salamander. We took turns holding her (we assume it's a she) and called her Gertrude. Then we let her go back into her nasty sludgy pond that she loves so much, which will someday be coal for the probably non-existant people millions of years from now.

And then we waited. We only had a 15 or 20 minute time span in which the bats would come to the area. Chris had a radar detector which, when set to the proper level, allowed you to actually hear the bats "looking" around with their sonar. It was so cool. It sounded like clicks, and sometimes a little bit like a short zipper going up really fast. I have a movie clip on my camera that I'll put on Facebook later. And when the bats got close to their prey and zeroed in on it, it went zzzZIP! really quick, and that was when you know you got it. That was hard to tell though if you were listening for the first time like me because it was so short.

We only caught one silly bat, twice. I got to hold her! Even though Chris said most bats that would bother coming down here to drink were healthy, we wore cotton gloves. (And then, of course, I was my normal self later and rubbed under my nose with that same glove to itch it. It's probably fine, like holding a mouse or something.) They don't really bite unless you're stupid and stick your finger in their mouths, and don't have much for teeth or claws anyway. Her fur was very soft and downy. Their membrane for flying is soft, smooth, and rubbery, and so thin that when you touch it you're afraid you'll break it. But they must actually be pretty strong, because they use the membranes also for catching water like a cup in their elbow and helping to catch bugs.

They are tiny. It's just their wings that make them seem bigger. When you see one up close and hold its fragile tiny bones between your thumb and hand, it's almost comical to think people are afraid of them (no offense). Not to mention that they always know exactly where people are because they can "see" every detail very well. They're not interested in getting caught in someone's ridiculous hair. They're interested in the insects that are trying to bite that person. They feel indifferent to humans. Then when we let her go she flew right into the net again in her panic to get away, so Chris got her out once more and had her fly on the other side of that net and she flew away.

Then we packed up and left. When we got back, we got ready for both the customary bonfire tonight and the party the students invited us to. The party had a theme, but I just wore my camo coat and called myself a hunter. Not that it mattered. Kevin showed up with a lamp shade on his head and Laila and her roommate(s?) showed up in sheet togas. The party had replaced the bonfire, so I set my guitar behind a table in a corner in the entry room where most people wouldn't be. When Sonja went to bed earlier than me, I asked her to take it back for me, and she did, which was nice of her. I had a lot of fun! I socialized some, played flip cup, and mostly danced. I ended up with Kevin's lamp shade on my head. No, I wasn't trashed. I'm just crazy, and I was maybe one beer for the worse, to be completely honest. Not that that even mattered. Everyone who knows me knows I'd have done it without any alcohol, without a party, on a normal day. (Right, roomies? You know what it's like to live with me.) I'll also dance any way I want in any situation, and I did dance. It was a lot of fun. We played some Michael Jackson to honor his passing, of course. I played witha hula hoop for a bit, but things had quieted down, and everyone was either upstairs hanging out or in the living room dancing yet. So I left and went to bed.

It was 2:30 when I got back and I almost slept until noon today. But when you think about it, I didn't sleep til 3, woke up between 7 and 8...that's 8 hours of sleep, which is normal. It's just that I couldn't belive it was 11:45 when I woke up! But now I have nothing to do today. Sonja just got back from a bird counting of some sort that I didn't know about. I'm considering lunch. And then...?

Current music: "From Yesterday" - 30 Seconds to Mars