so i still haven’t gotten used to the giant cockroaches. and there have been a few incidents with the palmettos. we’re on a first name basis now. the lizards aren’t too bad unless they’re in my apartment and sitting atop of a place i need to get to.
last week, i actually squished a lizard with my bare hands (read: lightly squeezed a malnourished, dying, microscopic gecko inside half a roll of paper towel) because it was in my way. i mean, really, what else was i supposed to do? i needed to get something from one of the many boxes i have still yet to unpack and he was not moving from the top of it.
i was later informed not to kill the lizards because they eat the bugs. must be karma, because a few days later i strolled into the apartment after a long, hard day at the office only to find the apartment crawling with bugs (read: there was one dead palmetto in the corner). silly south florida with all its crazy animals.
on another note, i visited the keys this past weekend and touched animals on purpose. i don’t actually have photographic proof, but i do have someone to vouch for me if necessary. in any event, i went to what we’ll just refer to as the local watering hole for fishers and tourists alike and threw small fish off a dock into water teeming with giant man-eating monstrosities called tarpon. one nearly took my foot off after i mistakenly hung it over the edge of the dock. the brochures tell me that tarpon are “acrobatic.” i just call them huge and scary. i also screamed like a little girl as a two year old next to me giggled and stuck his face over the edge.
fun fact: tarpon do not have teeth.
