Riding in cars with birds

Sometimes I feel like I'm in a movie by, what's-his-name, anyway, the movie with the birds. You know, the one entitled, The Birds. Why? Well, birds seem to follow me around more than they do any normal people.

I haven't been chased by ducks in a couple of weeks; apparently they decided they have heaped enough humiliation on me for a while. I did, however, help a co-worker remove a baby bird from the bumper of her car this afternoon. It had apparently decided this was a good place to hang out, but she wanted to leave, sans bird. So I tried shooing it away, thought about picking it up (I got gloves from the medical staff for that very purpose) and then decided there was no good way to pick it up without it biting me. So I tried reasoning with it. (I am not joking.) I knelt down to look at it, and said, "We really need you to go away." And-- this is the good part-- it flew away. I don't know if it was from sheer terror at this person talking to it, or (as another girl at the office said) if I have some Doctor Doolittle qualities. Whatever it was, it flew away, directly into one of the rafters of our covered parking area. And when I say it "flew into" a rafter, I mean in the same way that I walk into stationary objects like walls. It hit the rafter, then fell down. This caused me some distress, but the bird was still moving around, so I left it alone lest I cause the poor bird further trauma. And when I came out to leave 30 minutes later, it was gone. I hope it left of its own accord.

On a sadder note, this Sunday I will say good-bye to a good friend, one that's been with me for a while and who I will miss terribly. This friend, of course, is The West Wing. Okay, so I exaggerate a bit. It is, without a doubt, my favourite television show, but then I only watch about three shows with any regularity at all, so it's like my most favourite of my three favourites. These last couple of seasons have been kind of up and down in terms of quality, right enough. But I am still sad to see it go; this is one fantastic group of actors, and it almost seems a crime to separate them when they work so well together.

Okay, I'm done being sentimental about a TV show. I watched a movie called Hope and Glory the other day, and as a result, the song Land of Hope and Glory has been in my head ever since. If you're not familiar with the title, and you're an American, then it's the song that was (most likely) played at your high school graduation. It's technically only a part of Pomp and Circumstance, but for some reason we just skip directly to the main title, possibly because a name like Land of Hope and Glory might tip us all off that this song is British in origin. The song actually has good lyrics, especially for a British patriotic song, but it is a bit incongruous with an American high school graduation.