by the way, they mate for life

today started with a rude awakening by my father. no, literally, i woke up to him yelling at me.

"ARE YOU GOING TO SLEEP ALL DAY?"

news flash, it's 6:45 am. i went to bed at 1. i don't have anywhere to be today. can a girl get some beauty sleep?

despite many attempts at ignoring the incessant yelling, i finally answered (quite eloquently) with a barely audible, "mmmmmuuuuhhhh..."

after splashing some water on my face and gargling with mouth wash (i forgot my tooth brush at school... so sue me), i made my way downstairs to see what all the ruckus was about. "goooood MOOOORNING PRECIOUS!!" my dad sings. "can you run an errand for me before you go back to school?" i agree and start off toward my task. all seems fine until the last leg of my journey, when i enter the freeway and notice two birds in the middle of my lane. of course, birds always get away from cars at the last minute, so i slowed down and assumed they would fly far, far away and continue about their birdly business.

wrong.

oh so very, very wrong.

before they could both take off, one of them flew straight into my windshield. BAM. blood and feathers suddenly stream across the driver's side of the glass, forming slow rivers of bird DNA that no amount of windshield cleaning solution will clean. i keep driving, unable to comprehend what just happened. either this bird died right in front of my eyes or it sustained massive injuries but made a swift recovery and joined its fellow flying friend.

how i wish the latter was plausible.

i then had an hour and a half to stare through the bird remains at the cars ahead of me before i reached my school. nausea and disbelief came in waves, followed by disgust and distress. and even though i am atheist and not particularly spiritual, i took a moment to apologize to the bird and wish it a peaceful afterlife.

it took a few hours for the overall nausea to subside. i have come to terms with the fact that this incident was an accident, but i keep reliving the moment when that poor bird hit the windshield. needless to say, i will keep this bird in mind every time i see roadkill.

rest in peace, oh feathery flying one.