Whoa. Wait. AW NO! EW!

I've been promising husband and friend's I'd write this blog so I didn't have to tell the stories over and over, but I kept flaking out. It's been an eventful couple of days, all on the amusing side.

First off, I need to find a new place to go hiking. I went to go hunt down those geocaches I missed last time I went up Betsy Bell, and got a bit of a surprise. Andrea had warned me jokingly that a lot of people use Betsy Bell park as a place to meet up with other people who aren't their spouses, but I didn't see anyone when I went up on Wednesday outside of a fat couple eating fried chicken on their lunch hour.

So I took off up the mountain, finding one of the tiny caches I'd missed, and headed to the top to get the last one. I got to the lookout, and there was a car parked empty along the road. So I kept going, as this is a pretty popular spot to hike and there are always vehicles around. But when I went toward the lookout, I could see a couple through the trees completely going at it! I turned around and hustled further along the trail to get away down the other side of the hill, only to encounter THREE MORE CARS with people actually in them. Doing exactly the same thing. I apparently need a less busy place to hike.

I went home, hung out with my cat, had some dinner, and settled in for some computer and TV time. But at around 10 PM, Ginger started to go nuts and a sound started to come from just outside the front door. I tried to look out the side windows to see what it was, but I couldn't find it, and the sound wouldn't stop. It was like the screech some very angry animal makes, and I was worried it was a bat (do they even actually make noise?) or a large mouse. There's also a nest of birds on my porch, and I thought it could be one of them. Then, of course, my mind went wild and started to wonder if it was someone making a noise so I'd walk out and they could club me and drag me away. So I called Andrea and woke her up (sorry!) and kept her on the phone while I opened the door and peeked out with my little flashlight.

It was a cricket. A tiny, loudmouth cricket. I was so embarassed and was laughing so hard, and Andrea was just glad I didn't call the cops because of a teeny little cricket freaking me out.

So that's my story. And other than that, it's pretty slow around here. I'm looking forward to Sunday and my paper and church. But it's too hot for this Michigan girl right now, so I'm hiding away in the central air.

Today's lesson: Big things come in small packages. And big freaky noises come from inch long ugly crickets.