So... we had studio today, and I found out some of my ants had died.

:......(

I discovered the dead ants right before our lunch break and I just sat there feeling guilty and shitty and wondering if I should just put the rest of them back out in their nest so they can live out the rest of their lives. I figured that I didn't need to continue with the ants because there is now grass growing in the container (the ants weren't eating the blue grass seed, and apparently it was a good environment for that to grow), and I could call that my "living thing."

When all hope seemed lost (!!!) for the continuance of my ant farming endeavors, I remembered that when I had emailed the insect expert, John Longino (who I regrettably hadn't met with yet), he told me that I could meet him at lunch on Thursday. I thought... "ugg, they aren't gonna live another week!" but... brilliantly IT IS THURSDAY! And lunchtime! So I realized this and picked up my ant farm, cradling it carefully, trying not to shake it much, and went to see John! Man... he couldn't have been cooler! He was so helpful! He loved my ant farm design, and told me all sorts of neat things about ants and how to keep the workers alive without a queen (if you want to know, ask me... i know it seems impossible to find elsewhere on the internet, but I am too lazy to write it out right now). So he was telling me all this stuff and we were having a great conversation that almost made me cry because... the man speaks my language, dude; he thinks like me. But he knows all these things I don't, and I have so many amazing things to think about just after talking to him for 20 minutes. And just when I thought I couldn't get anymore emotional in that circumstance....
BRENDON walks in. OMFG that kid is like THE COOLEST. AHH, I wish I could explain it. Along the lines of Steve Erwin except... well... not. But he just knows so much and is so passionate about plants and animals and insects and people and EVERYTHING, and I totally thought he had left Evergreen so I haven't thought about him for like over 6 months. But he was there! And he totally remembered me and didn't let me hug him until he took is "nasty" lab coat off. But it made me so happy. And he was really into my ant farm too and even said "I've been trying to do this for so long!" which was like the best compliment ever coming from him. We all talked about ants for a while and then I realized how fucking hungry I was. So I kept thanking John over and over. I was just so thankful to have met him! I went to put my ant farm back in the studio. Then on the way down from the studio I ran into ROB (not Robb). And that was stellar cause I hadn't seen him since I'd been back either. We chatted til he had to go to class. I went to get cash out of the ATM so I could eat at the Flaming Eggplant. I ended up buying a green tomato from the Farmer's Market booth on the way back. That was delicious. Got fritter-fratters (potato and beat "french fries) at the Eggplant and saw a bunch of people from our class sitting around a few tables. I sat by Wolfgang, and we talked about how class was helping us develop skills in our respective interests. He's a neat person too; very soft-spoken, but quite brilliant and super thoughtful.

Went back to class to do sketching and plan out our final wallet prototype. Damn, I love this school.

There is so much more I need to say! But my fingers are freezing, and I'm really antsy (hahahahahahhaha, get it?) so I am going to run up to the studio with some sugar water and a camera so I can feed my ants (now get it?) something they can actually consume and take pictures of their tunneling progress. Then I need to actually do my homework instead of blogging like I've been doing intermittently for a couple hours (mostly composing my next post for the Student Architecture site, and it should be posted tonight... with the new pics!)