First Week of Field Work Recap - 9/5-9/10

Hello, good friends and buddies. It is I, Alyson, slightly adjacent to TJ in a region far to the right of Denver. It has been a full week on the east coast, and thus my weekly newsletter commences.

We have found crickets. They are very cute and friendly, and only one or two of them would rather rip their leg off than spend time with you. They send their regards.

Earlier this week we began our journey in the northern portion of our Pennsylvania transect, up by State College. We collected around fourteen crickets on a highly rainy Pennsylvanian day. After that we ventured into the wild-lands of Connecticut, roosted at the Springhill Suites in Danbury, and sampled in northern CT where the crickets were even more elusive than in northern PA. The following day we skittered down to the coast and found many beach crickets. The beach crickets are far more numerous than the non-beach crickets, for reasons I cannot explain. We also got a highly expensive parking ticket for parking; unfortunately, we did not realize our error until this ticketing had occurred, to the profuse cursing of TJ and the indifference of all aforementioned beach crickets.

Shortly thereafter, we drove up to Massachusetts and sampled for another six hours, where I made the miraculous find of one singular cricket. We met Luana in Williamstown, the town in which we are currently staying, and we have plans to sample sites that she is already familiar with. At this juncture, we are staying in a motel, eating our weight in Twizzlers, and hiding about 60 crickets in the bathroom, so all and all about what I expected from my mid-twenties.

In other news:

TJ has ripped every glove he has ever worn. He is too powerful to be contained by gloves.

The plastic container for Whole Foods non-vegan pre-prepared mac and cheese will melt when you put it in a hotel microwave for two minutes.

Fitz the cat deeply enjoys Costco blankets. Whether he feels the same about other blankets will require further testing.

I saw Penny the Cricket one final time before leaving Denver. She is the woman of the house now and will take all apartment inquiries in our absence.