Sunny Sunday

I've been treating my aquarium as a garden. I love the environment that I have created and watching creatures interact in it. The only problem is that unlike a real garden, there are very few surprises in it these days. I have no idea where my cherry shrimp or sparkling gouramis went-that's a surprise-but there are no insects crawling out from the dirt, no cats giving birth to kittens, no wildflowers bursting seasonally up from the ground to live a short and beautiful life. I want to add more creatures, but I'm afraid for the balance that has sprung up in my small "ecosystem". Regardless, working with it and watching things come to frutition is very gratifying. I wish I could create a million of these tiny worlds. Working with living creatures, combining my love of observation with the aestheticsm of the arrangements and the science of what makes it all not die but in fact thrive makes me really happy. The Dario darios, goby, Trixie, Dopey, Tiny Frog, nerites and female sunfish are all doing fine. Come to think of it, the shrimp have been with me the length of their usual lifespan, so they may have died of old age. Tiny Frog is a male, and I saw Dopey amplexing Trixie last night. Dopey, Trixie, and Tiny Frog are all African Dwarf Frogs, which is abbreviated as ADFs. I may actually be able to fit killifish into this environment...hmmm.......*maniacal twinkle appears in my eye*

At the moment I technically have no large problems in my life outside my head. While, yes, the three upcoming midterms aren't happymaking, they don't qualify in the same way. My head is getting the message, which also makes me happy.

Also, I will never hate Chris. Many people have shared that their first reaction after breaking up with someone is to demonize them, and I have experienced this myself. I was expecting this, waiting for this to come, but it hasn't and at this point I know it won't. I don't agree with things he's done or some of the opinions/attitudes he has, and I don't want to get back together any time in the foreseeable future, but I genuinely think he is a good person. There are, of course, unanswered questions, but that's ok, I shouldn't expect any less.