I finally ate the lollipop I got for Christmas. I'd been carrying it around in my backpack for awhile, occasionally taking it out and showing it to people. They always asked the same questions - "is that a real cricket?" The cricket, like a fly in green amber, was frozen in place near the lollipop stick. I was showing the lollipop to some kids at the museum because we had the resident toad out, and we were discussing what kinds of things toads eat. I told them that the toad was probably going to be mad that I was eating his lollipop. It took me awhile to lick my way down to the cricket. It was easy to tell when I got there because there's a big textural difference between lollipop and cricket. Crickets are much rougher on the tongue. Like I usually do when I'm sucking on a lollipop, I grew impatient and bit a chunk off, noticing afterwards that the chunk included the cricket's head. Pretty gruesome, finding headless bugs in your food. I did the only thing I could at that point. I quickly crunched up the rest and swallowed it. The kids in the room were looking at me like I was crazy.

I'm off to Hidden Villa again tomorrow, so goodnight to one and all.

cds I listened to while digesting the cricket: Epizod "The Bulgarian God", Tom Waits "Rain Dogs", The Black Heart Procession "Amore del Tropico", Antony & Current 93 "Live at St. Olave's Church", Current 93 "Some Soft Black Stars Seen Over London", and Sol Invictus "In Europa"