Warm fuzzies (& a few sharp bities)

Since I moved into my new apartment three weeks ago, my life has felt insanely busy, but also pretty great. I've been taking lots of baths, spending time decorating, dropping hundreds of dollars at Ikea, and cooking my farm share veggies in my new, beautifully tiled kitchen.

The most unexpected change to occur was my bird's complete personality transformation. As I've written before, little Persil -- who I acquired in late July when he was six weeks old to replace my beloved bird Haricot, who flew off into the Maine woods in June and was never seen again -- has been a bit standoffish at times. I don't know if it's that there's more light here, or more space, or that he doesn't have to live in fear of being eaten by my roommate's copious pets, but he has now become extremely cuddly and sweet with me, as evidenced by the photos I've been taking:

The new, improved Persil nibbles lovingly on my nostril

There have been times when I've wondered if I rushed into buying Persil, and if he'll ever be able to fill the huge void left on Haricot's heated perch. It looks like I don't have to worry about that anymore. My worries these days are more along the lines of how I should best deal with the copious amount of bird poop falling under my computer keys and if Persil might misjudge the force of his beak and rip a hole in my nostril, or lip, or earlobe, or whatever part of my body he's currently focused on. (I'm not sure if he is a bit bitey because he still feels insecure with me or because he doesn't realize how strong his beak is, but I'm confident it will taper off eventually. It did with Haricot.)

No sharp bities whatsoever were around on Wednesday, when I had a long, seven hour afternoon/evening of parent teacher conferences. I was a little nervous going into them, as other teachers had warned me that the parents can be a bit demanding. But my experience was the exact opposite. Parent after parent showered me with praise, told me that their kids love me and talk about me all the time, that they're amazed by how quickly their children are learning, and asked what they can do to support me. It may never happen again that I'll get such an amazing class and have such unanimous support, but I'm enjoying every minute of it while it lasts.