9th Bug: Roly Poly (a bug for my dad)

(Hm, this might just be the most personal I've allowed myself to be on here. Not sure if that's good or bad.)

A couple nights ago I was at the grocery store. Toward the end of the trip I was on the hunt for a new spaghetti sauce to try. When I finally settled on Newman's (when in doubt, go with Paul Newman!), I turned around and headed down the aisle. The aisle was empty except for me, and a teenage girl and a man who I assume was her dad. As they walked past me, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was reminded of grocery shopping with my dad. I couldn't even remember the last time I had gone grocery shopping with him. I wondered if I even ever would again, since I don't live with him. And my mom, too. I realized that I probably hadn't gone grocery shopping with either of my parents in the 9 or so years since I moved into my own place. If I was still living near them in Maryland, it probably wouldn't have been a big deal. But for some reason I was suddenly overwhelmed with sadness. Not the kind that makes you start crying, but the kind that makes you just feel kind of helpless. I stared into space for a while, letting the thoughts pass, and thankful that some big loud obnoxious crowd of shoppers didn't come down the aisle and make me move out of their way. I took a few steps forward, hoping to clear my head a bit and attempted to distract myself with the impressive array of flavored coffee creamers.

Even though I see them about once a month, I still miss my family so much. It's not something that weighs heavily on me all of the time, but it's always there in the back of my head. I think what depresses me even more is that I'm only 3 hours away, yet the only person who has come to visit me so far was my sister. I keep wondering why my parents are too busy to come up here. They've both talked about it, but combining just talk with a lack of phone calls (unless I initiate), sometimes one can't help but feel like "out of sight, out of mind." Of course I know that's not the case, but on the worst days....

Anyway, the grocery store thing got me thinking of other fun stuff I used to do with my dad as a kid. I'm not even sure why "grocery shopping" would fall into the category of fun; I guess it's just one of those things that you take for granted when you're growing up. We both had high metabolisms, so usually grocery shopping meant a lot of time spent in the ice creams and desserts section! I also thought about his huge yard and the woods behind it, and how if it was over 50 outside, I always wanted to be outside with him. Which got me thinking about bugs (since we both love them- guess I know where I get it from) and I figured I should do a bug for my dad.


So today's bug is a Roly Poly, or what we called them (jokingly) in what we assumed must be their very scientific name, "rolus-polus." I had another more complicated composition sketched out but I wasn't feeling it, so I kept today's bug really, really simple. The tiny roly poly is hanging out on a little Bluet flower, which we also always had all over the yard when I was growing up.

This card won't be in my Etsy shop, as I think I'll send it to him with his Father's Day stuff. I might make stationery out of it though, because how cute would he be in the corner in a little piece of lined paper? :)

Here is some fun Roly Poly (or Pill bug, or Potato Bug, or Wood Louse, or Sow Bug, or whatever else you call it) trivia that my friend Doris of "Crocheting in Georgia" told me yesterday:

"Did you know that Pill Bugs aren't really bugs at all? They aren't even insects! They are members of the only group of CRUSTACEANS who live on land. Pill Bugs perform valuable jobs in our environment by eating detritus and aerating the top layer of soil. They don't bite and they are fun to watch and play with...."

here's the blog where I got that from. They have all kinds of interesting information, if you want to look:

http://www.squidoo.com/groups/bugs-insects

Thanks, Doris! While it's not technically a bug, it's considered one by most, so I thought it would be safe to include it in my series!