Everybody's going off the deep end, everybody needs a second chance

For approximately 95% of human history* we lived as nomads, no large societies, just small groups of gathers and scavengers. Recent evidence suggests we did not start hunting with sophisticated tools and strategies until  later than previously thought. It blows my mind that for so long we lived a dramatically different lifestyle than what we play out in modern industrial societies.

Globalization. I just (unknowingly) ordered something from China. My first clue after the transaction was complete was the email I received with Chinese characters before the English text. YeePay, the leading online transaction company in China, had processed my transaction. I hadn't heard anything from the merchant in two weeks and there was not a phone number on the website, just an email address. I was worried that I was scammed.

I thought, "What the hell? How can this be happening? Is this a real site? In China?? How the hell did I end up ordering from a business in China?"

Last Thursday, I had a minor meltdown over it after a conversation with my father who was not sure what to do but said his tech guy looked up the site and it seemed legitimate. I called my mom and talked to her and she said that it would turn out and that the package will probably come. After about an hour of worrying, my mom called and told me that she had a notice from the post office that they have a package from China but no one was home at the time of delivery. Ahhhhhhh! Well what do you know, it all worked out. The product would have come from China if I had ordered it from a US company anyway; I just purchased directly from the country of origin. Oh globalization and technology, what have you done?!

My third semester of my master's degree has come to an end but winter break does not mean release from all school work like it did during my undergrad years. I am taking a vacation to Minnesota for 10 days but I have  to start writing my thesis and analyzing my data! My research does not take a break (until I graduate then wait three months for my PhD program to begin, that is). I wish I could spend a month doing whatever I want (which would probably involve a plethora of movies, books, and naps), but I am becoming a professional scientist now. But Dr. Veech was totally cool with my MN trip, so vacation here I come! Resuming work on thesis till after New Year's Day.

The rat babies are almost all grown up now, 4 months old. They have reached sexual maturity (that happens at 5-6 weeks!! Thanks mama Phoebe for demonstrating this!) but they will reach "social maturity" around 6 months of age. I'm not really sure what that means in rat world, but I read that on a few websites about rats. Io and Phoebe have apparently just reached social maturity; I guess they had Matilda and Marley (until she died in October) to show them how to be rats. And they are teaching Tempie, Fancy, and June.

Zeus and Splinter are huge and determined to find the girls. They live together in a separate cage from the girls . I heard male rats were supposed to be calm. But the boys run around like mad men and try to scale up the sides of the girls' house. Maybe I should move them to a different room? Believe it or not, rats can be neutered. But, I don't think I'm going to go there.

I just realized that I never gave Marley a blog tribute. You were a sweet girl and a good auntie. Watching you carry the babies around was so sweet and I feel lucky to have shared nearly two years of my life with you. I hope you had the best life possible.