I'm Baaaaack!

After a lengthy delay in Detroit due to high winds in NYC, I finally made it back to the city in the same number of pieces I was in when I departed. The bad news is that I left Manhattan, Kansas, and my new friends-for-life, Dave and Elizabeth. The good news is my birds missed me! The yellow-bibbed lories heard my footsteps on the stairs and screamed until I actually entered the apartment, when they fell silent, pretending to be perfect parrots. The female Solomon Islands eclectus parrot, Elektra, was clearly excited (the normally large pupil of her eye was quite small, which is how many parrots indicate excitement), so I cautiously petted her, worried that she might bite me in her zeal, but fortunately, she didn't. And of course, the male hawkheaded parrot, Orpheus, broke out into a series of high-pitched screams as he climbed out of his cage to greet me by barfing on my hand. Oooo, he loves me.

Then I went to retrieve my apartment keys from my neighbor, the retired bullfighter, who takes care of my birds for me when I am gone, and I could hear Orpheus's screams all the way down on the third floor! YEOW, he's a loud little pipsqueek when he wants to be.

Even though it is late (I've been travelling for 10.5 hours today on planes, trains, cars and busses), I am currently sitting at my coffee shop using their free wifi while I sip on a large chai with soy milk -- yummy! I was surprised to find that NYC is warm and fairly humid because it apparently just rained, so the door of the coffee shop is hanging wide open for the first time since they opened in February, and the excited hum of the city permeates the place like pheromones.

I had a great time with some wonderful people (I feel that they are family to me), and I have a few more stories and a bird list to share with you now that I am back, so stay tuned.