setting: closed off garden area behind art building.
props: two vegetarian burritos.
people: J= me, G= gene
insert gene and me sitting on a bench nibbling on our massive veggy burritos and talking about that. suddenly, a small grey squirrel with a feathery tail skittles up 5 feet away. conversation stops as i start to squeak about how cute it is.
gene throws a piece of soft burrito on the ground, and to our amusement, the squirrel spurts up, nabs it and runs back to its initial spot and nibbles on it.
J: aww, look how cute it is. hey, it likes it!
G: well duh.
insert gene and me starting to throw more burrito pieces onto the ground. for each piece, the squirrel comes closer and closer until s/he's practically 2 feet away.
J: man that squirrel can eat!
G: hey you know he's thinking right now "jeah i got me some suckers!"
J: yeah hehe.. hey where's it going?
insert squirrel nabbing huge piece and running off with it. 10 seconds later, it comes back and does the same thing.
G: maybe it's getting full? it should be considering the pieces we've been throwing.
J: hey, if i was evil i would throw it one of these beans. just imagine the flatulence it would produce. squirrel gas!!
G: *groan*
J: man, look at it go.. wouldn't it be freaky if we turn around and look behind that corner and discover like 10,000 squirrels waiting for that squirrel to feed them...
G: ... all like standing on their hind legs saluting him..
J: ...i bet he'd be like a hero providing food for the squirrel community...
insert gene and me breaking down in giggles for 5 minutes. squirrel comes back for more, i give it a piece with some guacamole on it. gotta keep up with the vitamins, you know?
J: shouldn't he be full by now?
G: maybe he regurgitates it for his kids.. o wait that's birds...
J: man he's gunna puke if he keeps it up...
G: nah, haven't you seen them store a ton of nuts in their cheeks?
J: ...uh...
insert jennie foolishly tempting the squirrel to come up and grab the burrito piece from her fingers.
G: stop that, it might have rabies!
insert jennie squeaking and throwing the piece. we finish up our meal, rip off a few large pieces and leave for the squirrel, and leave. closing info: no, there were no squirrel legion waiting behind the bushes.
and that was dinner in chapel hill last night.
jennie alibasic, national geographics' reporter, headin' out the door.