Today's rambling: Acrobatic rodents
Written on Monday, Jul. 22, 2002 at 5:32 p.m.
while feeling a bit

It started with Debonair, recently renamed (by Mom) as Phantom. The little pied black gerbil that I'd bought with the intention of giving Schitzy a cagemate...until I discovered that Phantom is antisocial and likes to bite. Thus, he's been relegated to Mom's room, and every night you can hear him throwing himself upward at the lid of his enclosure (which is a ten-gallon glass tank). For whatever reason, Mom likes him so much that she hasn't really complained about this noise. Fine with me, since he's not in my room.

Well. Apparently there's been some gerbil communication-between-rooms happening, because recently one of my female gerbils, Parvati, has been doing exactly the same thing.

It's like clockwork. Two o'clock in the morning, and you can hear this hollow metallic thump. A few moments, and then it happens again. Sometimes this lasts for five minutes or more, and it always happens when I have to get up early for work. On nights when I can sleep in the following morning, I don't usually hear anything.

Nothing I can do (short of shoving the tank into our hall closet) will make Parvati stop playing acrobat. I've made loud hissing noises, which used to scare her for a few minutes, but now have no effect. So if I'm awake enough, I've tried doing things like clapping loudly or flailing my limbs (which usually scares them, because they see big shadows and...yeah, shut up. I know the mental image of someone flailing their limbs for no reason is really odd).

Gerbils are neither nocturnal nor diurnal--they sleep in short periods throughout the day and night--so all I can hope when she's throwing herself at the ceiling is that maybe it will exhaust her and she will soon fall back to sleep. And then I can continue sleeping.

Maybe she needs something like an exercise wheel. Everything I put into those tanks ends up being used as a loud noisemaker, so I hate to put anything in there anymore (which of course is mean, because it leaves them with nothing to use as entertainment). I'll have to think of something!

I'm so pathetically bored right now. Nobody wants to do anything, so I'm left here making diary entries about gerbils. I have to work 9-5:30 tomorrow, and then I'll probably end up having to work 9:30-6 for the following two days after that...I hate getting out so much later!!! I wish I could drive, so I could keep my 8-4:30 shift.

Geoff told Mom today that he didn't know I'd never really had alcohol before. This surprised me considerably, seeing as I was so reluctant to drink the night of my birthday party. And it seems as though I've made references before to my lack of experience! Oh well, she said he seemed like he'd had fun, so I guess that's all that counts!

Now, I'm going to go find something to occupy myself, since NO ONE WANTS TO HANG OUT WITH ME!!! *sniffles piteously*