A Snapshot of My Life

So I'm taking an online time management workshop, because I'm ridiculous these days and not getting anything done. It started last week and I'm a week behind. Sad...

Up, Down, and All Around

So yeah, here goes the last how every many months it's been since I've posted - I got laid off in June, freaked out for two days, and then decided to enjoy my summer and hang out by the pool (while looking for a job, no worries). I actually ended up getting a job faster than I thought, 3.5 weeks from the day I got laid off to the day I got my offer, so I was a little bummed my pool time was getting cut short. So I parlayed three more weeks out of the deal, dividing it equally between more lazy time, a trip home to Michigan to see the fam, and a trip down to Honduras to see boyfriend's dad and stepmom. Cue dramatic travel sagas involving much internal cursing of Delta (I'll spare you all the dramatic details, but it wasn't pretty). And now life is pseudo back to normal. Well, as normal as life can be when you start a job three weeks before four DC-area offices of your company decide to play musical chairs. Anyways, boring details aside, I enjoyed my time hanging out and I enjoy being a productive member of society again.

Random Fact: The thing that I miss most about the old job (aside from my wonderful friends) is the tv in the elevator that filled me in on the news of the day. Every day for the past week and a half I've gotten in the elevator and looked up, only to be filled with disappointment, not to mention it was always fun to toss random statements in conversations about what my elevator told me that day. Excuse the rustiness, I'm just getting back in the saddle, but no worries, I'm back for good now. :)

Laura's Adventures in Moving

So the big move has been accomplished. Well, sorta. Still tying up loose ends (see post on the cable company.) Of course I decided to move on a day with wind gusts up to 49 mph, which made it great fun. But after 4 truckloads and 3 carloads (I have no idea how I fit all my stuff in a studio apartment, but I will be doing some paring down), my new apartment is full to the brim of boxes and random things strewn all over the place.

Sunday I had to go back and finish up some cleaning and wall-patching odds and ends and hand over the keys. As much as I love my new place, I did really like the old apartment, so it's sad in a way. I've always found it fun and exciting to move, just because I like change a lot, but this time is was really hard. I think mostly because my life is just super hectic at the moment and I had to fit in packing and dealing with moving at the same time as going home for Christmas for a week and working 60 hour weeks (at least), but at least the moving and the going home part are over for now.

So now I'm in the stage where all of my worldly possessions are strewn over my new apartment and I can't find anything, and there are boxes everywhere, and it's just generally chaos. To top it all off, somehow the top managed to come off of Lewis and Clark's terrarium my first night in the new place, and I managed to find Lewis in the morning, but Clark is lost in the wild that is my new apartment. It was a rough morning. I have torn apart everything I possibly could to find him, but I am afraid he is gone for good. RIP, my beautiful baby frog.

Dial-a-Llama

It's amazing what you can find on the internet. I was looking for the following picture of a llama in a Honda Fit, to send to some friends, as I remembered it from the original ad campaign for the Honda Fit:Searching for it though, I came up with this:

How cool is the Dial-a-Llama? Apparently this picture was taken in Bolivia, which is a shame, because I would totally be all on that. Except for the fact a llama spit on me at the zoo when I was like five, so I'm a little untrusting of llamas, so maybe not. Dial-a-camel may be more my speed.

And as a side-note, I remembered this photo also from the 2007 Honda Fit ad campaign:

I don't remember who I discussed this with, but if you take a close look, the girl in the middle back seat is totally me. I mean, not really, but she looks like it. And it's even funnier, because I am always the one in the middle seat. Awesome, even Honda knows my place.

ODing on Gummy Bears?

So who knew it was possible. A little background: I am in love with vitamins that come in the form of gummies, so when I saw calcium gummy bears, I snatched them right up. Who cares they are for kids, I'm totally a kid at heart. Not to mention they taste just like creamsicles. So I brought a bunch of them to work in a baggie, but unfortunately I tend to eat mindlessly at my desk, and the fact they aren't in a vitamin bottle makes me forget the fact they are not just normal gummy bears. After eating about 12 of them (you're only supposed to eat 2), I got a little worried. A little research later, I find out I was on the brink of an overdose, in which case you are supposed to immediately go to the hospital and get your stomach pumped. So you would think I would learn, but I just did it again (only 8 this time though). I think it's time to go off the gummy bears. :( Or at least ones that are supposed to be good for me.

And yes, I know this picture is not of calcium gummy bears, but I couldn't find a picture of them. So this is my actual favorite kind of gummy bear, found in bin #1248 at Meijer. Ahhhh....I miss Meijer.

And I'm Back, Not to Mention Pink Poodles Actually Exist

So my vacation was way too short, but it was a good time. Despite the fact it rained at the cottage and we had to play games inside all day, instead of playing on the water outside, it was great to see all my friends and family. I had a few ideas about blog posts this morning, but then I happened to run across this photo on Habitually Chic:


Now, you may not know this, but when I was little, I was obsessed with the color pink. Really obsessed. My bedroom was pepto bismol pink. And, since I like to plan out every aspect of my life, I had a plan for my future that contained a lot of pink. I was going to live in a pink house, with pink furnishings, and I was going to have a poodle and dye it pink. So there you go, it's my dream dog.

Are you my mother? No, I'm a brush.

So I came across this article today about orphaned hedge hogs, and I just had to pass it along. Apparently they think the brush is their mother, because it smells like the ground and it's prickly.

(Photo from Mail Online)

Back when I was determined to get around the no pets clause in my old lease, I had decided that anything under 5" didn't really qualify as a pet. That limits my options, and I had to do a lot of research as to what qualified under my new rules. Turtles require too much space, and anyways, if they are smaller than 4" are illegal due to federal regulations (blame salmonella outbreaks due to children putting them in their mouths - gross). The local PetSmart didn't have any of the cute guinea pigs that have the hair sticking out in all different directions, and I almost decided mice and rats where somewhat acceptable, but I couldn't do it.

And then I stumbled upon hedgehogs. They are the most adorable little things ever and so much fun, but after a little research I find they are banned in 9 states and cities. Oh yes, DC has decided it's illegal to own a hedgehog. I guess they are worried about them getting out and becoming rodents, essentially, but I think that's not really of much concern when car-sized rats roam the streets, but I digress. So after much internal conflict, I decided I could only bend one rule, and having an illegal hedgehog as an illegal pet in my apartment was just too much. But someday, when I leave this fine city, you better believe I'm getting a hedgehog.

Just to finish the story, I finally settled on getting 6 fish and 2 ghost shrimps. After spending about 3 hours in Petsmart picking them out, boyfriend and I walked them the mile home snuggle up in my coat, because it was cold. Some girl walking past thought it was a dog, it was great. The 2 ghost shrimps were named Sam, there were 3 silver fish that were Tom, 2 catfish named Carl, and a Chinese algae eater that I can't remember what I named. They lasted for a little while, but they slowly passed on. I was pet-less for a while, but then I discovered sea monkeys. Oh, the sea monkeys. My experiences in sea monkeys were many, and needless to say, I no longer have any sea monkeys. (All 10,000 of them were named Herbert Hoover, though).

How I didn't die of appendicitis

Happy Groundhog Day! So, apparently we're in for 6 more weeks of winter. :( That's tough to deal with after a sunny, 60 degree day yesterday. Unfortunately, I haven't enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend due to a bought of pretend appendicitis. Tuesday night I started having abdominal pains, but they weren't bad. Wednesday they got really, really bad, but I still didn't think anything of it, because they weren't on the right-hand side. Boyfriend tried convincing me to go to the doctor, but I've decided I don't really believe in doctors, because they can never figure out what's wrong with me. Thursday, I was still having pains, so I decided to play doctor myself and self-diagnose on www.webmd.com. Behold, the word appendicitis appears when I type in my symptoms. Hmmm...at this point it's midnight and I don't really feel like going to the emergency room, but I have managed to convince myself my appendix will burst and I will die before morning. But I'm lazy, so I attempt to sleep and call my doctor first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, the on-call doctor apparently doesn't exist, as it goes straight to voicemail and he never calls me back. The pain isn't as bad, so I figure I'll just go into work and call the doctor's office when they open to get an appointment. I roll into work at 9, give the doctor a call, and they fit me in at 10:15, so after telling the office I'm dying of appendicitis, I head on out. I was a few minutes late to my appointment, but I figured that was OK. I guess not, because after an hour I still was sitting in the waiting room. Hey, doctors can run late, yeah? After another half hour and the entire waiting room has had a couple of change-overs and I'm the only original person left, I decide to actually ask what's going on. Turns out, the nurse decided to just skip right over me. Awesome. I could be exploding all over the waiting room, but you call that guy with the sniffly nose back. So anyways, the doctor finally sees me and says, yeah, you could possibly have appendicitis, but I don't know. Why don't you go to the ER, because we don't want to deal with you on a Friday. (That's not exactly what she said, but almost). So then I go meet boyfriend at my house and hop in a cab to Sibley hospital.

Digression:
At this point, this is the last ER left in DC that either boyfriend and I have been to. I went to GW for strange stomach problems over a year ago, and it took them 5 hours to get me back, and then they gave me an IV and told me to go to my normal doctor. Boyfriend went to Howard when he had a weird rash and it took him a long time and they never figured out what it was. Sibley is my last bastion of hope in the medical profession.

I was really impressed and highly recommend Sibley. They had me back in a half hour, did all sorts of tests, were very professional, and even though my doctor proclaimed I was a mystery, she did figure out what was wrong with me. After all the blood work and everything came back normal, they finally decided to do a CT scan on me. And let me tell you, that is the coolest thing ever. Boyfriend and I were discussing it, and I told him that in my head, a CT scan is where you go in the tunnel thing. He informs that is an MRI. Good to know. Anyways, it's almost a tunnel thing. It's actually a round donut thing that you go in and out of. At one point, I heard a whirring that got louder and louder like a propeller, and I looked up at a little window thing in the machine and the insides of the machine were spinning around, it was pretty cool.


Anyways, they were able to figure out that my appendix was fine, I just had an ovarian cyst. So now it most likely is harmless, but I still have to go to yet another doctor to have an ultrasound. Yay for health problems! (that was highly sarcastic). But anyways, it's good to know I'm not going to explode, fears of which were not eased by Andrew saying the pictures on wikipedia were gross, as evidenced below.

Who's driving my train?

It's my personal belief that Morgan Freeman likes to drive Metro trains, and takes a vacation to do so every now and then. The other day, I was taking the metro to work, like I do every day, and I noticed that the voice of the driver sounded familiar. It took me from Farragut North to Van Ness, but I eventually realized it sounded exactly like Morgan Freeman. I mentioned it later to Boyfriend, and he said that he had had that same experience a couple of years ago.

Addendum

I forgot to mention what boyfriend did after dropping me off at BWI on Christmas Eve. Because it was still dark outside, he was incredibly sweet and thought he would try and take the picture of the Domino Sugar sign. After driving around for a while, thinking he should be able to see it, he finally realized that it was only half lit-up. The square border was perfectly fine and lit up, but the inside, which is the part that actually says Domino Sugar, was burnt out. It's just not meant to be, I guess.

Back in the Saddle

So after a nice holiday break, it's back to work for me. I do have to take a chance to document the glories that traveling in the upper Midwest in winter entail though (as well as just my general travel misfortunes).

On Christmas Eve, boyfriend and I had to get up bright and early so he could drive me up to Baltimore to catch my 6 a.m. flight. I was a little worried as we had left a little late and I had 15 minutes to check in before the cut-off time, and there was a huge line at the counter. Luckily, United was actually on the ball, and they asked if anyone had to check in for the 6 a.m. flight to Chicago and I got to go to the front of the line. So I was all set to go to the security check-point, and I walked around the corner and was a little shocked at how long the line was. I don't think I've ever had to wait more than like 15 minutes to get through security at BWI, but the line was much longer than that, so once again, I went into panic mode and thought I would miss my flight. Luckily, they were once again on the ball, and got everyone through very quickly. A little too quickly, but I didn't find that out until later. Once I was all settled in on the plane and ready to be home, they were going through the usual pre-flight announcements, how to buckle your seat belt, etc, and then they got to the announcement about shutting off all your electronics. My heart skipped a beat as I realized I didn't remember putting my computer back into my back. A quick check later, it was official. I had somehow managed to leave my laptop at the security checkpoint. Awesome. Who does that? I thought that God was telling me I'm just not meant to own a laptop, ever. After a stressful ride home, which fortunately included a smooth transfer in Chicago, I gave the TSA lost and found at BWI a call. Luckily, they had my laptop and we set up a meeting place and time for me to get it back on my way home on Sunday.

The rest of my time in the great white north was quite nice and not too eventful. It was good to see family and oddly enough, all of my relatives have been popping out babies lately. We haven't had a lot of young kids at family gatherings in a while, but I felt like half of the people there were under the age of like 5.

It seems like I never go to the movies except when I'm home in Michigan, I'm not sure why. Anyways, I went to see Marley & Me with my parents on Christmas day, and it was a pretty good movie, which happens to be about a dog that destroys everything. My parents' dog Emma, on the other hand, is a fairly well-behaved golden retriever who tends to spend her days sleeping. We get home, and I go into my room, and notice a brown spot on the carpet. Before your mind goes there, I will explain that my brother and sister-in-law had given me a cake mix in a cup thing, so it contained a bag that had all the dry ingredients for a cake. Emma decided to go through my belongings and thought that it would be scrumptious to eat flour, sugar, and cocoa powder, so ended up all over the cream-colored carpet in my room. My mom wasn't too thrilled with her dog at the moment, and it was quite ironic that she decided to eat it while we were watching that particular movie. I also saw Slumdog Millionaire, which is a really good movie.

I was a little nervous about making all the connections on the way back home, as there was a winter storm on the way. My flight out of Traverse City was at 6 a.m., which was supposed to be before the storm hit, so I thought I was probably ok. I checked in and was surprised to see that they changed my second flight though, so I had a layover of 3 hours instead of 1 at Chicago, so I wasn't too happy about that. Not too mention that interrupted my meet-up time with the TSA Lost & Found. At 6 a.m., when we should have been taking off, we still hadn't boarded and they made an announcement that they needed 5 people to give up their seats because we would be overweight otherwise. Finally, about 20 minutes later we were finally able to board, and we ended up being about an hour late. Good thing they switched my flight time. :) I called the lost and found from Chicago and explained about my flight and the lady said that I should just come to the TSA coordination center instead of her meeting me somewhere, in case I got delayed again or whatever. So she gave me directions to go up a hallway that was marked "Do Not Enter" and to knock on a door that said "Authorized Personnel Only". It sounded like a quick trip to getting apprehended and detained by the TSA to me, but I figured I would see what happened when I got there. I arrived in Baltimore on time and set off to find this securely guarded mysterious room. After seeing about 3 possible "Do Not Enter" hallways in the location she told me to go to, I decided maybe I should ask a TSA person, just to be on the safe side. Unfortunately, he decided in his head I really should go to the Lost and Found office, which was closed and why I needed instead to go to the TSA coordination center. Another TSA guy said he was headed that way and he would take me there. I had to wait outside the "Do Not Enter" hallway (which wasn't any of the 3 I thought it would be), while he went and checked. I was given the go-ahead, and after signing a bazillion papers, I got my laptop back.

Moral of the story: Always, always check to make sure you have everything after the security check-point to avoid looking like a moron who leaves expensive electronics behind.

I Have a Drinking Problem

Or at the very least, I have a problem obtaining something to drink. I've come to the conclusion that water-giving devices just don't like me. At work, we have a water cooler. Which is great, except for that fact that it never wants to actually give me water. I push the button, and it will sputter out a few drops. I push it harder and longer, and it gives me even less. After about 7 pushes, it will finally decide that it should actually output a stream of water, rather than sporadic dribbles. This wouldn't be so terrible, except it's really loud. It makes these clicking and pumping noises, just so that the entire office knows that I am deficient at operating a water cooler.

I am doing my final stint at the Census Bureau this week and next, and today I went to the water fountain to fill up my water bottle. Yesterday, this worked just fine, but today the fountain decided to toy with me. Instead of a steady stream that is at a constant height, it decided to vary itself, irregardless of the constant pressure I was applying. This resulted in a mad dash as I had to move my water bottle up and down in an attempt to read the mind of the water fountain and figure out which way it was going next. Fun times.

Word of the Day

So I am going to continue the theme of commonly used words as the word of today. I was typing an email and I completely blanked on how to spell color. Seriously, I tried coler, coller, colur, and eventually figured out how to spell it. I have no idea where that came from. So today's word of the day is color, or as our friends to the north (and any other English-speaking country) like to spell it, colour.

Funny story about the u. One of my favorite authors is Jasper Fforde, who writes the amazing Thursday Next series. Without getting into a long, drawn-out explanation, let it suffice to say it's a somewhat science-fictiony thing, where the main character is able to jump into books and is a police officer of sorts in the book world. So in this series, there is a text sea, where all the letters that form all the words in books come from. There happened to be a shortage of Us at one point in the series, so they decided to drop the U in certain words, such as colour, flavour, etc, and call it a regional anomaly.

Spinning In Circles

So, for some odd reason, I feel like I am busy, busy, busy, but I can't actually think of anything that I've been doing. It's a very uncomfortable feeling. But anyways, here are some pictures to add to my busy-non-doingness.

These are some pictures from the National Zoo, which despite the fact I used to live like 3 blocks away from, I've only been to a couple of times. Someone asked me what my favorite animal at the zoo was, and I have to reply the arapaima fish, the bottom two pictures. Most people would pick the panda bears, or some other cute and cuddly animal, of which there are plenty, but I am fascinated by fish. They remind me of like some sort of molded plastic model of a gigantic prehistoric fish. They are over 6 feet long and so cool.

This reminds me of a funny story. So when asked for my phone number while out, I generally just put the other person's phone number in my phone, rather than give my number out. So this leads to some numbers which I have no idea who the person is in my phone. One time I was scrolling through my contacts and I came across Fonz. Who in the world would honestly go by Fonz? So this was a mystery for quite a while, until one time I happened to notice a bumper sticker, which also said Fonz. The lightbulb comes on! Fonz is not a some guy from an old tv show, but instead is Friends of the National Zoo. I had put the number in my phone on one of my visits to the zoo, because I had thought about volunteering. So much for all my good intentions.

My Mad Baking Skills

So these are old pictures, but just bear with me here. Last year, John's birthday happened to fall on 7/7/07, so we decided to throw him a 7th birthday party, complete with pin the tail on the donkey, Sega Genesis, party favors, party hats, the whole works. As the pièce de résistance, I decided to try my hand at making a themed cake, and John chose Donatello, of the teenage mutant ninja turtles. So, after browsing the internet for pictures, I spent the day in the kitchen making the cake. It was going well, until I decided the cakes were cool enough to take out of the pans, and I flipped them over. "What in the world are those round white things?" I wonder. Turns out, doubling a cake recipe isn't necessarily a good thing, as it means the eggs are much less likely to get mixed into the batter. So instead of a deliciously moist, beautiful chocolate cake, I had a deliciously moist, beautiful chocolate cake with a couple of fried eggs thrown in. Luckily, I was able to sculpt them out and it tasted just fine without them.

A Pictoral Record of Laura Losing her Sunglasses

Today's story is particularly near and dear to my heart, as it is the story of me losing my favorite sunglasses ever....for the third time. Well, technically the second time, because the first pair broke, so I replaced them, and the second pair went missing in a non-remarkable way, but I have photographic evidence of me losing the third pair.

So after a long hard day playing at the beach, we're just about ready to go, but I decide to go rinse off one final time. There's no need to take off my sunglasses, because it will just take a minute.

Let me just play for one more minute....I'm almost ready to leave, I promise!

And this is where the scary movie music comes in...Da Dum, Da Dum, Da Dum, as the approaching wave grows larger and larger, while meanwhile, I am completely unsuspecting, just playing in the water.

Bye-bye Laura.

I throw my hands up in disbelief, as I realize the full enormity of my loss.

Where, oh where, can you be, my beloved sunglasses?

Luckily though, the story has a happy ending. Target has a seemingly unending supply of my favorite sunglasses, so I now possess pairs 4 and 5, just in case.

Rumble in the Drain

So last night I battled my garbage disposal and won. I’ve always had a healthy respect and fear of the unknown of the garbage disposal, as I did not have one until I think my junior year of college, so I tend to be on the cautious side when it comes to putting stuff down there. Unlike Bill Bryson, who has a fantastic article about his exploration in the boundaries of garbage disposal functionality in his book, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, but that’s another topic entirely.

Anyways, I’ve had some issues in the past with my current garbage disposal, due to a clog in the pipe in-between my next-door neighbor’s apartment and mine, which caused considerable trauma, but has since been resolved. This incident led me to believe that my garbage disposal wasn’t quite right though, as it was coughing up bits of smelly black rubber, which obviously did not come from say, a red pepper, or something.

Well, all has been fine for about a month, except for the odor wafting suspiciously in my kitchen the last couple of days. I just chalked it up to the fact that I hadn’t taken out my trash or done my dishes recently, but last night it was just too gross, so I investigated a little. I took out the trash and that didn’t seem to help matters. The dishes weren’t overly disgusting, at least not enough to cause that smell. I leaned a little closer to the sink, and whew, sure enough, it was coming from the drain. I hadn’t put anything in there in a while and I know I hadn’t run it in quite a while, so I got out the flashlight and took a look. There, lying amid a few vegetable remains and staring back at me was something that resembled a human organ, perhaps a heart or a liver. Something that very clearly would not have fit down the drain and had no right to be in my garbage disposal, at the very least. I retreated to the living room, to avoid it leaping out and attacking me, to plan my strategy, or at least figure out what it was.

The obvious course of action would be to run the garbage disposal, but what if it really were some sort of weird growth that got mad and decided to take over my apartment? I eventually made myself realize that it was obviously just a bacterial growth of some kind, although the fact that was in my sink didn’t really comfort me either. So I ran the garbage disposal for a minute or two and took another look. There was still a chunk or two of my nemesis remaining. Man, he was a stubborn bugger. I had to reach even deeper yet into my arsenal, oh yes, for the Drano. Luckily, in Drano the quivering mass lurking in my sink finally met his match, and I now have a pleasant, spic and span clean kitchen.

Grande?

So, I know 3 posts in a morning is a bit excessive, but hear me out. I was looking through pictures, and this one reminded me of a great story, so since I have no exciting stories in my life at the moment, here goes.

I have always professed my deep love for Meijer grocery stores, but unfortunately I have had to stray, as they don't exist in DC. When I was about 8, I found out they were only in Michigan, and a few surrounding areas, and I was dumbstruck, as I had no idea where I would buy my groceries if I moved away. Well, I did move away, and now I have switched some of my loyalty over to Giant. It's nowhere near as good as Meijer, but it is a heck of a lot cheaper than the Whole Foods, which is my other viable option. So, to sum up that part of the story, Giant is a common grocery store in DC.

The next portion involves our trip to Puerto Rico. So John and I were driving along, and, lo and behold, there is a grocery store called Grande on the side of the road. John just thinks that's the greatest thing ever. "I want to shop at a grocery store named big!" he says. I then, not so gently, remind him that he shops at the Giant.

Herbert Hoovers

So I'm currently in the process of totally overhauling my photo storage file structure system, so I can't post any pictures, as that would just completely throw me into chaos. So instead, I will fill you in on my wonderful little pets, all 78 of which are named Herbert Hoover. This is my fifth foray into the world of sea monkey raising, and so far it's going OK. The first 3 trys failed because I didn't read the instructions good enough and I neglected to aerate their water daily. I was determined though, so I read every tidbit of information on the sea monkeys website and purchased all kinds of doo dads and treats for them, and the fourth time, I really thought they were going to make it. Unfortunately, I was a little too zealous of a pet owner, and I decided their water was too dirty and they needed a change of water. Sea monkeys are delicate creatures, and they need filtered water, so I made sure to let my Brita pitcher warm up to room temperature and I carefully used my aqua leash/water aerator to transfer them all to a bowl of purified water, while I washed their bowl and refilled it. I thought all was well, but it was not to be. Within a few days, no more sea monkeys. But every time I learn from my mistakes, and it's going good so far. They are in Day 8 of their existance, and are happily swimming around. The pictures aren't the greatest I know, but I'm not advanced enough to a good picture of an 1/8" long thing that swims really fast.

Surprise, Surprise, More Flowers!

So I didn't post all of my favorites from the San Francisco Botanical Gardens yesterday, so today's theme is Alien Man-Eating Snake Plants. At least, that's what they kinda looked like to me.

The first three are the same plant in various stages of opening, and is a little more innocent-looking than the other one.

This guy, on the other hand, is ready to devour any unsuspecting tourist that may come too close. It starts out innocently enough, all tightly curled up.

It's carnivorous-like nature is starting to show through, as it becomes a little furry.

Little snake tounges pop out, to attract it's prey to the waiting 72 million tongues in the center.And then it all breaks loose, and the alien man-eating snake plant shows its true wild nature, as it searched voraciously for prey.
The joke is on the alien man-eating snake plant in the end though, as it wastes away to a tiny stub.