number three- potato bugs

anyone who knows me will tell you i HATE bugs. despite what you may believe, i enjoy the outdoors. however, mother nature and i would get along a lot better if her little friends weren't so gross. worms, ants, beetles, moths, centipedes, spiders... the standard bugs send me running in the other direction. worst of all are bees. at least i have a legitmate reason for that one- i'd like to not be killed off by their little stingers. it's not a glamourous way to go, and when i go, i want it to be all glamour. however, as i was walking from my apartment i came thisclose to stepping on the only bug i can describe as cute.

some of you may know him as a roly poly bug, pill bug, or doodle bug. or if you're a big nerd you might know him by his technical name, armadillidiidae vulgare. my response to that is that you're wrong. that is not his name. his name is potato bug. and he is wonderful.

when i was little, these were the bugs i loved to play with. some of you will be shocked to learn i indeed enjoyed playing in the dirt. but i had a thing for digging holes and turning over rocks to see what was under there. in my backyard adventures i enjoyed stumbling upon worms but most of all potato bugs. i loved how they would curl up in tight little balls to protect themselves. what i loved even more was when they would change their little minds and decide that i was no longer a threat and continue to crawl all over my hands. worms were wet and gross, so they'd most likely just be used to throw at my poor little brother. but potato bugs were fun to me.

i could go into great detail about all the fun facts i learned about potato bugs today, but why ruin this with education. today, the little potato bug i almost stepped on lived to see another afternoon. he's probably feasting on a compost pile somewhere. it's the little things in life that really bring a smile to my face, and i hope you can appreciate a creepy-crawly today as well.