Belushi the Parakeet: A little picture story.

Belushi was adopted on August 13th 2013, at an age of 8 to 12 weeks old.  His name was picked almost instantly, in honor of John Belushi  (would you expect anything different?)

This is his first picture taken at the pet shop. He is nibbling on the towel, a reflection of the kind of goofball he started out as, and hopefully will forever be. 

After I brought him home, I thought he would hate me. He kept staring at me like I was the devil, but in a couple of days, he realized that I am not going anywhere and is suffering from "Stockholm Syndrome" or has just decided to accept me in his life. 

It has been an interesting addition to the animal-family having a bird in the house, trying to teach him how to talk, not poop in his food or water bowl, and learning about his personality while not getting bit is a real fun experience.

He was the small bird of a group of many birds, almost bought two parakeets that day, but decided against that idea because I have read in the books that "they bond better with a human and have a better chance of talking if you purchase just one". Needless to say, he seems to be doing just fine adjusting. He gets sessions out of his cage to play in the bathroom (the smallest room in the house) and he seems to enjoy that  very much. He loves listening to the dog snort on the other side of the door, and sits and is completely intrigued by pug sounds, they have this conversation almost every day. 

Belushi is a REAL character, he BEGS for the radio, and dances to a lot of really tacky music. (Ke$ha, Taylor Swift, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake). Particularly "Mirrors" by Justin Timberlake, and "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke. Which is ironic, I love every kind of music...he loves anything with a beat or has some kind of repeatitive groove-worthy sound. It sure makes the music more enjoyable watching a bird tweet and bob up and down and dance to music. Every time I get my video camera out, he stops...but I caught him in action one day.

We are also ladder training right now. The current cage I have does not have room for a ladder, but I got him one t play with in "cage out" time (in the bathroom until he gets a playground after i am done cleaning out my room). He seems to love marching across the ladder..and going up the side rung of it.

He is bonding to me. Makes a point to greet me when I come home from work and I spend a lot of time with him and hes learning not to "bite the hand that feeds him" as much.  His first "out of cage experience" he bit VERY hard. Ive learned to toughen up and ignore the behavior and he has bitten me less and less and learning to relax on my shoulder and on my finger because I am not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. 

He loves clowning around, a lot. He can hang upside down like a bat.  That was one of the ways he got my attention when I picked him out. As Jim Belushi's described his brother John (and since I am a huge fan of his) Jim said he was "Piss ass funny!" I immediately thought of that description when watching him play around, and now that he is home he still likes to hang upside down like a bat.

He is conceited. Just this evening, he stood up in the mirror, got real close..and kissed his reflection twice. 

I know not all keets talk, but I am trying to get him to talk, We have a ritual whenever I walk in the room I say "Hi Belushi! Hi im Belushi!" and I kiss at him off and on. The other day he mimicked a kissing sound, so maybe..we might have a talker on our hands.

Overall, things are going great. I look forward to learning more about taking care of him and watching him grow into a sweet, smart, inquisitive little bird full of funny little loving surprises. I love this little guy so much.

Summer Solstice

So, as a huge Third eye blind fan..I credit sir Stephan Jenkins for a lot of things. One of which is helping me realize the internal value of Summer Solstice.

June 21st 2009, my now ex and I attended the Third eye blind concert... at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, OR... that was my first taste of what I believed true love, we were just starting out..I am really not going to get into that.


Sir Jenkins was talking about how beautiful Summer solstice is, how he felt so in touch with the earth on the "longest" Day of the year, and tho he doesnt believe in God, its a very spiritual moment..how night is day and day is night. The sky is always a ton of funky colors, and yet how everything around him kinda fades to black.

At the time, his Mom was sick, maybe cancer but I do not know and cannot confirm for sure what the illness was, and he sang this song, well, several songs..he kept throwing the Wooaaaahss of his hit Bonfire in it, and the light shined through the window of the Crystal ball room as the sun went down, I will always remember the movement of the show in my heart, and the alleged "love" that was in the air at the time of course added too it.

In 2010, I was left alone to find myself, and define myself in a way..Summer solstice came around, and it reminded me of how far I had came, and how different things were the year before. So I embraced the night, I cannot remember what I did, but I remembered I made everyone leave me alone while wherever I was at, I stayed outside and watched the sun sink beneath the horizon.

2011, I was home this night on this lovely new era "Holiday" and I did it all over again, I shut everyone out, and had some quiet time. This time I was so tired from being overwhelmed in work from the week, that I sat and enjoyed myself on our front yard swing, Lucky ( one of my cats) came out and embraced the moment with me as I watched the orange sky pull the sun into the ground at the latest point it would that entire year.

Sounds silly to some, but embracing nature and reflecting the moment itself, is very moving, It stalls out many other things in life, good and bad, it puts you at one with the earth. God's beautiful creation in front of me, watching it like a movie. I put on some pandora Third eye blind, and Pandora Phish, and kept to myself that lovely night a week ago.

Love may have died a bit over a year ago, but summer solstice still remains.