Plant fun

A month ago, my good friend came over to visit. Max and Calypso are both a bit skittish around other people, but Beeps loves everyone, especially if he senses they are bird people.   (The exception to this is my uncle.  Max loved my uncle on sight and actually solicited head pets from him!  He had no idea how special this was, even though we tried to explain it to him, and my mom had her feelings hurt as she has tried to befriend Max for over a decade.) My friend is a bird person (she has two parrots who are probably going to stay with us while the humans go on vacation, so you will get to meet them!)

So he hung out on her leg:

Then, something startled him, and he flew to the plant, which he loved.  He spent a long time in the plant, chewing off the (usually) dead leaves and playing around:

A short video:

This plant has become one of his favorite places to play; it's like an extra stand in the dining room!  He tends to head over there as soon as he flies in.

In which Max explores a bit

Max, who is really quite a brave and adventurous parrot, has been exploring our new apartment.  Since I am posting these pictures more than a month after taking them, she has now established her routines and flight patterns, and I no longer find her in such weird places, like this:

I found her in one of my pantries (I have two!), perching on my lentils and looking out the window.

Later, I gave her a tortellini to eat.  She is as food-motivated as ever!

I have a ledge that goes around my entire dining room.  This is where I place my paintings, many of Mary's paintings, and knick-knacks, such as this wire bird.  The first time, Max accidentally landed up here, but now this is one of her very favorite hang outs:

Speaking of Mary's paintings, when people come over, since they know I paint now, they frequently ask if her paintings are my work.  Are they kidding?  Someday soon I will post some of my work, and you will not even believe the difference.  I think I just have great friends that try to make me feel good!

Bath time, and after

At my new apartment, I have a ledge in my shower, which allows my parrots to perch there, like this:

One time last month, I was taking a bath, and Calypso was on the ledge, as Max is, above.  He was beeping and being quite loud, which is less acceptable now that we live in an apartment and need to not get evicted.

To quiet him down, I placed him on the edge of the tub, so he'd be closer to me.  This worked, but once I'd exited the tub, he started goofing around and fell into the tub, still full of water as I'd only started draining it.  I grabbed him out, but he was soaked.

This required me to wrap him up in a towel and dry him off, which he didn't mind at all (good thing this wasn't Max, as she would not have tolerated such behavior on my part!)

I made a little video of him, as he is just so adorable.  I love it when he makes his big kiss noises, and I *think* he might be saying "kiss" and/or "Calypso," though he garbles a lot, so it just sounds like nonsense.

He is the happiest of all of us about Thomas no longer being in our lives.  Maybe someday I will be able to get to that level of happiness about being alone!

Bicycle ride

Beeps was flying around my apartment last month, exploring, when he found himself in my back bedroom, where I am currently storing my workout equipment, including my bicycle.

This is where I found him, beeping and saying, "pretty baby!"

Double trouble

Did I get another timneh african grey?

Don't worry!  I still only have Max.  But she loves to fly to my built-in cabinet/mirror combination and look at herself.  No wonder -- she is a beautiful parrot!

The parrots have taken extremely well to our new apartment.  They are in their same cages and have the same stands, so there is some familiarity.

Also, I saw that a celebrity recently named her daughter Maxwell.  I guess I'm ahead of the curve by a decade (though we named Max when we thought she was a male!)

She wakes me up every morning by saying, "Hello, Maxwell!" and she always puts a smile on my face.

When I start to get down about my terrible life situation, how much I was taken advantage of, and how my life will be so profoundly different from what I thought it would be, even 6 months ago, I always have the parrots who do their best to cheer me up.  Of course, they will also most likely prevent me from every marrying again, but seeing how the last marriage ended, perhaps that's not such a bad thing!

Update

Has it really been nearly a month since I have posted?  Time really flies!  My divorce will be final in about two and a half weeks.  There have been so many twists and turns in this process, that I am somewhat surprised that I have not ended up institutionalized and have (mostly) managed to hold it all together.  Maybe someday I will write more of what happened here, but my friends who know most of the story have told me that I should write a lightly fictionalized story of what happened and have said it would be a best seller as truth is stranger than fiction!  Or maybe I should pitch it to Lifetime.  In any case, the past five months have been so strange and something I never thought I'd experience in my life.

I will post some parrot updates after this, but I have been at my new job for almost three weeks now.  It's a big adjustment.  Thomas had always promised me that if I supported him through med school, once he was done, I would no longer have to work a full-time, demanding job and could do nonprofit work or possibly go back to school.  I held up my end of the bargain, but when it came time for him to finally contribute financially, he bailed.  Because of the divorce laws in the state where I reside, I was taken to the cleaners.  If you look up "chump" in the dictionary, you will see my picture.  He will live high on the hog because of my hard work over the past 11 years.

He apparently feels no shame after effectively stealing several hundred thousand dollars from me over the course of our relationship -- money I thought I was investing in our future but, as it turns out, was investing only in his future.

I probably sound bitter, but I am trying to console myself with the fact that he needs to live with himself after how poorly he treated me, and I am young enough to rebuild and live the life I deserve.  Hopefully you will be able to witness this transition on the blog!

The parrots are doing well, though it's an adjustment for them as well.  They were used to me being home more frequently.  My current job requires that I be away from home close to 11 hours a day, which isn't fair to them.  I try very hard to still get them out for several hours a day and to spend quality time with them, but life for them isn't what they thought it would be, either.

Nevertheless, we solider on, trying to make the best of a terrible situation.  We still can't believe what Thomas did to us, and how he treated all of us after such dedication to him.  Personally, I am enjoying my freedom and trying to make the best life I can for myself and for the parrots.  Only time will tell as to how successful this endeavor will be!

I am going to try to update more frequently, and to take pictures more frequently.  I am in the process of adjusting to my new job, and usually spend my days working, eating, and sleeping, but I should try to continue to document the parrots.  We will get through this, and we will be stronger than ever!