The 17-year cicada spends most of its life as a larva underground, sucking on tree roots, when miraculously at 17 years of age, all the members of that particular brood come to the surface to mate, lay eggs, and die over the course of many days. How they synchronize their emergence is still a bit of a mystery. Brood IX will be emerging this year in NC, VA, and WV. I'd love to witness their mass emergence and subsequent chaos as they cover every available space and loudly declare their arrival.
It also got me thinking, 17 years is a long time...where was I 17 years ago? Looking back that puts us in early 2003...I was in college and that same year I took a course in entomology. I was working at Petsmart and living in my first solo apartment in Casselberry. I was obsessed with anime and wasn't yet a vegetarian. I had a 1-year old nephew [who is graduating high school this year]. I had two orange fur babies, lots of reptiles, a newt, and some fish. Also, so much strife over things that don't matter anymore.
Here is the underlying pencil sketch. I photographed it in case I ruined the coloring ;)
[January 26, 2020]
SIDE BAR:
Just for fun, here are some drawings I did back in 2003, perhaps highlighting the anime obsession...
Halloween is my favorite holiday
This is supposed to be me on left and my friend M on right
It's Vash and Rem from Trigun
I was Ryoko from the Tenchi series for Halloween that year and illustrated my costume to show folks that didn't actually see me wear it
(I didn't have a camera at the time or camera phone - if those existed then? Honestly can't remember.)
...and last but not least, my favorite at the time, Inuyasha (and Kikyo and Kagome)
...end transmission from 2003...
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