By Way of Apology to Those Who Saw Me in Abbo's Alley Today

Dear Student and Party-goers:

Please accept my sincere apology for startling you. 

I did not mean to interrupt your phone call with your mother, Young Woman, and I was pleased that you stopped, looked at me, and then laughed with me at my enthusiastic response to the insect you did not see.

I did not mean for you Party-goers to distract you each of three times you drove slowly by. At first I thought I was even more strange than usual because you stared at me instead of the road, but when you parked, removed your child and the birthday present, I was relieved to see that you were looking for the party on North Carolina. Perhaps I should be pleased that I gave you something to talk about. 

Please understand that watching several Shadow Darners, dragonflies I have seen for the only the first time over the last several days, gives me great pleasure. And taking decent photographs of them flying gives me even more pleasure. Thus, my shouting and running and standing and staring and cursing (I know, I know, but dadgummit just isn't expressive enough sometimes) and yelping Yes!

Yesterday, a friend posted this article on Facebook: Curiosity: It Helps Us Learn, But Why? Among other interesting points the writer makes is this: "When the participants' curiosity was piqued, the parts of their brains that regulate pleasure and reward lit up. . . . 'There's this basic circuit in the brain that energizes people to go out and get things that are intrinsically rewarding,' Ranganath explains. . . . When the circuit is activated, our brains release a chemical called dopamine, which gives us a high."

The woman with the dopamine high. Yep, that was me. Next time, stop for a moment and I'll show you what has me so excited. In the meantime, please accept my sincere apologies.

Sincerely,
The Odonate Freak

PS Here's what you missed.