Pimento
Somewhere around the 3 month mark of this newest adventure, I stumbled upon Pimento. Well, at that point he wasn't Pimento (and I didn't stumble upon him, I went to the store and stood outside of the rabbit box every day until there was finally a rabbit in there for sale), he was just a tiny white ball of fur that was shaking from the trauma of being carried in a cardboard box from his tiny box in e-Mart to his new apartment on the 13th floor (and I say his new apartment because, once he stopped shaking, he made it very clear that this was his space and he was just letting me live in it).
To be honest, Pimento and I had kind of a rocky start. While, I do realize that most of the problems were my own fault, as I am the human in this situation, some of this is definitely on him too. For example, how was I to know that this tiny little fuzzball could (and would) jump the height of my shelving unit to sit on the top shelf so he could eat all of my succulents and munch all the pictures on the wall before, finally, knocking the entire thing over when, at last, he decided he was full. Yes, I should have done a little more googling before I brought Pimento home but he could have at least thought twice before he nibbled away half of my electric bill and bit my phone charger in half....
As much of a struggle as the first few weeks were for Pimento and I though, I never once actually meant it when I suggested he pack his things and find a new home, mostly because I'd really miss the happy little hop he does every time he takes a bite of an apricot but also because hanging out with Pimento has, oddly enough, brought some clarity to the fuzzy, chaos that these past four months have been.
These past four months have been full, to say the least, and I realized that I haven't been blogging because I couldn't really find the words to explain what life has been like since I landed but, watching Pimento hopping around in the newly designated "rabbit nook" of our apartment, I realized that the way things have gone with Pimento and I are eerily similar to the way that things with Korea and I have been since I arrived.
Korea is just as cute and fun as I imagined it would be when I first thought about coming. Unfortunately, as cute and fun as Korea is, it also seems to find a way to (metaphorically) knock over my entire shelving unit from time to time and send chunks of my life sliding across the floor. Even more unfortunately, the things that keep knocking over my "life shelves" cannot be as easily contained with a pink animal gate as Pimento can, or as easily cleaned up. But, just like with Pimento every time I think "maybe I should just pack my bags and find a new home", I realize that no matter how many times I find myself cleaning up metaphorical life chunks or non-metaphorical broken picture frames, I would miss the happy hop that Korea has put into my step.
So, though I still suggest it rather frequently, Pimento isn't going anywhere anytime soon and neither is Korea. They're both just going to take a little more time to figure out. For Pimento, the secret stash of apricots that I keep to bribe him away from my shelves is how I will get through until I actually figure out how to take care of a rabbit. Korea is going to be a little bit trickier and I don't have quite as surefire a plan but I do
have a feeling the long weekend at the beach that Korea and I have coming up will play a vital role in helping us find our happy compromise.
