As I was checking the shelves yesterday in the store, I come eye-to-eye with a praying mantis. She was HUGE! (I assume it was "she"; I can't really tell.) About 2" long, not including antennae. I've never seen such a large mantis in Oregon. So I was encouraging her to move to the plant on the top of the shelf, which she tolerated only briefly, then reared back, front legs out in a "Do that again and I'm going to kick your ass" posture. Now, I outweighed her by about 160 lbs. (okay, about 170, but that's because of the residual Alaska weight, which doesn't count), so it wouldn't really be a fair fight, but I don't usually see such a clear display of attitude from Insecta*. So I left her alone. She perched for a while on the edge of the bookshelf (and I'm sure she was watching me) while I busied myself with other work, and when I looked back later, she was gone. I can honestly say she was the most interesting visitor to the store all day.
So then last night, I'm having a restless night, not sleeping well. So I'm dreaming that I'm in bed and having a hard time sleeping (and if you said "That sounds interesting, yet unpleasant", you'd be right), and in the dream the praying mantis is crawling across the bed. Despite being displeased about sleeping poorly, I thought that was pretty cool. Of course, I'd be even more impressed if I had the dream about a praying mantis first, and then saw one the next day. That would be like an omen. This way, it's more like "The Day In Review."
*The class of segmented arthropods, like ants and lobsters.
sleepy