What's Up Wednesday (14)

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, so we can check in with each other. To join, just check out Jaime Morrow or Erin Funk's blogs for the link widget and sign up!


WHAT I'M READING

I'm still a bit everywhere with my reading. Since the last time I did a What's Up Wednesday post, I finished QUINTANA OF CHARYN, which was a very satisfying conclusion to an amazing fantasy trilogy. I also read CROWN OF MIDNIGHT, which was fun, and ANTIGODDESS which pushed all my Greek Mythology loving buttons. I'm very much looking forward to the next book in the Goddess Wars series.

At the moment, I am reading a very enjoyable manuscript, and I'm finally reading BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA. The voice in DEVIL is fantastic and some of the descriptions are just beautiful!


WHAT I'M WRITING

This is relevant, I swear.  [Photo attribution/ I, Japiot]

Uh, still nothing. BUT! I did revise one of my poems and I'm quite pleased with how it is currently. It has to do with a hart and a hunter, and I'm thinking about renaming it ACTAEON. :)


WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

I spent this past weekend in San Diego with the Sister and our parents because we went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The safari park is cool because other than regular zoo enclosures, they have a huge open habitat where herd animals just roam free. They also offer really cool safaris, some of which allow you to get up close to the animals. So seeing these beautiful creatures in real life and learning about them (something I've always loved - I used to watch the Discovery channel for fun instead of like actual TV shows) was pretty freaking inspiring.

Baby rhino and mom!

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

So before I regale you with more tales of our safari adventures. I've been up to a couple of other things since I last did this meme.

I've been to a bunch of concerts for one. I got to go to Bastille courtesy of the Sister's sweet gig, and we also saw Lorde. In between those 2 shows, we saw M83 at the Hollywood Bowl backed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and it was freaking awesome.

Sold out BASTILLE show at the El Rey.

M83 at the Hollywood Bowl - Midnight City.

Now, the SDZ Safari Park! I haven't been since I was a kid, and when I saw a livingsocial deal for the park, I thought it'd be fun to do a weekend trip. When we got down there, we decided to upgrade our basic admission to one of the fancier safaris. My friend said there was one where you could feed the giraffes and really recommended it, so that's the one we took - the Caravan Safari.

The Caravan Safari takes a small group of people on a truck for 2 hours, and we drive around the park with our own personal zookeeper tour guide. Part of the safari includes feeding the giraffes, and if we were lucky, we might get to feed the rhinos too. This is because the giraffes will come up to the truck, but we have to go to the rhinos AND they have to feel like it.

Well, WE WERE LUCKY and got to feed a rhino! Anyway, pics!

Do you see the unicorns? :)

We fed these giraffes acacia leaves! They were so friendly and cute, and their tongues are so long.

Our zookeeper guide was funny because when she recognized which Asian Rhino was closest to us, she was like, "Oh, we're going to get her. She eats everything! She'll come over." And sure enough, as soon as the rhino heard the sound of apples in a bucket, she came trotting over.

On our way out, the mom and baby African Rhinos we saw earlier sitting in the shade were eating at the feeders near the road out. We passed pretty close to them, and the little baby rhino came over to look at us. She was soooooo cute!

We explored the rest of the park after the Caravan Safari was over, and then we lined up for the Cheetah Run in the afternoon. It's really cool because they use a lure on a 100 meter track and release a cheetah to chase the lure. It's pretty amazing to see how fast they are, and they are so graceful and gorgeous. The other cool/cute thing is that all the cheetah ambassadors have dogs as their companions because the dogs keep them calm.

The Sister managed to get a video of part of the run. Cheetahs can go to 0 to 60mph in 3 seconds and even more impressively, they can go from 0 to 40mph in 3 steps!

Q4U: What have you been up to? Also, happy October! Who is ready for Halloween (and fall)?