it's a zoo in here. literally.

I've witnessed/experienced so many bizarro things this year that I've learned not to question anything. 

For example: I've had a homeless-looking man sketch me on the LA Metro (see picture below)... a homeless-looking man spit on me on the street... a homeless-looking man compliment me on my nails (verbatim: "I like your sexy black nails, mama")... You get the point.

Call me a sketchball for taking this picture, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't the sketchball in this situation. And that bike? The purple kid's bike with sparkly streamers and 3 different locks attached to it? Yup. That would be his (my portraitist's) bike.

I don't even raise my eyebrows anymore in reaction to the random, weird things that seem to occur with alarming frequency in my life/on campus/in LA... like the gigantic, useless foam parties that materialize at random times in the middle of the Quad (pictured below)... or the strange items I often discover in even stranger places, like the squirt gun I found hanging from the bathroom door several days ago (it's still there; also pictured below).

I actually walked into a clump of bubbles on my way to Spanish.

Someone is apparently stockpiling weapons in the women's bathroom.

But somehow, I was still taken aback when I saw what I saw in the Leavey Library fountain the other day: two frattilicious guys standing knee-deep in the water, playing with a tiny, adorable little pet duckling as if they were a gay couple spending a day in the park with their adopted child. (Let me remind you that USC, which is located in downtown LA, is not exactly vibrant with wildlife.) It might not compete with the sketchball on the LA Metro, but it was by far the cutest "WTF" thing I've seen all year.

Yes, I out-sketchballed myself and took a pic of them. (Blue Shorts is holding the duckling.) I wanted to get another picture of it swimming in the fountain, but people were already starting to look at me questioningly, so I decided against taking more pictures and promptly fled the scene.

Apparently, the New/North dorms (AKA the party dorms, which, like all dorms, outlaw pets, but which are constantly filled with such foul, unidentifiable odors that you could probably hide not only pets, but decomposing bodies, in there) are currently home to the following creatures: the aforementioned duckling, two turtles, a kitten, and a hedgehog.

I mean, I'm all for whimsical, illegal dorm pets, but really? A hedgehog?

Why would anyone even want a hedgehog?