are you missing a monkey? i might have found it...

less than a year ago there was a 2,000+ pound steer roaming through the parking lot at Reliant Hall here in Houston. some time before that there was a bobcat (live, breathing, claws-attached bobcat) strolling through a downtown parking garage in htown. here in the 713 alligators have been known to leave the bayou and enter someones backyard, or golf course pond, or something similar.

which i why i am mostly, almost entirely convinced there is a monkey living in the parking garage attached to our apartment building.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MONKEY??

before you call my parents or the psych ward to report my crazy claim, let me tell you: before leaving for colorado on dec. 27, i noticed one or two banana peels in the corner of the 4th floor, near the stairs where I usually walk up after parking my car on a lower level. (i hate driving the ramps. too slow. i'd rather run down stairs and floor it straight out of the garage. i am my father's daughter.)

anyways, the peel was there for a few days, turned black and looks disgusting. i thought about picking it up but figured, that was gross. not my job. pick up your own banana, you hung over fool. (i've found other objects like a solitary black high-heeled shoe, the occasional beer can, a crushed cigarette box, but normally the garage and apt buildings are quite clean.)

well, we left for colorado and i didn't think much of the banana peels in the corner. until this evening. i noticed that there are 4, maybe 5, shoot, maybe even SIX banana peels stacked in the corner where the concrete walls merge. Some of the peels are solid black, others still show bits of yellow and appear to be fresh.

I have to wonder - what kind of person is doing this? Someone who eats their breakfast on the go, perhaps? Well, I do the same and I've never thrown my granola bar wrapper or apple core down on the ground. I seriously doubt someone is repeatedly throwing banana peels in the same spot because our trash company would have to pick it up. And everyone knows our sweet couple that works for the trash company, the man and woman in their early fifties who only acknowledge me if i speak spanish, who wear yellow reflector vests as they pick up the trash bags on each floor, who always smile and seem happy to do their job, what person would ask them to do extra work?

And as all of these thoughts rushed in to my head this evening in the thirty seconds it took me to reach my door from the garage, I realized. This is no human. It's perfectly clear.

There is a monkey running amok in our parking garage. A monkey! All the spaces on the lower floors were taken when I got home this evening. So as I try my best to round each corner before dawn tomorrow, I'll be on the lookout for the monkey... I hope he watches out. I'm not the best driver before 7 am....