Down the cryptozoology rabbit hole

Started reading about local folklore for what I thought would be a quick twenty-minute break from organizing my pottery supplies. Four hours later, Carmen walks in to find me surrounded by library books about Bigfoot, the Mothman, and something called the Beast of Bladenboro that apparently terrorized North Carolina in the 1950s.

Down the cryptozoology rabbit hole

Her exact words: “Elena. It’s 3 PM. You haven’t moved from this spot. There are Cheez-Its crumbs in your hair, and you’re trying to tell me that cryptozoology is a legitimate field of study.” Fair points, all of them. But also, did you know there have been over 10,000 reported Bigfoot sightings in North America? That’s a lot of people seeing something.

The exact moment I tried to convince her that Sasquatch research is totally legitimate.

This is me trying to explain why the Patterson-Gimlin film from 1967 is actually pretty compelling evidence if you really think about it. Carmen’s face says everything you need to know about how that conversation went. She’s already texting Sarah to stage an intervention.

In my defense, it started innocently enough. I was looking up local pottery studios and somehow ended up on a website about Appalachian mountain legends. One click led to another, and suddenly I’m taking notes about creature sighting patterns like I’m writing a dissertation. Jake’s going to come home to find me with a conspiracy theory board and red string connecting everything to ancient pottery traditions or something equally unhinged.