Trying New Things: Holding a Parrot

I've been feeling a pull recently to try to do more new things.  Things that make me a little uncomfortable.  Things that I can do one time and then never have to do again because I can say that I did them.

This week, I did one of those things:  held a parrot.

I'm not afraid of birds, and I wasn't afraid of Claude (great parrot name, huh?), I just find animals in general to be a little bit dirty and a little bit germy and just not really something that I want to be touching.  (Can you tell I never had a pet as a kid?)

But this weekend on a little trip with my bestie Rachel (a trip I will be writing about in excruciatingly epic detail very soon), we encountered Claude on the street, and his owner encouraged us to let him perch on our hands.

Rachel was a pro.  Look how he even cocks his head toward her in affection!

And then this is pretty much how I felt about it.

Parrot-holding:  check.