It was early in the morning, coffee still brewing, and there it was—sitting in the corner of my kitchen. A strange, pink foam-like substance. It looked a bit like pussy willow—about eight centimeters long, slightly bent, and strangely crunchy. At first, I thought it was just a mutant shrimp, maybe a piece of dried-up candy, or something that had fallen and gotten stuck. (I hadn’t had caffeine yet, so my mind wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders.)

The panic set in quickly. What was this thing? Where did it come from? I wasn’t about to start touching it with my bare hands, so the first thing I did was take a picture and post it on Reddit. Because, let’s be real, the internet is the best place to figure out the weird stuff that happens to you at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday.