Christine Warner Hawks

Grocery Shopping in Another Language

2012-02-08T16:15:00.003-04:00

I really admire people who speak two or more languages fluently. Sadly, I am not among them. When I was living in the United States this wasn't a big deal. Grocery shopping in Sint Maarten, however, is another matter.
However, I've learned that French is generally similar enough to English that I usually know what I'm buying.

Example from a jar of apple sauce:
"Ingrédients: pommes 88%, sucre, arôme naturel de vanille, antioxydent: acide ascorbique."
I'm pretty sure this means my apple sauce contains apples, sugar, natural vanilla flavor, and ascorbic acid. I don't know why you would put vanilla flavoring in apple sauce, except that French people are crazy.

Today I bought some "sélection pommes de terre françaises," which I am 99% sure means mashed potatoes. French mashed potatoes.

We've really had very good luck with the French labels, except for the time when Pat bought a bag of pine nuts because he thought it was dried pineapple.
(It had a picture of a pine cone, for the record.)

Dutch is another matter entirely.

"Hmm, I think this is peanut butter. It looks like peanut butter and those are most likely pictures of peanuts. Too bad I can't read a single word on the label."

I was right, by the way. It's totally peanut butter. But this little jar of peanut butter sure made me feel dumb.

Winter

2012-01-25T18:34:00.001-04:00

Living in a place where there is no winter has really made me think about just how much I appreciate the changing seasons. Winter definitely has its downsides, but there are a lot of things that I really miss too...

1. With a thick blanket of snow covering everything (and all of the insects dead or hibernating), there is nothing quite so peaceful as standing outside on a winter night looking at the stars and listening to the silence.

2. During a snowstorm, curling up with a good book, a mug of hot chocolate or apple cider, and a fuzzy blanket (also a cat if there's one available).

3. Building snow dinosaurs.

4. Cross-country skiing on the Wabash Trace. This has always been my favorite trail for riding my bike in the summer, and I just recently discovered that it's also great for skiing.

5. When spring comes again, you really appreciate it because it's been so cold and dreary for the past four months!

Saba: Part 3

2011-12-29T20:37:00.000-04:00

On day three in Saba, Pat took a break and I went on a hiking adventure by myself. I decided to hike the Sandry Cruz trail, a fairly easy and well-marked trail that starts right next to our hotel. But when I got to the end of the trail, I saw this:

"All Too Far trail?" I said to myself. "That sounds interesting, and I've made really good time getting here, and I'd love to see that sulfur mine. I'll just head on a little farther..."

At the end of the All Too Far trail, I saw this:

Is that sign not just daring you to head right? So I had to explore a little more.

I eventually made my way to the sulfur mine, an innocent-looking cave next to a nice little seaside meadow where some very cute goats were running around.
Stepping closer to the entrance, I could feel the incredible heat inside the mine. The sulfur fumes were almost overwhelming without even going inside. At that moment, there was no forgetting the fact that lovely Saba is in fact a sleeping volcano.

After resting for a few minutes, I walked to the Saba airport, on the exact opposite side of the island from where I had started. I took a taxi back to the hotel since it was getting dark. Needless to say, Pat was starting to wonder where I had been!

Eaten by iguanas, probably.

Saba: Part 2

2011-12-24T17:47:00.001-04:00

Our second day in Saba, we had one goal in mind: Hike to the top of Mount Scenery.
The usual route is a set of steep stone stairs climbing up from the village of Windwardside. That trail was closed during our visit, so we had a somewhat longer hike.

The top of Mount Scenery is usually covered in clouds, resulting in a completely different ecosystem towards the top of the mountain. There were lots of elephant ears, orchids, and ferns as we approached the summit.

After a couple of hours of hiking, we finally reached the summit, almost 3,000 feet above sea level and the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. There isn't much room at the very top, so we took a few pictures and then headed down to a slightly lower point near the crater to rest.

Looking down from the top

Resting after a long hike

Saba: Part 1

2011-12-24T17:01:00.000-04:00

Ever since we arrived in Sint Maarten a few months ago, Pat and I have been itching to visit the nearby island of Saba. Despite the island's small size, it's an impressive sight. Saba is simply the top of a massive underwater volcano, rising to a summit nearly 3,000 feet above sea level. It may also be the only Caribbean island with no beaches (usually - more on that later.)

We went to Saba by ferry, a roughly hour-long trip. As we traveled across the choppy water, we watched the mountain grow larger and larger through the windows. Seeing its intimidating cliffs dropping straight down to the ocean, we could understand why 17th century pirates used the island as a hideout.
Once we were on the island, we went on a tour of Saba's four villages. We also had a good view of an airplane landing and departing from Saba's tiny airport, thought to be the shortest commercial runway in the world.

Just over 1,000 feet of usable runway!

We also visited Well's Bay, which is home to the Wandering Beach. This is a black-sand beach that has the habit of sometimes vanishing for years at a time. When the beach is absent, as it was when we visited, the water runs right up to the rocky cliffs.

Tomorrow's goal: climb to the top of the island!

Pic Paradis

2011-12-14T19:37:00.004-04:00

Today Pat and I celebrated the end of my first semester of medical school by hiking to the top of the highest mountain on Saint Martin, Pic Paradis. This was not our first attempt, but last time we had to turn back after an unfortunate encounter with some wasps.
We wore lots of bug spray this time.

The trailhead is at a private nature reserve called Loterie Farm, where we had a nice lunch and met this chicken before starting our hike.

The trail was a steep and rocky couple of miles through the beautiful tropical forest. We saw an old well and the ruins of a big stone building, probably left over from when the area was a large plantation in the 1700s and 1800s.

Our feet were pretty sore by the time we got to the top (did I mention it was rocky?), but the scenery made the hike well worth it.

Cruise ships in Philipsburg

St. Barthélemy

Pat surveys the scenery

When I grow up, I want to be a superhero.

2011-11-03T18:31:00.000-04:00

I've dreamed of becoming a doctor for pretty much my whole life. There have been brief periods of time when I thought I wanted to be a marine biologist or an astronaut or a dinosaur trainer, but I always eventually came back to medicine.
In my childhood imagination, being a doctor was a lot like being a superhero. I pictured myself dramatically battling against disease and sickness to save my patients, emerging bloody but victorious before flying off into the sunset.

"Disease and sickness" played by Mr. Incredible.

Eventually, I became a college student and went through the rather awful process of applying to medical schools. This process resulted in my becoming a student at a very nice school in Sint Maarten, a tiny little country in the Caribbean. At this school, students spend their first two years living in Sint Maarten and the next two years back in the United States.
I had no reservations about moving to the Caribbean for two years. For one thing, I've traveled quite a bit. And besides, I had already decided that I want to spend some time doing overseas medical missions once I'm a doctor, so clearly living on a nice little tropical island for two years would be no problem.

Patrick and I arrived at our new home in August 2011. We could see the forest-covered mountains, hear the waves crashing on the beach, and smell the tropical flowers, and we knew we had arrived in paradise.
Later that night, as we were unpacking at our new apartment, I noticed a rather large beetle trying to skitter across our kitchen floor. I caught it and released it outside.
At some point I Googled "cockroach."
We put out baits and traps that pretty well dealt with the roaches, but there were also the ants. And the lizards. And the giant centipedes. And the mushrooms growing out of the walls. We found ourselves locked in a constant battle against the warm weather and humidity to keep the great outdoors our of our apartment.

The Enemy.

Our troubles weren't just with Mother Nature, either. We soon discovered that there are almost daily power outages. Business aren't always open during their posted hours, and many of them won't accept credit cards (or they will sometimes but not always). There are very few sidewalks and the roads are narrow. And there is not a single Starbucks on the entire island.

I tried to be patient. I hid my growing frustration with the fact that my new home was not nearly as much like my old home as I had been expecting. How was I going to heroically travel overseas to provide healthcare in developing countries when I couldn't even stand the very minor problems I was facing in Sint Maarten?
One day, I finally mentioned to Patrick that I wasn't finding it as easy to adjust as I'd been expecting. To my surprise and relief, he admitted that he had been finding it difficult too. We talked about our frustrations with the island. Somehow, talking about our problems made us realize how small they really were. We ended up laughing at ourselves.
And it was then that we finally began to accept that a life spent following our dreams isn't really like being a superhero. It will involve actual sacrifice (more than just going without Starbucks) and dirt under our fingernails and the occasional encounter with giant demon-centipedes. And we can't wait.

Photo Credits:

Superheroes (Tim Malabuyo)

rain forest (Husein Kadribegic)

At the beach (Christine Hawks)

Living in Sint Maarten

2011-08-23T14:12:00.005-04:00

Things I've learned/observed in my first week on the island:

Island time is a real thing. Patience is essential.
If there is a tropical storm, the road to my town floods.
However, the Domino's delivery guy can still get here.
There are herds of goats that just wander around.
The frogs start singing at precisely 6:00 every evening.
The grocery store sells chicken feet.
Little earthquakes are not as scary as I expected. I didn't even notice my first one.

Mayans

2011-08-10T00:18:00.004-04:00

Consider the Mayans. The ancient Mayans can seem pretty strange from a modern perspective, what with their human-sacrificing ways and all. So when I saw this odd-looking temple, I thought about how silly those Mayans were for building a temple that didn't stand up straight.

Turns out, the temple was built this way so that on the Autumn Equinox, the sun would shine inside at just such an angle that the dark window would glow with sunlight, which not only looked cool but was important for the farmers to keep track of the seasons.

Don't judge a book by its cover.

Colorado Adventure: Day 19

2011-06-28T13:06:00.003-04:00

Trail: I was planning to hike up Flattop Mountain and Hallett Peak today, but the group that I was planning to go with couldn't find enough participants. So that was a bit sad, but instead we got to drive to the other side of the park and walk around in the beautiful Coyote Valley trail area. It's a short trail along a scenic riverbank with some nice views of the Never Summer mountain range.

Other stuff: On our way across Trail Ridge Road, we stopped several times and used our maps to identify the mountains and lakes we could see. I had always assumed that I would be bad at identifying mountains, but after seeing them every day for a couple of weeks I've become pretty familiar with them. Each mountain looks very distinct when you get to know it.

This is the conclusion of our hiking trip in RMNP. Although we've been here for a long time, I feel like we could spend years here and not get a chance to do everything we want to! It's been a great trip. :)

Colorado Adventure: Day 18

2011-06-24T01:15:00.004-04:00

Pat and I split up for today's activities. He went on an all-day horseback ride to the summit of Deer Mountain and had a great time. Not being a horse person, I decided to hike Twin Sisters Peaks. This mountain is interesting in that it actually has two summits that are nearly the same height (hence the name). The trail, which is almost entirely switchbacks, ascends through a thick pine forest for what seems like forever (I was beginning to think I was caught in some sort of time loop) until it suddenly spits you out onto the tundra. From there it's less than a mile to the saddle between the two summits, a nice big flat area good for sitting down and eating lunch. The saddle is also home to a cool little building that houses radio equipment used by the Forest Service to rescue people. From the actual summit (either one), there is an excellent view of Longs Peak and its neighbors.

Important lesson of the day: As lovely as the open tundra is, it's a terrible place to be if you have to go to the bathroom.

Colorado Adventure: Day 17

2011-06-24T01:00:00.006-04:00

I have a new favorite hike.

We began at the Shadow Mountain Dam parking area. Our destination: Shadow Mountain Lookout Tower. You can see it from the parking area:

...if you're an eagle. It's on top of the mountain to the right of center.

The trail begins with a flat walk along Shadow Mountain Lake (this mountain is so cool that they named everything in the area after it.) We saw a moose and lots of geese.

Once on the mountain itself, we saw a TON of wildflowers. We also saw a lot of pine trees that have been killed by the pine beetle epidemic.

Once we reached the top, we were greeted by this nice tower, formerly used to watch for fires and now used by hikers to enjoy the views.

And the views were excellent!

Our car is in this picture, believe it or not.

But once our socks had dried off, it was time to go. Did I mention that the trail was a little muddy?

Colorado Adventure: Day 16

2011-06-21T13:40:00.005-04:00

Trail: Today we hiked to Ouzel Falls. The trail is located in Wild Basin, a beautiful but relatively little-used area in the southeast part of the park. The road there is dirt and barely more than one lane, so I guess I'm glad that there weren't more people. Our hike took us past Copeland Falls and Calypso Cascades on the way to the breathtaking Ouzel Falls. The view of Ouzel Falls from the trail isn't the best, so if you ever find yourself there, be sure to climb up higher to get a better look. We talked about pressing on to Ouzel Lake another couple of miles along the trail, but decided against it since it was getting late and I was craving a nice bowl of chili.

Other stuff: We stopped by the Alluvial Fan today and got to see some bighorn sheep high up on the mountainside. We also had a brief glimpse of what I think was a badger. Now if we can just find a mountain lion, I think we'll have seen just about all the big mammals in the park!

Colorado Adventure: Day 15

2011-06-20T01:14:00.004-04:00

Trail: Today I set out to hike on my favorite trail, which leads past Alberta Falls, the Loch Vale, Timberline Falls, and Lake of Glass on the way to Sky Pond. Not bad for just under a ten-mile round trip. Unfortunately, I could see storm clouds approaching as I pulled into the parking lot. I basically ran the first two miles, but I had to turn back at that point because the sky looked like this:

Hiking in the pouring rain doesn't bother me in the slightest (as poor Pat knows all too well), but thunderstorms are something else. So, that was the end of my hike for the day.

Colorado Adventure: Day 14

2011-06-18T23:53:00.001-04:00

Trail: Today we hiked to the summit of Lily Mountain. The mountain sits just outside of the park and the view from the top is great. Also because the mountain is not in the park, pets are allowed on the trail and so there were lots of people hiking with their dogs. We couldn't stay on the summit for too long because we could see storm clouds rolling in, but it was a great hike and one I would definitely do again! Also, I forgot to mention yesterday that in addition to riding horses, we hiked around Lily Lake, which sits right next to the mountain of the same name.

Other stuff: We saw a black bear today! No pictures (we were too busy gaping at it), but it was really cool. I was not expecting to see a bear on this trip. Cross that one off the list. :)

Colorado Adventure: Day 13

2011-06-18T01:10:00.000-04:00

Trail: Today we rode horses in the Glacier Basin area. I have ridden on horses before, but that's not to say that I actually know how to ride a horse. There was an awkward moment at the beginning when I wasn't sure where the gas pedal was. Everyone was saying "Just kick his sides," and I was flailing around and saying "I am kicking him!" But eventually we got going and then things were fine. I think they gave me a horse that kids usually ride, so he basically just ignored me and followed the horse in front of him. This worked out very well for both of us, I think. Meanwhile Pat, who actually knows how to ride a horse, was making his horse walk backward and tap dance and stuff.

Other stuff: Today we finalized our schedule for the rest of the time until the youth group gets here. Of course things could change depending on the weather, but we are planning to go on a guided hike up Hallett Peak on Friday! This will be by far the highest mountain I've climbed, so I'm very excited.

Colorado Adventure: Day 12

2011-06-17T02:24:00.003-04:00

Today we drove up Trail Ridge Road and explored the alpine tundra. We saw marmots, a pika, and a couple of different types of birds (not sure what species). The tiny tundra flowers are just beginning to bloom as spring arrives. We hiked a little distance up a trail, but there was a large snow patch after a while and we had to turn back since we weren't equipped for hiking through snow. Quite a few people were going off-trail to go around the snow patch, which was distressing. The tundra plants are extremely delicate. Areas that have been trampled by humans can take hundreds of years to recover.

They may not look like much, but these tiny flowers have to be really tough to live in this environment. However, they are very vulnerable to being stepped on.

Colorado Adventure: Day 11

2011-06-16T14:21:00.004-04:00

Trails: Today we hiked to the top of Emerald Mountain. The trail goes past the ruins of an old mountainside cabin that burned down decades ago. The woman who lived in the cabin was away at the time, but her diamond wedding ring was lost in the fire. We didn't find it. However, the hike was very nice and there were some great views from the top of the mountain. We had an especially nice view of Sprague Lake, so we naturally decided to visit the lake next. It's a pretty lake with a well-maintained trail circling it. While there, we saw a man very patiently teaching his little granddaughter how to fish (she was enthusiastic but didn't really understand the concept of casting.)

Colorado Adventure: Days 9-10

2011-06-15T02:54:00.003-04:00

Trail: Today we hiked to Alberta Falls, then up to Bear Lake. Alberta Falls is looking especially impressive right now since there is so much water from all the melting snow. We climbed around on the rocks next to the waterfall a little bit and I made sure Pat didn't fall in. :)

Other stuff: We had a picnic yesterday in Moraine Park and were joined by a very cute and inquisitive magpie. Today after our hike, we drove to Boulder and saw The Fellowship of the Ring extended edition at a movie theatre. Geeky? Yes. But so worth it.

(None of the pictures I took of the waterfall are very good, so please enjoy this picture of Pat instead)

Colorado Adventure: Day 8

2011-06-13T01:24:00.004-04:00

Trail: Today we hiked to the site of Lulu City, which was once a busy gold mining town with a population of about 500 people. The city only lasted for about five years, then everyone moved on in search of more gold. Today, all that remains of the city is a handful of building foundations. The trail is pretty easy and we didn't expect to be out too long. However, we didn't realize how much snow there would be! At least half of the trail was completely snow-covered, and the rest of it was very muddy (or underwater). But we made it, and the site of the old town was beautiful! It took us about twice as long to get there as we had planned and we were a little worried that we wouldn't make it back before dark. We actually made it in plenty of time, but our car was the last one left in the parking lot. Whew!

Colorado Adventure: Days 6-7

2011-06-12T15:05:00.000-04:00

Trail: Today we hiked to Gem Lake from the Lumpy Ridge trailhead. The name sounds odd but it actually describes the area really well. There are lots of strange, roundish rock formations as well as a couple of caves near the trail. The lake itself is tiny but extremely pretty. It's partly surrounded by high rock walls. It's also home to a large number of cute chipmunks. Several came up to ask us for some of our granola bars, but we declined.

Other stuff: Yesterday we took a break from hiking to hang out and explore Estes Park a bit. We found a store selling a full-size cast of a triceratops skull.

Colorado Adventure: Day 5

2011-06-10T14:33:00.004-04:00

Trail: We hiked to Cub Lake today. This trail is just under five miles round-trip but with a few steep sections and plenty of rocks in the path, making it a nice challenge. There were also a few sections that were underwater due to all of the melting snow up above us. No snow on the trail, though. The lake itself was pretty and covered in lily pads. We sat on a huge rock and watched a family of ducks swim around for a while before heading back.

Other stuff: I've heard that it takes ten days at high elevation to become 80% acclimated. We're only halfway there, but we can both see a difference already. Our first day I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without getting short of breath, and now we're hiking steep trails at a pretty good pace. It's exciting!

Colorado Adventure: Day 4

2011-06-09T01:48:00.005-04:00

Trails: It's not exactly a hiking trail, but today I walked a little distance up the Old Fall River Road. This is a one-way road up to the Alpine Visitor Center that is known for being particularly terrifying, as it's very narrow, steep, winding, and has sharp drop-offs. It's only open to traffic for about three months out of the year, starting in July. You can walk on it when it's closed to cars, though. The road is covered in snow starting just a couple of miles up right now, so I didn't walk far. However, it's quite steep (and I'm not used to this elevation yet) so I feel like I got my workout for the day.

Other stuff: On the way to the Old Fall River Road, we stopped at the Alluvial Fan, a field of debris from a 1982 flood. The flood happened when a dam on Lawn Lake failed, sending a huge wall of water down the mountain. We hope to hike to Lawn Lake at some point, depending on trail conditions (there is still a lot of snow.) This evening we also went to a talk by a photographer who is in the park doing some official photography. He has been almost completely blind for more than ten years, and he talked about how his photography gives him a different way of seeing. Really cool, and his pictures are amazing.

This picture of mine is not so amazing, but Old Fall River Road is awesome!

Colorado Adventure: Day 3

2011-06-07T23:19:00.002-04:00

Trails: Today we hiked from Bear Lake to Dream Lake. Almost the entire trail was covered with packed snow, making it look very different from how it looks in the summertime. Also made me glad I brought my snow boots. There were some crazy people hiking in sandals! The lakes all had some ice on them, though it's all melting quickly. We thought about continuing on to Emerald Lake, but decided against it due to the snow.

Other stuff: First visit to Coffee on the Rocks this trip. There will be more.

Colorado Adventure: Day 2

2011-06-07T23:06:00.004-04:00

Trails: Trail Ridge Road opened the morning of our second day, so we drove over to the west side of the park to hike. Our first trail was the short hike to Adams Falls, which is very impressive now with all the water from melting snow. We then attempted to hike from Shadow Mountain Lake to Columbine Bay, but we got onto the wrong trail at some point. Still a nice hike, though.

Other stuff: I haven't been to the west side of the park since I was a kid. Not much has changed, but a huge number of trees are dead due to the pine beetle. It was really striking in areas where the dead trees had been removed.

Colorado Adventure: Day 1

2011-06-05T23:15:00.000-04:00

Trails: For our first trail of the trip, we walked around Bear Lake. It's about a half-mile loop and has some great views of the surrounding mountains. The entire trail is covered in snow and it was a bit slippery.

Other things: Trail Ridge Road is open as far as the Alpine Visitor Center, so we drove up to take a look. The visitor center is still closed, possibly because the building is mostly covered in snow. Amazing views, though, and still a lot of snow up high. It's really cool to be here so early in the season.

Church Camp and Gay Marriage

2011-05-25T00:51:00.007-04:00

Back before I started spending my summers taking science classes, I spent three consecutive summers working as a counselor and then a day camp leader at a church camp in Iowa (two camps, actually, but that's a long story). These were some of the best summers of my life, both because of the impact I was able to have on the campers as well as getting to know the other counselors and staff members. It was awesome to meet people who, while we all had our Christian faith in common, had many different beliefs about God, the Bible, and the church. Talking to people whose beliefs differed from my own helped me to refine my own beliefs and consider points of view I hadn't considered before. I also believe that this type of environment was beneficial for the campers as they asked questions and figured out their own beliefs.

I mention all of this because I found something today while I was visiting the camp's website. There is a document, written since I worked there, describing the camp's official views regarding "marriage and sexuality." Basically, the camp believes that marriage should be heterosexual only and requires counselors to support this belief while working there.

I don't like this. For one thing, I remember camp as a place where, so long as we were clear on the important stuff (like, Jesus), we were never asked to support a particular point of view regarding issues like this. Also, I worry about lost opportunities for counselors to connect with campers who are feeling like they have to hide a part of themselves so that they won't be shunned by the church. Would it be so wrong to tell them that there is more than one way to interpret stuff in the Bible? That a lot of Christians believe it's totally okay to be gay?

A true story

2011-01-17T00:08:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I went to my favorite sushi place for lunch.
A priest, a rabbi, and a minister were sitting together at a table across from me.
I waited for the punchline, but it never happened.
The sushi was good, though.

Perceptions of gender roles

2010-11-29T14:55:00.006-04:00

If all goes according to plan, I'm going to medical school next year. Although nearly half of medical students are female these days, medicine is still very much a male-dominated field, particularly in certain specialties. I've wanted to be a doctor nearly my whole life, and nobody has ever, ever told me that I shouldn't or that it's weird because I'm female. Instead, people have always been encouraging. By going into a male-dominated profession, I'm doing a good thing for my sex.

If all goes according to plan, my husband Pat is going to be a stay-at-home dad in a few years. While I'm at work, he will cook, clean, teach our kids, and do all of the million other things that go along with being a stay-at-home parent. He is perfectly suited for this job - he will be as good at it as I would be absolutely awful. But a surprising number of people aren't comfortable with this. Nobody has any concrete reasons - there's just this feeling that it's wrong or strange somehow. It's as if by taking on a female-dominated role, Pat is making himself less of a man.

So I think that when we talk about sexism, it's not so much that there is discrimination against women in our society as it is that there is discrimination against things that are perceived as feminine. And I think that this can be pretty deeply ingrained, even in people who believe in gender equality.

What's your initial, gut response when you think of female astronauts, surgeons, pilots, or firefighters? Probably positive. Breaking down barriers. Not letting people stop them from pursuing their dreams.

How about when you think of male nurses, flight attendants, preschool teachers, or secretaries? Probably not quite as positive. It's all right. They could be trying harder. It's a little weird.

I think we really need to be more aware of this masculine > feminine bias. Then we can kill it. Ready, go!

The Many Adventures of Imposter Spike

2010-08-12T22:25:00.006-04:00

Once upon a time, my grandfather had a little gray cat named Tiger. Tiger hated everybody but was a pretty nice cat otherwise. She eventually died, and my grandpa announced that he was done with cats. My sister and I disagreed, and convinced him to let us get him a new cat from the animal shelter. We selected a big tuxedo cat named Spike, who turned out to have a much better personality than his predecessor.

Spike didn't have many adventures until he and my grandpa went on vacation. My grandpa, dad, and uncle go on an RV trip every fall. This particular year they decided to go to Canada. Furthermore, they decided to bring Spike along with them, to save us kids the hassle of having to take care of him (in other words, they were worried we'd forget to feed him.) So off they went, and all had a great time. Except they came back without Spike.

Spike had spent most of the trip contentedly hanging out in the RV. He would go outside when forced to do so, but much preferred to stay inside. But one day at a campground in New Brunswick, he suddenly decided that he'd had enough, and ran away. They searched for hours, but there was no sign of him. They left instructions with the campground manager to call my dad if Spike turned up, and continued on their trip.

We all assumed that would be that last we ever heard of Spike. However, several weeks later my father got a phone call from the campground manager. He had caught a tuxedo cat matching Spike's description, and would someone be coming to get him? So, my dad hopped on a plane and made a brief trip back to Canada. He came back with a frightened tuxedo cat in a plastic carrier and a number of scratch marks on his arms.
"Wasn't Spike declawed?," he asked. "Yes," we said. "I wonder if a cat can grow its claws back..." For the record, a cat can't grow its claws back. We all eyed little "Spike" a bit worriedly. He looked much more worried than we did, though. After some discussion, we decided to put the cat carrier in the basement for the night so that our cats and our new little friend wouldn't bother each other.

The next morning, the cat carrier was broken and "Spike" was missing. We now had a feral cat loose in the basement. Now, my family's basement gets a fair amount of use because we have a workout area set up down there, but it's also used for storage and is full of shelves and boxes. Lots of places for a cat to hide.

It soon became apparent that Spike was interested in us (we kept calling him Spike, according to the philosophy that as long as we all pretended to believe it was the real Spike, maybe he would turn out to actually be him after all). He would watch us lifting weights or doing yoga from atop some shelves, but any sudden movements would cause him to disappear immediately. We had some hope that he would eventually get more comfortable with us, but his behavior stayed pretty much the same for several weeks. He ate the food we gave him and always used the litter box, but he was pretty much terrified of us.

Having a feral cat living in your basement is interesting, but not really a good long-term plan. So, we bought a little trap and set it up so that Spike's food was inside the trap. We expected to catch him in a matter of hours, but he somehow figured out how to get his food out of the trap without getting caught. But, being slightly smarter than cats ourselves, we eventually outsmarted the little guy and caught him.

Now we had an unhappy feral cat in a little metal box, and we had to make a decision. Do we keep him, or let him go outside and pretend this never happened? Being cat lovers, we didn't take long to decide to give him a chance. So Pat took Spike to his first vet appointment.

At the vet's office, Pat warned the assistant that Spike was "kind of wild." Clearly not understanding his full meaning, she opened the cage. Spike bolted across the room. He probably wouldn't have gotten far before they cornered him, except there was some work being done at the office and a couple of ceiling tiles were missing. So Spike managed to escape into the ceiling.

The vet assured us that he was used to dealing with badly behaved cats and they would have Spike caught in a couple of days at the most. Two weeks later, after living on I don't even want to know what in the vet's ceiling, Spike was finally caught, vaccinated, neutered, and declawed. Then we got him back. We also learned that Spike had not only regrown his claws and certain other body parts in Canada, but he had also gotten several years younger. Interesting.

Up until this point, we had been hoping that my grandpa might accept this cat as a pretty good replacement for the last one, whether or not it was precisely the same cat. He refused, however, so now we had an unhappy and sore feral cat at home. We figured it would take a long time for him to learn to trust us, but we were willing to put in the time. When we first would visit Spike in his room, he would cower and look at us with huge, terrified eyes. He let us pet him and never bit or hissed at anybody, but he obviously didn't trust us a bit.

A week later, Spike was following me everywhere purring. I have never in my life seen such a change in a cat. I don't know what did it. Maybe it was the treats, or that we scratched his head behind the ears (cats love that), or that he finally had a soft kitty bed to sleep in. After two weeks he could walk around the house and interact well with the other cats. After a month he actually learned to walk on a leash. They just don't make cats like that in the States.

The New and Improved Spike, as we now call him, has since become one of my favorite cats ever. True, he's a bit destructive; to date he has chewed several important documents to pieces, knocked countless breakable objects off of counters, and pushed two cell phones into containers of water. But he is an incredibly loving little guy and can stand on his hind legs longer than any other cat I've ever seen (which looks absolutely adorable), so it's all been worth it after all.

The universe is made of numbers

2010-06-25T00:10:00.003-04:00

I've taken a lot of science classes. Science comes in a lot of different flavors, but the other day I started thinking that maybe they're all really kind of the same thing.

Biology, when you get down to its basic details, is really just chemistry. Chemistry, when you get down to its basic details, is really just physics. And physics, when you get down to its basic details, is just math.

So, the universe is made of numbers. The end.

Oliver's Big Adventure

2010-05-15T13:05:00.008-04:00

When I was about ten years old, my family bought a Quaker parrot named Kiwi. Kiwi resembled a little round potato with green feathers and a bad temper. He loved to talk, which he did very well. He also loved to sing, which he did very badly. He would sometimes condescend to sit on your hand, but this was always dangerous because his favorite hobby was finger-biting. After biting the finger of an unsuspecting victim, Kiwi would launch into high-pitched giggles. This earned him a reputation for being a bit evil.

One day when Kiwi was about eleven, Patrick and my dad decided to take him outside for some fresh air. I should mention that we had not kept Kiwi's wings clipped for several years, because he flew about as well as he sang even with all flight feathers intact. You can read what Pat has to say about what followed here. All I can say is that I wasn't home at the time. The result was that we ended up with two birds, Kiwi and his new buddy Oliver, a gold-capped conure.

Kiwi and Oliver quickly became best friends, despite their very different personalities. Oliver is calm, gentle, and cute. He doesn't talk very well, but he can hang upside-down from your hand. His favorite place to hang out is on my shoulder. He also loves shredding paper.

Well, about three years after Kiwi and Oliver became buddies, Kiwi died. Poor Oliver didn't know what to do. He sat around and moped for several days, but we made sure to spend extra time with him and he began to cheer up a bit. In fact, he had become pretty much his happy old self when Pat decided to take him outside for some fresh air. The conversation (as I recall it) went something like this:

Pat: I'm taking Oliver outside.

Me: I don't think that's a very good idea.

Pat: It'll be fine; you worry too much.

(ten minutes later)

Pat: Help! Oliver's flying away!

We managed to locate Oliver pretty quickly. He was sitting high up in a neighbor's tree. But despite our trying to coax him down for hours, the last we saw of him he was flying away into the sunset. He flies much better than Kiwi.

As we later found out, Oliver turned up two days later in somebody's backyard on the other side of town. They then gave him to a relative of theirs, who found out about a week later that we were missing a parrot and returned him.

This was the end of Oliver's big adventure. We have no idea what he was up to for his two days as a wild parrot. We hope he enjoyed himself, because he's going to be strictly an inside bird from now on!

Christmas

2009-12-09T21:20:00.002-04:00

Christmas: Family, presents, lights, trees, lots of food, candy canes, eggnog, snow, traditions, carols. And Jesus.

Speaking of Jesus, do you ever wonder what he was like as a little kid? I mean, we get this awesome story about his birth and the events around that time, but then everything skips forward quite a few years.

I wonder if baby Jesus cried a lot. I wonder when he learned to walk. What do you think his first word was? Do you think he learned things faster than most kids, or about the same? It's weird to imagine him going through all the same milestones as all the rest of us.

Monday in Washington

2009-05-19T11:36:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, we went and saw the Supreme Court in action. We got there with just enough time to get in. Like everywhere in D.C., you have to go through metal detectors to get into the building, and of course you can't bring much with you into the actual courtroom.
They weren't hearing arguments, but they gave their opinions on a couple of cases. It was pretty amazing to watch. They explained everything really thoroughly, which I appreciated since I know nothing about law. A couple of the Justices looked bored out of their minds, though. I guess being super important gets old after a while?

When we left, there was a group of demonstrators outside the building. They were all wearing matching t-shirts that said something about Jesus and had a picture of a cross. They were holding signs with a variety of anti-homosexual and anti-abortion slogans. One of them said "GAY: Got AIDS Yet?". There was a very large sign that said "Jesus commands you to judge with righteous judgment!". (Huh?)
One of the demonstrators was preaching into a microphone hooked up to some big speakers. He enlightened us by explaining that the Supreme Court is at war with God, and we "barbarians in pinstripes" need to repent or else America is going to hell...
As we walked around, we saw a lot of people of all ages wearing the t-shirts. I suppose maybe some big church somewhere had set it all up.

Maybe they don't realize what that looks like to people outside the church. Maybe they think they're really doing a lot of good, and people are going to come running to Jesus. How do you get so out of touch?

Spending Time

2009-01-14T16:35:00.002-04:00

I was just thinking about the phrase "spending time". It's kind of funny; usually when we talk about spending something, we mean money. But I guess there are some similarities.

Time, like money, is a finite resource. You only have so much to spend, and when it's gone it's gone.

On the other hand, most people know how much money they have. You know whether you're rich or poor. But most people don't know how much time they have. And also, money can be hoarded and time can't. All of your time will be spent, whether you want it to be or not.

So - if you didn't know how much money you had, or when it was going to run out, you would be wise to try and make every dollar count as much as possible. I think the same principle can be applied to our time. Since we don't know how much we have left, shouldn't we be trying to make sure that every moment is worth something?

How much you have isn't really important - it's what you do with it.

This is why

2009-01-10T00:51:00.002-04:00

Today I got to see my dad save someone's life.

We were eating a wonderful dinner at the guest ranch we've been staying at this week. We were sitting with a really fun older couple from northern California, conversing about pretty much everything and telling random stories. All of a sudden, the woman stopped talking. This got everyone's attention pretty quickly, as she likes to talk nearly as much as my dad. And then - oh my goodness! She's choking! And faster than I could even figure out what was going on, my dad was already on the other side of the table, Heimlich maneuver, and the offending piece of food was out of her esophagus. At the time it seemed like forever before she was breathing again, but now I realize the whole incident must have taken only about a minute. In just one minute, he was able to take what could have been a tragedy, and give it a happy ending.

This is why I want to be a doctor. No matter where I am, what the situation is, who needs my help, I want to be able to use my knowledge and skills to protect and preserve people's lives. I want to be the best I can be, not so people will admire me, or so I can feel good about myself, but for the sake of the people I meet.

I wish everyone knew this

2008-12-10T11:48:00.004-04:00

I wish that everyone knew that there is a God who loves them.

That's all.

What verse was that, again?

2008-11-12T17:34:00.007-04:00

So, in case you've been in a coma and haven't heard, Barack Obama was elected to be our next president a little over a week ago. Some people are ecstatic about this, and others are terribly disappointed. Meanwhile, some people honestly believe he's paving the way for the antichrist and the end of the world.

You know, there's really very little in the Bible about the end of the world. It says that it will happen, and that Christ will come back. That's pretty much all we can be sure of. But a lot of people seem to be looking out for the formation of a world government as a sign of the "end times." Thus, they see the election of a liberal U.S. president as a step towards armageddon. Where are they getting this from? Apparently there's some very creative reading going on.

72nd and Dodge

2008-10-30T14:32:00.002-04:00

For those of you who don't live in Omaha, 72nd and Dodge is a large, crowded intersection in the middle of the city. I am in that area frequently, since it happens to be home to some of my favorite places to eat lunch (Chipotle, Noodles and Co, and Sakura Bana, if you're curious). Twice during the past week, I've seen guys standing by the intersection with political signs.

The first one was a younger man, probably no older than myself, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. He was holding a homemade sign that said "NO SOCIALISM - NO OBAMA". He looked pretty serious but waved back whenever someone in a car waved at him.

The second was a middle-aged man. He was wearing normal business-casual attire, plus a cowboy hat. He was holding a sign that said something like"AMERICA is in DEBT" on one side (I've forgotten the exact wording), and "VOTE 3RD PARTY" on the other. He seemed extremely cheerful, smiling and waving merrily at passing cars.

There isn't any point I'm trying to make here. Just that people are interesting.

The Reformation Polka

2008-10-08T23:53:00.001-04:00

By Robert Gebel

[Sung to the tune of "Supercalifragilistic-expialidocious"]

When I was just ein junger Mann I studied canon law;
While Erfurt was a challenge, it was just to please my Pa.
Then came the storm, the lightning struck, I called upon Saint Anne,
I shaved my head, I took my vows, an Augustinian! Oh...

Chorus:
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let's start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!

When Tetzel came near Wittenberg, St. Peter's profits soared,
I wrote a little notice for the All Saints' Bull'tin board:
"You cannot purchase merits, for we're justified by grace!
Here's 95 more reasons, Brother Tetzel, in your face!" Oh...

Chorus:
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let's start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!

They loved my tracts, adored my wit, all were exempleror;
The Pope, however, hauled me up before the Emperor.
"Are these your books? Do you recant?" King Charles did demand,
"I will not change my Diet, Sir, God help me here I stand!" Oh...

Chorus:
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation -
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let's start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!

Duke Frederick took the Wise approach, responding to my words,
By knighting "George" as hostage in the Kingdom of the Birds.
Use Brother Martin's model if the languages you seek,
Stay locked inside a castle with your Hebrew and your Greek! Oh...

Chorus:
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation -
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let's start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!

Let's raise our steins and Concord Books while gathered in this place,
And spread the word that 'catholic' is spelled with lower case;
The Word remains unfettered when the Spirit gets his chance,
So come on, Katy, drop your lute, and join us in our dance! Oh...

Chorus:
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation -
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let's start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!

Arrowhead

2008-08-25T19:22:00.004-04:00

When I was a kid, my family went on vacation to Peru. While we were there, we spent a couple of days at Machu Picchu, the ruins of an ancient city in the mountains. We went on a few guided tours, but we were also able to roam around freely. Naturally, we took the opportunity to explore for ourselves.

On one of our expeditions, I came across something rather exciting; a small black arrowhead was hidden in one of the crumbling walls. My first impulse, of course, was to stick it in my pocket. But as I held it in my hand, I hesitated. How long had that arrowhead been sitting there? A hundred years? A thousand years? Where did it really belong - on a shelf in my house back in Iowa, or here in the ruins? I quietly put it back in its place, and left it there.

Sometimes I wonder if the arrowhead is still there. I wonder if anybody else ever found it. Did they feel as I did, that the arrowhead belonged to the ruins? I hope so.

Facts About the Death Penalty

2008-04-11T13:01:00.003-04:00

Prisons in the United States:

One quarter of people worldwide who are in prison are in prison in the United States, which incarcerates more people than any other country (7 million people compared with 1.5 million in China, which ranks second)

Half of Americans in prison are there for nonviolent crimes; the United States also has more violent crime than most other developed countries due to guns being widely available

Though it varies widely by state, the average cost to states is $23,000 per prisoner per year, with the average cost of elderly prisoners at around $70,000 per year

Though black Americans use illegal drugs at the same rate as white Americans, there are three times as many black people in prison for drug-related crimes

The death penalty:

The United States is one of just a handful of developed countries that still use the death penalty (the others include Singapore, Japan, and Taiwan).

91% of executions worldwide take place in the following six countries: China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan, and the United States, with the largest number by far in China, which executed between 1,000 and 8,000 people in 2006.

Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977, there have been 1,099 executions in the United States

The three main factors that determine whether a person will be executed for a crime are race, poverty, and geography:

Race: The race of the victim plays an important role. An individual is eleven times more likely to be executed for murdering a white person than for murdering a black person

Poverty: 98% of people on death row are poor and do not have the means to hire a skilled lawyer

Geography: 16 states and Washington, D.C. do not have the death penalty or have not used it in the last 30 years.
89% of executions are done in just 13 states, all of which are in the South or the Southwest.
44% of all executions in the United States happen in Texas, which has executed 405 people since 1977 (no other state has executed more than 98 people).

The states that execute the most people also have the highest rates of violent crime, suggesting that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent

It is significantly more expensive to execute a person than to put him or her in prison for life

Recent changes:

The number of executions in the United States has been steadily decreasing in recent years.

In 2002 it became illegal to execute a mentally retarded or mentally disabled person, and in 2005 it because illegal to execute a person for a crime committed while that person was a minor

How about we just make it illegal for our country to kill its citizens?

Every Monday Matters #3: Have AMBER Alerts Sent to You

2008-04-10T14:42:00.002-04:00

For this week's Monday thingie, I signed up to have AMBER Alerts texted to my phone.

It's pretty unlikely that I will ever be the person who spots a kidnapper, but you never know. I certainly won't be if I'm not paying attention. If more people were on the lookout for vehicles mentioned in these alerts, more children would be rescued from kidnappers. And that would be a good thing.

A terrifying story with a moral or two at the end

2008-04-07T18:11:00.004-04:00

Friday night I experienced one of the scariest events of my life. Pat and I were driving on Highway 92 when we came across an object lying in the middle of the road. I suspected it was a dead deer, as it was late evening and we had already seen a couple of deer near the road. A moment later, however, I realized it was a person. There was a man lying facedown in the middle of the road, a puddle of blood and vomit around his un-helmeted head, a motorcycle on its side a few yards away with its front end bent out of shape, and a dead deer lying on the shoulder. There was also a lone shoe and a pair of broken glasses. It was pretty easy to figure out what had happened.

I called 911 as we pulled over and went to see if he was okay. The man was unconscious but breathing. We directed other cars to slow down and go around us. Several stopped to help. I had the presence of mind to tell the others not to move him in case he had broken his neck, but beyond that I didn't do much. Future nurse...but knowing how the human body functions and knowing what to do in an emergency are two very different things. I still have a lot to learn before I'm ready to be a real nurse. Anyway, pretty soon an EMT and a nurse stopped to help and took care of him until the ambulance arrived a few minutes later. We went back and sat in my car for about an hour and a half while police, firemen, and paramedics were doing their jobs. Eventually an air ambulance came from Omaha and took the man to a hospital. Seeing that big aircraft land precisely on a tiny little beacon was amazing.

Since we were the first people there, we had to answer a few questions. However, there wasn't a whole lot of information we could provide since we didn't actually see it happen. The man died on Sunday.

There are two messages I take away from this:

1.) NEVER NEVER NEVER ride a motorcycle without a helmet. That guy would probably not have died if he had been wearing one.

2.) Don't speed. It was dark out and there were no street lights. I was driving the speed limit (55 mph). If I had been driving 65 instead, there's a good chance I might have run over him.

Every Monday Matters #2: Turn off Your TV

2008-04-07T17:05:00.002-04:00

I don't ever watch TV, so I also included the Internet in my list of things not to do. It was nice. I got a lot of homework done. Unfortunately, my new Wii arrived that day. Needless to say, the rest of the week included a lot of TV-type entertainment. But I unlocked all the characters in Super Smash Bros: Brawl!

Every Monday Matters #1: What Matters Most

2008-03-28T15:30:00.004-04:00

I'm going through this book called Every Monday Matters with Pat, and we're each going to be blogging about the experience. Basically, he's going to be blogging every Monday or Tuesday and I'll get around to it on Friday.

Day 1 is about organizing your time and spending more of it on what matters the most to you. So, here is my list of what matter most to me:

- God and my relationship with him
- Helping/serving others/the community
- Family and friends
- My education
- Health and fitness

I spend very little of my time working on any of these things. What are some things that tend to eat up my time?

- The Internet: Probably two hours a day
- Reading (not for school): Depends, but some days several hours
- Driving: Maybe an hour or more a day

How can I cut back on these things to make more time for the things that are important to me?
It seems like limiting my Internet time will be the main one, and also limiting my reading time when I am tempted to get sucked into a really absorbing book. Not much to do about the driving, except maybe being more organized so I don't have to make as many trips back and forth between places.

I think another thing that will help is waking up earlier. I am really more inclined to be a morning person, but too often the temptation to hang out with people until well after midnight wins and I don't get up until 9:00 the next morning. That kills a couple of potentially good hours.

Don't know if there's much that can be done about serving in the community; my schedule is just too random to really accommodate much community service. But there's no reason why I can't spend more time building my relationships with God and other people, plus a little extra studying. And working out, of course.

Hi, I'm a chrysalis

2008-03-13T15:35:00.002-04:00

Sitting inside a cocoon is really boring. Back when I was a caterpillar, I spent my days crawling around looking for food. It was pretty fun. You might think I envied the butterflies, but I really didn't. I liked the ground. After a while, though, it occurred to me that maybe flying really is a lot better than crawling. Butterflies have a lot more freedom than caterpillars. Sure, they don't have as much protection. But maybe it's worth it.

So, I decided to become a butterfly. I went and found myself a spot to build my cocoon. And...I'm still here. The waiting can be pretty awful. I know that I can't be a butterfly until I'm done being a chrysalis, but it's hard to be patient. Still, I can wait because I know it's worth it.

Sometimes I feel like college is a lot like a cocoon.

Haiti's poor resort to eating mud as prices rise...

2008-01-31T20:21:00.000-04:00

I'm not making this up.

Take a look.

Old Blog: Being Yourself

2008-01-25T19:25:00.002-04:00

I'm posting this old blog at Pat's request. It's a bit more than a year and a half old.

I had an interesting conversation today. A guy at camp was teasing me about the way I sit, and I was sort of embarrassed because I do sit kind of differently sometimes. He wanted to know why I was embarrassed and I said that I'd rather just be like everyone else. He asked why, and I said "So that people will like me." And then he said something nobody has ever said to me before, "I like you because of the things that make you unique." (Well, I might not have the exact wording...but you get the gist.)
Anyway, that really made me think. I've spent a lot of time trying to make myself 'fit in'...but maybe I should just be the person God made me to be.

I can't believe how much I've changed since then. I mean, aside from the fact that I know how to spell now. It's just the fact that these days it definitely wouldn't occur to me to try to act a certain way - let alone sit a certain way - to be like other people. That little incident had a huge impact on me and the way I see the world.
Oh, and guess who that guy was? No wonder I like Pat so much (though he was "Rick" at the time).

Crazy Horse

2008-01-08T20:43:00.000-04:00

I remember reading about the Crazy Horse monument for the first time when I was in elementary school. It was supposed to be a gigantic statue of a Native American chief on a horse looking majestically out over the Black Hills. Unfortunately, it was started nearly 60 years ago and never finished. In fact, it isn't even close to finished.

I always assumed that people just lost interest in it and abandoned the project, periodically remembering that it exists and doing a little more work, only to forget about it again.

Recently, on the way back from a family camping trip in Yellowstone, we stopped at the Crazy Horse monument and looked around the visitor center for a while. Everyone else watched a short documentary on the monument while I looked around the museum. We learned that Crazy Horse isn't unfinished because people lost interest in it.

Basically, the whole idea originated with one guy, a Polish immigrant, who was asked to make a memorial of Crazy Horse. For something like half of the project's life, he worked on the thing all by himself. After he died, his children and grandchildren kept it going. They have been offered millions of dollars by the government but refuse to take the money because they want to keep the project private without government interference. They don't care how long it takes to finish as long as they keep their ideals intact.

As we drove away from the not-even-close-to-finished monument, I was torn between two opinions. On the one hand, it seems foolish to refuse government help in finishing the project. It's already been 60 years and it's less than halfway done. If it takes 200 years to finish, will anybody still care? Will the Native American culture they want to promote even exist anymore? On the other hand, I do admire their determination to do things the right way, even though it's not at all easy. It kind of reminds me of Noah and his ark.

Things I Learned in First Grade

2007-10-19T10:27:00.000-04:00

I don't remember ever learning much that year as far as academics, but I did learn a few lessons about life.

1. Don't try to be something you're not just to fit in

Remember Barney the purple dinosaur? When I was in first grade, it was not cool to like Barney. We were all far too mature for that, you see. I was actually a closet Barney fan, though.

Well, one day my friend Nicole had been getting teased about her Barney lunch box. She said that she was so sad that everybody else hated Barney, and asked me if I liked him. I obviously had the chance to make her feel a lot better by finally admitting that I too was a fan. Instead, I said no and made her cry.

After that, I promised myself that I would never do that again. That promise was entirely forgotten in middle school, but now I try to remember it.

2. Sometimes people won't believe you even when you tell the truth

One day I was with a group of other kids taking a test. We were all sitting at a round table with dividers between us so we couldn't see each other's answers. I happened to be extremely good at taking tests, and was very proud of myself for coming up with the right answer to a difficult question. I was curious about whether the girl sitting next to me had also been able to figure it out, so I leaned over to see her paper.

Needless to say, the teacher immediately came over and told me not to look at other people's tests. I explained that I was just checking to see if she had the right answer, but she didn't believe me and told me not to cheat. I guess it hadn't occured to me before that other people can't tell when you're lying. It's not enough to just be honest...you also have to look like you're honest.

3. It's a good idea to listen

One day I went out to the playground for recess and found a group of kids gathered around a hole in the ground where a metal pole was supposed to be. The hole was full of muddy water. Without asking any questions, I took the pole and stuck it back into its place. The other kids were horrified and told me that there had been a frog swimming around in the water. I pulled the pole back out but it was too late for the little guy.

If I had taken a minute to ask the other kids what they were all looking at (or to listen when they told me not to put the pole back in the ground), I wouldn't have accidentally killed the frog. Not an issue of great importance but hey, I was in the first grade. It was a big deal at the time.

Maine Adventure: Finale

2007-10-19T10:14:00.000-04:00

It's over! I was not so good about posting daily, was I? Well, to sum it all up, I enjoyed my time in Maine very much.
On the drive home, the farther west I went the worse the weather got. On the east coast it was sunny and warm. Then, as I drove, the sky clouded up and it started getting windy and rainy. By the time I was back in Iowa there was a full-fledged storm! I thought about taking it as a sign and turning back, but decided to press on. It's good to be back home (and for the record, the weather cleared up nicely).

Maine Adventure: Day Four

2007-10-15T19:55:00.001-04:00

Greetings from Mount Desert Island!
This morning I made an amazing discovery. In the fall, leaves change colors! Oh, you think you know what I mean. You don't (unless you're from the northeast). At home, the leaves turn yellowish-brown and die. The sumac turn reddish and we think it's spectacular. Well, here the trees turn bright red, orange, and yellow. The sumac look dull compared to them.

I went on a hike up a little mountain-type thing by the ocean. Maybe it was actually a large hill, but I'll call it a mountain since that makes me sound cooler, wouldn't you say?
On the way down, I met a new role model of mine. This mom was out hiking with two little boys, one of whom was small enough that she was carrying him on her back in this sling-like device. This was not an easy trail, but mother and sons were all having a great time and she was being so patient with the boy who was walking. When they got to the bottom, she turned around and pointed out the trail they'd just hiked. The boys were very impressed with how far they'd walked.
I just think it's cool that she went hiking with her kids even though she had to carry one the whole way and give the other one a lot of help on the harder parts of the trail. The boys were really cute and well-behaved, too.

This afternoon I walked down to see this little lighthouse situated on the far south of the "quiet side" of the island. It's called the quiet side because it's opposite from Bar Harbor, which is the island's main tourist town. There's much less traffic over here and it has a more peaceful atmosphere.
The lighthouse is white and sits on the top of a rocky cliff right next to the house of the family who runs it. Being there made me want to join the Coast Guard and be a lighthouse operator someday.
Of course, that job might get boring after a while. But wouldn't it be fun for a month?

Maine Adventure: Day Three

2007-10-14T23:50:00.000-04:00

No internet last night = no post. No generator, either. That made for a chilly night.

On the plus side, I discovered a great way to make sure I get up on time in the morning. If my bed is extremely uncomfortable (i.e. fifty degrees), I will easily get up at 6:30 in the morning and be ready to go by 6:38. I actually timed it this morning; this is not an exaggeration.

Anyway, today (and yesterday), I drove. I drove a lot. Today I drove from western Ohio to coastal Maine. Maine looks nothing like Iowa. Also, people in Maine drive much more slowly than anywhere else, but they are also nicer drivers so I didn't mind. Lots of people in other states don't seem to like RVs much, and consider it an enormous insult when they are passed by one.

Tomorrow I should hopefully have more interesting things to write about than driving. Until then, good night!

Maine Adventure: Day One

2007-10-12T23:14:00.001-04:00

Here's how it started (very abridged version).

Me: We have to do something fun for fall break! Let's go to Maine!
Everyone else: Sorry, we can't go.
Me: Fine, then I'll just go by myself. And I'm taking my cat.
Cat: What?

That's why right now I'm sitting in a campground near Geneseo, Illinois. I'm not in Maine yet because, well, it's a long drive.

For the first 150 miles or so, I had a human passenger with me (that would be him in the picture; look closely and you can tell it's not a cat). Pat was sent on a mission to collect my sister's Hummer from its temporary home in Grinnell, IA. I gave him a ride to said town, then we parted ways.

The adventure so far has not been especially adventurous. I am okay with this - after all, I haven't even left the Midwest yet. Here are a few observations:

Quote of the day: "You've used 0% of your 100 MB limit this month - that leaves 99.83 MB"
I'm no math genius, but I don't believe that computes.

Rule for life: Apparently you aren't supposed to plug an RV's power supply in until you shut off the circuit breaker to the outlet. My neighbors were kind enough to keep me from electrocuting myself this evening.

Sad but true: The Great State of Illinois looks almost exactly like Iowa.

Can come in handy or just be annoying: People will swarm to help me with every task I attempt in their presence. I don't know if I just look clueless or if they assume that a young woman can't possibly know what she's doing with a huge RV. I can't complain too much, though...after all, I'm the one why almost zapped myself with the power supply tonight.

Mountain Climbing

2007-09-14T14:47:00.000-04:00

I come from a family of health nuts. My sister runs several miles a day. My dad eats only nasty protein/fiber yuck. I'm not in bad shape, but compared to them it might seem like it.

So the summer after I graduated from high school, we decided to go backpacking in Yellowstone National Park. It was going to be a pretty short trip, since it was our first one. Just four days and three nights out on the trail, and we'd have a guide with us.

Finally, it was time to go. We were all very excited as we set off, and for good reason. Yellowstone is beautiful, and it's a great place to see wildlife. On our first day out, we saw (from a safe distance) a female black bear and two cubs. After several miles, we set up camp, ate dinner, and went to bed.

The next day, I woke up feeling a little sore. No complaints from the others, though. We packed up and took off. Did I mention how heavy our backpacks were? I weighed about 110 pounds at the time. My backpack weighed about 40 pounds. That's not light. So I tried to keep up with the other three, but I was definitely lagging a bit.

Needless to say, it was a relief when we finally arrived at our campsite. I was ready to set up the tent my sister and I were sharing and sit down with a book for a couple of hours.

Now, our campsite was situated not far from a mountain. Not a huge mountain, just a little guy. But still, a mountain. As I was noticing this, our guide suggested that we should hike up to the top of the mountain and see the view.

HA. No thanks. You three go without me.

Unfortunately, our guide insisted that we couldn't just leave one person behind. Neither my dad nor my sister wanted to stay at the campsite, so it was either we all went or none of us did. Nasty situation. What could I do? I didn't want everyone to resent lazy me. So, I went.

It was a long way up that mountain, and I whined the entire time. My feet hurt. I was out of breath. Were we almost there? Could we take another break? This small mountain we were climbing had looked so innocent from the ground, but from my new perspective I was finding that it was much bigger than it had appeared.

And finally...the top. The peak of the mountain. And I looked out over the landscape, and you know what? It was amazing. There was our campsite, way down below. Right next to the tents was a river, and now I could trace the river back to where it began, up in the mountains how many miles away? There was a forest of big tall pine trees, and the field we had been hiking through. I wished I could paint. Or that I had thought to bring my camera.

Standing on top of a mountain is pretty spectacular. Hiking up the side of a mountain is not so great. But if you want to stand on a mountaintop, you have to be willing to work for it. Nobody is going to just whisk you up to the top. And that's a good thing. If it had been given to me for free, I doubt I would've appreciated it.

2007-09-11T16:26:00.001-04:00

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.

I believe in love even when I don't feel it.

I believe in God even when he is silent.

Random Trivia

2007-09-07T11:35:00.000-04:00

Someday I'll make a real post, really. But for today, here are some random facts from a news article about "microtrends."

Over the past two generations, the number of left-handed Americans has nearly doubled.

The fastest growing group of knitters are teens and twentysomethings.

The fastest growing group of videogamers are moms over the age of 45.

People making more than $75,000 a year are much more likely to be among the 30 million Americans with tattoos than members of lower-income groups.

Only 77 of Harvard’s 6,700 undergraduates are majoring in math. At Yale, that number is 38 out of 5,300.

Of young Californians surveyed last year, 1 percent aspire to become military snipers.

Unpleasant people

2007-07-05T16:00:00.000-04:00

Unpleasant people. We all deal with them. Where do they come from? How do I avoid ever becoming one? I don't know, but I think I have an idea.

From my extensive research - i.e. five minutes of chatting with my sister - I've concluded that almost every person I define as unpleasant (or other less friendly synonyms) has this in common: they make a big deal about things that just aren't that important.

Sometimes it takes the form of being overdramatic ("My boyfriend forgot to get me a card on the one-month anniversery of the first time we looked at each other...I'm never speaking to him again!").

Sometimes it rears its ugly head when people are too strict ("There is a 1,000-word minimum on this paper, and I will of course be counting each and every word and failing you if you are under 1,000.")...

or being a perfectionist and not understanding why you aren't one, too ("I keep telling you, it's 'whom', not 'who' in this case. Don't you care about using proper grammar?").

And of course, there are the grudge-holders, the people who obssess about appearances, the people who obssess about their significant other, the frighteningly over-protective parents...the list could go on for a long time, but you get the idea.

I can definitely see a few of those people in myself, just waiting to take over should I ever lose my perspective. So I guess the point is, remember what's important and what isn't. If it's important, defend it with your life. If it's not, be willing to forget it sometimes.

Day camp dreams

2007-06-29T11:52:00.000-04:00

I just got done with a week of day camp in Fort Dodge, IA, where I taught the second grade Bible study. That was an experience, let me tell you. Second graders don't like to sit still, or to listen for more than about thirty seconds at a time.

Well, last night I had a dream that I was back at the church, teaching my class again. The lesson was a little different, though. In my dream I was trying to explain open-source software to the kids. And the weirdest part is that they all already knew what I was talking about and couldn't understand why I would think they wouldn't.

I'm not sure why I was trying to explain obscure computer knowledge to a bunch of second-graders during Bible school. That's probably one of those mysteries that the world will just have to wonder about.

Question

2007-06-14T16:36:00.000-04:00

Something I recently asked myself:

Do I believe in God because I'm really convinced that he exists, or because I want him to be real?

I'm not sure. I'm not sure isn't an answer that I like, but that's where I'm at right now.

Dock Walk Duck

2007-06-08T22:54:00.001-04:00

Today, I went for a walk.
I walked by a dock.
On the dock, there was a duck.
I decided to chase the duck off the dock.
I ran onto the dock after the duck.
The duck flew off and left me on the dock.
What do you do when you're on the dock with no duck on a walk?

Never forget your keys

2007-06-08T22:44:00.000-04:00

This story begins one day just after I had gotten out of my car and shut the door. I was at the lovely Lewis and Clark monument several miles north of Council Bluffs to take some pictures. There I stood, holding my camera in one hand, having just used the other hand to shut the car door. There sat my car keys, inside my locked car.

Step One: Search for cell phone. Ah, yes. There it is, inside my car. How unfortunate.

Step Two: Search for pay phone. No pay phone in sight.

Step Three: Ask elderly gentleman (my only fellow visitor) if he has a phone I can borrow. He turns out to be deaf.

Step Four: Take pictures. That's what I'm here for anyway, no reason to waste all my time trying to figure out how to leave. Too bad my memory card fills up after three pictures.

Step Five: Get down on knees and pray. God remains stubbornly silent. Oh well.

Step Six: Consider walking to Grandpa's house, a good five miles away. But it's pretty hot out and I'd really rather not. We'll call that Plan ... Q.

Step Seven: Ask new arrivals to the park, a middle-aged man and woman, for help. They don't have a phone either.

Step Eight: Search for any possible way I might have missed to break into my car. There is no possible way.

Step Nine: Fellow visitors are now leaving and offer me a ride home. I gladly accept. Their names are Dave and Juanita and they're brother and sister. He lives in Omaha and she's visiting from Montana. I get to talk with them for a while and it's actually really fun.

My car was later rescued and is now safe at home. I don't recommend locking your keys in your car in the middle of nowhere, especially for the faint of heart ... but in the end, I kind of enjoyed it.