One of those days.... well, weeks...

I'm trying to get school work done. I'm trying to get housework done. I'm even trying to find a new counselor here. And I can't. I can't.

I found (liberal) gems on FB.

If this is true, it is very disturbing. It's 2012! Ladies, do we need another bra burning?

Santorum CANNOT be my president.

I cannot live in a country where Rick Santorum is the leader.

According to him:
1) homosexuals are a threat. He has said horrible things.

2) the dangers of contraception lead to more children born out of wedlock. (scroll about 4/5 of the way down).
           How does this make any sense? Stephen Colbert equated it to the way fire extinguishers start fires (on his 2/29/12 episode).

3) there should be no abortion exceptions for rape or incest. Even rape babies are a gift from God.
          Clearly he cannot begin to understand what rape does to a woman. My God is more empathetic.

4) college is a liberal boot camp for snobs. Ironic considering he has a master and law degree beyond an undergraduate degree. He was so quick to jump on Obama for the college speech.

Santorum said that:
  “There's technical schools. There's additional training, vocational training. There's skills and apprenticeships. There's all sorts of things that people can do to upgrade their skills, to be very productive and great workers here in America who provide for their families and build their community.”

Now let's look at what Obama said:
 "I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship.... this country needs and values the talents of every American.”  

5) He won't help "blah" people. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and he didn't say "black" people: who are "blah" people? Why differentiate at all? Because I get the feeling that to Santorum and Gingrich black = poor, the terms are interchangeable. And they don't understand why that's offensive. 

6) He is in the Urban Dictionary. Both he and what his name means are distasteful; how great of a person are you if that is named after you?

Let's not get started on Virgina's transvaginal ulstrasound requirement....

Just in case someone in hell is playing with snowballs and Santorum does become president, I'm going to start daydreaming of places to go live...

Ok, I'm back

I apologize that I have not posted since last fall. I hope you're still reading.

I'm back from my last two field research trips in Louisiana. We found no spotted skunks of course. But did find Hispid cotton rats and an Eastern box turtle in our traps. 

We got our usual visitors to the track plates: opossum and white-footed mice. On camera we got a coyote, raccoons, opossum, mice, armadillo, and a starving dog unfortunately...

Then I went over to Orlando to visit Liz and my brother Ben. That was a very nice break. 

Alan and I need to go to Louisiana one more time for me to defend my thesis and to appear in court against our former landlady.  Our lawyer thinks this may be in April so I need to finish up my thesis.

So then what? We have a low cost of living right now in Myrtle Beach thanks to the generosity of my parents. But there's no real job potential for me here; I'm not going into the tourist industry as a career. So we would need to move and that costs money. But one thing at a time.

And the Lord said...

So I've been going to church with my dad here in Myrtle Beach. The minister has been doing a series of sermons based on "If you want to walk on water then you have to get out of the boat."

It's based on the bible story where the disciples were on a boat in a storm and they saw Jesus walking on the waves, coming toward them. Peter, one of the disciples, says that if it is Jesus out there to command him to get out of the boat and join him. So he does. But Peter sees the waves under him, freaks out, and sinks. Jesus has to pull him out.

The idea is that if you want to do something amazing, like walk on water, then you can't stay in your comfort zone, the boat. It's about trusting God. With the weekly bulletin there's been an insert with questions to think about.

And I've been thinking about it. Mainly because while I was in Louisiana there were so many signs telling me this was not the right path for me. The landlady thing was the last straw, we had had enough.

Then my dad offers us the beach house to stay in and we come to Myrtle Beach. And in this economic climate all three of us get jobs within the first week. Not great paying jobs, but ones we all like and that will feed us.

So back to the sermons - perhaps sucking it up in Louisiana was my boat and downgrading my project to a masters and getting the heck out was my risk - climbing out of the boat.


Then this week was about what gifts do we have and are we using them or not? We often don't use our gifts because it's risky - we have fear, discomfort, and/or are complacent. In doing so we could miss out on a chance of a lifetime.

I often think of my final judgement day with God. He says, "I gave you 'this, this, and this' (fill in the blank) and what did you do with it?"

I think my time as a biologist may be over and time to tap into my other gifts and abilities. I have a supportive husband and family, my health, my smarts and I want to get back into my art, knitting, and writing. I feel driven to write a manifesto for how I think we as a society have gotten off path. The more I resist politics and the priorities of our society, the more I feel driven to write about it.

Time to get out of the boat.

Update in a nutshell

Ok, so we've moved from Louisiana to South Carolina, about 20 hours closer to Maryland, where I still consider "home."

Our bitch of a landlady has 2 days to give us back our security deposit or we're suing her. Oh how we need that money!

Fortunately both Alan and David have found full time jobs that they love. Unfortunately I have to go back to Louisiana for several weeks at a time. So I can't get my career-life going yet. This skunk project is becoming an anchor and a pain in the ass...

And I'm pretty sure I'll be a bad human mommy because my doggy children and my Henry child irritate me to no end recently. It seems like everything and everyone is needing from me and I'm running out of things to give.


Oh! So while I was taking Alan lunch one of the dogs (of course I don't know which one) chewed on a travel vial of ibuprofen (I don't even know where they got it from!). It was crunched shut so I don't think they really ate pills.

So I spent my afternoon trying to chase them down to squirt salt water down their throats to induce vomiting. The only thing I induced was Jockimo to spiral squirt diarrhea throughout a good chunk of the living room. I took me hours to clean it up.

But hey! I go swimming in the ocean every day!

I did it again...

I found this little darling running around outside a Walmart. She had a collar that had staples in it and was cinched too tight with zip ties. Of course no tags. Of course I took her home. Besides missing some hair on her throat from the collar that was way too tight, she was in relatively good condition. She took to our cats and dogs.

At first I thought about putting Found signs up, but then I wasn't sure I wanted to give her back to someone who did that with her collar. They probably couldn't afford a new collar, and thus couldn't afford her. I was also grateful that they left her at Walmart and didn't dump her in the woods.

The fantastic women at PAAWS (through whom we got Reeves and helped us with the litter I found) have a foster home for her. They'll get her vet care, spayed, and microchipped. We have a friend that when he gets back home next Monday, he wants to adopt her. If all goes well we'll be able to see her at the dog park all the time!

I would not hesitate every time I see a dog in need, to bring it home. We just can't keep any more...