See? Turtles.

July 15, 2009 — GraceKathryn

It has been a few weeks since I have posted a blog. I’ve needed a break and I have been getting overly emotional and angry lately at the drop of a hat about political issues, so today I am simply going to write a boring educational narrative about an amazing “beauty of nature” experience that I was blessed to witness during my trip to Florida last week.

Because my husband, my brother, and I naturally all stay up really late, we frequently go for late night walks on the beach. Coincidentally, three different species of sea turtles lay their eggs at night between 11pm-3am on the very same beach we vacation at, the most common of these species being the Loggerhead turtle. For the past 3 or 4 times we have gone to Florida, we have seen at least one adult turtle during our late night walks – and frequently we will see more than one turtle on a trip. These turtles are older than me, and some loggerhead turtles have been known to live close to 200 years. That, in itself, is awe-inspiring to me.

(For context, we always go to the same resort. I have been going to this same resort since I was a child, and my mom’s family has visited Pompano Beach, FL since she was about 15 years old).

Here are a few pictures of the mama turtle we saw this year. Yes, I used flash photography. I know now that you are NOT supposed to do that. I will not ever do it again. I feel very bad about it now. There is no need to scold me. I feel bad enough about it on my own. The mother turtle had already laid her eggs when we came across her and took these pics. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure…

Mama Turtle Nesting

Mama Turtle Nesting

She is Older Than Me

She is Older Than Me

Returning to the Sea

Returning to the Sea

However, this time was special… about 10 minutes after we saw this mama turtle finish laying her eggs and swim off in to the sea, we had the distinct honor of witnessing an actual loggerhead turtle nest hatch. It was so amazing. I am not usually a person moved to tears at the beauty of nature, but I felt honored to get to personally witness something so beautiful, from only feet away. I could have actually picked up one of the baby turtles, but I didn’t want to damage them.

I found this video of a loggerhead nest hatch in North Carolina, and this is pretty much exactly what it looked like, only there were not quite as many babies in the nest we saw. There were maybe 60-90 hatchlings in the nest we witnessed. We sat and watched the entire thing – from the time the the sand was just beginning to stir to when the last baby made it to the ocean… about 20-30 minutes total. As a woman from the hatchlings group told us when we first showed up, “Once they start to come up, it looks like popcorn. They all just crawl out at once.” That was exactly how it was. And before they started popping out of the ground it looked like a cauldron of soup bubbling full of turtles. It was so neat!

You can watch this video if you want to see what a loggerhead turtle nest hatch looks like.

Posted in My Life, Travel. Tags: , , , , , , , . 2 Comments »

God and Country, and Oklahoma

July 3, 2009 — GraceKathryn

Yesterday, Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern caused a big stir and a media frenzy (49,100 results on 7/3!) with her offensive and blatantly factually inaccurate Oklahoma Citizens’ Proclamation for Morality. First of all, let me say that (surprising as this statement may be to those who are familiar with many of my political and social views) I am an unapologetic Christian (Methodist, baby!). I believe that Jesus died for my sins (and for yours) and came to redeem the world from sin, suffering, and death. I also believe that it is all Christians’ job in the world first and foremost to promote justice and to alleviate suffering throughout the world while spreading the gospel (Mother Teresa style)… NOT to go around condemning people. Didn’t Jesus himself say something about how the person who is without sin should throw the first stone? You can go ahead and label me a crazy fundamentalist now for being a Christian.

As a believer, as a human being, and as an American, I am horribly offended and repulsed by some of the claims made by Mrs. Kern in this proclamation. I do not agree with the ACLU on a great many things, but I do agree with the ACLU of Oklahoma wholeheartedly on the following:

The proclamation blames the economic downturn we are currently experiencing on abortion, pornography, divorce, and same sex marriage, among other things. Kern does not mention the greed of Wall Street elitists or the inability of our government to effectively regulate questionable financial practices that might be the true cause of our nation’s economic difficulties. Her proclamation is silent to meaningful solutions to address the very issues she blames for the “downturn of morality.” Kern’s proclamation, which amounts to a hate-filled diatribe, is full of inaccuracies. This proclamation alienates thousands of Oklahomans who are adherents to minority faiths or who practice no faith. It is unfortunate that she and others would promote such a divisive manifesto at a time when Oklahomans need to pull together to weather this current crisis.

Well said. I would have been at the state capitol myself protesting the signing of the proclamation, if I had not had to work yesterday afternoon.

For other eloquent refutations of Mrs. Kern’s vile proclamation for “morality,” see Rep. Al McAffrey’s blog entry and Rep. Ryan Kiesel’s speech. Mr. McAffrey and Mr. Kiesel are both Christians, too, by the way (I added this point not because I think it adds to their credibility – their points would stand as solid and well-reasoned regardless of religious belief – but only to illustrate that not all “Christians” are of the extreme right-wing Kern/Coulter/Limbaugh variety).

One other “God and Country” tidbit. The ridiculous GET MOTIVATED seminar was held in Oklahoma City a few days ago. I did not attend this event and have nothing to say about it… but I highly recommend Two-Headed Blog’s wonderful commentary regarding said event. One of their authors had the “honor” of attending. It’s a great read: Motivate This

On a personal note, the 4th of July is tomorrow and I’m off to a much needed vacation in Florida with my extended family. Fortunately these are people with whom I usually can avoid political and religious related conflict (because I agree with most of them on the most sensitive issues and can just use avoidance tactics with the others). I’ll be sipping on frosty beverages and watching the fireworks on the beach tomorrow night. This trip is much needed. I have become so upset by close-to-home political goings on in the past few weeks (and by political discussions I have had with people I know), that getting 1500 miles away from Oklahoma should do me a lot of good.

My laptop is coming on vacation with me, but it’s very unlikely that I will post anything for the next week or so. I also may not be able to moderate comments or reply to comments while I’m gone. Suburban Kitsch will likely be silent for a little while. Being a loudmouth is taking its toll on me – not that I post anything too terribly contentious on this blog (the worst of my soapbox speeches are usually displayed on other people’s blogs and comment pages).

Have a wonderful 4th.

Posted in Fundamentalism, My Life, Politics, Religion, Travel. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , . 6 Comments »

2008: Thumbs down?

January 2, 2009 — GraceKathryn

It seems like EVERYONE I know and all the articles I have read lately agree that 2008 was a horrible year. Here is a short list of things that happened to people very close to me this year:

April – My mom-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer; she spent most of the year going through chemo treatments, surgery, and radiation therapy. The treatments messed her up so bad that she is now permanently disabled and will likely never be able to work again.

May – My brother sprained his ankle in one of the worst ways possible.

Summer – My dad-in-law was diagnosed with an advanced stage of prostate cancer. He’s still going through radiation therapy.

September – Coming home from a podiatrist appointment for the messed up ankle, Wes (my brother) was rear ended in a car wreck that almost killed him. The driver fell asleep at the wheel and hit him going at full highway speed. Wes broke his neck and a lower vertebra, sustained a traumatic brain injury, and possibly permanent nerve damage manifesting in his legs being cold all the time.

Fall – My work lost a HUGE contract that we’ve had for about 20 years. This decreased the college’s budget by over 10% a year (It might actually be bigger than that, I could have my numbers wrong). In the meantime our college’s president declared a hiring freeze, so we can’t hire anyone to fill vacant positions. All of us are asked to pinch pennies.

December – My mom had foot surgery for a tumor she’s had in her foot for years, and to cut some tendons that have been pulling one of her toes completely sideways. She hasn’t been able to stand up for very long in months, and there were only two pairs of shoes she can wear b/c all the others were too painful.

On the other hand, 2008 was good in a lot of ways (especially for me personally):

I still really enjoy my job (that I got in mid-2007), and in spring 2008 I got a promotion. My job allows me to get a Master’s degree with 50% off tuition, and I started the Master’s of Public Administration program in fall 2008 (with two A’s to boot!!!). Despite the penny pinching and downturn in the economy, I’m really not at all in danger of losing my job… it just might get a lot harder if people leave and we can’t hire anyone to replace them. Fortunately we haven’t had a single person leave our department since June (which may be because of the challenges of finding a job right now).

I got to go to San Francisco for work in early April. Jared came with me for part of the time. Neither of us had ever been there before and we both had a great time.

At the end of April, I completed the OKC Memorial Half-marathon! (the key word is completed. I didn’t run the whole way, and finished at just over 3 hours. My goal for 2009 is to run the entire race). Wes and my sis-in-law Lori both ran the race in April (and Lori actually beat Wes by a lot… he looks forward to a rematch in 2009).

In May, the day after Karen’s (my mom in law) first chemo treatment, my sis-in-law Kerri gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Lily. We were honored to have Kerri and Steve (bro-in-law) hang out at our house in Norman during the labor. Lily is an adorable baby. She played with our little dogs a whole bunch last week at Christmas and found them to be hilarious.

My job allowed me 5 weeks off work in the summer to go to to the UK with Jared for his law school Oxford summer program. Having lived in Oxford for the better part of 5 weeks, I got to know the town pretty well. I also got to travel all over the UK (London, Cornwall, Bath, York, Edinburgh) and to go to Paris for a weekend. I strongly recommend going to York if you ever have the chance to go to England, and Cornwall was the most beautiful place Jared and I have ever been (I recommend staying in St. Ives).

During the time we were in Europe my mom-in-law had surgery to remove the (at one time cancerous) lump from her breast… she followed up with radiation therapy in the fall and she is now CANCER FREE and is growing hair again! (the chemo caused all her hair including eyelashes and eyebrows to fall out).

Wes’ car wreck in September didn’t kill or paralyze him despite a broken neck, and the one potentially good thing to come out of the wreck is that because he was in a neck brace for two months, he was forced to rest the messed up ankle. Now the ankle is hurting him less even when he runs. (However, the insurance settlement is still pending, which sucks).

Another job-related blessing for me this year – I GOT OUT IN TIME. Before I started working at my current job in 2007, I worked at a mortgage servicing company that had a pretty big portfolio of Lehman Brothers loans. In case you didn’t pay attention to the news at all in 2008, Lehman Brothers went down in flames a few months ago. I don’t think anyone at my old place of employment lost their job because of it, but the loans we serviced were getting messier and messier right around the time I left and continuing to the present. I shudder to think about still having to work there.

The 2008 election season was rife with fiery conflict between Jared and I and people we know (as election seasons usually are)… but now I’m excited about the coming Obama presidency. I don’t think the country is going to change dramatically because of the new administration, but it is like a breath of fresh air. It’s really cool that we will have a leader that most of the non-US western world views favorably. (Now if only John Edwards hadn’t screwed up so spectacularly by cheating on his wife while she was undergoing cancer treatment and he was campaigning for president… that one goes on the “why 2008 sucked” list, I guess).

…so 2008 wasn’t a total loss for me. Lots of people haven’t been quite so lucky, though. I’ve read a bunch of facebook statuses lately saying how 2008 sucked. Why was 2008 a crappy year or a good year for you?

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We’re goin to Texas… We’re goin to Texas…

April 28, 2006 — GraceKathryn

Well, I’m off to Austin this morning to go see William Lane Craig, Peter Kreeft, and Frederica Matthewes Green speak at a C.S. Lewis conference on Saturday. See my main page for Dr. Craig’s lecture on the absurdity of life without God.

Yes, I am extremely excited. Yes, my husband and I are huge nerds. Christian Philosophy conferences are what all the cool kids are going to on their vacations nowadays…. Haven’t you heard?

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