Feather Antics

Teresa and I perfected this little scenario with encouragement from Rachel (Brice, filming) and Rachel (Bryant, bystander). Feather wear from Hairtillery.

Blaze of Blue

I just had to share these amazing pictures of a kingfisher from National Geographic. I hope it increases your love for our world and the other critters on it.

Parsnip Sneak Attack

So the other night I realized that my camera had a "continuous" function, where I hold the shutter button down, and it snaps away until I release the button. I shot this picture of me and Cappy

And then continued to hold down that button in continuous mode, and caught a bit of hilarity. I sense Parsnip behind me

I look to see if she's actually there

In moving my head, Parsnip gets excited by my moving braid, and attacks it!

Her nails dig into my neck-OW!

And she darts away as the pain sets in like she was never there in the first place

Flying in Dreams

I don't think I've ever flown in my dreams. However, until I was 19 or so I thought I could continue to stay in the air as long as I kept jumping mid-air, because I mixed my dreams up with reality. So if I were this lady, I'd boost myself up right now, and maybe again, and make it all the way across the street before landing. I definitely have these jump high, jump higher, stay in the air! type dreams pretty often still. What about you?

Troll causes Contemplation

An anonymous person left some insulting comments on a blog post of mine from a couple years back yesterday. I immediately assumed it was a troll, and thought "it'd probably be best to ignore this," but decided to comment back, to give the person the benefit of the doubt. True to troll form, I was greeted with another insulting comment. Step one: change comment moderation settings. Step two: I have actually given quite a bit of thought to what this person has accused me of, used it as a reflection/contemplation point about where and who I am in my life. The details of my life left in this person's comment are somewhat creepy, but not crazy--nothing that I haven't put out there for the world to know. This person seems to have a good handle on stalking someone online, but from the sound of it, I don't think it's anyone I've ever met face to face.

I'm glad this comes at this point in my life when I'm more able to look back objectively on the recent past instead of still feeling caught in it. Instead of letting this insulting snafu grind me down further, I am able to look the situation in the eyes, search its soul, and come out on top. I feel really good about my life. I know that I have done my very best in school, and that certain situations that were out of my control conspired to make continuing vet school impossible for me (but not for lack of trying). I know that my intentions in school/travel have always been for the good of others, not for padding my resume or showing off. I am proud that I am continuing with these intentions, despite some major setbacks. Although I do my best to meet people on level ground, I know that I have lived and will continue to live my life in a way that is not completely conventional, and I accept that some people might feel annoyed, threatened, or offended by this. I am willing to listen to any constructive criticism (welcome it!), but strong enough in my convictions to know that spending any more time on non-helpful criticism is wasteful and counter productive to anything meaningful in my life.

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I think Ben summed it up nicely. "This sort of thing is hurtful and disheartening. But you know, in your life there are going to be people that hate you, just like there are people in my life that hate me. You just gotta think, 'are they trying to be helpful'? No, they're trying to be mean. So, mission accomplished. They were mean. Next!"

Ever have a similar situation? Did it make you question your life in any way? Were you able to come away from the situation changed for the better or stronger in some way?