Oceanskater’s Blog

Noodles and Roy are smelling all the candles we bought to give as Christmas presents - to decide which one to give to who. Noodles keeps trying to lick the ones he likes. It’s quite cute

We gave Noodles a bath the other night (because he got into 2.5 lbs of coffee, but that’s another story), and he’s quite a bit thinner than he was when we got him. He only has about 4 more lbs to lose (he’s lost about 12), and then he’s off the diet food and on to some hypoallergenic blend.

Pictures of Noodles:

In the animal shelter (May, 2006):

At our house-warming party (July, 2006):

In his bath the other night (December, 2006):

He’s quite slim!

During our last-minute shopping yesterday, we had several discouraging experiences that threatened my Christmas spirit. The one that really got me thinking was a bumper sticker I saw:

“Republicans Are People, Too. Mean, Selfish, Greedy People”

This was very interesting, especially in light of a recent study on America’s generosity that I had been reading about. Dr. Arthur Brooks wrote a book entitled “Who Really Cares?” and was on 20/20 talking about it. Here are some of the statistics:

Americans are 3.5 times more generous than the French, 7 times more generous than Germans and 14 times more generous than Italians.The American working poor are the most generous by a rather large margin. Conservatives give 30% more than liberals. He adds, “And incidentally, conservative-headed families make slightly less money.” Of the top 25 states where people give an above average percent of their income, 24 were red states in the last presidential election. And the most generous of all are those he calls “religious” - they give 18% more at blood drives and 400% more to the homeless.

Another interesting quote from Brooks: “A person who goes to church every week and strongly rejects the idea that it is the government’s responsibility to redistribute income will give, on average, 100 times more money to charity each year than a person who never attends a house of worship, and strongly believes that the government should reduce income differences between people.” 100 times!

Since “conservatives” do tend to be Republicans, I’m not sure I can agree with the above bumper sticker, especially since I know some really great Republicans

I wanted to post a picture of a house nearby that gets all decked out for Christmas. First of all, this house is huge and without all the decorations, it looks like a castle. Have a look:

This house is huge, first of all! Look at how small this person is compared to the house:

Here are 2 more pictures:

It’s pretty crazy because the house is on a busy street and everyone slows down to take pictures of the house.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Roy & I went away for the weekend to a conference, and while we were gone, Noodles got into some fancy European dark chocolate in our roommate’s room and ate 16 pieces.

I was so scared he was going to die. It’s amazing how attached I am to that cutie pie.

Thankfully, the dogsitter misunderstood our instructions on food and fed him twice as much as he was supposed to get. Since his food is high-fiber, I think it absorbed all the chocolate. She also fed him some burnt toast. Since it had been so long since he had eaten the chocolate, it probably wouldn’t have helped to make him throw up. And our vet won’t even talk on the phone unless you pay $50. (Of course, we would have paid the $50, but we were in NY and my cell was barely working, so the dogsitter went on the internet and it was highly likely he needed to eat like 10 times that amount of chocolate to be anywhere near toxic.)

Noodles seems fine, though hilariously (is that a word?), he is visibly fatter. I’m not kidding

Tomorrow is Election Day! Please, everyone, get out and vote. And make sure to pray before you do.

Here in Massachusetts, we have some ballot questions. I understand the 1st one and know how I will vote. I also understand the 2nd one, but I don’t understand the ramifications of it. And the 3rd one I’m totally confused about. So I’m going to go look into those.

Here’s a picture of Noodles from my friend’s camera on her computer:

The world has been talking a lot about for forgiveness lately after the tragic deaths at the Amish schoolhouse. So many are amazed in particular at the humility of the grandfather of one of the girls who was killed.

But I’m not really surprised or amazed at all. Because I recognize the power of forgiveness and the freedom it has brought me in my own life.

People often think of justice first, forgiveness second. Forgiveness without justice seems unfair to people, even impossible. And forgiveness without justice also just seems unfair.

We can usually think of 100 reasons not to forgive. They probably sound something like this: He should learn a lesson. I don’t want to encourage irresponsible behavior. She needs to learn that actions have consequences. I was wronged - he needs to make the first move. He needs to ask for forgiveness. How can I forgive if he’s not even sorry?

We can usually think of 100 reasons not to forgive before we remember the one good reasons to forgive: because we have experienced the ultimate forgiveness through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

In the New Testament, the most common word translated as forgiveness means, literally, to release, to hurl away, to free yourself. On the flip side of that is resentment. It means, literally, “to feel again”: resentment clings to the past, relives it over and over, never allowing healing.Philip Yancey wrote this in “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”: “Not to forgive imprisons me in the past and locks out all potential for change. I thus yields control to another, my enemy, and doom myself to suffer the consequences of the wrong.”

What that Amish grandfather demostrated is really a very simple truth: our lack of willingness to forgive only hurts us.

“The first and often the only person to be healed by forgiveness is the person who does the forgiveness…..When we genuinely forgive, we set a prisoner free and then discover that the prisoner we set free was us.” Lewis Smedes in “Shame”

This news story today caught my eye:
Fugitive polygamist sect leader caught near Las Vegas

I remember when this story “broke”. I watched a video of one of his teachings. Now it’s especially interesting to me because I’m reading this book:

I picked it up for free at a yard sale this weekend. So far, it seems like a very fair depiction of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The author is very clear to distinguish the FLDS from the Latter Day Saints that we call Mormons. It’s also a very interesting historical perspective on all that surrounds the beginning of the Mormon church.

I don’t generally read this type of book, but I’m enjoying it quite a bit!

As I mentioned, I was in New Orleans recently. The reason I was there was to take part in a protest at the American Psychological Association’s convention.

I and approximately 40-50 others were there to ask the APA to uphold its right to client self-determination in all cases. This is a tenet of the organization, but they don’t seem to allow it to be applied to those who have questions about their struggles with same-sex attraction. I’m not much of a protestor (anymore) and I always try to stay out of politics (I commented more on this recently in my comments in the entry “Stuff”). After I received the invitation to attend, I thought about this quite a bit and Roy & I prayed about it and discussed it. We decided that it would be good for us to be there. As the day approached and I continued praying, I felt more & more strongly about being there. There were several times in my 6+ years of counseling prior to becoming a follower of Christ when I brought up questions and doubts about my sexual orientation to my therapists. My doubts were always silenced. My counselors told me that I was born gay and that I should accept myself as I was. I tried, but ultimately decided I would be happier either being celibate or possibly one day married to a man. I know that my therapists meant well, but I can’t help but wonder how my life would have been different if one of them truly allowed me to voice and explore my questions.

There are some other good blog entries about this here & here.

I also got to see some sites and hang out with some friends while I was there, which was very cool.

As a general rule, I really try to distance myself from politics. I feel that to be involved in most political arenas could cloud Alive in Christ’s mission, which is why I generally steer clear of most things that could be viewed as “political”. But I realized not too long ago that my life will always be “political”, in some sense of the word. Just the fact that I lived as a lesbian for 10 years and now live as a married, heterosexual woman is a political statement I can’t avoid. I don’t know if that makes sense or if I’m voicing it quite clearly, but it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about. If I form thoughts that have more clarity than that, I’ll be sure to post them here

Amazon Grocery? How bizarre!

I listen to this rather serious radio show, where everyone from co-dependents to porn addicts call in to get serious help. Yesterday, this woman called in because her boyfriend talks about farting and burping too much. It was just hilarious compared to everyone else calling in with DID and sex addiction.

I don’t know why, but I think the whole Bush/Blair conversation that was inadvertently caught on microphone was hilarious. It doesn’t even bother me, really, that Bush swore. But I can’t help but keep saying, “Yo, Blair! Thanks for the sweatah!” (Of course, that’s my Boston accent coming out.)

It probably also goes without saying that I am thrilled that Bush vetoed the Stem Cell bill. Thrilled! He’s right - he said in a press conference that these embryos are not “spare parts”. It’s sad for me to hear people call stem cell research on frozen embryos “progress”. What’s even scarier, in some ways, is that all these frozen embryos even exist. That’s a whole nother topic. But I heard a radio show today with families who adopted the embryos and now have babies.

The original couple who sued for gay marriage to be legalized in Massachusetts are splitting. Crazy (as in hard to believe/imagine).

A friend who came over for our house-warming party last weekend said the pictures I post of Noodles look nothing like him. So here he is again.

Noodles in Kitchen:

Noodles in Dirt:

Noodles Getting a Bath:

Noodles After His Bath:

I don’t know if people from outside New England hear about this stuff, but Patrick Kennedy has been on my heart and in my prayers this week. If I understand one thing, it’s the heartbreak of addiction, and the heartbreak of having a family member in & out of rehab. I guess that’s actually 2 things Anyway, if you’re the praying type, do say a prayer for Patrick and his family.

Did I mention that I had a birthday this week? I went to my 2 favorite restaurants - Taco Bell for lunch and Shawarma King for dinner! Roy got me a little gourmet carrot cake - num, num. It was all-in-all a good birthday.

And as of 1:30 PM today, Roy & I are officially homeowners! I feel so grown up. Now we can get a dog! I went to the MSPCA to visit some dogs last week, and left practically in tears. I wanted to take them all home, especially a cute pit bull terrier named Bella. She was the only dog not barking, and when I put my hand near her cage, she just gently licked it over and over! It just broke my heart. I think I’m going to have to stick to looking at the dogs on the MSPCA’s website.

My pastor was also on NPR, broadcast across the country.

Listen Here

I mailed my taxes! Thank God. I must have spent at least 20 hours on those things. Very painful experience, as was writing the checks Thankfully, next year, it won’t be nearly as painful.

Things are progressing with our upcoming condo purchase. I can see God helping throughout the process. As our mortgage broker said, “Somebody is looking out for you.”

My pastor was also on Fox 25 News in Boston on Saturday night. We had visitors at church as a result on the article and the news broadcast. That’s pretty cool

My church is in the Globe!

From pulpit to iPod

How funny is that