Kristen's Nature Blog

A Piece About Sledding on Hospital Hill as a Child: The playground neared all too quickly as I coursed through the snow at hyperspeed. My body became as frozen as the ice accelerating the sled that I squatted on. I had no opportunity to plan or even think of hopping from my sled and diving into the plush protection of the snow. As the bars of the playground that jutted from the earth, threatened to bring me to an abrupt halt, my body at last reacted. My arms let go of the handles and rose to protect my body and I leaned to the side, causing the board to slip out from beneath me and fly in one direction as I flew the other way. I was pelted by the snow under me as I tumbled forward, one of my legs colliding with the navy blue bar. The immense pain was enough to make me feel ill, and worse yet, I could hear the laughter of the kids around me. Embarrassment clouded my cheeks with a red pigment, further dissolving my white skin tone. The cold air had already pinked my nose and...

Pro: 1. I am a responsible human being. My boyfriend acts like a child sometimes and I successfully take care of him. I mean, he's alive. Con: 1. Sometimes I can hardly take care of myself. I don't have time to be healthy, let alone keep a growing creature healthy, too. Pro: 2. I really want a furry companion. Somehow, fluffy dogs just make life a little easier. I'm a stressed girl and a creature who would depend on me and cuddle me sounds delightful. Con: 2. I hate picking up poop. And there are times when I feel like I need space. What would I do then? Pro: 3. I love being active and I love going to the dog park. Con: 3. Sometimes I go straight from school to work, so I don't even have time to go outside. And when I don't work, I have a ton of homework. Pro: 4. When I become emotional or unstable, I'll have a pup to make me feel better. Their presence alone is calming. Con: 4. Pets are so very expensive. Shots and food. I can barely affor...

Today, my boyfriend (Diego) and I began watching Planet Earth II on Netflix. After watching the anime series Devilman Crybaby, we needed a serious spiritual booster. So we let ourselves fall into the embrace of Sir David Attenborough's deep, narrative voice as he began showing off a series of adorable creatures in Madagascar. My favorite critter was probably the lemur. They were such cute little guys who did nothing wrong. In particular, I adored the glimpse of the sweet Bamboo Lemur, which hid behind a little throng of bamboo stems. Cuddled up to Diego, it was very nice to see cute animals being happy. But then things started going pretty south and oh my goodness. Now, first we touched base on Komodo dragons, which I loved to call big, burly babies. They were huge--about eight feet in length and weighing at 200 pounds--but the way they walked was actually adorable. Due to all of their bulk, in order to walk, their whole body sort of sways left and right. It's like watc...

My Spring Break was doused with snow. A lot of it actually. Unfortunately, I do not have the kind of money to send me south for a week, and so I stayed tucked away in small Sioux City to work and be lame. The break began Friday after my final class, but I had to work that night and most of Saturday so I wasn't able to enjoy the tidbit of time when the outdoors hit fifty degrees. Luckily however, after church on Sunday, my boyfriend and I were lucky enough to get to take his aunt's husky to the dog park for the first time. It really turned out to be a lot of fun. We got to walk around and meet other owners and pet other dogs while ours pranced around and had a ton of fun drooling on smaller dogs and leaping over big ones. It was really the highlight of my week. Afterwards, we took our husky, Bentley, back to my boyfriend's aunt's house and gave Bentley a well deserved bath. He came home muddy and wet from the remaining traces of snow, which he really lo...