And things are finally settling down. Maybe??

This year has been a crazy one, even by our standards.

There was the Big Move, of course, and finally graduating with my Master's.  A new niece was born in the summer.  These all would be enough to make any year pretty eventful.  But of course, things didn't stop there.

It has also been the Year of Broken Things.  In order:

• I broke my toe the week before we moved.  Not fun spending the first several months of our time in HI in a boot or walking shoe.  Besides being hot, it also meant being unable to hike or go to the beach (walking on sand is hard!!) or spend time just walking about playing tourist :(
• Two computers have died and been repaired (both thankfully within warranty, but one did die the DAY before we flew out from TX - I nearly cried)
• My car arrived in HI and immediately needed repairs
• The cat is starting to have some age-related problems (manageable, but still...). 
• And the stress caused my eyes to start showing their age.  Apparently I've always been far-sighted and just never needed glasses before, but the stress of this summer was the breaking point.  When I can't focus on the stitches on my knitting needles, that's not good.

And yes, this was all surrounding the move out to Hawaii and Zach being immediately posted to Korea for an extended temporary duty (he'll be back in Spring).

And all this has been in addition to the craziness outside in the world.  Several of my favorite actors have passed away this year, as well as a favorite children's author (Anna Dewdney, of Llama Llama fame), and of course the election with it's toxic build-up and post-election fall-out.  The world outside has been a pretty stressful place too.

I'm not trying to sound negative.  Lots of good has happened this year as well.  The move, graduation, new niece, new job (actually in my field!!).  I've had a bit of chance to explore, get involved, meet new people.  A chance to travel out to visit Zach in Korea too (still labeling pictures from that trip).

So, if anyone was wondering why I haven't been writing much this year, this is why.  Life has been quite a lot this year.  Every time I sat down to write here, I was either too tired to think coherently, or I'd been on my own too much and it felt like everything I was thinking was just pouring out, and it felt like I was oversharing.  It made it hard to find that balance where I was just comfortably writing. 

Hopefully 2017 will be a bit calmer and a bit saner, but still with some adventures to be had. 

Happy New Year everyone!

PS - one thing they don't tell you about moving to Hawaii is the extreme love of fireworks!  We had 6 hours of fireworks going off in the neighborhood yesterday!!  Not fireworks shows, just firecrackers in the neighborhood - and we live in a quiet neighborhood!  Started about 7-7:30ish as the sun went down, and was still going at least until 1:30am when I finally was tired enough to just pass out, despite the noise!  Scruffy and I BOTH slept in this morning - way too late for us.

I blinked and Spring happened...

Well, I knew this spring semester was going to be a doozy, but I didn't realize how big until I sat down to write today and saw my last post was from DECEMBER!  Yipes!!

But, lots has happened in the meantime, so for a quick catch-up:

• I am in my final semester of grad school, and almost done with that (only 5 more weeks now!!)
• I finished my End of Project Exam in February.  This is the capstone exam for my degree program - Written Comps/Comprehensives, some might know it as.  Basically a looong week of writing papers, trying to demonstrate in your answers that you are fully synthesizing what you have learned over the past three years.  Pretty draining, with the way I write papers.  But all is good; I've been notified that I've passed.  One more box checked off before graduation!
• I finished a pair of blankets for my niece and nephew.  THE blankets, if you've heard me talk about them.  Quite the project, but finally all done and being enjoyed by the little ones :)
• We had a whirlwind trip to New Mexico with Mom for a marathon.  There are so many pictures from this trip, that it will have its own set of posts.
• And the big news (as if all that wasn't enough): Zach and I have moved!  We are now in a hotel in HAWAII looking for housing as Zach in-processes at his new job. After 5 years in TX and 3.5 in the desert, we are in Hawaii!!  Water!  Mountains!  Trees!  Very very exciting!!!!  But more on that in another post, since the whole move has been a saga unto itself.

So, yes, a few more posts to come over the next few days, with plenty of pictures.   I've time to write again, now that the semester's winding down and I'm not working at the moment.  Just consider this a teaser for now, so stay tuned :)

IFLA WLIC Day 5 - Meeting people

Networking, networking!

Part of the benefit to these conferences is the ability to meet people face to face, swap business cards, build those connections.  And I'm doing my best to strike up conversations.  As I mentioned yesterday, it's not my strong suit, introvert that I am, but librarians on the whole are a pretty friendly, helpful bunch.

As I've been talking to people, I've been asking about career paths and schooling.  Librarianship is such an unusual field in terms of grad school.  We all need our master's (or at least most countries require it) but unless they want to teach, few get into the field thinking "I want my PhD in Information Science."  That's very different from my undergraduate degree.  Scientists pretty much know if they will need advanced education, and if they will need it, most go straight through to the doctorate (or at least the ones I know).  At most, it seems they might take a year or two for some sort of work-study or Fulbright or Peace Corps sort of project.  But I know very few librarians, either in my grad school or those I've met at events like this, who have gone straight through.  A lot of people seem to get out and work for a couple years (or more) and then find their way back to a PhD program for one reason or another.  Common advice I'm hearing is to get involved in the IFLA and/or ALA committees.  They are good ways to get to know other professionals, and also to learn some of the opportunities and possibilities out there for librarians.  More chances to figure out how I want to focus my library career, and possible ways to go about doing it. 

As for me, I'm still learning my options.  We will be moving to an actual city in April, and there will be a university there with a PhD program I could enter.  I don't object to further education, so in terms of the work, I have nothing against earning my doctorate.  But with moving around so unpredictably, I am unsure if I should get my PhD while we're in a city where I can, or if I should wait, or if I need it at all.  Will I spend all that time and effort and expense to earn my degree, and then end up getting stationed at Ft Irwin or Polk or someplace else so remote there's no chance to use it?  So, as I chat with people, I'm also trying to pick their brains, get advice, and hear their story of how they ended up where they are.

Speaking of where we'll be in the future, I've met one librarian who teaches at the university there where we'll be stationed in the spring, as well as a couple people who will introduce me to others (people who know people, in other words).  Here's hoping that it'll help get my foot in the door next year, and make moving to a new area a little easier (in the job search, at least!).

I'm also meeting non-librarians (who'd've thought!) and it's very interesting talking to people from all over.  At the reception last night, for example, I had a great conversation with a college kid from Montreal who had come along with his mom before heading back to school in the fall.  We talked about beaches and the coast (the reception was at an aquarium, after all) and travel and sites in Cape Town and the surrounding area.  I've only had a little bit of tourist time so far, but what I've done hasn't been what he's done so far, and vice versa, so it was interesting comparing notes.  He said that he'd be shark diving this week, so hopefully I'll see him again later this week and be able to hear how that went!

Colorado Trip: Colorado Springs

So while in Colorado Springs, we had to see the sights.

The Air Force Academy. After Pike's Peak, it's one of the first tourist destinations people think of when they think of Colorado Springs. 

I love the symbolism in older or larger churches.  Part of why I love visiting cathedrals.  This one had its share as well.  Not as much religious symbolism in the overall building, since several faiths are served by the one building, but symbolism nonetheless.  The building uses a lot of aluminum, like the large cross in the Protestant Chapel.  The aluminum is meant to reference planes (Air Force Academy, after all).  And the backs of the pews have a strip of aluminum similar to the edge of a fighter plane wing.  The ends of the pews in the Protestant Chapel too, which are sculpted to resemble old airplane propellers. There are more specific examples in each of the individual chapel rooms, making it a very interesting building to visit.

 

Oh, and in the Catholic chapel there?  A statue built on a computer reconstruction from the shroud of Turin.  I couldn't get a picture of the statue itself, being in the chapel, but there's a view of the finished statue in the description below.  The display outside the room went into how they reconstructed the 3-D image from the shroud.  It was really cool!

 

Back into Downtown, a more unusual stop we made was the Money Museum, home of the American Numismatic Association.  C'mon - you knew we'd have some geeky museum stops too!  This one had some interesting exhibits, really, especially for someone who's collected coins for years.  They have a large permanent exhibit on the History of Money (yes, they have one of those giant rock coins) and the temporary exhibit was on money in the Civil War.  And did you know there is a Numismatist Hall of Fame?

The last real "sight" in town were the trail runs we took.  Colorado Springs is a brilliant place to live if you like being active and outdoors.  Besides the trails in the mountains just outside town, there are hiking and biking trails running all over the city.  Our friends live under a quarter mile from one of these, so several times during our stay we went out for a run to enjoy them.

With the hills in Colorado Springs, it's very easy to get up above the rooftops (or a lot of them, at least) and it gives you a great view.  Running at dusk meant that we got both gorgeous sunsets and wildlife coming out.  Kinda crazy turning a corner and seeing 9 deer just having dinner during your evening run!

 

 

After visiting my in-laws who live near a park and visiting our friends here, I have to say that having easy access to running trails is VERY high on my list of things to look for when we move next!

Oh So Pinteresting Wednesday - Quote Scarf

Almost through February now - Week 8 already!  This year is flying right along!

This week is a lovely project that I fell in love with soon after I first stumbled onto Pinterest.  The original DIY instructions are from Stamp48, with the original inspiration piece being a scarf from We Are Owls' Fall/Winter 2010 collection.  Like Lauren over at Stamp48, designer cashmere scarves are a little (read: solidly) over my budget, no matter now gorgeous they are.  So, I followed her instructions on how to create a similar scarf of my own.  What follows, as always, are the original instructions, with any notes, advice, alterations, etc. that I used in making my own version of the piece.

What do you need:

• a scarf, pashmina, length of fabric, etc. that you want to decorate.  I used a pashmina I found on sale, a nice and inexpensive woven wool blend.
• a fabric paint pen.  I used Fabric Mate, a chisel-tip paint pen, which was perfect, as I could make my writing angled and 'swoopy' and pretty :)
• a quote you like
• optional - painter's blue tape, or similar removable masking tape
• also optional, but highly recommended - something to cover your workspace (I used my knitting blocking boards)
  
  

  

What do you do:

1.     Protect your workspace, particularly if your scarf is thin or your brand of paint pen tends to bleed.  I have interlocking blocking boards for my knitting, so I laid out three of them as one long rectangle, and it was the perfect size for my pashmina.

2.     Lay out your scarf.  I left mine wrinkled, as I liked the effect that the texture gave to the lettering.   

3.     I anchored my scarf to the craft mat I was using (i.e. my blocking boards) with some blue painters tape.  I didn't pull the scarf taut over the boards (like I said, I liked the texture), but the anchoring of tape did help cut down a LOT on how much the scarf slid around as I wrote.

4.     Write out your quote on the scarf.  Yes it really is this simple. 

5.     Follow the instructions for your particular paint pen on how to set the ink.  For the brand I used, all you had to do was let it dry for 24 hours.

6.     Shoo away helpful kitties to take a picture of the finished project.  I swear, there's a crafter deep down in that cat - so many of my craft projects have him investigating/sitting atop my work!

Things to consider:

• I practiced my quote in a font I liked on paper first, to get the spacing as I liked it.  Nothing fancy, just a regular lined notepad worked fine, but it gave me an idea of how big to make my letters. 
• Lauren over at Stamp48 also suggested practicing on a similar fabric, to get used to how the pen writes on your particular material.  I skipped this step, as I had no similar fabric to practice on.  However, I was using a long quote and had practiced my lettering on paper beforehand, so I just wrote slowly at first to get used to the pen.  I also was using a fabric pen more like a marker than a paint pen, so didn't have to worry as much about ink bleeding or how hard to squeeze the pen to control ink flow.  A little thing I hadn't considered when shopping for a paint pen, but it turned out to be a nice little bonus.

• I did estimate how many lines I would use to write out my quote, and used a tape measure to roughly mark approximate spacing for the start of each line of text.  Just plain sidewalk chalk worked perfectly.  An extra optional supply, I guess, depending on how you want your quote spaced.  I wanted it relatively evenly spaced, but not too precisely so - the inconsistencies give it a nice handwritten feel.
• I let my ink dry a little while the scarf was laid out, and then went back over some of the letters.  Some just needed some extra emphasis (like the starts of the lines of text), some letters were just kinda light to begin with.  Means that my scarf took a little to dry, but I liked the ultimate effect.  Just another option to play around with to give your scarf a personal touch.  
• Thinking of ink drying... Don't wear long sleeves, particularly if you're also a lefty.  It's the chalkboard effect all over again (Am I dating myself now?  Do many schools even still use chalkboards?)  At any rate, I had dark purpley-blue ink all down my fore-arms when I was done.  Lovely smudges that looked like bruises until I washed my hands... and my arms all the way to my elbows!  I hadn't smudged the writing, as I wasn't writing that quickly, but I did end up with ink all over.  In short, be prepared; you are working with ink after all.  Don't wear anything you wouldn't want smudges on.

What quote did I use?  One of my favorites from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

I'm a worrier, a fretter, an over-thinker.  As my life becomes more hectic with more Army moves in the future, and grad school rapidly approaching, I wanted something to remind myself to let go of what I can no longer change and focus on doing my best with what's ahead.  I'm fond of accessories that have hidden meanings like that - charms on a necklace or bracelet, quotes on a scarf, that sort of thing.  No one else might see them, but I know they are there, and it is a nice reminder for me.  Like I said, I'm a stress puppy, so every little thing to help keep me sane :)  And if it's a pretty scarf to drape around my neck, even better!

Temporary Hiatus!

I know I've been a little spotty on posting over the lats few weeks, and I know it'll continue for another few weeks.  But I've got a very good reason:  We are moving - FINALLY!!  After 3 years and almost 4 months (but who's counting) we are finally headed outta Irwin!

To be totally honest, we have already moved.  We are no longer in the isolated, beyond-the-edge-of-nowhere, lost-in-the-CA-desert, little post that we've been stuck at over the last 3 years.  I write this post from a Chick-Fil-A in TX!

Yes, I know that TX will still be a world of oddities (it is TX, after all), but it's a whole lot closer to the weird little version of normal that we know and grew up in.  For example, I'm in a Chick-Fil-A!  Aaah, back in the land of sweet tea, humidity, chicken biscuits, and hair that's actually allowed to curl (as opposed to being flat-ironed within an inch of its life).  Apparently, no one has curly hair in SoCal...  but that's another soapbox entirely.  This place is not The South that we're used to - as mentioned, it is TX, which is different from anywhere else on earth - but it's a heck of a lot closer to our version of Normal than the SoCal desert ever was!  :)

But, as I said above, it'll probably be another few weeks to get everything in the house totally unpacked and set up and have everything back to running like it should.  Be patient, and I promise I'll have stories of the move and the new house and all sorts of similar goodies!  As for now, boxes of kitchen dishes await...

Thoughts

One of the hardest things about this place is the moving. This particular post doesn't have a supporting community (i.e., it's not actually IN a city). That's alright in some ways (very few), but it also means that there is little continuity in the community here. Everyone you meet that stationed here, you know will be moving in (most likely) 2-4 years, depending on what their job is and their orders and so on. In a regular post closer to or in a city, there will be many more people that you meet not connected to the military, people who choose to live in that city and plan on being there for many years to come. Not that we don't have people working on post who commute up from our closer towns (45 minutes and 1 hr 20 min away, respectively), but many fewer than in a post IN a city.

I am just mentioning this little ramble today, because yesterday another good friend left the desert for greener pastures (and I mean that literally - anywhere's greener than here!). We thought we'd have them here until the spring, but good news came through for their orders, and they were out of here more quickly instead. Good for them, but it means we do start missing them earlier than we expected.

Now that we've actually been here a few years, we're starting to lose our social circle. Military moves come seasonally (for the most part), and the last few rounds of moves really haven't affected us. This spring though, we've been hit hard, with a lot of friends heading on to their next duty station. I know if I lose any more key people from my social circle here, I'm going to be very depressed. It's hard to rebuild important social outlets when you know your own time left on a post is relatively limited. Takes a while to really build your social network at a new place, and by the time it's nice and comfortable and established, people start scattering again! It's good for them, moving on with their careers, new opportunities and all, but it just means there are more people to keep in touch with electronically than in person. It's like that joke, "I love my computer, because that's where all my friends live"!

There is a superstition at this post that if you stop at the main gate as you drive away for the last time, and give the coyote statue there a farewell kiss, then you won't get stationed here again. Just an average superstition like any place has. But those of us still left at this post have started joking about being left behind, "If we see one more person post on Facebook about kissing the coyote...!"

Just a moody little posting today, really feeling the come and go of friends, feeling a little lonely, and needed to ramble.

So, it's been 3 weeks now...

I guess it's time to tell y'all a little about how life is out here in the CA desert. Yes, I did just use y'all - I may not be the most su'th'n girl here on post, but I do firmly believe that y'all has a valid grammatical use, and I intend to keep using it :)

Anyway...

Post is tiny. And isolated. And brown. And dry. That's pretty much how to sum it up. It's definitely in the middle of nowhere. It's odd though - there's so much to do in this area of the country - national parks, LA, Vegas - just none of it HERE. It's all here, if you're willing to drive a bit. Lots of things in day-trip, or weekend-trip, or long-weekend-trip radius. Just nothing here on post. As for "in town," it's about 30-40 minutes into Barstow, the nearest town (which isn't much of a town - I might have mentioned that). It's about an hour, give or take, into Victorville, which is the closest real town (i.e. bookstore, mall, Target, ethnic restaurants... the good stuff). We're getting used to having 2 shopping lists going, one for 'in-town' and one for 'on-post.' (And yes, everytime I think of going 'in town,' all I hear in my head is "Don't go into town, Tonto! Don't go into town!")

Post itself is about a mile radius. Well, at least the inhabited part of post is. The rest of post is very big and very empty. Useful for training purposes, but not so much for the people who live here. See?

This picture was taken on one of my runs, through my neighborhood and the one next to ours. It's a view of post from a hill, looking out across post. And yes, that is the end of the inhabited part of post you see in the distance there. I do rather like this picture, though, as it IS a pretty view from that hill, and all pretty and hazy at sunset. Still, it is rather unusual to see the complete other side of town from where you're standing...

One of the oddest things I'm having to get used to is the brown-ness of everything. Our houses are tan with brown roofs, and all the office buildings and such are either brown or tan, and yards are just plain brown. Even the fire hydrants are brown here! Supposedly this is actually the green season, and one of the greener ones at that, but I'm having a hard time believing that. I'm sure I'll realize how green it was come July, when everything is BROWN. :) Some trees are kinda green - but check out the daggers on this one! Not an inviting plant! From one of Zach's co-workers, those thorns can punch right through the soles of your shoes!!

But, at the same time, post does have some pretty moments. :) I just have to make sure to look for them! I think that's the only way I'll not go crazy-homesick for water and green and people - look for something nice each day about where I am, something to appreciate, something I wouldn't find anywhere else. Sounds like a simple strategy, right? I just have to remind myself about it sometimes though :)

Well, I think that's all for tonight. Thoughts on the new job will wait 'til next week, and thoughts on desert landscaping are going to be a whole 'nother post unto themselves!

Little by little!

Well, we've been here in CA about two weeks. In our apartment just at a week and a half, in fact!

For the most part, things move along nicely. Our kitchen is almost entirely unpacked! Very exciting. Can actually cook and stuff :) And we're starting to get the furniture we need too! For example, the bedroom and closests would have been unpacked before now, except we needed to get a new dresser. Apparently 2 people have more clothes to store than 1 - who'd'a thought? So we picked up dressers over the weekend and Zach spent Sunday assembling them. They're up, together, and actually in the room they belong in, too! Zach's even starting to get clothes into them. Woohoo! Granted not all too much time to do that once he'd spent the day assembling them, but little by little, we're getting there!

And we have bookcases now in the library/craft/Joey's room/Room o'Allergies (as Zach calls it). Even better, the bookcases are all assembled too! And stuff on them! My Sunday was spent unpacking the books for the bookcases. And yes, we did fill all the bookcases I'd estimated we'd need. Zach couldn't believe how many books we had either! I knew how many I had, though, and he pretty much filled a case with his own books, too, so can't blame it entirely on me :) I just didn't want to give up all my favorite books prior to moving. Books are my friends! And on a post this tiny, the library just doesn't have enough to keep me busy for the next 2 years (ONE Rex Stout title!!! He wrote about 70!)

Joey's settling down, too. I think he likes the new place - plenty of space to hop around in. 'Course the cardboard boxes all over the place are certainly good for him too! I'd like to let him be a bit more free-hoppin' since with all the storage space, there won't be so much stuff Out in bunny-range. I've even figured out how to 'bunny-gate' the bookshelves so the books are safe from nibbly sharp-pointy teeth. He wasn't too amused at that though ;) We'll see how it all works out!

Best of all, I have a new job!! I don't think I've told you all this, but I do have a job, and a 'real' one, too - not just waiting tables or working at a teller somewhere! Completely lucked into it, but it looks like good folk to work with, and it's full time, and it looks like I'll enjoy it too. I'm a bit nervous, never having managed anyone or anything, really, but the folk I'll be working with are really nice and friendly (I've met about half 'my' staff, and my director) and seem really willing to work with me, so that should be really good. So, still nervous, but excited too!

haHA!

I have a camera cord again! Huzzah!

So, to catch you all up pictorially with the goings-on the last two weeks, here goes.

Lots of packing up, loaded it all into cars, then went south to FL to visit family before heading west. In FL, tried to see as much family as possible, and even had a day down at Mandalay (grandparents' place down on the river in the FL panhandle). Zach became truly one of the family, spending much of the afternoon at Mandalay in the hammock, and having the chance to drive the Whaler, too, as we went out to the Flats. Saw 3 active osprey nests, so that's a good sign for the summer too. :)

In TX we stopped first in Houston to visit more family. Figured we weren't going to be heading that way again anytime soon, so better try and see as many folk as possible, right?

From Houston, we had a VERY long drive across TX. Western TX is a horrible drive. Very flat, very brown, very boring, and very endless.

AZ and NM were brown and desert-y too, but they were much more scenic, so the drive wasn't that bad. And I felt like such a little tourist, because I was giggly-excited over seeing saguaro cacti for the first time! :) They really are cool looking though!

Finally getting to CA was stressful, honestly. I've grown up on the coast, and the east coast at that. Arriving in the middle of the SoCal desert was about as different an environment as you can get, and still stay in the same country. :) More on my impressions of the post and the new place later. For now, I've got to get back to unpacking. It's very exciting - actually starting to look like a home!

Yes, I know...

Still no pictures. That cord's around here somewhere though! :) I'm taking plenty of pictures, though, because the apartment's actually starting to look like a home now. Very exciting! We've got a bunch of the major furniture up in the apartment now (thanks to some help from our kind neighbor downstairs) and starting to be able to unpack the boxes. Need somewhere to put the picture frames and books and such, right? So, yes, very exciting now, with our home actually starting to look like a home :)

Even better, I've interviewed for a job, so hopefully I'll hear back from them early next week. I don't want to talk about it too much (don't want to jinx it, y'know?) but please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Even though I've been moved to the middle of nowhere, I'm really actually pretty excited about it. I feel like I've been given a fresh start here. I'm out of Horrible Job, and all the life-sucking stress that went with it. Even simple things like cleaning or dishes or laundry would seem like insurmountable obstacles when I was working there; I just came home so DRAINED from work. Here, I'm starting to feel like myself again - I feel like I might actually be able to have more of a life here in the middle of nowhere than I did in SC! I know it probably sounds silly and overly romantic, but I'm really trying to stay positive about the move and all the changes that have come with it. :)

Settling in

Just a quick note this morning. We moved into our apartment yesterday. We got one in the middle-aged neighborhoods on post. Not the new ones, only a year or two or three old, but not one of the old crummy ones. It's not horrible, just a few more nicks and dings and scratches on the walls than a newer place, but there's SO MUCH STORAGE!! It's awesome! We have a one car garage, a second bedroom, and more closets than my old place did. It's so much bigger! Makes me very excited, because I think now I can have all my stuff sorted so that I can have my hobbies (particularly my books and my yarn) in their right places, without Zach feeling claustrophobic or cluttered. Yay! The extra space will be great for Joey too, because I won't have so much stuff out, which means he can run a bit freer in the apartment, and so much space for him to hop around, too! He's already been exploring a little, and seems to be settling in. Just having the world stop moving is a nice change (compared to last week, spent almost solidly in the car).

Meanwhile, I'm applying for jobs here on post. Slim pickins, but that's what you get when you're living in the middle of nowhere. On the upside, several MWR facilities are hiring, and apparently desperate for morning people. When your staff is either high schoolers or people with kids, having someone available at 4 or 5 in the morning is nice. They've been really excited about me possibly coming on.

Also on the to-do list, besides applying for jobs, is unpacking, particularly to find my camera cord. Once I find that, I can post pictures of the trip, the fort, and our new place. I know it's somewhere around here, but if only I could find the box it's in....

Oh yeah...

Forgot to add this - silly me.

Yes, we have arrived in CA. Drove FOR-EV-ER through the desert this past week (Texas does NOT end!!!!), and arrived in Ft Irwin on Saturday morning. Have been working our way through offices and paperwork, and it looks like we'll have a place to move into on Wed. Woohoo! So, we should have a real address by the end of the week (well, we'll have it before the end of the week, hopefully, but I might be buried under boxes unpacking, so it might take longer to get it out to everyone). Joey will be thrilled with all the new cardboard to attack in the house :)

Right now, we're hanging out in the Army Lodging, and catching up on a LOT of missed sleep. I'll have pictures pulled off my camera soon, so check back and you can see pictures of our trip, visiting family, and our final arrival here in the desert. But, yes, we have arrived. And are very tired :)

WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!

I have survived Horrible Job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have beaten on me emotionally, physcially, financially... there is no aspect of my life they have not tainted. Two years and two months of my life they've had, but no more!! Today was my last day here!

Granted this means that the whirlwind of moving will seriously kick up now - finishing packing up the apartment, loading up the cars, scrubbing out the apartment, driving days on end to arrive in the desert .... (Thinking of which... Seeing that we're about to head cross country, I probably won't be posting much over the next few weeks. I might be able to give an occasional update along the way, but most likely, the next you hear from me, I'll be in the SoCal desert!)

But no worries about tomorrow yet - I made it through my time here! Freedom!

Am I a horrible person?

My office is giving me a good-bye party tonight, and I'm not going to go. Does that make me a horrible person? Before you get on my case about 'office solidarity' and 'team-building' and such things, I have a series of very good reasons for skipping out. Please read through

1. My friends at work are not going to be there. Two are out of town on jobs, one now works for another company, and one has an eye appointment this afternoon where his pupils will be dilated (translation: he'll be veeeery out of it). My last friend here at the office isn't going to go if no one else is, so we jointly decided not to go :) We had our going away party on Saturday for that reason - big ol' cookout at Tom's, where I had a chance to hang out with and say good-bye to people I'll actually want to keep in touch with.
2. The people who will be there are ones I either (A) don't like, (B) detest, or (C) am so indifferent to, it doesn't matter (we've got a handful of non-entities here in the office) To give you an idea of how well these people know me, my office manager was even laughing that I'd have an excuse if I wanted to "get plastered" tonight and not come in tomorrow. Being very friendly and all, but has the man ever seen me drink a beer? How the heck am I going to get wasted on a beverage I can't stand the taste of?
3. I was never asked where I wanted to go. The decision was made for me. Don't think I'm sulking about it - it just means that as a result, we're heading to a bar I don't like. It's not a bad place to go, good assortment of pool tables and games and such, but it's inconvenient for me and it's a microbrew-specialty place. They actually don't have a liquor license, so no 'hard stuff' - nothing but beer and wine. Oh, wait - I don't like beer OR wine. I don't drink much, but the drinks I do like are mostly mixed drinks, shots, and liqueurs.
4. I've a bunch of stuff to finish up in the packing line of things. I need to do laundry (I don't want to move more dirty clothes than I have to - would rather pack them clean) and pack up a lot of the stuff I've been using this past week. Mom and Zach visited last weekend and we got most of my stuff packed up, but I still had to leave out a bunch of stuff that I was going to use this week - pots and clothes and bathroom stuff and the like.
5. It's not just a going-away party for me. It's also celebrating an office-record-sales month. So, if I don't go, it's not like the 'excuse' for the party is not going to be there. All they need is a reason to get together and drink beer on the company dime - I've given them the excuse, now no need for me to be there.

So, in summary, I think these are good enough reasons to skip out. I have things I'd rather be doing (or simply need to do) than hang out watching people I don't like get drunk.

I think I get so frustrated about this because I don't like feeling guilty for not 'playing the game.' I don't like hanging out with these people, but somehow you can feel like you're not 'part of the team' if you don't go along and do these things. If I had my choice, I'd never see most of these people outside the office EVER. But over the two years here, I've gamely gone to the Christmas parties, the office celebrations, the good-bye parties, and occasional happy hours, like any good little corporate peon. And I've suffered through every minute of it. It's not so much a happy hour for me, as an hour-of-impatiently-watching-my-watch-waiting-til-enough-time-has-been-spent-at-the-bar-for-me-to-leave-gracefully. I just can't stand those things. So, since I don't have to kiss anyone's rear around here any more, I'm not gonna go (not that I ever did much ass-kissing 'round here - more trying to be so low profile, no one notices me). Time to show that I DO have a backbone!

On the other hand, going and getting completely trashed and chewing out every moron working here would be kinda refreshing... Too bad I'm a sleepy drunk and not an angry one. There's probably something nice and cathartic about tearing into idiots you don't have to be polite to anymore....

Quick Update

No, I'm not dead. No, my computer hasn't crashed. I have been kidnapped by two cruel and uncompromising slave-drivers and forced to pack my worldly belongings into cardboard boxes prior to a mandated trek thousands of miles cross-country.

So I've been busy.

On the upside, I have managed to keep myself, Joey, and my computer from being packed into said cardboard boxes, and can manage a quick post tonight.

All is well, aside from my apartment being packed into stacks of brown boxes. The apartment's a little empty-feeling, with all the pictures off the walls, and I haven't been able to pick up my needles for several days now. Very frustrating. I'm now a dishcloth behind in the monthly-along. I know that sounds silly, but I really want to keep up with that. Maybe in the hotels at night after we're driving for hours each night. :\

Oh well - the remaining slave-driver is demanding I return to work now.

Coffee break's over, back on my head.

Moving is such Fun!

If you can't hear the sarcasm in the title, please let me try again:
Moving is such FUN! :D :D :D

It's not the relocation that's the problem; I'm actually looking forward to that. I know Ft. Irwin is small and in the middle of nowhere, but at least it's close enough to big cities and parks and things so that you might not feel quite so isolated. I mean, yes, it's quite out there, but you can get to a lot of places for a good day trip. A lot of things to take advantage of within easy distance. I know I said that about Greenville, too, but the people are a bit different on a military base than in smaller-city South Carolina. And everything I've heard about the Ft. Irwin community is positive - you're all in the same boat, so the community is very supportive as a result. And there's always the added bonus of getting me out of Horrid Job here in Greenville! :)

It's the actual process of moving that's starting to get to me now. I'm in my last 2 weeks here in SC, and it feels like there are 8 million things to do, with time to do about 6. Not 6 million... 6. Yeah.... not a fun feeling. I am trying to get things sorted and cleaned up and cleaned out, get travel arrangements lined up, prepare for leaving this job and starting a new one... Quite a to-do list. And to make things even worse, my stupid response to to-do lists like this is a crushing, paralyzing sort of feeling. I struggle against it and get maybe 2 things done, but can't get over the feelining like I'm climbing Everest. Bah! At least I can recognize it for what it is, and not just get lost in the wallowing. :\

Doesn't help, either, that it's an Army move. It's so hard for Zach and I to get answers to questions when I can do so little to help. We still are in separate houses, with him finishing up training in Columbia, and me still here in Greenville. With Columbia being the military area and Greenville definitely not being one, it's very hard for me to help Zach get questions answered. He can actually stop by offices to pester people. Of course, that doesn't mean he gets helpful answers, either. They seem to have the biggest hang-up over moving from 2 locations. Don't seem to get that we just got married and haven't combined households yet - that doesn't mean it's not his stuff!!

Just have to take deep breaths and keep pluggin' away. Sort, sort, pack, pack... It'll all be over in a couple weeks - by March 22, we'll be out in CA!

Wallowing

Blargh. I hate these days.

Work is draining (though with branch manager gone, it has been a noticably less tense atmosphere in the office these past two days - hope he's gone tomorrow too). But it's like senior-itis - I feel like I've got miles of things to do, but no time or energy to get them done, and a part of me doesn't even care if I do get them done. And the rest of me recognizes that this attitude isn't like me at all. Like I said, draining.

Getting ready for the move is exciting, but overwhelming sometimes (a lot of the times). It's exciting to have a new start ahead of me, get out of this job, this town, but I worry about how much can actually change, y'know? I know - I'm a worry wart.

Nothing to be done, I suppose, but try to get to bed early tonight and try again tomorrow. Not a long or exciting post tonight, but I feel neither rambly nor exciting. Just gotta keep plugging it out one day at a time.

Is this an omen?

I opened my Penguin bar after dinner today, and the joke on the wrapper was:

What do you call a penguin in the desert?
Lost.

Oh dear....

Kickin' off the pre-moving bucket list!

Today, Zach and I woke up early and drove over to Atlanta. Totally worth the 2 1/2 hr drive. I've been over there before, but it was work-related, so had little time to sightsee. So, today, we checked off a few things from the East Coast Bucket List there in ATL. 

First up: Turner Field.

This one was totally for me. I grew up watching baseball (particularly the Braves and Cubs), and that's really the only sport I seriously follow. Grandparents and uncles are Braves fans too, so that's where that came from (Dad grew up in upstate NY and was a Yankees fan as a result), and I just started following the Braves and the Cubs since those were teams we could reliably get games for (Yay for TBS and WGN!). I keep up with other sports, but I actually enjoy watching baseball more than the others.

Not Zach. Zach doesn't watch baseball and couldn't care less. Still, he tagged along gamely as we went to Turner Field and took the tour. True love, right? Definitely not a baseball person though, and I doubt he'll ever be more than patiently quiet with me during a game. :)

I'd've loved to have gone to a home game while I was so close, but since my social circle here is very small, I didn't feel inclined to drive 2 1/2 hrs one-way to watch a game by myself. Maybe when we get back to the east coast. Or maybe I'll be able to find someone to go watch a game with me out in CA! Who knows?

It was really impressive though, since I'd never been at a major league stadium before, and it was neat just seeing these places I'd only seen on the TV. The press box, the announcers booth, even the dugout with the managers' phones. I know it was only the visitor's dugout (the Braves one was offlimits due to off-season construction) but it was still really cool! And I got to see the Coke bottle where they shoot off the fireworks, too! I hadn't ever seen it up close on TV, and didn't know it's made (decorated) with old baseball memorabelia. At the neck it's bats, around the 'band' of the bottle, it's got jerseys, etc. So cool!

Next up: Georgia Aquarium

Very impressive, but a little bit of a let-down too. Don't get me wrong, I loved it. The whale sharks and belugas were awesome, and the penguins were particularly perky, and the tropical fish and loggerhead turtle were great (very cooperatively photogenic!) But at the same time, it only took us about 4 hrs to go through the whole thing. Monterey's aquarium was a bit smaller size-wise, but still took us 4 hrs and we didn't even get to see everything! Zach and I were talking about it, and we think the difference was the amount of written material available. The aquaria were impressive, but the displays and exhibits and descriptions were smaller, less to read, so it didn't take us as long to go through the whole thing. Still worth the trip, though, no doubt! The belugas alone I could have watched for hours!

If you do plan on going on the weekend, though, make sure that you go either early morning or later in the afternoon. Based on our schedule, we got there around lunchtime and stayed through til we were getting hungry for dinner at about 4:30. It was crazy-busy in some areas! Definitely still a BIG attraction in Atlanta. Not so bad that my agoraphobia was kicking in, but it was still very loud at times, and is just something that should be accounted for. 

(Side note: I knew I married the right guy when Zach couldn't help but mention Baby Beluga every time we talked about the whales - yay for Raffi fans!)

Finally: dinner at the Varsity

Celebrating 80 years of heart-clogging drive through dining this year! The first Varsity was founded in 1928. The reason I wanted to go, though, was that Mom and Dad dated there (Agnes Scott-GA Tech students), so I've heard stories about it. Dad always used to joke about how the physics students could study perpetual motion there at the Varsity, since the counters in the back were so greasy, you could slide something along it and it wouldn't ever stop! It's crazy busy. I think half of why you should visit there is the experience. Certainly one of a kind! :)

The last thought today is about being in a big city again. The last time I was home visiting Mom and my sister, it was for the wedding in December. Really didn't get a chance to do much that wasn't wedding-related. It was really nice being in a diverse area again. Greenville is nice enough, but it's rather.... homogenized for lack of a better word. Atlanta, being MUCH bigger, just had an interesting diversity of people to see, to watch, to be around. Was refreshing. I know that where I'm headed it'll be VERY homogenized (Army or Army spouse/kid - probably not many retirees out there either) so it was refreshing to be around people again. Used to get the same feeling in college, too, since W&M is rather on the preppy, white-bread end of the spectrum. :)

I know this was a picture-heavy post, but it was a very good, very busy day today. I'm really glad we got to get over there before we moved!