Here are pictures, news, updates etc!
The best way to view pictures is to click on the album, then hit "slide show" above the picture to the right, then hit "full screen".
Don't forget to SPAY, NEUTER & ADOPT!
We're ALL Irish today!
I've got the corned beef and cabbage in the pot and mmmmmm, it smells lovely.
It's also been one of the warmest days we've had here so far this year. I think it must have been at least 85 up at school today. Which was lucky for Mr. Tom. He came back covered in filth ( he likes to roll around in the dirt right behind our house sometimes) and he just LOVES his baths. No sarcasm there, he really does like them, but I won't wash him if it's too cold.
There was a bittsweetness to the day though. A few days ago my nieghbor and I had to bring a cat to the BAD kitty place, AKA, the county animal shelter. These umm "people" on our street got him and another one when they were kittens and proceeded to leave them outside, never get him neutered, never get him his shots and pretty much stopped feeding him at all. A bunch of us were feeding him. The other day he came to the house and he was not well, he was having a lot of problems. So we brought him in and told them the story (they're going to send out a letter to the people, nor are they ever going to be allowed to adopt from a valid shelter in San Diego ever). Well we called today to check up on him and make sure they're not going to put him down for something silly like FIV. It was sad. I didn't want to call. He's still there and they say he's doing ok but they haven't tested him yet because they are waiting for him to get better... ehhh. It bothers me so much. DO NOT get a pet unless you plan on treating it like a member of your family, or even better, seeing as how some people treat teir family members....
In other news... Chris is looking into a lot of programs throgh the Navy to go to "real school" as he calls it. If anything, he says, he's going to use this shore duty to at least get his AA. I am very happy for him and I think he'll enjoy it more than he knows... I mean some of us love school so much we just CAN'T SEEM TO LEAVE!!!!!
So no real news about that, everything's up in the air and just ideas floating around for now.
I however have seemed to solidify my plans. I will be, should be, will run around with my tongue hanging out if not, be graduating in Fall. From there I should start the MLIS ( Masters of Library and Information Science) at San Jose State through their 100% online distance learning program in Spring!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe what a wonderful world we live in sometimes!!!!!!!!! there are like NO schools offering that degree. Two in CA, SJSU and UCLA. UCLA is not online. SO.... I am excited. It will cost a pretty penny but I don't really care anymore. My friend Kristin is going back for a Masters as well... it seems like the thing to do! Since it's online teh hours will be more flexible I hope and I will be able to work more. I already have been putting in my resume at some places, but I really don't expect too much back. People don't like to hire students, we tend to have finals and midterms and papers and such.
Well I hope everyone has, had, a happy St Paddy's Day and drank some Guiness or something and had some potatoes!
I'll try and someday come up with some sort of witty entry for this thing that doesn't involve school... like maybe when I'm done with school or something!
...that we've never won anything! At Bingo Chris not only won the ticket number thing, in which he gets a free Bingo card next game, but we each won $50. It wasn't the $1000 prize but we at least made up for the night. There were also some things I realized while out....
- If you're drinking a beer and think "wow I really need to slow down" and you've had two in about 4 hours... about 4 total for the whole 8 hour night... and then you feel it the next day...
- If you start fading and the pool table starts looking really comfrotable to curl up on, and you look at your watch hoping someone else will also realize they are tired and you can all call it a night... and it's 10.....
- If you CLOSE THE PLACE and you're feeling smug and quite proud of yoruself, your spouse, and your friends and you think you can leave in some sort of Saturday NIght out victory... and then you look at your watch and it's 11:45...
- If your saturday night out was in fact at the BOWLING ALLEY on BASE and you played BINGO...
- You wonder why other people are so dressed up. You thought you'd gotten dressed up, instead you look like a NERD...
So now that I am done making fun of myself... we had fun. :) :) :) I even got to finally do that dancing video game thing that Bryan is apparently really good at. It came out when I was like 15, I'm old enough now to just make an ass out of myself.
I'll be posting pictures of this later and some pictures of Tom doing stretches with Chris...
BUT I am actually in school right now and there's some professor rambling on and on....
Chris had his MRI. They didn't have to stick him with the "neon go" which is good. (Though he did explain to me that it is from a precious metal... )They told him it would take a week for them to "read" it but his follow-up doctor got a hold of it that same day and explained that he does in fact have a herniated disc in his lower spine. It's protruding inward toward the nerve bundle but because the Dr. didn't have all the slides form the MRI working properly he couldn't quite see how far in. Well, I say, far enough for his leg to go numb sometimes! To me that sounds pretty far, but then I am no Dr.
It's relieving that he doesn't have something major like a tumor there or something. ( YAY! no cancerous Christopher!) This disc apparently will begin to be healed in about 6 months, best case scenario, worst case scenario is that it does not proceed to heal itself which IS a problem when it is going into the nerve area of the spine, and then surgery is required. They're sending him to a pain management specialist who is going to stick him with some Cortozone. It's good stuff. And of course, he is off the ship... he's there today because, well, he needs to take his test for 1st class! With everything that went on and his being off the ship for so long because of this, we'll see what happens. It would be nice of course and I know, and everyone else knows, he'll try his best. The fun part about some tests is that when you think you know nothing sometimes you do really great and then sometimes when you think you know what you're doing, you just don't. For now there is no running or jumping for him. He's not sure how he got it. The Dr. put "lifting" because there was some heavy thing he lifted not too long before this thing went, but they'd also had everyone on the ship working out on the pier. They were doing reverse crunches, butterfly kicks, etc. on the pavement WITHOUT ANY MATTS! Fine for some people, but others of us have bones that stick out ( I'm part of that club now, woohoo) I can totally see how that could make things start moving around and poking at other things.
I got my position with SOHO. It looks like they're going to be offering me their paid interniship positiion this spring if I want it so that's good. I start training with them tomorrow. I'm also applying at the libraries here for anything paid or volunteer. We'll see what happens there.
I am so dead set on having experience in SOMETHING when I graduate.
Those are the only exciting things happening in our life right now. Oh and Chris is going to finally be HOME for a summer. He is very excited about that, injury and all. Looks like we're going to try and make plans for Monterey. He's never been to Monterey! Lived in CA all his life and I am slowly learning all the places he just HAS to see before we leave [like every inch of Hwy.1...consecutively]. (Thanks dad for all the Sunday drives, even the one where you just kept driving in some sort of Suburban American Father MANIA, ignoring the pleas of your family, and we made it to Oregon and got food and turned around and mom thought we were going to be lost forever and have to live in the forest [of course that was like every Sunday drive]...I think I've seen every corner of this state) OOoo and Half Moon Bay is right up the way from there... it's another place I would gladly run away to and start a Goat Farm. hey, we all have dreams... And we're so CHEAP. I got so excited when I remembered Ft. Ord is right there so we can stay in the hotel there! hahahaha! I LOVE military bases, everything cheap you could ever want and SO very classy.
Wow, I haven't updated this in a while, probably due to the lack of picture taking or special events.. but it's time nonetheless.
Chris has an MRI scheduled soon for his back\leg, and while I am hoping of course that they don't find anything major, it would be nice if they could see SOMETHING so that he can at least have a plan and get off the ship. It's been over a month since he started having this pain and while it subsides from time to time it comes back with a vengeance. It doesn't sound like a normal pinched nerve to me, and if it was a muscle it would have been long healed. So HE is treading water, stuck on the ship, stuck underway until then... we'll keep everyone posted when the MRI is done. This is all happening when he's supposed to be studying for and taking his exam for First Class. I never study for anything, I read stuff once and proceed to do in class essays and the like, but I'm well trained in the world of test taking and tests; the regurgitation of knowledge (i.e. crap you know) isn't for most people an every week occurance. So wish him luck.
I on the other hand am doing great. I got a raise and promotion at my job, which I wasn't expecting since they've had to cut hours and pay, but I guess I am JUST THAT GOOD. I love my job, I really do. Even though sometimes I wonder how some of these kids have survived this long in school (that includes the college kids), at the end of a session when they finally "get it", it's very nice.
I also have an appointment today with the Save Our Heritage Organization here in San Diego to volunteer\intern with them. Anything that will give me hands on experience in museum\public history will be a plus.
And this led me to something else: figuring out what I am doing!!!!!!!!!
My soon to be BA is the bain of my existence. Even with some experience there are NO jobs without 10 years experience or an MA. I am not ready to get my MA yet. I am not ready to take out more loans for school. They'd have to take me kicking and screaming. My plan is to work and save up and pay for it out of pocket while working part time. SO, while crusing the museum websites, county websites, city websites,archives... I came across something interesting, everyone needs librarians. Now while I wouldn't be able to walk in and become a librarian with my lowly History BA, I am qualified for a lot of positions if I have 2 years experience OR a Library Technology Certification. It would take me about 2 semesters to get my certification from Palomar College and I can do that next Spring and Summer while we are still here after I graduate and am floating lifelessly waiting to see where we are going... yes...this is what I am doing... I am incredibly excited to find something I can apply my degree to, somewhat in my "field"!!!!
If anyone has any experience in this (ERIN) let me know what you think.. how marketable would I be?
Well that's the update for now. they're going to be repaving our streets today so I am anticipating the smell for the next few days... it's supposed to be nice too, but oh well. At least someone, somewhere is doing something with some streets!
Oh and Saturday nights are Bingo nights on base with a grand prize of $1000 and many smaller prizes as well!!!! Chris didn't want to go when I dragged him out but he ended up having a lot of fun ( I knew he would :) ), after all you can have beer while you play. This weekend I'm meeting Kristie and Bryan.. if anyone else wants to partake in the JOY that is Bingo let me know!
This has been an "oops" past couple weeks. Not quite a Chris hit my parked car kind of oops, but many little annoying oopses all happily oopsing together.
Oops #1: Those bangs I got that I was going to post a picture of.. well oops. I have't seen them since the day I got them cut! I have a new small army of barettes and hair elixers in order to, in any way, make them GO AWAY! I hate them. However, like all oopses, it's a good idea to look at the positives, the first being that I can now go the rest of my life knowing, for sure, without a doubt, that I do not want or like bangs on me. At least once a month one of my friends will play the "do I want bangs question" and I had been too, it's contagious. So I did it, and now I know: not a fun game. The second positive is that I have been forced to do my hair every morning. I used to be very good at that and somewhere along the way I decided that a brushing and hoping it would dry in the car on the way to school counted as being dressed. So now I do my hair.
Oops #2: Don't ever listen to the advisors at school and if you do, go back through and make sure you recheck everything, if possible inform their superior and hope you can have their job. It looks like I will be taking classes this summer. I am 5 units short of graduating in Fall. 5 units, that's a class and a half, which really equals two classes. How I somehow took half a class semesters ago I don't know. I'm still trying to think of a positive about this, a possible positive will be that I can take 450w during summer and one other class and not deal with it when I am taking 15 units. Yes, that can be positive. I'm still recovering from this one, so I don't know any more positives.
Oops #3: well it's not really an oops. I'm still trying to lose weight and 5 pounds from my goal, in Dec, Christmas and Winter came around. I fully believe it is physiologically more difficult for people, especially people descendent from northern climates, to lose weight in Winter. It's hibernation, pack on the extra food time. So instead of losing the last 5 or so pounds, I gained 5 or so pounds and it's not budging. Now they say the last ten pounds is the hardest to lose, and I secretly know the reason why. It has nothing to do with your body not wanting to lose it, it has to do with getting so close to your goal you get lazy. I just completely contradicted myself... So here I am sitting dressed for the gym, needing to get it out of the way before I study etc and I'm looking at used ellipticals online. It's not working out that gets me, I'm totally fine with that, it's getting in the car and driving to the gym. So I thought, what about an elliptical for the house? hmmmm... I shall ask the husband about this.
Now all these Oopses are very tiny, not anything to lose sleep over, things happen, such is life. And often, just about everyday if you're looking, you'll meet someone or hear about someone who has it much worse. People have people pass away, people are in major accidents... And we should always be thankful for the people we know who can put things in perpsective for us, remind us about that good, and what we do have, and how we probably have enough and we're fine and we just don't know it... And then there are people like our neighbor. I would like to UN-THANK my nieghbor for putting things in a completely DIFFERENT perspective: For a long time me and Chris couldn't figure out what this man was yelling at, or who he was yelling at for that matter. Chris, being more savvy than I am when it comes to what people yell at apparently, informed me a little while ago that he figured it out, the neighbor is yelling at his video game. Now I don't just mean this man is yelling, I mean he screams obscenities, he throws things, he sounds like he is dying! I would like to un-thank him because when I think I am having a bad day, if this man is allowed to yell and scream about something that isn't even real, WELL, I can certainly yell and scream about anything I want! How sad is that? How sad is it that on one hand I have a friend whose mom passed away who will never go to her wedding or see her have babies or be there for her when she just needs someone to call and yet, life goes on and she stays positive, and then on the opposite side there is this "person" who I don't think ever sees the light of day, is ever happy about anything, lives in front of a screen and doesn't even seem to enjoy it. I have a few choice words for my neighbor, but instead and think I will just say un-thank you.
Last week I got a letter in the mail from housing informing us that our BAH has gone up again for the next year. Now I knew BAS went up, which doesn't affect us much since Chris is on the ship and eats there, but this BAH thing was a suprise, probably because we just didn't think to look, that's how most suprises happen! Suprise! For those who don't do strange acronyms, BAH is Basic Allowance for Housing. In other words, how much money they pay us and then take from us so we can live in military housing. When we first moved in here it was around $1600, then it went to $1800 just last year, now it's $2000. The temptation to move out is very strong as you can imagine. We could pocket money, however, there are many many drawbacks. The frist being is comfort level. I know many people who have had nightmare experiences with landlords. Here we have 24/7 maintanence and a nice anonymous corporation who simply takes our money and remains faceless. We also have an alarm system which I love. We're close to base, very close, and all that goes with it, like the commissary etc. I'm in school right now and moving in the midde of a semester sounds like anything but fun. We don't pay electricity here, in fact it is completely free, so is water and trash. There is no deposit, so no worries about getting it all back. Now Chris is all for moving, but then he forgets, wherever we move, he will be living there for half the time I am, alone. I don't know all my nieghbors here, but I know OF them, in other words, they're not mysteries to me. Mysterious neighbors probably aren't nearly as exciting as they sound.
Some positives would of course be living in a house with a yard,....pocketing money... and I guess living in a house with a yard and pocketing money.
If you can't tell, I am not that excited about moving...maybe if we were going to be here longer for sure....It's not that I am incapable of living on my own or moving, having done that before I know what it entails. I also know that money doesn't always equal feeling better about things. For example, when Chris is gone, I actually have come to appreciate that my neighbor is a wall away. And when Chris is here, it's nice to have these same neighbors as potential friends or at least people we can get together with every once in a while. So the general consensus is unless something spectaular pops up and we just can't say no, then I'll be here for all of next deployment. And of course there is the bigest reason: depsite all the whoo haaah about the economy blah blah blah, teh Navy doesn't just give away money, there is a reason BAH went up and that is that housing in the area went up. In other words, what we pay for living here has always been less for what we can afford in a comparable unit or house that's not many miles away. And I assume that if we couldn't find anything so comparable that we could make up enough with the utilities and extra gas, then I have a feeling we won't now. I won't hurt to look of course.
And on this topic, our neighbors who recently moved into the world of civilian housing, Kristie and Bryan came down for dinner a few nights ago, well more like a week ago now. It was fun and a nice change of pace. We need to invite people over more often, however poor Christopher is "injured" right now. His wallet bit his butt! That's pretty much the only thing I can think of to call it! Something happened to his sciatic nerve which would make sense if he was in the third trimester of his pregnancy or was recently rock climbing, but he's not and wasn't, he was sitting in a chair for a long time on his wallet and now his nerve is owie. Tomorrow he goes to a sports medicine guy to see if they can do something. I recommend a chiropractor, but Chris has informed me that "they're not through the Navy". I think it may be time for some "intervention"... perhaps a new mantra to remind him that not ALL is NAVY.
I got bangs cut and will be posting a picture once I get around to taking one and I may be going in to get them cut a little shorter soon. It was a trial thing, I've decided I like them for now. As soon as the lady touched my head she says, "YOU have a LOT of hair!" And things went downhill from there, with her reminding me every few minutes of how much hair I have, guilting me into a totally unproportional tip. I know, I wake up with it everyday on my head. Now that I have my natural color and it's healthy, it's even more out of control, thicker and multiplying. Soon I won't be able to breath. It's very white person hair of course, slightly wavey, slightly kinky with those wing/fox ear things going on. In other words, it can't even lay straight, and it can't be curley, and any sort of styling aid or gel just makes a sticky mess. I've learned to brush it and put it in a clip and that's about as far as i think anyone will ever get. So the next time someone tells me I have a lot of hair I'm just going to explain that I didn't know! I just put on this here wig and decided to get it cut.
I also have a TV show! Amongst the cheesey plots and orange tanned lacquered haired "actors" on TV there is a jewel! The Twilight Zone is on M-TH at 10pm. It's past my bedtime, yes, and long after Chris', but I have simply made myself stay up for it to get my aliens in the '50s fix.
Hope everyone is having a good new year so far!
I didn't get to send out about 1/8 the Christmas cards I wanted to this year. By the time finals were done and Christmas was here it was gone.. and so were we of course. :)
We did however finally get our pictures from the Christmas party that came out so good I'm thinking of ordering more. It's a rare occassion when me and Chris can agree on a picture with both of us in it... ok well it's mostly me, but then I have to look at me in it AND him in it and that's a doubly hard decision.
My point is that I am going to scan it and put it up on here and if you'd like one, let me know because i will be ordering them... AND I'm sorry if you didn't get a card this year.. I bought them, had them sitting here, and just didn't have the time.
so: MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Now there are a few different types of post Christmas people I've noticed. There are people who LOVE the end of Christmas, put Christmas things away the day after, rejoice in its being over. I'm not to sure about these people, I don't know if they should be trusted.
Then there are sad post Christmas people, (PCDD, Post Chirstmas Depressive Disorder) I am one of these and fully believe Christmas should be moved to Jan. 25...a whole month more between Thanksgiving to have your house smell like a pine tree no matter if you live where there are no pine trees at all, bake things and nibble on them, and have lighted shiny things in your house. I suppose there are people who have lighted shiny things in their house all year, like disco balls and such, but I ignore all that...
And of course there are others, those who live in denial, or maybe its acceptance, I don't know, but they leave Christmas things out all year. I've tried doing this. I have a candle holder that isn't technically Christmas, it's a "woodland scene", it was the first Christmas ornament/decoration me and Chris ever got, given to me by a nice little old lady at my mom's work. I thought I could get away with it out all year. "A little bit of Christmas all year", my moms says. But I just don't know if I can do it. It'll probably be back in its box by the end of January.
And there is this weed out front that's well on its way to the second story. Weeding and gardening are spring and summer activities. Last summer I ripped out all of the ivy and weeds and nastiness that lovely Lincoln Military Housing LLC. likes to let fester. Their idea of gardening is pulling up a weed or two every 6 months. Forget the family of black widows living in the ivy apartments and making their way into your garage, or the large weed/plant that is taking up half your driveway.( "hello, welcome to our house! Oh yes, just pull in behind the WEED") So I ripped all the ivy out and the weeds and many of the nasty plants and planted my own and put down wood chips and it looked very nice for a while, once I was able to walk again and recovered I was able to enjoy it and everyone said how nice it looked, but the weeds are back now. I really should have rented a rotor-tiller but that would have made it EASY. At least there's no sign of the ivy.
And for the first time Chris is working out and I am not! The ship is running PT three days a week, which of course Chris rolls his eyes at... but there really is nothing like someone else making you work out. Today I am hitting the gym for the first time in forever and I really wish it wasn't all just up to me... like, can I just hire someone for $5 to come in and yell at me and tell me it's time to go? $5 3-4 times a week, you can even do it over the phone, but you'd have to come up with good threats.
Well that's that. I hope everyone had a nice Christmas, we did, we even got to see snow!
I don't start school for a little while and I'll probably be taking off to see my parents again and see my grandma and it looks like some of Chris' family will be trying to come down too... The first month or two of school is pretty laid back so if anyone wants to come down but can't make it in Jan.... I'm not too sure about Chris' schedule right now. he says they're not going anywhere anytime soon... but it is the Howard. My first glimpse of "Howard" at he holiday party solidfifed all of our neighbor Bryan's issues with that ship. Thank God Chris only has two years on it! I think that's pretty much what he's thinking too. It's all about the equipment. The guys on the Dubuque he had to leave were so nice, such a nice group of mature, real people. He was pretty good friends with some of them by the time he left. Poor Chris.
I put up some pictures of our tree getting etc, and of coursem more cat pictures!... I also wanted to share my new laptop!
ok so I am a technological dinosaur... I see people at school all the time with laptops, organzing their notes, working on essays between classes, doing research whenever they need to know something real quick.. and I wasn't really jealous beceause I didn't know how it would work for me. See, notetaking in class is an artform, it's even different for different classes. I'm an arrow drawer for some classes and an equals sign drawer for others, depends on the teacher... I just didn't see myself taking notes via a keyboard. Fastforward to Friday when me and Chris went to the Exchange for printer ink and something else, but I think we forgot it. Instead for some reason I decided to peruse the laptops. There was a little cute one, a big flat one, one that weighed akmost nothing and one that could essentially take over your life including making personal phone calls for you.. and then there was this one
I got the tx2150, but this is essentially the same thing. It bends around and you can write on it in a program that works just like a binder and notes!!! YOu can even ERASE, with the back of the pen thingy like a pencil!!! ok so I finally caught up with the past 5 years or whatever... it makes me more excited, because I think it's magical!
It actually weighs less than my binder and notebook, which is running out of room and packed full of microscopic writing.
Anyways, maybe it was rather pointless to buy it at the end of the semester, but I did use it for a powrpoint presentation the other day in a conference room that didn't have a built in computer, so that worked nicely.
I highly recommend it to anyone who needs a laptop for school or likes to take notes for some reason ro another.
The Chirstmas lights are up!!! Inside and out... though we still haven't gone down to chop down a tree yet. That's coming this weekend, along with baking stuff.
So if you haven't seen our "Chritsmas Cats" yet, you're missing out on one of the greatest life pleasures- tormenting your pet cat! We were at Target and saw these little devices.. oh I mean outfits, FOR CATS! Yes, they even said "For Cats" on them. Now I thought, how strange, how funny, imagine what they would do. But Chris being a man had to get them, and the pictures will tell you the rest.
And I have come to decide that there are people who try and be funny, and sometimes they succeed, and sometimes they don't,painfully. And there are people who don't try and be funny very often, but they just can't seem to help it!
Chris was looking over one of my essays for me that was due recently and I'm asking him how it was etc. and he's taking his time and flipping through and comes to the endnotes and says," Well you know, you rely heavily on one source. Is that OK?"
And I KNOW, I guess I set him up... to tell the truth I may have without even knowing it, my brain was so fried at that point... BUT anyways, I say, "Which source?"
And Chris says, "Ibid."
:D
and yet another Chrisism....
He finally got to see the new ship on Monday, so I come home from school and I'm asking him about it.. the people etc... and he mentions that he got to meet the CMC ( Command Master Chief).
And I say, " Oh how was he?"
Chris says," I can tell he was sizing me up."
I say, "Well you're new, but what was he like, what did he seem like?"
Chris says "Well he's tall, he's black..... but he had these really weird hazelnut eyes."
HAZELNUT?! ... yes, he lost his eyyyyyes at seeeea and all they had on board were some hazelnuts!
I was dying for the rest of the night.
Well Chris got word on the Holiday Party for "The Ship" as I have come to call it. It just happens to be on my very last day of school. So that morning I will take a final, turn in two essays and leave campus and my brain behind for a whole 4 weeks! My joy knows NO boundaries!
Now I have heard nothing but less than appealing information about this ship. Our friend and former neighbor was on this thing. Of course, I suppose, all experiences are what you make of them, but that's sort of like saying you should have some sort of philosophical experience at the dentist. Some things just don't leave you many options. Chris is excited because it's newer and it's the sort of ship and equipment he wants. I really hope it works for him.
We were actually thinking about going to the Holiday Party for Old Ship as well,or instead, that's what that one is called, "Old Ship", which isn't a name just we could use, because it IS old, so maybe "Original Ship" would be better. They put on really nice parties at really nice places, gave away some really great things and just made it fun all around. Whoever is in charge of the MWR for that should get an award, because... as I have heard... other ships can have really bland and not very fun Holiday Parties. Well *I* might find them fun, but I am sort of a prude!
Now in other news. I can't believe it is almost December. I can't believe it was even ever November!...What happened to October? I was thinking earlier about what some goals for 2009 should be, or maybe at this point I should just start thinking about 2010...11? And I realized I was making a "list" in my head and making it in MLA Outline format. At least it wasn't Chicago style, they haven't gotten me that much yet! But yes it was complete with topics and supporting ideas, and I think it even had a thesis.
And in some even MORE news: they're closing, or trying to close libraries here in San Diego. This bothers me on many levels. First, it is a very bad sign, obviously, that things in the world of money and budgets is not going very well. Second, the bus that runs through our neighborhood hardly EVER has anyone on it and I am convinced the only people who use it at night are the people who come to deal drugs on the city owned street a few blocks away. Chris and I always see them when we go for our walks at night. It's this road that connects our housing with some more housing on the top of the hill. It has GREAT views, I mean you can see downtown, the bridge, Coronado, TJ to Mission Valley, and it's so pretty at night. Wouldn't it be nice if people could walk along there and stop to enjoy the view? So why do they fund that bus? And third, I want my taxes to go to very few things, and libraries are one of them. Third, my job depends on library funding in no small way. Schools can't afford to have tutors for the kids there, that would be a ridiculous amount of money, so schools and libraries contract with my company so kids, college intro students, and adult learners have somewhere to turn to, moi. Apparently, we can't be spending our taxes on libraries, but we can support OTHER things? ehhh... And almost lastly, Chris has discovered reading on a glorious level. The man is plowing through books. He loves the library, he pays his taxes. And lastly, libraries are just darn important. SO there. Well maybe this will give them a wake-up call, they need to stop spending money on things that don't benefit society... yeah, like that will ever happen!
Well this journal entry has turned into something completely different from what I thought it would be, but it HAS reminded me that taking some pictures of that view from the road is in order!
Weather? haha! It's San Diego. If I ever thought for a minute that on November 14th I could not be outside in shorts and a tank top, sweating, digging through dirt and playing with plants, I am dillusional. We got some new pots from Kristie and Bryan before they moved. Empty pots of course, I would never kill or remove a plant to replace it with another (hence my small collection of charity plants I hide out back). Nice pots, the glazed, designed ones I never spend money on.
The sun was shining, there was not a cloud in the sky. The smell of potting soil and the feel of dirt slipping into my gardening gloves made me think,"ahh Spring!" But it's not Spring! Now if you think there's no way that can be depressing...
Anyways. All the plants are doing lovely. We couldn't find more roses at the Exchange so it was a Maidenhair Fern (round two), some sort of California native, Double Impatiens, and some sort of "ornamental" pepper. Now this pepper can go both ways: I would think it would go good in a cactus garden or something southwesterny. But I call it my Christmas plant, red, green, and just all around lovely. Therefore it was placed in a white pot, to bring out it's colors, a white pot which was then elevated, to make sure all the other plants understand it's great status! If I could redo all of my plants and have just these, maybe just these and roses I'd be vey happy, and possibly obsessed.
On another note, pots are sad. Little apartments for plants, possibly tract housing, little spaces in which to live and achieve nothing more. You wanted to spread your roots, little plant? Grow to great heights little rose bush? HAHA, you live in a pot/apartment! You have this to call your own and nothing more. Hmm, and I talking about my plants now or something else? I feel very sorry for them, especially when they start to get root bound and there's just not much I can do for them but get a slightly bigger pot. I WOULD like to take as many with me when we move as I can. I wonder... do they ever feel sorry for me too?
There's nothing much new with us. The semester is going so fast, which is good and bad. Things are starting to be due, BIG things that I would just LOVE to put off, but can't. The ship pulls in soon apparently so Chris won't be at TPU anymore. I've heard interesting things about that pot, oops I mean ship, I mean San Diego... ship.
On a completely different topic!!! We also got a kitchen Island butcher block thing from Kristie and Bryan too. Now we knew we wanted something for the middle of the kitchen for a while, but they're pricey. So we came about this one and I LOVE IT. If anyone has been in our kitchen you have seen the amazing amount of random space, where you can stand, and be in the kitchen... just be, that's it. Unlesss your arms are 5 feet long it's the most pointless design. And there is an incredibly limited amount of counter top. Go figure. I tried it out by making some cookies. I'm not sure what the actual name for them was, but I calll them "Chocolate Overdose Cookies". I know, probably been done before, not very creative, but I didn't think anyone would want them if I called them something like "3rd Degree Choco Burn" or simply "Chocolate Hell". Expect these for Christmas this year, if I ever finish the semester in time to bake them and send them out.
A WARNING to anyone who has ever baked, thought about baking, or eats baked goods... I thought I forgot how to bake, after all, it really has been like almost a year since I made anything ooey gooey and sticky from the oven. But it wasn't me! It's Splenda! Hidden on the back side of granulated baking Splenda packages is a hidden message you must be a man (or at least a 10 year old boy) and named Chris to decode, think O-V-A-L-T-I-N-E. This secret decoded message gives you clues about why your baking now basically sucks. Such clues are: To help rise add powdered milk. Here I was thinking I was doing good with my baking soda, and I actually almost blamed the fiascos I now call "Solid mass of Spice Cake Pie" and "Brickies" (you know, not brownies) on my baking soda (we made up later). So yes, beware of Splenda.
So besides the bricks and gelatinous Spice Cake, the Pecan Tassies I made for Holloween were very good, after all, they call for BROWN SUGAR! Everyone ate them all, everyone that is at the 4th of July BBQ next door. Now we have this new neighbor, and him and his wife are very nice people. So he is proof that being nice has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not your decisions make any sense. I guess for him the idea of BBQing enourmous amounts of food on your driveway, insisting that people eat until they can't stand, and having everyone pass out candy from the front of a single house on the block (his) all makes sense. We resisted though (see pictures) and passed out candy from our porch. Now I have no problems with other people's traditions and customs, doesn't mean I don't think they are wrong (haven't done entry and bigotry yet), only that whatever floats your boat, well floats it. But it just didn't feel like Holloween. Holloween to me is making spied cider and wonderig if you can use it as potpourri all year long, pulling out the crock pot or sticking a frozen pizza in the oven because hey, it's Holloween, and eating things with cobwebs painted on them. (That's about as wild as I get these days, eating things with fake cobwebs on them that is. Hiding in my house while other people gather and socialize, dissapearing at 11 while everyone else is wide awake and heading to bed. Now I know I have Puritan genes, but I didn't know Chris did too. Our future children, little prudes.) But that's my take... It was fun, and delicious, and it was very nice of him....
My other recent take is that tea is the most wonderful thing in the world! I have been drinking like 5 cups a night. So I finally bought a tea kettle and we went Commissarying earlier today. Let me recommend: Bigelow's "Ginger Snappish" (it's seasonal), and Bigelow's "Egg Nog" (now Chris didn't like this one as much, but then I think he thought it should taste JUST like egg nog. At 0/250 calories per serving that real egg nog has I just don't think that's going to happen!) and Celestial Seasonings "Apple Spice". Now of course Celestial Seasonings is always my favorite and they have this "Sleepytime" with Valerium in it (catnip?). It's like extra strength Sleepytime!
Ah yes, Chris just brought be another cup of "Ginger Snappish", aren't we snappy!!!?
You can order the Skymall Catalogue online? I don't just mean go to their webiste and order stuff, but you can actually have them send you a real catalogue in the mail! Oh my joy!!! When Chris came home last month he brought it to me, I can't believe he remembered! But, it wasn't the Christmas one! Somehow Skymall didn't get the memo that all other retailers did, September is now the beginning of the Christmas season! :) Well almost.
Here I thought it was some unobtainable, glorious, gift of travel, and the whole time I can just order my fix online. I guess that sort of ruins it though, I used to say bye to people,"Have a nice flight. Bring me Skymall!"
I was sitting in Latin actually. :( (7 more weeks!!!! Thank God in Heaven!) and the very nice girl who sits behind me and I were talking about career plans and school etc.. ( what else, right?) I have this vision of 3 semesters from now, running through my neighborhood with my graduation cap and a clown suit on, and tearing pages out of books and letting them flutter around, the relief will be so great!... but that's a whole other story for some other time!.. Anyways, this girl ( I am REALLY bad with names) mentions how she would like to go on from SDSU with her degree in Classics (she has at least another semester of Latin after me due to this, poor thing) and go to law school. My hands got sweaty, my feet felt like they were hanging over a cliff, I needed to conciously remember where I was (not that that helped any, "ooh, I'm in LATIN!" Feet still felt funny)... I am just not that driven! I'm having a hard time understanding how anyone can be that driven anymore! Once upon a time the plan was for me to finish my BA and go right for my Masters. I was even thinking about trying to get into the Master's program. And then I hit an epiphany, at least I like to think of it as an epiphany, maybe it was just my true laziness coming out... I have years to get my Masters. As it is, I am so tired of having to think about poor Chris' next duty station based on where I can go to school. I'm tired of feeling like I am in a success race, with no one! There's no way to win a race like that! And anyways, I'm pretty sure as soon as I went into history instead of something like molecular biology or nuclear physics, I umm lost THAT race. Part of my epiphany also had to do with the whole-what do I do after I get my degree? How am I going to get a job with a BA in History? How am I going to get a job when we're probably not going to be in one place for more than 4 years after this? Later that day I was talking to someone about the job I have now, and she thought it was so neat, had to give her the webiste etc... it is neat. I realized that I love my job! Helping students is rewarding and can be fun. And then I realized, I HAVE a job. I have a job I can do after I get my BA, and by then I should have definitely moved up, maybe even become a "mentor" like my sweet boss (such a nice lady, but then who wouldn't be, we all work from home!) Why, I thought, am I so worried about this when I'm already in a better position than most people?
Anyways, I guess the point of this story is when my classmate told me about her plans I said, "WOW! Go you!" But I wasn't jealous, I didn't feel inferior, I didn't suddenly feel less successful, and that is a wonderful feeling! I felt free from my own contraints- mainly, beating myself over the head!
And Chris is so sweet, just a very understanding person and always accepting of anything I decide to do as far as school goes. Secretly though, I think he's also relieved I'm not beating myself over the head anymore! Now we can go somwehere we want to go. We can plan vacations around his leave time instead of IF he's home and IF it's summer. I also had to realize that for now, at least until he retires, his job in the Navy does take precidence. That wasn't an easy thing for someone like to me realize at first. But the more I think about it, the more relieved I become! So for the next 15 years he can be Mr. Success in our house, and I'll just take my sweet time getting my Masters. I'll take my BA and tutor 6 hours a day from home wherever in the world we are! How awesome is that?!
I guess Shutterfly works like a little blog thingy now along with the photo album!
So I guess there isn't much new with us... Chris is home and I am 40 pounds lighter (10-15 more to go!)! He's at TPU waiting for his next ship to come home. I'm just doing school and tutoring as usual.
This is just sort of a neat way to keep people updated. And since I am not good with blogging things, but I always update the photos... here I am!
I am the least photogenic, camera savvy person I know who's addicted to picture taking!
Some people may have gotten something in their email saying they are no longer members of our onine album.. don't worry, you never were members!!! I accidently made everyone a member when I sent out the last pictures and then took everyone off... for some reason the people at shutterfly didn't get the memo on manners and discretion, so they sent everyone out an email!
Of course if you want to be a member I can always add you, just let me know! I'm not sure what being a member actually includes.. If you have a shutterfly account I think you can tie yours to ours etc...