This Is Me

I live in a world that is not my own that I succumb to in many ways. I live by a code that leaves me to find joy in the small things in life. Not take advantage of anything. Love and learn from everyone I meet in my journey. And especially to learn what it means to be selfless in more ways I thought possible. I am a Army wife. It is what I do. I have a love hate relationship with what I do. But do I regret it? No way.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Old Stomping Grounds

Last weekend I made yet another getaway and flew to OKC to attend my cousin's undergraduate college graduation at my alma mater.
Boy had I MISSED IT!!!!
I knew that I missed certain things about college life and even good ole Bethany, OK before I went, but seeing my old stomping grounds again brought about this strange rush of emotions that made me miss it ALL. 
The trip was short and packed to the brim of things to do and places to be, but even amidst all the craziness, I was able to walk around a little bit and take it all in.

I left early (3 AM!!) Friday morning to catch my flight from Raleigh-Houston-OKC. Despite weather delays in OKC I managed to get there around lunch time.
My family surprised me by managing to get my brother to come along for the graduation weekend. I hadn't seen my little booger of a bro in a while. Not for a quality amount of time anyways, so it was awesome to have all four of us cousins together. It probably doesn't mean as much to any of them as it does to me right now, but I am hoping it will someday. I only have TWO cousins on this planet, so I wouldn't have missed the opportunity to support one of them for anything. Fortunately for me, the rest of my family feels the same way when one of us comes at a life changing crossroads. Always an excuse for a BBQ. :)

That night I went with to the Senior Celebration which traditionally is the night before graduation where the grad's can invite their families for a banquet type setting little PARTAY. Nice chance for some dress up photo ops, meet these prof's you have heard so much about, and meet the roommates and friends that you have heard the most random stories about. I met up with a few of my friends I graduated with which was awesome. 
It's so surreal to go back to a place where you get to see people you haven't seen since "that day," three years ago when it was OUR Senior Celebration we were attending. 
It was humbling, fun, and scary. 
In a good way, oddly enough.

Next morning woke up at the crack of dawn to hitch a ride with the early goers that morning to the SNU campus. 
We drive up to campus and this is the first time I am seeing it in day time. The dorm I spent so much of my college experience in is now torn down and being rebuilt about 3 times the size of the original and is now going to be COED. The fact that COED is even an option now at the campus amazes me. 
The only COED experience any of us got was open dorm night once in a blue moon and Intramurals!! 
It's crazy that something that significant could change in only three years.
Seems so long ago yet it seems like yesterday.

My dear college partner in crime, Laurie, picked me up on campus and we went out to breakfast to catch up before commencement started. She got married a month after me so both of our lives started changing about at the same time and here we are in the same place thinking about some of the same things and struggling with some of the same issues in life. 
It was kind of relieving.
We may not talk as much as we used to or be as close, but I learned from this weekend, that that is ok. We're changing. We've changed. But not for the worse, but for the better. We aren't the little college kids running around owing the place anymore. We're grown, making "big kid" decisions now, and it was so awesome to take our friendship to that level.
House buying, work, kids, pets, school, other college friends, etc. 
We have the same mentality we used to have, just different issues. :)
Big kid issues. 

Graduation was very enlightening. We had reserved, "cool people", seating thanks to my lovely Aunt Myrna being on what seems to be every board possible for the University. :)
There were long drawn out speeches that I couldn't tell you much about.
I was too busy gazing around the auditorium (with my glasses now since I'm old and blind now!) picking out familiar faces from the large crowd. 
But once the "name calling" started I was paying attention.
I promise. :)
Of course, my cousin is a little rockstar with all his medals/ropes/etc. so he sounded like a prisoner in chains when he walked up in line and had his 15 seconds of awesomeness. It was great. 
While out at the ivy ring ceremony I found my brick the University put out by the fountain in front of the Commons. It's pretty cool to have your school do that for you. :)
I saw my awesome Professor Wilcox who was my Editor advisor my senior year. Also a great friend. 
Seeing those bricks there brought back so many memories of late office nights, newspaper deliveries, Starbucks runs, SGA meetings, staff meetings........Also brought back all the memories I have of the people I worked with....Their bricks are there too and it was so cool to see how things panned out here years later. Miss you guys!

The rest of the day consisted of BBQ's and relaxing. Later that night Drew and I went to see Iron Man 2, which was good. 
Flew out the next morning in what was perhaps the longest flight I've had flying back to Raleigh, stops wise. 
Flew from OKC-Chicago-DC-Raleigh.
Sigh.
Is that really necessary?
Never has it been that crazy before.

Definitely went to Chipotle in Raleigh, all in the memory of my deployed hubs. :)
Miss him.




Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Myths & Tips

Thought this was interesting.
I'm not a huge egg fan, but this talked about several things I had always wondered.

Myths About Eggs


Found an equally as interesting article on juice. I heart juice. I had no idea that there was sooooo much sugar in juices. I knew  there was SOME but not a TON.

Check it out!

Worst Juices


OMG! I love this one! Take these common misconceptions and see what the experts say! Some of them don't apply to me, but some of them are awesome.

Health Rules You Can Bend

Pomegranate Martini's & Strawberry Mango Margaritas

This is a venting post.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
But it does prove that the simple pleasures in life are what can make days turn around.

It all started on my way to work.
I stopped by a post office, knowing it was still closed, needing to send a large envelope. All the other post office's in town have those automatic machines accessible even when they are closed so you can still send stuff.
Well apparently the one I went to, didn't. Ugh.
Crap.

Get to work, clock in, and get to my cubicle.
Not even ten minutes after I sat myself at my computer desk at work my phone goes off.
I had forgotten to turn the volume off on my phone when I walked in so "Telephone" from Lady Gaga bursted through the office. Fortunately for me, I get here so early there were only about 3 (out of 20?) fellow officemates that were jerked awake by my ring tone!
It was the alarm company for our house alarm stating that the door from the garage to the house had been compromised sending the alarm off, do I want them to send the police?
My first gut reaction was questioning her on whether the alarm really went off.
When everything was said and done I felt stupid for doing that, but hey, it felt like a fair question at the time.
I told her don't bother with the police I'll go back home and check it out myself.
Probably not the BEST idea considering my situation, but I didn't know what else to do. Although I tend to plan and think in a "worst case scenario" mindset, I also don't like to come off like I can't handle a weird situation, so off I go back to the house.
Which is a thirty minute drive from work. Twenty if there is no traffic (which is why I wake up at 5 AM every morning! I have the road to myself!).
I had just booted up my computer.
I had just poured a cup of coffee (I have been cheating a bit yes!).
And I had just pulled my instant oatmeal out of the microwave and had sat down to indulge.

I hop in my car and start to head home. I turn the radio off, I'm NOT in the mood, Kenny Chesney!
As I drive up to one of the first stop lights from my work where I need to turn, I see a truck on the side of the road hesitating to pull out in front of a car that is a good 100 yards ahead of me...he doesn't pull out in front of them so I assumed since there was so much space between me and that car that he'd pull in between us....right? Well, he did, but he waited to pull out when I was almost at that intersection myself causing me to come up on him pretty quickly. It is a 50 mph zone after all.
Just like any NC driver would, he slammed on his brakes to brake check me which sent everything in my car flying forward.
I said some extremely unpleasant things.
Not only did he brake check me he continued to the stop light going about 10 mph in a 50 mph zone on a single lane road just to piss me off. Throwing his hands in the air and ranting raving the whole time.
Awesome.

I get to the house, open the garage door, and peer into the garage from the driveway in my car.
The door isn't open from what I can see, so I go ahead and go up to it.
I push the door expecting it to swing open which would have set the alarm off, but nope. The door didn't budge.
So I turned the knob walked in to a hyper dog running circles through the house, Jax passed out asleep in the cat bed, and Bella was no where to be found.
First thing I checked was the TV.
Sad I know, but if you had a 58" brand new LCD HDTV that took up half your  living room, it'd be the first thing you'd check too!
Second thing I checked was the revolver that John got me.
Everything was in place.
Except I couldn't find Bella.
I searched and searched. I even broke out the cat treats which always works, but I couldn't find her. Jax was following me around at that point howling for his own cat treats...
Finally I found her frozen under my bed.
Poor baby girl. She is such a diva and such a girly girl I could only imagine how terrified she was from that alarm going off for who knows how long.
Anyways, after hanging out at the house for a little bit, making sure anything somewhat valuable was present, I got back in the car and headed back to work.
Since my breakfast was left on my desk and now no good, I stopped by Starbux to get some liquid encouragement :) and their oatmeal (SO GOOD by the way!!).
I drive up, the drive through isn't bad, so I get in line, I order and wait in line for about 10 minutes behind just 2 cars....ugh?
Finally I get up to the window and she tries to hand me a frapp and some type of cake/bread something rather....I ordered a mocha and the oatmeal.......When I told her that wasn't what I ordered she then said, "Oh, well, what DID you order?"
For real?
So I told her and I became "that" car that kept the line clogged up at the window waiting for my order.

Finally get back to work.
We're in the busy season right now, so there's stuff whirling around always hiccuping the normalcy of things.

After the long day I went to dinner with Stephanie, who had been wanting to go out for "fruity drinks" for a while now. She had her son almost 6 weeks ago and so off we went to find some grub and drinks.
We finally settled on Pomegranate Martini for me and Strawberry Mango Margarita for her.
With a straw. :)
Good times.

Anyways.
Doesn't sound like much of a vent, but my morning was psycho and of course it always seems ten times worse when there's no one to call to help.

TYL for Martini's and Margarita's to put a positive spin on a not-so-great day. ;)

Thursday, May 6, 2010

One Month DOWN!

Wow, it's been a little over a month now.
Cant' really say if it's gone by fast or slow, it's had it's fair share of moments, but boy am I glad the first one is out of the way!!

Within the last two weeks since my last post I have gained sympathy from my next door neighbor who is now my lawn mower hero. I came home from work one day last week when the doorbell rang. These neighbors have the last house on the street which really fits their lifestyle of being quiet and fly very low under the radar. I have met him maybe once or twice before, but know John has talked to him several times.
His wife is a nurse at our local hospital and he is retired and stays home all day.
When I answered the door he proclaimed, "I mowed your lawn for you."
Embarrasingly, I hadn't even noticed until he pointed it out.
Even more embarrassingly was that I wasn't sure if he mowed it to be nice or because it looked so bad!
I had actually called a landscaping company who was supposed to come out the next day. I told him they were going to charge me about $55 a trip for my puny little yard and he told me not to worry about it anymore and that he'd take care of the yards.
He also said that if I left the back yard gate unlocked he'd go back there the next day and mow the back too. My hero.
He also told me that part of my back fence blew down today and if I tossed the boards over the fence he'd fix them.
Well, another embarrassing moment, I didn't even KNOW part of the fence was down. I NEVER go out in our backyard, so Lord knows how long it was down like that.
The fence wasn't DOWN, but some boards that were loose already were blown down from the wind during the day.
We're in hurricane and tornado season here, so guess I need to pay better attention!!
Anyways, this neighbor said that his daughter is married to military so he knows how hard it can be-don't worry about mowing the yards, our yards are small enough and he has nothing else to do, so he'll mow my yards when he mows his.
I'm tempted to name my first born after this man. THAT'S how much of a burden he lifted off my shoulders.
Our stupid mower has been driving me nuts.
Through it all I did learn more about how mowers work, I learned to change a mower spark plug, I learned that mowers need oil AND gas....
Sigh.....obviously, as much as I like to be independent and take charge of things on my own, this is not ever going to be a strong suit of mine.
Oddly enough, I am ok with that.

Went to my second ever FRG meeting on the 22nd of April.
Family Readiness Group is almost a support group for families who have a deployed spouse/family member. It's main purpose is to be the medium between the soldiers and the families left behind. The Commander passes any news of anything going on through a SGT that stays behind to act as a FRG relay, if you will, to educate the families on what the soldiers are doing, where they are (if we're allowed to know), and any other news that may be applicable.
Christie, who is dating one of John's friends, drove down from Greensboro to go to the meeting too.
Although I had been to these meetings before, I hadn't been to one while the guys were deployed, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
There were three of us, besides the SGT, FRG leader and her minions.
There were counselors there from ACS who spent the hour and a half meeting talking to us about how to handle stress during deployments.

Although this isn't my first time at the rodeo, I did learn/notice some things about myself that they pointed out as stress coping mechanisms.
I learned that I have been lacking in the sleep area, I learned that I work too much, I learned that I DO too much (which I beg to differ!!) and that all these are ways that I deal with stress.
In other words, what I took out of it was, I work a lot and keep myself extremely busy so I don't have to deal with the emotional sides of this stuff.
Fine with me!
I'd rather be making money and losing weight than sitting at home moping around.
And it's NOT like I haven't had my moments.
During this whole lawn mower issue I cried several times because I felt so powerless!!
I've had "debbie downer" moments where I am bored and catch myself getting lazy.
So I just go walk the dog, or go work out, or cook something, catch up on GLEE, or FB stalk. ;)
As I always say, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Goodbye April, hello May.
Glad to see you and will be glad when your gone too. :)