Tomorrow Is Another Day...

Little Miracles

Let me tell you.  I have not felt this happy about life since... last summer!  Actually, that's not even true, because last summer is when Colby left for four and a half months, so though I was not in the depths of despair the entire season, I don't think I was as happy as I've been lately.

Thing the First:

I don't think I have a black thumb!  I don't think I have a green thumb either, but I finally decided to throw caution to the wind and attempt this whole gardening thing I keep hearing about.  I was tired of admiring and coveting beautiful front lawns in our neighborhood and then coming back to our ratty little contractor planted garden, so last weekend we hit up the farmers market and Home Depot and came away with a bountiful crop of fleurs.  I want to show you just how beautiful they are before they all shrivel up and die, but alas, my camera is currently lacking any picture taking abilities and Colby is off gallivanting in some far flung corner or the world (also known as the East Coast) with our schmancy camera.  So, I will tell you them.  Thus far, I have managed to not kill the following:

• 3 rhododendrons of varying colors-- light pink, bright pink, and cream with pink "highlights"
• 1 fuschia
• 1 potted red dragon tree in its infancy
• 3 tiny terracotta pots of some such flowers that I got in the $1 bin at Target and am growing from seeds
• 2 toddler lilacs, henceforth known as Lila and Lacy
• 1 herb garden consisting of sweet basil, lemon basil, pesto basil, mint julep, chocolate mint, lemon thyme, and rosemary, and an ivy, which I realize is not an herb, but does look awfully pretty amidst the more edible plants
• 4 African daisies
• 3 Asiatic lilies

Of course, it's only been a week, so feel free to make a pool placing bets on what actually makes it through the season.  I'll work on pictures in the near future, because I don't feel that a flower post is nearly as enjoyable without them.

Thing the Second:

The weather here has been absolutely phenomenal for nearly two weeks now.  I am cautiously optimistic that this summer may prove itself to be one of those "gorgeous summers" I heard so much about before moving here and have yet to experience.  I think Washington is just being coy.  It has heard that we're leaving, so it's doing everything in its power to woo us into staying.  I will not be fooled by your coquettish behavior, Washington!  I know, come September, you'll be up to your old tricks again!  But seriously, look at this forecast:

That right there is a little something I like to refer to as "perfection".

Thing the Third:

Not only do I have less than three weeks of work-school left before I'm taking this job and shoving it for the summer, but next fall I will be going back to work at a school that is 10 minutes from my house as opposed to the ~30 minute drive that I now face.  And that adds up to not 40, but 80 minutes less spent commuting nearly every day as I make the drive four times because of my split shift.  Even better than the cut in commute time, but from what I have heard, the kids are saints compared to the ones I've worked with this year.  Hallelujah and AMEN!

Thing the Fourth:

And finally, I have a bunch of exciting countdowns going on right now.

• 20 days until my last day of work-school
• 1 month and 5 days until my week-long trip to Montana to visit my sister at her summer theater, see my parents, and go to Crater Lake
• 1 month and 16 days until Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
• ~2 months and 8 days until I'm lounging on a beach in Hawaii with my favorite husband

So, that's what has been getting me through my bipolar days recently.  What has you excited about life?

Washington Bucket List

There's so much I want to talk about right now, and the past three days have been jam-packed with fun and productivity, but I have a paper due tomorrow that I've only just begun, so I'm going to insert a cop out post today.  This may be a bit premature as apparently the email that Colby got a few weeks ago about receiving his assignment in June with a report no later than (moving) date between October and January apparently gets sent out every quarter and only applies to a select few of the recipients.  But still.  My mindset is still that we won't be here through the winter, because honestly, that's the only way I'll be able to make it through another winter here.

So, Colby and I have begun compiling a list of all the things we want to do before we leave Washington.  From the length of the list, you'd think we did nothing but sit around the house twiddling our thumbs, but it's just that the longer we've lived here, the more things we keep hearing about that we must do before moving.  Plus there's a bit of Oregon and Canada thrown in just for good measure.  And, to our credit, we've done almost all of the major tourist attractions in the area, so our bucket list is sort of a graduate level Washington course.  I'm definitely taking suggestions as well, so if I'm missing something it's either just because we've already done it or we haven't heard about it yet!

◊    Woodland Park Zoo

◊    Asian Art Museum

◊    Whale Watching—San Juan Islands?

◊    Seattle Opera

◊    Weekend in Port Angeles

• Start at Port Angeles, and drive west on highway 101. You will see one of the most spectacular alpine lakes in the region. Crescent Lake is nestled amongst deep green firs, which rise in dramatic slopes from the waters edge. Nearby, Marymere Falls and Sol Duc Hot springs are great diversions in you’re staying in the area.
• Forks

◊    Sounders Game

◊    Mt. St. Helens

◊    Bainbridge Island Ferry

◊    Victoria, B.C.

• Tea at the Empress
• Butchart Gardens
• Craigdarroch Castle

◊    Winery Tour

◊    Discovery Park

◊    Lakeview Cemetery

◊    Steilacoom Beach

◊    Alki Beach

◊    Dash Point State Park

◊    Rhododendron and Bonsai Garden in Federal Way

◊    Saltwater State Park

◊    Southern Oregon

• Ashland, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
• Crater Lake

Hm, maybe we will need a few extra months in town to get this all scratched off the list!

There's the Motivation I Was Looking For

Last night I came home from work and went for a 30 minute run.  I was in bed by 10:30.  Today I actually feel something akin to rested.

After I got off of work this morning, I got in my car and drove to the Banana Republic Factory Store where they were having a massive sale.  I tried on four pairs of jeans.  Under fluorescent lights.  After eating a lemon pound cake from Starbucks.  Come to find out that lovely loaf of lemon is 500 calories and TWENTY-THREE GRAMS OF FAT PER SLICE.  I had to choke back screams of horror upon looking at myself in the mirror.  I didn't think the tiny woman with the newborn baby in the fitting room next to me would appreciate the shrieking.

Tonight I will be taking my saddle bags for another dash around the block followed up by a session with dear Jillian Michaels.

And I'm giving up my weekly lemon loaf addiction habit.

Thank God bathing suit season in Seattle doesn't start for at least another month...

So Tired

I wake up between 5 and 5:20 every morning during the week. The only way I can get myself out of bed is by promising myself a nap at some point while the kids are at school.  Generally, I don't end up actually having time for that nap because of some pressing need to do laundry or finish a paper, but when I do I think I wake up even more tired than when I fell asleep.

I probably sleep for around 6 hours every night--I know people manage to get by on way less than that, so why is it that my eyes are always at half mast and I spend nearly every waking hour thinking about when I'll get to go back to sleep?

Since Colby got home from his last trip, exercise has completely gone by the wayside.  I'm five days into Level 2 of the 30 Day Shred, but I haven't done it since Friday and I can't even remember the last time I went for a run.  I don't work out because I'm so exhausted, but I think the fact that I'm not exercising is probably contributing to that exhaustion.  I'm disappointed in myself because I had worked myself up from less than a half mile to three miles in just over a month, and I was feeling pretty damn proud of my tiny little arm muscles, courtesy of Jillian Michaels.

I know there's no miracle cure for being tired, but I also know that I'm not taking care of my body the way I should and I'm the only one that can be blamed for that.  Seriously, why can't everyone just be issued a personal chef, nutrutionist and trainer at birth?  We would all be SO much healthier!  Case in point: Lunch today was a bowl of Golden Grahams, a million Ritz crackers, and a piece of cheese.  What the hell kind of meal is that??  This is a confession of sorts, I suppose.  Maybe I figure if I document the problem, I'll do something about it.

We've scrapped the idea of taking a trip to the East coast this summer, and instead will be lounging on the sandy beaches of Hawaii in August.  So, even if the thought of dying from some form of exhaustion or malnutrition won't push me into a healthier lifestyle, maybe the image of my cottage cheese butt and thighs in an itty bitty bikini will.

At least in the short term, Jillian, I'll be seeing you tonight.  That's a promise.

And So It Begins...

I keep thinking it's Friday.  It is not, Friday, but Thursday in fact.  This is repeatedly disappointing to me.  I have no idea what I'm going to write about today, this is one of those new fangled "stream of consciousness" blogs where I just write what comes to mind in an effort to get myself back into the blogging habit.  You should be excited, because I am pretty sure there is going to be some stellar writing up in here.

A crazy thing happened a couple of days ago.  Colby got an email from his squadron saying that we could expect to get our next assignment some time in June and then have a report no later than date between October and January.

!!!

On the one hand, YAY!!!  On the other hand, SHIT!!!

Let us deal with the YAY!!! first.  Even if we don't move until January, that means that I will never again have to endure the most soul crushing months of the year in Washington--February and March.  In January, it is still expected that when you go outside you will need a heavy coat, galoshes, and an umbrella made of reinforced steel.  By April, there are generally enough gorgeous, sunny days sprinkled throughout the month to keep you from throwing yourself off of the nearest overpass.  But February and March are just an endless progression of cold, rainy, grey days with no light at the end of the tunnel.  I hate them.  I will not miss them.

Hm, now that I'm spending some time really thinking about this, that's really the only YAY!!! I can come up with...

Now for the SHIT!!!  There's a lot more here, surprisingly enough. First, the practical.  According to Zillow, our house has depreciated in value approximately 21% since the day we bought it.  HAHAHAHA.  Fuuuuuuuck.  We are working on refinancing right now for somewhere between 4.75 and 5.185%, which is lovely and will bring out mortgage down to a level that we could feasibly charge renters, but that means we'll be renting it instead of selling.  There are a lot of ways that I would love to spend our nest egg.  Funding a short sale is not one of those ways.

Second, the neurotic.  There are a number of things I don't love about Washington.  Namely the weather, but also the obsession with outdoor winter sports, camping and sporting good supply stores, and the criminally insane politics, but what if our next location is worse?  I've heard from a fairly reputable source (i.e. some guy at dinner the other night) that Alaska is off the table for the next round of assignments.  HALLELUJAH!  But you know what is still on the table?  Middle of nowhere Oklahoma and middle of nowhere Nevada.  Do I actually think we will get one of those assignments?  No.  Do they still haunt my dreams and every waking moment?  Yes.

Third, the emotional.  I have made some seriously fantastic friends here, and I really don't want to leave them behind.  I know this is just part of military life, but much like going through a breakup, it's so awful to imagine having to start all over again with a new pool of potential friends.  Of course everyone says they'll stay in touch, and between the Facebook and email, generally people do, but we all know it's just not the same anymore when you move across the country.  There's a chance that some of us will end up in the same place, particularly since there aren't that many options given Colby's careerfield, but there's a greater chance that most of us won't.  So that's sad.

Plus, of course this just means that the hassle of loading up our belongings, finding a place to live, and hauling ourselves to the next house begins again, and honestly, we just did that.

Anyway, that has been the peakiest peak of excitement around here lately.  That and the endless cycle of work, eat, sleep, 30 Day Shred, television.  So, if you can spare a minute, I wouldn't be mad at you if you'd send a little bit of a Charleston or San Francisco vibe my way, and hopefully sometime in June I'll be getting the good news that one of those charming locales will be my residence for the next 3ish years of my life.  (This is me making an attempt at optimism.)

P.S. This turned out way less stream of conscious than I was expecting.  My apologies if you were waiting for something Joycian to evolve out of this.

This Weekend I...

... Went to see the new Star Trek movie.  The only previous experience I have with Star Trek is a highly traumatic moment where I happened to walk through the room while my parents were watching the movie, only to see a man writhing on the ground as a horrifying wormy thing crawled out of his ear.  I can't think of Star Trek without that vision flashing before my eyes, so you can see why I might not have been running to the theater on opening night.  And paying extra to see it on IMAX.  Yet, I did.  I can only cite my love for J.J. Abrams and wishful thinking that Zoe Saldana might be reprising her role as the bitchy ballerina, just transplanted into space.  After sitting through the full movie and only falling asleep a couple of times, the verdict is... I'd rather watch Star Wars.

... Got a little more high brow on Saturday morning with a viewing of The Metropolitan Opera's La Cenorentola, streaming live to a local theater.  I know I've been skeptical in the past, but opera is really starting to grow on me.  I don't think I'll ever love it more than the glitter and flash of Broadway, but there's something to be said for the more toned down culture of a well done opera.  La Cenerentola is essentially Rossini's (The Barber of Seville) take on the classic Cinderella story, so it's pretty hard to go wrong there, and the cast was phenomenal.  Now that I've seen two comedies, I think I'm ready for a terribly heartbreaking tragedy--if there's a heavy set woman with braids and a viking hat, I would not be disappointed.

... Experienced a whole new world at a roller derby match pitting four local teams against one another.  I really had no idea what to expect, but I was surprised at how much fun it was to watch those girls fly around the rink, pushing and shoving to get across the point line first.  There are a lot more rules than I expected, and by the time we left I think we had a pretty good handle on how the sport is played.  I was pulling for the Irish themed Femme Fiannas, up there in green, but I was so exhausted from the loooong weekend, that we left before the game was over.

... Made the mistake of checking my blog stats for the first time since I made the move to my new domain.  Sigh.  I've always said I'm blogging for myself and not for the readers, but I confess, it's a little disheartening to lose 2/3 of the readers that I've built up over the past 3 years of blogging.  I have a lot of great commenters, but I also had a lot of lurkers and since they never commented, I have no way of letting them know where I live now.  Stupid URL hijacker... may the wrath of my readers fall upon your shoulders!

And now it's Tuesday.  This week is sort of stretching out endlessly before me and I'm pretty sure I have the swine flu (what, is that joke used up now?) so I think I'm going to go make myself some eggs and toast, watch Gossip Girl, and then take a nice long nap before heading back to work.  Naps make the week fly by exponentially faster.

Sonic, Rock Band and Creepers

It's been a long time since I've written anything here about what is actually going on in my life.  Despite what this post might have you believing, as a whole, April wasn't all that terrible.  I had a few bad days in a row, and as is my tendency, I had a nice dramatic vent on the blog, felt sorry for myself for a little while and then went on about my life.  I just kind of... forgot I had a blog.  Obviously.

I'll have to do a more thorough recap of April, but I am happy to report that the first weekend of May did not disappoint, and if we're lucky, we may just make it through a whole month without one of my epic blog hissy fits.  For you see, though the rain has been out in full force for the past couple of days, I can see the light at the end of this dreary, grey tunnel.  We've had some spectacularly gorgeous days, and as much as I still hate the constant rain, at least it's no longer COLD rain.  And along with the increase in sun shiny days, the other recent arrival in the Western Washington area is a SONIC!!!!  Right across the street from my school!!

If you follow me on Twitter or are a Facebook friend, you already know that I had a countdown going for Sonic's opening day on April 27th, and the minute I got off of work, my friend Sarah and I hopped in the car and sat in an hour and a half line to indulge in grilled cheese, Sonic Blasts, cherry limeades and greasy, delicous tots.  Sonic is easily, hands down my number one favorite fast food restaurant, and I am so glad that we can finally be together again.  Being that one visit over the course of the opening week wasn't enough, I headed back to Sonic on Friday night where I gently eased my friend Nicole into the beauty of the Sonic menu.  She just dipped a toe in the water, but I think she was duly impressed by the tots and cherry limeade.  The lines around lunch and dinner time are still abysmally long, but I'm holding out hope that soon the fervor will subside and I'll be able to acquire my root beer float fix on a regular basis without losing hours of my life.

Saturday was opening day for a local farmers market, so Nicole and my dear operatic friend Carolyn and I all donned our rain gear and headed into the mist to see what we could see.  Oh, and it was good!  I came home with a fabulous and eco-friendly reusable market bag, two containers of sheeps milk cheese, a half pound of fudge, three dip mixes, a Mother's Day gift that shall not be named, and a gorgeous wooden bowl and platter set.  The selection of garden plantings was incredible, and as soon as Colby gets home from his most recent trip, I'll be dragging him downtown so that we can purchase an array of gorgeous bushes and flowers that we can slowly murder over the course of the next few months.  I cannot wait!

That evening, a passel of us headed over to Carolyn's house where I was indoctrinated into the cult of Rock Band, and lo, it was life changing!  I didn't have a chance to strum a guitar but I rocked the microphone and the drums, and it was the best time I've ever had with two sticks and a video game console.  Along with the new plants, I'm going to be lobbying hard for the next addition to our Wii collection to be Rock Band.  I feel that it will be far more difficult to kill.

In slightly sadder news, my old domain is no longer your friendly, online porn directory.  No, the brilliant internet entrepreneur who purchased the domain also seemed to think that the transaction included full access and rights to my archives, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a slew of my old posts copied and pasted into their website with absolutely zero editing or credit given.  Fortunately, I have been blessed with some seriously web-savvy pals, and they leapt into action with links, email addresses, and form letters to help me take the creepy blog squatter down.  Now, if you go to the site, you'll see a picture from Wicked and a brief synopsis of Broadway theater.  I'm glad that my posts have been returned to their rightful owner (me), but a bit disappointed that my old site is being used for such idiotic, pointless purposes.  At least if someone was using it for good rather than evil... Oh well.

The Internet is for Porn

This past Friday, I celebrated the annual occurrence of Angela Breaks Her Blog when I realized that because I am an idiot, I didn't renew my domain name and hence it had been overtaken by a vile and probably very successful porn site.  I would imagine that the moment that change took place, that URL instantly saw more traffic in one hour than it had seen in the previous year of its life.  So, I wish it well, and have moved on to greener--or at least less morally corrupt--pastures.

In the general sense, I'm not terribly distraught by the situation.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that I'm a little glad that this happened.  It probably won't surprise too many of you to hear that I'd been seriously toying with the idea of throwing in the blogging towel.  I recently read an interesting post about the death of a blogger, and will confess that a lot of the points mentioned hit very close to home.  Almost all of the blogs that I was reading in the early years of this endeavor have fallen by the wayside or are only very infrequently updated.  I've added some more wonderful blogs to my reading list over the past year and a half, but in the past few months I have been very unmotivated to invest the effort into finding new blogs to read and forming relationships with other bloggers like I did in years past.

I also managed to acquire a hateful little troll, hailing from the lovely city of Atlanta, Georgia according to a WHOIS search.  A troll that felt entitled to peppering posts with nasty little comments and then becoming self-righteous and highly affronted each time I deleted one of her rude personal attacks without any response.  Here's the thing commenters, if you're going to be horrid and hide behind a mask of anonymity, I have ZERO qualms about deleting and blocking your hideous little self.  So, anyway, moral of the story, by changing my URL maybe I've managed to shake her, and if not, recent IP blocks seem to have taken care of the issue anyway.

All this to say, I was beginning to feel that maybe a blog just wasn't in the cards for me anymore, and that I would quietly close down operations without fanfare and slip into oblivion.  Then my blog went kaput of its own volition, I felt a little relieved for a nanosecond, and then immediately thought of approximately fourteen things that I had been meaning to blog about and realized that no, I'm not ready to give this up quite yet.

So, here I am, all moved into my new digs.  I'm sending out change of address cards, updating my address with the internet postal service, and hoping that everyone can come along for the ride.  I'm still working through the standard move-in kinks--for example, why on earth have all of the photos in my posts vanished??  And why did my little favicon disappear??  That didn't happen the last time I changed URLs!  But I think this was the shake up I needed to get back on track with the blogging world, and I'm looking forward to becoming a more active member of blogging society once more and kicking things up a notch around here!