So, Patrick is now off building sand castles and exploring the black market.
Eh, not really. But he is gone now, for four months, and it's definitely going to be a new challenge. Last summer I went home for the majority of Pat's deployment, and it was great because I saw old friends, traveled with my mom, bummed around San Francisco and the greater Bay Area, and saved a bunch of money.
This year, we'll definitely be saving money. We already talked to AT&T and discovered they've been overcharging us for our phone plan, so it's been cut down by $65. We'll save money on electricity, gas, groceries and takeout. He'll be getting tax-free, hazard and separation pay as well as his tax-free enlistment bonus in December.
I'm also in school full-time, taking some great and challenging classes, and I'm a paid staff writer [and sometimes copy editor] for The Vista on campus. It's a totally different experience from my days on [X]Press at SFSU. I get paid and I get to produce more stories, but it doesn't seem to have the camaraderie we had on [X]Press, at least not that I've picked up on yet.
I get my new phone next week [who wants to help me pick between a Blackberry Curve or a Palm Treo?], I'm going to Vegas in October, Mom's visiting in late October, and I have tons of friends here to keep me company and help me through this.
Today was interesting though. I got home from base and I was running on an hour of sleep, but I wasn't ready to crash right away. I talked to Regina on the phone for close to 90 minutes and kept an eye on Abbie, who seemed depressed. I think she knew what was going on, what with Patrick's multiple bags being all over the living room. Tonight for dinner I made a "homemade" pizza with pre-made crust, I just brushed roasted garlic olive oil over the crust and added my own stuff.
I'll be okay. Come the 15th, our finances will be so much more stable. I have a lot to keep positive about in the next few months.
Updates coming soon!
- The American Idol concert experience with Jessi! [with amazing pics]
- My new role on the Vista
- My last few days with the kiddos
- A possible new home in the future
Monday, September 8, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
olympics wrap-up, not that I've had much to say as it is.
So, the Olympics are officially over. I have learned many things from these games, most importantly, that I'm seemingly willing to waste many hours of my life and sacrifice precious hours of sleep to watch every bloody second of coverage. I think it's the rare aspect of the Games that take ordinary, non-athletic viewers and draw them in, not to mention NBC's round-the-clock coverage of just about every sport.
While I look forward to getting my life back, I'll obviously miss many things about the past two weeks... at least for a few days until I remember what my summer was like before I saw Michael Phelps on my TV on an average of every 35.6 seconds.
Speaking of which...
[credit: latimes.com]
1.) Michael Phelps.
I categorize him separately from the other [just as sexy] swimmers for an obvious reason: as we have been reminded [on an average of probably 10.2 seconds, thank you Bob Costas], he is now the Greatest Olympian to Ever Walk the Planet. They even did a prime-time segment on how his body was virtually sculpted for swimming, from his long torso to his flipper-like size 14 feet. And yet, every time the little reminder icon on the bottom of my shiny new LCD TV said "Michael Phelps in X minutes, I got comfortable and waited for him to break yet another world record. If they were to create a drinking game for these Olympics, a rule would be to drink every time he was mentioned, and we would all end up in the hospital for alcohol poisoning. But that's not to discredit everything he's done in the week he was in the Water Cube [drink!]. Along with his teammates, he basically mopped the floor with his competitors around the world, and made it look easy. We should all be that lucky.
Not to mention, he really never has to worry about getting laid ever again.
[credit: china.cn]
2.) Obscure sports we never cared about before!
Raise your hand if you ever watched a rhythmic gymnastics competition before the Games. Or beach volleyball [which got old REAL fast]. Or badminton. Or rowing. Should I go on? Well, I can safely say that generally, I have absolutely no interest in the majority of the sports at the Olympics. And yet, I'm drawn to them, like Amy Winehouse to crystal meth, or Tom Cruise to couches... anyway, while I can justify watching swimming and gymnastics obsessively because I've always enjoyed watching them, even in non-Olympic years, I cannot justify the reasons for me putting a non-NBC blockade on my TV for two weeks in fear that I might miss the Chinese shutout in table tennis. I simply cannot. I became a freaking junkie.
3.) Those adorable Morgan Freeman VISA commercials.
By now, most American viewers who chose NBC as their network of choice to watch the Games [and who wouldn't? All the good stuff is here] can basically recite Freeman's warming monotone of athletes who achieved greatness by winning, or in some cases, by coming in dead last. "But he... and his father... finished." Not long after Nastia Liukin won her all-around gold: "But it's hard when the family business... is winning gold medals." I mean, everyone who's awesome knows that Morgan Freeman is the ultimate President, and he makes a pretty great God, too. So, of course he makes the ideal spokesman for telling us common folk about the fulfilled dreams and dashed hopes of the world's greatest. I wish I had something more snarky to say... but it's Morgan fricken Freeman.
[credit: nbcolympics.com]
4.) More USA swimmers!
Yeah, I can't help it. I'm shallow. But seriously, how can you be disgruntled when one of the big showcase prime-time events has a lot of really tall, really muscled half naked men all dripping wet and looking hot? I know I'm happy. Even aside from The Greatest Olympian to Ever Walk the Planet, we had Ryan Lochte [pictured above with his really awesome grill], Aaron Peirsol, Jason Lezak, Garret Weber-Gale, Ricky Berens... do I really need to go on? Do I even need to mention that all the aforementioned swimmers are gold medalists? I think not.
Let the drooling commence.
5.) That pesky USA vs. China thing we keep hearing about.
Hey NBC - guess what. The Cold War ended. It ended before some of those American gymnasts you keep touting were even conceived. And yet we still hear it, nearly every day in some form, that a gold medal comes down to the United States and China. The gold medal race was seemingly do or die for the the US team, and it was especially pronounced during the gymnastics competition. Now, don't get me wrong. Five out of six of the female Chinese gymnasts looked like they needed to be in grammar school instead of the gymnastics boot camp they're put through, and if some of those girls are 16, then I'm hooking up with Michael Phelps. But the male gymnasts were probably the closest thing to perfection I've seen in the sport, and so were all the divers. Still though, it's this East vs. West, communism vs. capitalism, human rights vs. um... no human rights? deal, over and over, providing speculation in the judged events and ominous shades of the 1980s. They say that it's so strange that the Chinese did this well on home ground, but what people conveniently forget is that in the 2002 Salt Lake City games, the Americans doubled their previous efforts. All on home ground and often in events we epically fail at.
No one is going to doubt that China has its fair share of problems. But seriously, in the name of one world and Olympic spirit, can we de-politicize this just a tad?
Anyway.
It was a great games - and to note, the closing credits montage was one of the most inspiring I've seen. Patrick pokes fun at me for getting all teary-eyed at them, but that damn Remember the Titans music combined with images we've seen and associated with greatness, and images that define both the agony of defeat and the disbelief of winning, is enough to turn me into one big sap.
Viva Vancouver 2010. Now let's keep our fingers crossed that I'll actually get to go this time...
While I look forward to getting my life back, I'll obviously miss many things about the past two weeks... at least for a few days until I remember what my summer was like before I saw Michael Phelps on my TV on an average of every 35.6 seconds.
Speaking of which...
[credit: latimes.com]
1.) Michael Phelps.
I categorize him separately from the other [just as sexy] swimmers for an obvious reason: as we have been reminded [on an average of probably 10.2 seconds, thank you Bob Costas], he is now the Greatest Olympian to Ever Walk the Planet. They even did a prime-time segment on how his body was virtually sculpted for swimming, from his long torso to his flipper-like size 14 feet. And yet, every time the little reminder icon on the bottom of my shiny new LCD TV said "Michael Phelps in X minutes, I got comfortable and waited for him to break yet another world record. If they were to create a drinking game for these Olympics, a rule would be to drink every time he was mentioned, and we would all end up in the hospital for alcohol poisoning. But that's not to discredit everything he's done in the week he was in the Water Cube [drink!]. Along with his teammates, he basically mopped the floor with his competitors around the world, and made it look easy. We should all be that lucky.
Not to mention, he really never has to worry about getting laid ever again.
[credit: china.cn]
2.) Obscure sports we never cared about before!
Raise your hand if you ever watched a rhythmic gymnastics competition before the Games. Or beach volleyball [which got old REAL fast]. Or badminton. Or rowing. Should I go on? Well, I can safely say that generally, I have absolutely no interest in the majority of the sports at the Olympics. And yet, I'm drawn to them, like Amy Winehouse to crystal meth, or Tom Cruise to couches... anyway, while I can justify watching swimming and gymnastics obsessively because I've always enjoyed watching them, even in non-Olympic years, I cannot justify the reasons for me putting a non-NBC blockade on my TV for two weeks in fear that I might miss the Chinese shutout in table tennis. I simply cannot. I became a freaking junkie.
3.) Those adorable Morgan Freeman VISA commercials.
By now, most American viewers who chose NBC as their network of choice to watch the Games [and who wouldn't? All the good stuff is here] can basically recite Freeman's warming monotone of athletes who achieved greatness by winning, or in some cases, by coming in dead last. "But he... and his father... finished." Not long after Nastia Liukin won her all-around gold: "But it's hard when the family business... is winning gold medals." I mean, everyone who's awesome knows that Morgan Freeman is the ultimate President, and he makes a pretty great God, too. So, of course he makes the ideal spokesman for telling us common folk about the fulfilled dreams and dashed hopes of the world's greatest. I wish I had something more snarky to say... but it's Morgan fricken Freeman.
[credit: nbcolympics.com]
4.) More USA swimmers!
Yeah, I can't help it. I'm shallow. But seriously, how can you be disgruntled when one of the big showcase prime-time events has a lot of really tall, really muscled half naked men all dripping wet and looking hot? I know I'm happy. Even aside from The Greatest Olympian to Ever Walk the Planet, we had Ryan Lochte [pictured above with his really awesome grill], Aaron Peirsol, Jason Lezak, Garret Weber-Gale, Ricky Berens... do I really need to go on? Do I even need to mention that all the aforementioned swimmers are gold medalists? I think not.
Let the drooling commence.
5.) That pesky USA vs. China thing we keep hearing about.
Hey NBC - guess what. The Cold War ended. It ended before some of those American gymnasts you keep touting were even conceived. And yet we still hear it, nearly every day in some form, that a gold medal comes down to the United States and China. The gold medal race was seemingly do or die for the the US team, and it was especially pronounced during the gymnastics competition. Now, don't get me wrong. Five out of six of the female Chinese gymnasts looked like they needed to be in grammar school instead of the gymnastics boot camp they're put through, and if some of those girls are 16, then I'm hooking up with Michael Phelps. But the male gymnasts were probably the closest thing to perfection I've seen in the sport, and so were all the divers. Still though, it's this East vs. West, communism vs. capitalism, human rights vs. um... no human rights? deal, over and over, providing speculation in the judged events and ominous shades of the 1980s. They say that it's so strange that the Chinese did this well on home ground, but what people conveniently forget is that in the 2002 Salt Lake City games, the Americans doubled their previous efforts. All on home ground and often in events we epically fail at.
No one is going to doubt that China has its fair share of problems. But seriously, in the name of one world and Olympic spirit, can we de-politicize this just a tad?
Anyway.
It was a great games - and to note, the closing credits montage was one of the most inspiring I've seen. Patrick pokes fun at me for getting all teary-eyed at them, but that damn Remember the Titans music combined with images we've seen and associated with greatness, and images that define both the agony of defeat and the disbelief of winning, is enough to turn me into one big sap.
Viva Vancouver 2010. Now let's keep our fingers crossed that I'll actually get to go this time...
Thursday, August 14, 2008
update?
I know I need to update this. And I will.
School starts next Monday. My last day of work with the kiddos is tomorrow [at least until January]. I've been virtually glued to the Olympics for close to a week. I'm definitely not getting enough sleep at night. I'm trying to figure out the best way to fend off chronic homesickness while Patrick is gone, whenever it is he ends up leaving.
But I hope I haven't lost too many readers with my sparse posts lately. I think once school starts and I'm more active in general, I'll have more to say. The Olympics have piqued my interest in this as well - maybe this weekend I'll post my thoughts thus far.
I'll be around.
School starts next Monday. My last day of work with the kiddos is tomorrow [at least until January]. I've been virtually glued to the Olympics for close to a week. I'm definitely not getting enough sleep at night. I'm trying to figure out the best way to fend off chronic homesickness while Patrick is gone, whenever it is he ends up leaving.
But I hope I haven't lost too many readers with my sparse posts lately. I think once school starts and I'm more active in general, I'll have more to say. The Olympics have piqued my interest in this as well - maybe this weekend I'll post my thoughts thus far.
I'll be around.
Friday, August 8, 2008
faster, higher, stronger.
Today is 08.08.2008 ... do you know what that means?
The Summer Olympics start tonight!
I grew up in a home that watched Olympic sports religiously, especially every four years when we were blessed with a summer and winter games. Then in 1994 everything went haywire when the Lillehammer Winter Olympics were held only two years after the games in France, and they started staggering the games - an Olympics every two years, but each season's events would be every four years.
The one specific Olympics that I remember most fondly was the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. It was my first year of college and I had just discovered a relative "unknown" short track savant, the great Apolo Anton Ohno. My 18 year old hormones went into full overdrive and I followed his events religiously and was even inspired to write a dorky fan-fiction about him, which ended up around 50,000 words and 20 chapters and a slew of Internet readers. But even with that aside, I grew into a fan of short track speedskating, and my mom and I met a number of new friends over at Ohno Zone who we were blessed to have met. We traveled to two World Cup events in 2003, in Salt Lake City and Marquette, Michigan. I was even able to grasp some media experience helping out some friends with websites and interview transcriptions in the media room there.
Patrick picks on me because one of my favorite aspects of the Olympics are the portfolio-boosting packages on athletes and their experiences, the editing and the montages that are compiled in the end. I'm generally not a very patriotic person, but there's usually at least one moment at every Games that brings tears to my eyes. I think that what the nations do, especially the host nations who put together the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, is nothing short of astonishing.
I definitely can't wait to be glued to my TV for the next few weeks!
The Summer Olympics start tonight!
I grew up in a home that watched Olympic sports religiously, especially every four years when we were blessed with a summer and winter games. Then in 1994 everything went haywire when the Lillehammer Winter Olympics were held only two years after the games in France, and they started staggering the games - an Olympics every two years, but each season's events would be every four years.
The one specific Olympics that I remember most fondly was the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. It was my first year of college and I had just discovered a relative "unknown" short track savant, the great Apolo Anton Ohno. My 18 year old hormones went into full overdrive and I followed his events religiously and was even inspired to write a dorky fan-fiction about him, which ended up around 50,000 words and 20 chapters and a slew of Internet readers. But even with that aside, I grew into a fan of short track speedskating, and my mom and I met a number of new friends over at Ohno Zone who we were blessed to have met. We traveled to two World Cup events in 2003, in Salt Lake City and Marquette, Michigan. I was even able to grasp some media experience helping out some friends with websites and interview transcriptions in the media room there.
Patrick picks on me because one of my favorite aspects of the Olympics are the portfolio-boosting packages on athletes and their experiences, the editing and the montages that are compiled in the end. I'm generally not a very patriotic person, but there's usually at least one moment at every Games that brings tears to my eyes. I think that what the nations do, especially the host nations who put together the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, is nothing short of astonishing.
I definitely can't wait to be glued to my TV for the next few weeks!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
three-day weekend goodness.
What a weekend. I can honestly say I wasn't expecting it to be this eventful, but I'm glad it was. Every time I get sad and worry that I'm going to feel lonely and without much of a support system in Oklahoma when Patrick deploys, I now know to remind myself that I do have good people in my life here.
My friend Jessi invited Patrick and me over to her adorable apartment to have a cookout with her, her fiance and their little one, Castor. They live in one of the nicer apartment complexes in the general area [we lived in the "sister" complex when we lived with Andy and Julie two years ago] so when she mentioned swimming, I knew it would be a good idea.
We've had something of a massive heat wave for the past three weeks or so. The opportunity to swim where I could avoid the urge to dropkick unruly kids and enjoy time with my friends was far too good to pass up. So we packed the stroller with the baby, towels and a stack of Solo cups and the cooler full of beer and wine coolers and headed to their spacious pool area. Patrick and one of the other guys couldn't swim for various reasons, so it ended up mostly being Jessi, Jamie and I floating back and forth across the pool balancing cups. It wasn't too busy when we got there, but a couple of teenage Girls Gone Wild wannabes with mid-20s guys had one end of the pool colonized, and a guy in board shorts was randomly ribbon-dancing at the other end.
After we had enough sun, we headed back to the apartment and grilled up a ridiculous amount of food - brats, burgers, chicken, corn on the cob, baked beans. We ended up playing a game called Dirty Minds which used scandalous wordplays to describe everyday things. Jessi declared me the master of it when I managed to guess "filibuster" correctly.
We also had some really bad Mango test tube shots that tasted strangely like medicine. Never again.
Sunday was fairly chill. Patrick helped his friend and co-worker Josh move across town, along with our friend Taylor. I invited Jessica over to hang out - she's the daughter of family friends, and the step-sister of one of my best high school friends. Her parents moved to Oklahoma from Northern California for work, so she's here visiting her parents for the summer [her mom lives in California]. She's 14 and needed a change of scenery, so while Patrick was gone she hijacked his laptop while we shared music and watched movies. I invited the guys over for chicken parmigiana, my specialty, because I knew they'd be tired after a long day of moving.
After dinner, the four of us headed down to the Copa for cocktails and a very entertaining drag show. Generally I feel a lot more comfortable there because it's a gay bar and the closest thing I get to being hit on is guys telling me how cute my clothes are. Which is perfectly fine with me. Not to mention the atmosphere is friendlier and the bartenders can pour one mean drink.
Patrick has never been uncomfortable with gay bars. I think his biggest concern was that no one would find him attractive, honestly, but those fears were quelled when a few guys asked if he was gay. Of course, he promptly introduced me to them as his wife. But he gets along great there, even using it as an "excuse" to drink fruity drinks.
I'm definitely glad he's deploying with our friend Josh this fall. He's a really great, sincere guy who seems to be generally out of the huge AWACS fishbowl that we all deal with to an extent here. He isn't part of the gossip [at least in our squadron / group] and he's a true positive influence, and I think that's essential when they're in a crazy part of the world.
Chantal [pictured above] was totally crushing on Josh all night, which I found hilarious. Drag queens are pretty cool - one was wearing a dress that I fell in love with, and Josh said he'd try to get her to give it to me [heh]. Not to mention I'd love to have one do my makeup one day for kicks.
Taylor's favorite bartender, Donnie, is a sweetheart. I was surprised that he remembered me from last weekend, but in a good way. Last weekend when I ordered a double vodka Red Bull, he handed me a full glass of vodka on ice and a can of Red Bull. This weekend he introduced Taylor and I to a shot called a hard nipple - one part Crown Royal and one part buttershots, shaken and strained. I could very easily consume several of those and not think twice about it.
Our weekend extended into Monday because Patrick and I both had the day off. He decided a dozen Dunkin' Donuts would be a nice treat, and we decided to take Jessica to the zoo. The Oklahoma City Zoo is quite large, but you wouldn't know it from the low turnout yesterday.
Of course, I blame the 103 degree weather for the low turnout. After an hour, Jessica and I were totally dragging and taking advantage of the 50 cent refills on our souvenir cup of Diet Coke. I'm pretty sure we went into every exhibit that had air conditioning, and ran through as many sprinklers as humanly possible.
I was concerned our weekend would be too relaxed for my own good, but I'm glad to say that with the presence of really good friends and good attitudes and my shiny new camera, we had a blast. I just need to remind myself of this whenever I get nervous about Pat leaving - I've got great people to be around here.
My friend Jessi invited Patrick and me over to her adorable apartment to have a cookout with her, her fiance and their little one, Castor. They live in one of the nicer apartment complexes in the general area [we lived in the "sister" complex when we lived with Andy and Julie two years ago] so when she mentioned swimming, I knew it would be a good idea.
We've had something of a massive heat wave for the past three weeks or so. The opportunity to swim where I could avoid the urge to dropkick unruly kids and enjoy time with my friends was far too good to pass up. So we packed the stroller with the baby, towels and a stack of Solo cups and the cooler full of beer and wine coolers and headed to their spacious pool area. Patrick and one of the other guys couldn't swim for various reasons, so it ended up mostly being Jessi, Jamie and I floating back and forth across the pool balancing cups. It wasn't too busy when we got there, but a couple of teenage Girls Gone Wild wannabes with mid-20s guys had one end of the pool colonized, and a guy in board shorts was randomly ribbon-dancing at the other end.
After we had enough sun, we headed back to the apartment and grilled up a ridiculous amount of food - brats, burgers, chicken, corn on the cob, baked beans. We ended up playing a game called Dirty Minds which used scandalous wordplays to describe everyday things. Jessi declared me the master of it when I managed to guess "filibuster" correctly.
We also had some really bad Mango test tube shots that tasted strangely like medicine. Never again.
Sunday was fairly chill. Patrick helped his friend and co-worker Josh move across town, along with our friend Taylor. I invited Jessica over to hang out - she's the daughter of family friends, and the step-sister of one of my best high school friends. Her parents moved to Oklahoma from Northern California for work, so she's here visiting her parents for the summer [her mom lives in California]. She's 14 and needed a change of scenery, so while Patrick was gone she hijacked his laptop while we shared music and watched movies. I invited the guys over for chicken parmigiana, my specialty, because I knew they'd be tired after a long day of moving.
After dinner, the four of us headed down to the Copa for cocktails and a very entertaining drag show. Generally I feel a lot more comfortable there because it's a gay bar and the closest thing I get to being hit on is guys telling me how cute my clothes are. Which is perfectly fine with me. Not to mention the atmosphere is friendlier and the bartenders can pour one mean drink.
Patrick has never been uncomfortable with gay bars. I think his biggest concern was that no one would find him attractive, honestly, but those fears were quelled when a few guys asked if he was gay. Of course, he promptly introduced me to them as his wife. But he gets along great there, even using it as an "excuse" to drink fruity drinks.
I'm definitely glad he's deploying with our friend Josh this fall. He's a really great, sincere guy who seems to be generally out of the huge AWACS fishbowl that we all deal with to an extent here. He isn't part of the gossip [at least in our squadron / group] and he's a true positive influence, and I think that's essential when they're in a crazy part of the world.
Chantal [pictured above] was totally crushing on Josh all night, which I found hilarious. Drag queens are pretty cool - one was wearing a dress that I fell in love with, and Josh said he'd try to get her to give it to me [heh]. Not to mention I'd love to have one do my makeup one day for kicks.
Taylor's favorite bartender, Donnie, is a sweetheart. I was surprised that he remembered me from last weekend, but in a good way. Last weekend when I ordered a double vodka Red Bull, he handed me a full glass of vodka on ice and a can of Red Bull. This weekend he introduced Taylor and I to a shot called a hard nipple - one part Crown Royal and one part buttershots, shaken and strained. I could very easily consume several of those and not think twice about it.
Our weekend extended into Monday because Patrick and I both had the day off. He decided a dozen Dunkin' Donuts would be a nice treat, and we decided to take Jessica to the zoo. The Oklahoma City Zoo is quite large, but you wouldn't know it from the low turnout yesterday.
Of course, I blame the 103 degree weather for the low turnout. After an hour, Jessica and I were totally dragging and taking advantage of the 50 cent refills on our souvenir cup of Diet Coke. I'm pretty sure we went into every exhibit that had air conditioning, and ran through as many sprinklers as humanly possible.
I was concerned our weekend would be too relaxed for my own good, but I'm glad to say that with the presence of really good friends and good attitudes and my shiny new camera, we had a blast. I just need to remind myself of this whenever I get nervous about Pat leaving - I've got great people to be around here.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Vocal rest sucks.
This is not a face that endorses laryngitis, kids.
In the past 18 months, I have had: gastroenteritis, strep throat, swimmer's ear, three or four colds, the flu, bronchitis, sinus surgery and now full-blown laryngitis.
Moral of the story? Thank heavens for Tricare.
I really can't speak, and if I try it's very straining and I'm hard to understand. Patrick's just been on AIM since yesterday and that's how I communicate with him. Generally I feel fine - I just can't talk. I'm generally a very chatty person, so this is very hard to deal with.
It started on Friday - I was losing my voice, but I could still talk. I just sounded like a two-pack a day smoker. We went to the Copa with some friends of ours that night, which was a REALLY bad idea because loud clubs + rapidly diminishing voice = no voice the next day. Though I did have a fantastic time, as I always do there.
Yesterday was Hannah's birthday. She turned four, and sometimes I'm amazed at how fast she and Zach are growing up. I started working there about 10 months ago, and Zach couldn't even sit upright on his own. Now he's walking all over the place and babbling up a storm.
Like most kids her age [and some adults, too], Hannah loves High School Musical... and Zac Efron. Who doesn't?
It was an adorable low-key birthday party, complete with bubbles, cupcakes shaped like ice cream cones and kids getting all their energy out running around on playground equipment, some of which was very old-school. It definitely brought me back to my childhood.
Lastly... Abbie and Yoyo love each other... kind of. Abbie just tries to stay as far away from the kitty as possible while still laying in her favorite spot. She's a bit neurotic.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
friends like this are hard to come by.
One of my best friends here moved back to the West Coast today. I'd known she was leaving for awhile, but it's still sad, especially with Patrick leaving soon.
I met Cindy the summer I moved to Oklahoma, in 2006. I saw a posting by her in a generic Military Wives community on MySpace, and I saw she and her husband were stationed at Tinker like us. Then she directed me to the community for Tinker Wives, and they were planning a girls night.
I wanted to meet new people. I'd had some fallout with another friend and I desperately wanted to meet new people. So Patrick drove me downtown to meet up with her and another girl, Vicki. We had dinner and drinks at Toby Keith's, and we did a little bar-hopping around some of the area, discovering Daiquiri Zone [a sports-bar themed place that sold over 20 frozen daiquiris] and Venu [a small club-style bar that was sadly undervisited].
Over the course of the summer and into the fall and winter, Cindy and I hung out more. She taught me her version of drinking Monopoly. She became friends with the person I had the fallout with [they worked together] so the three of us ended becoming buddies. We had an impromptu Oscar party complete with lots of junk food. Julie joined Cindy and I on a girl's day out complete with the hookah bar, half-off Valentine's Day chocolates and matching PJs. I taught her basketball terminology at a Hornets game where we had horrible seats. We took our dogs to the dog park and had dinners at our homes. I felt - and still feel - that she was one of best friends here in Oklahoma.
Last fall, she told me her husband was filing for divorce. What was once a civil matter between the two of them became every woman's worst nightmare. She spent a lot of time at my place then, and I did what I could to give her advice and moral support through a very difficult time. She also discovered the OKC club scene with us and started dating someone from school. We had a lot of fun then, knowing she didn't have a lot of time left in Oklahoma, but we both got really busy with school and work that we didn't get to hang out as much. But when we did, it was usually epic.
I'm really going to miss her. Aside from an incident with the friend I'd had fallout with before, that we both became friends with, there had never been any drama between us. She was one of the friends here I could count on if I needed someone or if I needed to just get out of the house for lunch. As liberal West Coasters, we felt the same way about living here, and I know she's happy to be going home. Even though I wish she could stay through this deployment, I give her a lot of credit for coming as far as she has in the past year and hopefully she and I can have more adventures in the future.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
finally, a disclaimer.
A recent anonymous comment on here has encouraged me to write this, as a bit of a disclaimer and clarification. I deleted the post and comment, for while it may have been honest and brutally truthful from this person's perspective, it was also very offensive and a borderline personal attack.
So here ya go... This is not a professional blog.
When I moved here from California two years ago, I knew I wanted to create a blog chronicling my experiences as a Bay Area transplant living in the proverbial Middle America. Like it or not, it was a huge culture shock and still remains so at times. I feel like my experiences are fairly unique for people I know, namely my friends and family back home, and I wanted to share them. For better or worse, I write. I always have. I used to write on LiveJournal and when I realized that the format and the environment was stifling for me, I moved to Blogspot like many of my friends have.
I made a post earlier today about my in-laws visiting, and in it was a paragraph about Waffle House. Everything I wrote in that graf was from what I saw. It wasn't embellished. It wasn't made up. Should I have omitted what I said? Perhaps I should have. It was not as though I took pictures of the people I wrote about and posted them here. I won't elaborate further, in an effort to not dig myself into an unflattering hole, but what I said wasn't libelous. But from now on I intend to be far more conscientious about what I write, because I've always been aware of the fact that I can be Googled and potential employers can find this.
But the fact remains that this anonymous commenter questioned my personal integrity and my choice in future profession. I have no idea yet if I intend to pursue journalism, even though it's my major. I don't graduate for another year so I have some time to figure out what I want to pursue. This isn't the best part of the country to break into the media, especially with recent cutbacks. After taking recent courses in public relations, I'm considering that as well; I've noticed far more feasible job options in that field here.
I don't feel that a personal blog, which is mostly comprised of my general experiences here without judgment on the people I know and encounter, will disqualify me for any future careers in this country. I've had this blog since January, and since then my posts have consisted of American Idol / Jason Castro drivel, stuff about the Oscars and film in general, day-to-day experiences with my husband and our friends, being back in school and pictures. That's really it... I just went back and checked for any other potentially offensive posts, should I need to edit or delete them. I couldn't find any. I don't talk about work unless it's vague, and I don't talk about school much outside of my thoughts on the subject matter.
I do ask that my readers allow me to have this as a safe zone of sorts. I don't have much of one here. My friends are from all walks of life because most of my friends here are in or married to the military. If I make an effort to not sound potentially libelous and judgmental toward those I witness [I'm an avid people-watcher], I ask that those who may find this offensive either take it up with me outside my blog, or just take me off their RSS feed / bookmark list. I also ask that the person who commented, should they know me in real life, confront me personally so I can further clear this up. I am not just a renegade blogger out to slander the name of Oklahomans because I've met many Oklahomans living here and every state [yes, including mine] has its good and bad apples. I am also not writing in this blog with the sole purpose to avenge my name after some of the offensive "you're from California" comments I've received [though I did address them in an entry about that several months ago, and I intend to leave it at that]. This blog is for me; and it is also for those who know me or who may stumble upon it to understand my day-to-day experiences.
In the future, anonymous comments will be disabled. If you have questions about how to sign up for a Google / Blogspot or OpenID account, ask me. Thank you.
So here ya go... This is not a professional blog.
When I moved here from California two years ago, I knew I wanted to create a blog chronicling my experiences as a Bay Area transplant living in the proverbial Middle America. Like it or not, it was a huge culture shock and still remains so at times. I feel like my experiences are fairly unique for people I know, namely my friends and family back home, and I wanted to share them. For better or worse, I write. I always have. I used to write on LiveJournal and when I realized that the format and the environment was stifling for me, I moved to Blogspot like many of my friends have.
I made a post earlier today about my in-laws visiting, and in it was a paragraph about Waffle House. Everything I wrote in that graf was from what I saw. It wasn't embellished. It wasn't made up. Should I have omitted what I said? Perhaps I should have. It was not as though I took pictures of the people I wrote about and posted them here. I won't elaborate further, in an effort to not dig myself into an unflattering hole, but what I said wasn't libelous. But from now on I intend to be far more conscientious about what I write, because I've always been aware of the fact that I can be Googled and potential employers can find this.
But the fact remains that this anonymous commenter questioned my personal integrity and my choice in future profession. I have no idea yet if I intend to pursue journalism, even though it's my major. I don't graduate for another year so I have some time to figure out what I want to pursue. This isn't the best part of the country to break into the media, especially with recent cutbacks. After taking recent courses in public relations, I'm considering that as well; I've noticed far more feasible job options in that field here.
I don't feel that a personal blog, which is mostly comprised of my general experiences here without judgment on the people I know and encounter, will disqualify me for any future careers in this country. I've had this blog since January, and since then my posts have consisted of American Idol / Jason Castro drivel, stuff about the Oscars and film in general, day-to-day experiences with my husband and our friends, being back in school and pictures. That's really it... I just went back and checked for any other potentially offensive posts, should I need to edit or delete them. I couldn't find any. I don't talk about work unless it's vague, and I don't talk about school much outside of my thoughts on the subject matter.
I do ask that my readers allow me to have this as a safe zone of sorts. I don't have much of one here. My friends are from all walks of life because most of my friends here are in or married to the military. If I make an effort to not sound potentially libelous and judgmental toward those I witness [I'm an avid people-watcher], I ask that those who may find this offensive either take it up with me outside my blog, or just take me off their RSS feed / bookmark list. I also ask that the person who commented, should they know me in real life, confront me personally so I can further clear this up. I am not just a renegade blogger out to slander the name of Oklahomans because I've met many Oklahomans living here and every state [yes, including mine] has its good and bad apples. I am also not writing in this blog with the sole purpose to avenge my name after some of the offensive "you're from California" comments I've received [though I did address them in an entry about that several months ago, and I intend to leave it at that]. This blog is for me; and it is also for those who know me or who may stumble upon it to understand my day-to-day experiences.
In the future, anonymous comments will be disabled. If you have questions about how to sign up for a Google / Blogspot or OpenID account, ask me. Thank you.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
The in-laws visit Oklahoma. Day One.
Fair warning to those who are visually stimulated: I haven't used my camera at all in the past few days, so this will probably be the only post with a photo [courtesy of Julie]. Once I get a point-and-click that is not only small but doesn't require recharging every hour, my posts will have more photo goodness. Carry on. :)
Patrick's parents, Bill and Sherie, arrived here July 4 afternoon. ExpressJet offers direct flights from Northern California to OKC [probably the only airline to do so], so their travel was quick and convenient. We came by the house and relaxed a bit before going over to Andy and Julie's July 4 fiesta.
We weren't expecting a huge blowout, but Jessi and Marc were already there with baby Castor [only one month old!] and Brandi and Grafton had just arrived. Izzy and Cora live with Andy and Julie now, and they had served up a virtual feast - crockpot ribs, salsa, several different kinds of chips, trail mix, cheese and pepperoni tray, potato salad, macaroni salad, wine and beer. Julie made us Jack and Cokes and a few of us played a drinking game inside while the guys relaxed outside under a large canopy. I was still dealing with light sensitivity and watery eyes [due to allergies of death] so I stayed inside till dusk.
Jessi and Marc brought over a game we simply call "Bags" which involved tossing beanbag footballs onto field-shaped platforms across the grass. The guys took this to another level, throwing a tennis ball at the girls, and once Julie chucked that over the fence, they started throwing soccer balls at the bags being tossed, making for a far more challenging game.
Andy had sparklers, Black Cats, Roman candles and jumping jacks that we lit off in the cul-de-sac. Some of the guys Patrick and Andy worked with crashed the party and found it funny to throw lit Black Cats into the garage, near people's feet. Needless to say after awhile it turned into a fistfight between them and some of our friends, so the crashers didn't stay long.
Bill learned how to play beer pong, and we invited one of the neighbors to hang with us. Once we ran out of airplane bottles of Jack, I opted for Boone's Farm straight from the bottle [the only way to drink it]. There was the requisite level of drama, drinking, games and down time - the ideal Air Force in Oklahoma party. Kinda cool that Patrick's parents got to see it, meet our friends and see for themselves what we do basically every weekend.
Patrick's parents, Bill and Sherie, arrived here July 4 afternoon. ExpressJet offers direct flights from Northern California to OKC [probably the only airline to do so], so their travel was quick and convenient. We came by the house and relaxed a bit before going over to Andy and Julie's July 4 fiesta.
We weren't expecting a huge blowout, but Jessi and Marc were already there with baby Castor [only one month old!] and Brandi and Grafton had just arrived. Izzy and Cora live with Andy and Julie now, and they had served up a virtual feast - crockpot ribs, salsa, several different kinds of chips, trail mix, cheese and pepperoni tray, potato salad, macaroni salad, wine and beer. Julie made us Jack and Cokes and a few of us played a drinking game inside while the guys relaxed outside under a large canopy. I was still dealing with light sensitivity and watery eyes [due to allergies of death] so I stayed inside till dusk.
Jessi and Marc brought over a game we simply call "Bags" which involved tossing beanbag footballs onto field-shaped platforms across the grass. The guys took this to another level, throwing a tennis ball at the girls, and once Julie chucked that over the fence, they started throwing soccer balls at the bags being tossed, making for a far more challenging game.
Andy had sparklers, Black Cats, Roman candles and jumping jacks that we lit off in the cul-de-sac. Some of the guys Patrick and Andy worked with crashed the party and found it funny to throw lit Black Cats into the garage, near people's feet. Needless to say after awhile it turned into a fistfight between them and some of our friends, so the crashers didn't stay long.
Bill learned how to play beer pong, and we invited one of the neighbors to hang with us. Once we ran out of airplane bottles of Jack, I opted for Boone's Farm straight from the bottle [the only way to drink it]. There was the requisite level of drama, drinking, games and down time - the ideal Air Force in Oklahoma party. Kinda cool that Patrick's parents got to see it, meet our friends and see for themselves what we do basically every weekend.
Monday, June 30, 2008
imagine all people, living life in peace.
In an act of relative boredom last night, I watched 30 Days on FX. I've never really watched the show before, but this episode stood out to me. It asked a pertinent question: should gay and lesbian couples be allowed to adopt children?
To me, the answer is easy and obvious. They absolutely should.
This episode took a woman named Kati, a Mormon from Southern California, to the home of a gay male couple [the Patricks] and their four adopted children in Michigan. She was to spend 30 days with them in attempt to open her thought process to the idea of a loving home for adopted children - even if it went against her belief system.
Kati was a broken record throughout the episode. It could have been a drinking game - drink every time she says that children should only be raised by a man and woman. Drink whenever she says she can't go against her morals. And so on, et cetera. To me, the most interesting factor was the fact that she couldn't hold her own against many people she encountered. One particular incident at a picnic with other gay families stood out - an older gay woman was calm and rational, asking Kati to explain why she felt that she couldn't marry her partner and what exactly she considered "unethical" about it. Cue Kati storming away in tears about how "those people" are attacking her beliefs.
Toward the end, one of the men she lived with explained that her militant anti-gay bias was intrusive on his lifestyle; a vote against gay adoption rights is a vote to take his children away. Kati said that his beliefs stepped on her toes, too - all those dang gay people existing happily and normally intruding on her beliefs! How dare they!
Even more interesting was that she met with two people who had experienced the foster system as children and explained to Kati that it can be a dead-end, because all too often children ride it out until they're 18, with no stable adoptive family unit. Despite the statistics they gave her, her beliefs held firm - gay couples should not raise children, period.
One of my favorite cousins [she's close to my mom's age] is gay; she's been with her partner for almost 20 years. They have four adopted children, all in their teens now. I've known them for awhile [they live in Connecticut] but last summer I was able to spend a week with them in a rented beach house in Rhode Island. All four of their kids are well-adjusted, smart and in no way confused about how families work. They were all at-risk children as well, and living in Jill and Annie's home provided them a stable family and future. They're fantastic parents and knowing them, I can't ponder the concept of some higher power wanting to take those four kids away because they have two moms. Just because a couple is heterosexual couple, doesn't necessarily grant them the "ideal parent" prototype.
I've always been very pro-gay rights. Maybe it was living in the Bay Area of California, maybe it's having several [normal! gasp!] gay friends. Who knows. I simply believe that they are who they are, and no rights that heterosexuals are granted should be withheld from them because of their sexual orientation. This is not a country run on the words of the Bible, nor is it any kind of theocracy. I have yet to hear a valid argument against gay marriage or adoption, let alone one that doesn't include religion, the Bible, the "they can't procreate" factor or the so-called "icky" factor.
There's a lot of opposition to gay marriage / rights in Oklahoma, and a commonly heard argument against it is "it will destroy the sanctity of marriage". My question: how? How does two men being married hurt you? Hell, if your church doesn't want to marry gay couples, they don't have to. They can just go to the courthouse like many straight couples do and still get a legitimate marriage license. If one wants to look at what's "really" hurting the so-called sanctity of marriage, check out the quickie Vegas weddings, no-contest divorce states [Oklahoma is one of them] and sham marriages for government benefits. There are problems with the state of marriage as it is, a marriage currently only granted to heterosexual couples in the majority of the country. You know that saying about people and glass houses? Well...
I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir. I know that there are many, many other and better arguments for why gay couples shouldn't be denied the rights that straight couples have. But it's always been something I've been passionate about. Why *should* Americans be denied these rights, just because they love someone of the same gender? I have yet to hear a valid reason and I don't think I will.
Here's to hoping that in 20-30 years, maybe even sooner, this concept will be as outdated as the separate-but-equal movement, Jim Crow laws and denying women the right to vote. One can dream, right?
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