Our Army Future

S had his senior rater counselling this afternoon. For those of you who are not familiar, while in the Army, each commander he has will give him an Officer Evaluation Review (OER). Since his current company commander is leaving and a new one is coming in, he had an OER done recently and today he went over that OER with the battalion commander (he met with the company commander this past week). They each tell him how he is doing (wonderfully), what he can do to improve (small things!), and what he can do/expect in the future.

He was looking forward to the counselling because A) he already knew he was getting extremely positive feedback on the OER (that's my hubby!) and B) because it was an opportunity to speak with the colonel about switching over to Civil Affairs. If you remember, this is something for which he has considering applying. After his meeting this afternoon, he came home and said he is pretty sure he is not going to apply.

The other people with whom he had been discussing the branch  were all incredibly positive about it. And they should be--it's what they do, and they should love what they do. Those people made us aware of the negatives, but I think the battalion commander talking about it from a different angle really highlighted some of those negatives: being stuck at Fort Bragg, NC or Fort Hood, TX for the next 14 years and lots of deployments, even during peace time.

S said he just doesn't think he is up for either (obviously, there is only so much control he has over these things, but he doesn't want to go actively seeking them), especially since he really loves what he is doing now. I can't say that I can really argue--those two issues were what was holding me back from being incredibly excited about it (from my point of view, the positives are that it is a growing branch when the rest of the Army is shrinking and that the work sounds right up S's alley). So, it looks like he is going to be sticking it out with the QM.

This is actually very good news, as it means I don't have to change my blog format for quite awhile and I don't have to change my url! However, even though this is no longer something about which I have to worry, over dinner, we did discuss making these changes:

• QuarterMisses or QuarterMrs.
• Quartermistress
• S suggested this one. I pointed out that Mrs. is a shortened version of mistress.
• I also told him I had originally considered this, but decided against it lest someone get the wrong idea.
• He thinks I should make it Quartermistress, anyway, with the tag line "no, not that kind... Get your head out of the gutter!"
• I would be lying if I said I wasn't considering it.

So, we can go back to plan A! To Virginia and beyond!

Blog Challenge Week 1

Me 10 years ago vs. Me now.

Ten years ago, I was sixteen. I'm not going to lie, I was not, in any way, a glamorous sixteen-year-old. I wasn't even a semi-glamorous sixteen-year-old. You know in high school drama/comedies there is always that pretty-but-doesn't-know-she-is-pretty-extremely-smart-and-talented female lead? Yeah, not me, either. If I even made it on camera, I was the chubby one wearing bad clothes, trying to be cutting edge, and failing miserably.

Teenage me was awkward at best and lost, lost, lost.

At this time 10 years ago, I was getting ready to go to a new school. Not because we had moved or anything, but because the school district changed and we were re-routed to a brand new high school. I was to be in the first graduating class, so I was one of only 200 juniors making the move. I thought it was going to be a good experience. I could "start over," reinvent myself. Did that happen? In a round-about sort of way.

The summer of my sixteenth year, I was lifeguarding and teaching swim lessons full-time at an outdoor YMCA. I was driving a 1981 Volvo that had no air conditioning and a sunroof that cranked open. That car was wonderful and a nightmare all at the same time. It had hideous blue upholstery, the powder-blue paint was cracking and peeling, and I had to duct tape the front left headlight to keep it from falling out of the car. Every once in awhile, the turn signal would quit working, so I would have to pull over to kick it back into submission.

I was no longer swimming at that point. I can't remember when I officially gave up, but know it was by the time I had reached that summer. I often wonder why or how I lasted that long in a sport... Any sport. I'm just not much of an athlete, even when I was training and competing all of the time. I often wonder if I should have continued dancing, but I never really had the body for it, and well, let's face it, that's the kind of thing that you look back on and say "what the hell was I thinking?" but in reality, would I have actually enjoyed it? Who knows?

Oh, well.

I loved to read, I was in love with Coldplay, in love with Scotland, and in love with the idea of writing. I hadn't done much of it at that point, but I wanted to. I would write little snippets and dream up entire novels in my mind. The discipline that actually came with writing came later. I'm not sure when, but it took me awhile, but when it did happen, it didn't stop.

At sixteen, college was a near-distant mystery; something to plan for, but something so far away, it might as well be light-years. I had no idea what I wanted to do, where I wanted to do it, or why. I was 16... why should I know? I didn't actually think I would end up at Georgia Tech, that's for sure. And I certainly didn't think I would be an historian. At sixteen, I liked history, but my academic strengths were pretty all over the place, then.

Ten years later, I wish I could go back and have a nice long chat with that girl. Not necessarily to tell her how wrong she was, because,  for the most part, I think I made a lot of the right decisions. That new school was simultaneously the best and worst thing that had ever happened to me... In being a horrible decision, it led to amazing decisions. Decisions that made me a far better student, scholar, and probably person. It sent me across the world to the one place I have ever fallen in love with, to the one place that taught me how to write. But I would ask her to work on the clothes. And the hair. And definitely the make-up. I'd ask her to be a little more outgoing and a little less completely terrified of people.

Amazingly, a lot of my goals then are the same they were when I was sixteen. I wanted to be a writer when I was sixteen, and that desire has only increased in the past decade. I probably appreciate the craft much more than I ever did as a teenager, but then, what teenager isn't overly optimistic about the work involved in life (don't answer that)?

But if you had told me at sixteen that I would be married and have a child in ten years, I would have laughed. And laughed. And laughed. I was convinced I was one of those women who would be well into her thirties before she ever settled down. And an Army wife? Pfft. I was an anti-war hippy. Besides, I was convinced I was going to do something extraordinary... at twenty-six, I can honestly say: being extraordinary is over-rated and requires a lot of work.

And work has never really been my strong suit...

I'm still going to be extraordinary... It's just going to take me a little longer than I had originally planned, and it might not come with as much money as I planned in my head. If one of my books becomes an international success, you better believe I'm going to be all over that... But sometimes, there are a few more important things that should come first.



In the event that you made it this far, perhaps you would like to drown out my incessant rambling by checking out one of the blogs I faithfully read: Working On My Moon Tan.

Blog Challenge

           

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Blogging Challenge: Intro!

This seems incredibly cheesy, so I am going to apologize in advance. But what it all really boils down to is: I need something to do while I procrastinate from working on my writing, and writing is the only thing I can think of. Ironic? Yeah, I thought so, too.

So, I was talking with a few of my lady-friends (and no, not in the 70-year-old man in a nursing home sense of "lady-friends") and it has been decided that a blog challenge is in order. I've never actually done a blogging challenge before, and the ones I have seen seem kind of lame, so we're coming up with our own.

Here are the rules:

• The blog-every-single-day thing seems to be a little... scary for a lot of people. So, we're shooting for once-a-week blogging for 8 weeks.
• Blog challenges will be "due"/rollover on Sunday nights at midnight. I know this sounds a lot like a class project, but hey, we're all gluttons for punishment, anyway, right?
• Post the challenge/challenge rules before you write your first blog-challenge blog, and link back to it with each blog-challenge post (then say blog challenge ten times fast!). This way, your readers can join in on the fun.
• And, just to shake things up, at the bottom of each blog challenge blog, post the link to another blog you read regularly. Think of it as a grab bag for your readers. Or just utter ridiculousness on my part.
• Try to comment on other blogs doing the challenge. Let the blogger know you're reading and doing the challenge, too!
• Take the topics as seriously or as lightly as you would like.
• Write as much or as little as you would like.
• Use visuals if and how you see fit.
• Have fun and share!

Now... For the topics!

• Week 1: Compare and contrast: yourself now vs. yourself ten years ago.
• Week 2: How are you like your parents? How are you different?
• Week 3: Who and what makes up your "community?" How do you define that community?
• Week 4: A social situation you struggle with and why.
• Week 5: How do you define yourself?
• Week 6: What is a goal you have or want to set for yourself? How are you going to achieve it?
• Week 7: A funny story about something dumb you have done.
• Week 8: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Still Under Construction

I think I have most of the bugs worked out... I would consider myself about 80% done at this point. But, I need your help...

... Does my layout look totally jacked up? Or have I finally gotten the HTML worked out to fit anybodies screen?

Construction

Bear with me while I completely mess up my blog. I see I am going to have to pull out the good ole Computer Science textbook to refresh my HTML skillz.

Transitioning into a Jedi Master

One of the things I have been wrestling with lately is my lack of blogger-focus. I kind of remind myself of Luke when he goes to get trained in the force by Yoda, but all I can focus on is moving the damn rock instead of moving the damn rock (do I know what I am talking about, or what?). It's total force-by-blogging... And evident that I am very much a nerd and my husband's nerdiness is rubbing off on me.

Or something.

Anyway, if the paragraph above is not evidence enough that I am a rambler, I'll repeat: I ramble, and the complete lack of focus on my blog is even starting to bug me. I think about the bloggers I read and the blogs they write, and they write about one or two aspects of their life, and leave the rest to the imagination... Jamie entertains with her craftiness and interwebz-finds, Kerry explains what it is like being an American in Australia, and TheBloggess writes about being TheBloggess...

And what do I write about?

I don't even know.

So, I am going to start focusing. Focus, focus, focus. I am going to make that plane rise out of the swamp, and then I am going to ruck-march a small green alien. From now on, I am going to try to keep it to the transitions in my life (you know, using that dumb title I came up with a few months ago in a coffee-induced haze): becoming and growing as an Army family, living diseased, and writing/publishing. And food. Cause I like food. If I'm good, I'll be able to link all of those things together. That will make for some interesting titles, eh?

We'll see how this goes...

Crash Course in What You're Missing on TV... and Probably Don't Want to Watch, Anyway

My friend Jamie is one of my blogging heroes. She has actual reoccurring topics on which she likes to write, and unlike me, she actually writes more than one post pertaining to any particular theme. I, on the other hand, ramble on about who-the-hell-knows what, and hope for the best (by the way, I think Jamie might be my only follower. I couldn't even convince the twenty followers from my previous blog to follow. Further proof that I have nothing interesting to say).

Anyway, today she talked some about the television shows she likes. It got me thinking that I, too, could expound on my own incredibly random television addictions. I'm really not particularly picky, I do follow some of the more popular shows, but I also have a few quirky favorites, as well. I love the NBC comedies, am in love with Smash, and record all of the Once Upon a Time episodes. My husband and I both got into Spartacus on Starz, have some catching up to do on True Blood, and plan to start watch Game of Thrones once we have True Blood out of the way.

When I first sat down to write this, I thought about trying to convince you that The Big Bang Theory is the greatest show to ever make it on the small screen. But then I realized that if you haven't been caught up in that gem, yet, there is no hope for you, anyway (this is totally me being snarky and sarcastic... my sense of humour is probably why I have no followers). So, instead, be prepared to be wowed by Irish Travelers/Romani.

Yeah. I'm totally talking about TLC's My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.

I know this probably makes me look like a big fat loser for A) watching reality television and B) watching reality television about weddings... But I still love it. I love it so much, I actually DVR it.

So, if you haven't seen it, I guess I should give you a little bit of background information. The show was originally produced and aired in the United Kingdom. It follows the traditions of British Irish Travelers mostly, but every once in awhile, they will have a segment about the Romani, as well. Most of the episodes are about weddings, christenings, or other large family events. The major draw is the amount of extravagance: think along the lines of an estimated $140,000 wedding, dresses that weigh up to 300 lbs, illegal street racing of the horse and carriage variety... The "gypsies" are unwanted and unwelcome, and the laws and actions of "mainstream" Brits is prevalent.

I love it because it shows a glimpse of another culture that is so uniquely out of place in our idea of western society. The sociologist in me squees over it all the time. I find myself equally disgusted and impressed with the girls the show usually follows. Most of the brides are in their late teens--anywhere from 16 to 19. The oldest, I believe, was 23, and she was considered an "old maid." They have what I would describe as being horrendously tacky taste, and plan weddings that are the stuff of young girls' fantasies. It's like Barbie threw up all over the semi-adult/real world. They wear dresses that don't fit in vehicles, weigh hundreds of pounds, and give them physical scars. They dress their younger siblings like mini-brides. Their street clothes look like something a Julie Roberts would wear in Pretty Woman before she meets Richard Gere... And all while remaining very strict morally--no premarital sex, no being in the company of men, no socializing with a boy unless without an escort--I'm talking Jane Austen-style.

But, like I said, I can't help but admire them at the same time. I mean, here we have a group of people that the rest of society hates. The mainstreamers look down on them, refuse to work with them, refuse to hire them... They struggle to find venues and cake decorators and seamstresses for their outrageous weddings. They are treated unfairly by the police, laws are passed to limit their way of life. And yet they keep at it. They find ways to make things work, and even though the rest of their country is "making fun" of them via television, they just keep right at it in an effort to keep their traditions alive.

It's fascinating. And kind of like watching a train wreck.

Anyway, if you have nothing better to do, watch an episode. There's definitely more there than meets the eye. And if you have weird taste in television like me, you might actually enjoy it.

...Or give yourself something new to make fun of. Either way.

I Have Nothing Exciting to Say

I promised myself I would try to blog once a day. Unfortunately, I can't come up with anything good to write about for an entire post, so I am just going to make a list of random shit.

You're welcome.

• I started writing a new novel based on my dream the other night. Dangerous, I know, but I can't get it out of my head. Might as well make use of it.
• I have a whole stack of 18-24 month summer clothes my child doesn't fit in. Well... They fit around. But they are too short. Yet another reason I need to have another girl: make use of all the unused clothes.
• We're catching up on Season 3 of True Blood, and randomly, one of us will growl "Sookie" like Bill does.
• I'm flying back to GA and nervous that my plane will crash; I am a horrible wife, because if I die, I kind of don't want my husband to get remarried.
• 20 lbs down, 30 to go. I just wish it would go faster. Next pregnancy, I am not allowing myself to have cravings.
• I don't understand the whole juice/shake diet fad. It's a liquid diet, dude.
• I miss the south; the way the trees canopy over the road, the fireflies, the sound of the insects in the twilight. However, I don't miss the roaches. Eww.
• I miss Scotland. All of it. If it had roaches, I would miss them, too.
• I think I have really bad taste in television. I get a kick out of the teeny bopper shows on ABC Family (except Secret Life... It's dumb and the acting's bad), My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, and 16 & Pregnant. But I do watch good stuff, too. Like Smash and Once Upon A Time. Among other shit.
• I really have to pee, so....

A Fresh Start

I started blogging more than a year ago, setting out on a journey that was supposed to be about the new life upon which we were embarking as a family of three in the Army. But then I got diagnosed with hypothyroidism, realized I did not like our duty station, and found myself in a funk. When I blogged, I felt like I was whining. And I really don't like myself that way. So, the old blog has been "hidden," and I am starting afresh.

My goal is to post something once a day, though I am sure that won't actually end up happening. But it's something to reach for. I'm going to try to be more positive, using this less as a medium to express my displeasure with life, and make it more of a happy, informative, inspirational place. More ideas, more recipes, more book reviews. Less whining.

So, if you're an old friend, I welcome you back. And if you're a new reader, well... Greetings! I