- I always feel like I’m twenty-seven years old, but in reality, I’m twenty-three .
(I've always thought I act mature for my age, and generally I get the same reaction from others.) - I wish my family understood better when I tell them call me anytime .
(This one was hard. My family's pretty understanding of my life and the way I live it, they're always supportive. But one thing they're always worried about is bothering me when I'm busy or when the time difference doesn't work. Even though I'm all the way in Japan, I still have voicemail! ) - If you saw me when I force my husband to kill all the bugs in my house , you’d think I was a total girly-girl, but if you saw me when I'm drinking beer and telling dirty jokes with said husband's sailor buddies , you’d think I was a tomboy through-and-through.
(I don't like bugs or critters. I may have screamed numerous expletives into a voicemail machine when I found a huge tarantula in the house while Jeff was at work. I may have thrown a garbage can over a mouse and left the house for the day a few years earlier when my parents' place got a couple mice invaders. But, I'm not a girly girl really. I don't like drama. I don't have perfect hair or nails and I don't care too much about clothes or accessories. I'm usually more comfortable goofing around with the guys than with their wives.) - I feel like I’m in a totally different universe when people are astonished that I'm not having kids yet, despite the fact that I'm only twenty-three.
(I've blogged about this before, but it never fails to trip me out. Seriously guys, what's the rush? I'm not in a rush.) - In honor of this being MFF #60… 60 months ago (exactly 5 years ago, so September 30, 2006) I lived in the dorms at Aurora University and my life was totally different because I was in college, fresh out of high school and with a lot to learn, with a boyfriend in the Navy overseas, and a tepid roommate that I tried my hardest to get along with and failed.
(Feels like forever ago! It was definitely an interesting experience and I have a lot of amazing memories from my years in Aurora. But, I don't miss the dorms, the less than stellar roommate [my next roommate was ah-mazing], the long distance relationship, the general chaos that is college life. Although that year was definitely the most uneventful. Sophomore year I had cortisone injections, surgery, and a marriage. Junior year I moved cross-country to California and started at a big state school with a brand new major. Both junior and senior year I averaged about 23 credits per semester. Senior year I finished in a rush before moving overseas. Whew, I get tired just thinking about it.)Join in the fun!
Friday, September 30, 2011
Mil-Spouse Friday Fill-In
Monday, September 26, 2011
Shipwrecked
This weekend we did some explorin'! We haven't been out and about as much as we've liked due to life getting in the way as usual, but we're working on that. So on Sunday morning we ventured out to a place called Shipwreck Beach. I'd heard a few things about it, and assumed the name was self-explanatory. Armed with our directions from ITT (information, tickets, and travel) and some caffeine, we made our way off base and along the coast. After driving right past the entrance, we figured it out.
The first thing we saw is the "mountain of seashells", or so it was called on the directions. It definitely was a mountain. It dwarfed my 5'11" husband. I don't know how or why they're piled a good kilometer from the water, but it was interesting to see.
After we took some snapshots by the many shells, we continued towards the beach where we saw ships, stranded on the shore. I wonder where they got the name for this beach...
It was gorgeous. All the ships just stranded in the sand. It was so interesting to see how time had warped and roughened the wood, leaving debris all over the place.
With the beautiful blue skies and water, I was snapping pictures like crazy. It was a perfect day to go to the beach, and it was so much better than any beach day my husband or I had done recently. Jeff hates the beach, but he was like a kid in a candy store here.
There was so much to touch and investigate. Every time I turned away from my camera, he had his hands on some wood or was picking up some debris or climbing on rocks. It's why I assumed he would love this place.
I think what struck me most was how natural it all seemed. In the states, a wrecked ship would have been carefully picked up and discarded, forgotten about within a month or two. Here, it becomes part of the landscape. You could tell these ships have been here for a long time and aren't going anywhere soon. The way Japanese embrace both life and death, growth and decay just fascinates me. Here's a ship that's well past its prime, falling to pieces, buried in sand and rock, and decaying. But it's beautiful.
I loved this place.
Besides the decay, it was just a pretty beach and a gorgeous day. I love how this picture captures my husband's footprints as he runs away from me. There was a small stream between the boats above and this rock formation. He jumped over it nimbly, and I stood and looked at it with trepidation. I pictured my clumsy self falling face first in the cold water, dragging my camera into the water with me. I looked up to ask Jeff to take my camera...and he was way down there climbing rocks.
He's a climber. But this turned out to be one of my all-time favorite pictures of him, so I don't mind.
I even managed to join him on the rock without a) falling on my face or b) dropping my camera and watching it shatter. Bonus - I didn't even fall climbing in all that debris.
I forced him to do a quick picture, of course.
Another favorite picture! He climbed the pile of rocks as I was still sitting and I yelled "Wait! Let me get a picture!" And as he was waiting for my to scramble down and get to the other side of the pile, he decided it would be funny to do the Captain Morgan pose. The seagull in the background is pure luck. Love it, though!
The seagull landed on the rocks, and Jeff continued to climb on the rocks. He was going to jump his way out to the farthest rock, but decided that might not be the best idea and stopped about halfway. Not without some laughter caught on film, though.
It was such a fun little trip. I can't wait to go exploring again.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
The Short End of the Stick
I'm 5'3". Most days, I don't give my height much thought. I'm not the shortest woman around.
And then I go buy pants...
I bought some sweatpants from Victoria's Secret a few weeks ago. These sweatpants, to be exact. They are the comfiest sweatpants I've ever worn, so if you're in the market for sweats, consider these beauties. Not my point, though. My point is that before I could snuggle into the couch in my seriously soft pants, I had to hem them. Hemming sweatpants = cutting the bottom off and embracing the inevitable curl and slight frayed edge at the bottom. I cut 5 1/2" off. I looked at these big swatches of brand new fabric and realized...I'm pretty short.
I had that problem again today. I needed to pick up some nicer clothes. Blouses, dress pants. My first problem was the limited selection at the BX. Sometimes it seems like the maternity section is larger than the regular women's section. When I weeded through and found some pants options, I discovered a whole bunch of extra fabric. I bought a pair on sale that fit perfect down to the ankles.
I guess it's a good thing my mom taught me how to sew and hem, right? I remember her always joking that her shopping trips for work clothes were never done until she hemmed the pants she bought. I know the feeling now that I need to dig up some black thread and a needle. Oh the joys of being outside the mystical "average" American size.
And then I go buy pants...
I bought some sweatpants from Victoria's Secret a few weeks ago. These sweatpants, to be exact. They are the comfiest sweatpants I've ever worn, so if you're in the market for sweats, consider these beauties. Not my point, though. My point is that before I could snuggle into the couch in my seriously soft pants, I had to hem them. Hemming sweatpants = cutting the bottom off and embracing the inevitable curl and slight frayed edge at the bottom. I cut 5 1/2" off. I looked at these big swatches of brand new fabric and realized...I'm pretty short.
I had that problem again today. I needed to pick up some nicer clothes. Blouses, dress pants. My first problem was the limited selection at the BX. Sometimes it seems like the maternity section is larger than the regular women's section. When I weeded through and found some pants options, I discovered a whole bunch of extra fabric. I bought a pair on sale that fit perfect down to the ankles.
I guess it's a good thing my mom taught me how to sew and hem, right? I remember her always joking that her shopping trips for work clothes were never done until she hemmed the pants she bought. I know the feeling now that I need to dig up some black thread and a needle. Oh the joys of being outside the mystical "average" American size.
Oh Hey, I'm Back Already
...That lasted long.
I tried Wordpress for a little while, but its customization options were so much more limited than Blogger. Unless you wanted to pay, which I do not. So I moved back here, and picked out a new theme just because. It'll probably change within the month, as it usually does.
Huh, that rhymed.I apologize for all the useless migration :)
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
We Collect Things.
We have lots of stuff. The plus side is we actually use the stuff we collect. The down side is the limited storage options when living in a 2 bedroom apartment overseas, where we can’t just run to Ikea or Wal*mart when we need some affordable and quick storage pieces. If everything is bigger in Texas, everything is smaller in Japan. Houses, furniture, people. Everything is tiny and insufficient for our collections.
What are we collecting?
Besides dust and the insane amount of paperwork the military tries to drown people with, mainly books and movies. Most people are aware of one addiction or the other. If you’ve met me, you know I love to bury my nose in a good book. If you’ve met my husband, you know he can quote movies like nobody’s business. But our collections are like tumors, taking over. We both laugh at how much it feels like we’re always trying to stuff the latest addition to our collection somewhere. Don’t believe me?
Take a look.
April 2010.
Oh, just a few books. This was a year and some change into living together. I had college textbooks and a small collection of “for pleasure” books picked up from Borders. I don’t see any of Jeff’s books on the shelf, but he was deployed at the time so maybe they were with him?
September 2011.
I’m *so* glad we decided to pick up a second bookshelf from Wal*mart before we left the states. It’s one of those sturdy metal shelves that can go anywhere and hold anything. It also gave us the option to do ‘his’ and ‘hers’ bookshelves. Perfect. (Mine’s on the left!) As you can see, our books are overflowing. And that’s after my electronic love, the Kindle, took over a lot of book purchases. My mission this week was to organize the office (Only so housing could get into the room to do maintenance, not for our own pleasure. Priorities, clearly.) I finished my mission, and then went to a friend’s house and picked up a box full of books. She’s moving and I’m always looking for a new book. It was the perfect pairing. Except I have no idea where to put those 20-30 books I just picked up…for now they’re sitting in the car.
And here’s the bigger, and much more impressive, collection.
February 2010
Not a shabby collection, right? Most of these movies were collected by my then-single husband while he was stationed in Italy. Movie buying slowed down considerably when we got married and actually had bills, but it’s been picking up speed steadily since we moved back overseas. Ask anyone, AFN (American Forces Network) isn’t the most entertaining television on the planet.
September 2011.
Yes, I’ve got stacks on top of stacks on top of the full shelves. We’ve looked for larger storage solutions, but found limited options over here. Surprisingly, not a lot of people have this size of a movie collection! Ha. The best part? That’s not even all of the collection. See those black squares under the television?
Oh, those are also stuffed with movies. One has all the gaming accessories, three are overflowing with television series. I tried to count the movies a couple times. I always forget the numbers, but they are clearly way up there. We keep them alphabetized as much as possible, which helps when we’re looking for just the right movie. Jeff wants to get them all listed on the computer so we can better keep track of where we need to fill in blank spaces (like trilogies) and what we have doubles of (like Boondock Saints). We started to make a wishlist on Amazon and gave up because every thirty minutes or so Jeff would yell out “Oh hey, what about ________?!” or “I love _____, we need to buy that one”, or any other similar comment. It was time consuming, even for a list lover like me. Especially since we each buy movies pretty frequently these days.
This post was prompted by me happily placing the last book just so on our organized and neat bookshelves in the office. The desk was clear, the closet doors could close, the clutter was contained, and my side of the bookshelf was in alphabetical order (I tried to organize Jeff’s books once, he went back and changed everything, so I gave up forever). My bubble of organization bliss was popped when I remembered the box of books in the car. 20-30 books that somehow need to be crammed onto the bookshelves that are pretty full even after I crammed all my old textbooks into a plastic container in the closet.
And we may or may not have just ordered some new books on Amazon recently… I shudder a little to think of how full this apartment is going to be when we move in 2014.
What are we collecting?
Besides dust and the insane amount of paperwork the military tries to drown people with, mainly books and movies. Most people are aware of one addiction or the other. If you’ve met me, you know I love to bury my nose in a good book. If you’ve met my husband, you know he can quote movies like nobody’s business. But our collections are like tumors, taking over. We both laugh at how much it feels like we’re always trying to stuff the latest addition to our collection somewhere. Don’t believe me?
Take a look.
April 2010.
Oh, just a few books. This was a year and some change into living together. I had college textbooks and a small collection of “for pleasure” books picked up from Borders. I don’t see any of Jeff’s books on the shelf, but he was deployed at the time so maybe they were with him?
September 2011.
I’m *so* glad we decided to pick up a second bookshelf from Wal*mart before we left the states. It’s one of those sturdy metal shelves that can go anywhere and hold anything. It also gave us the option to do ‘his’ and ‘hers’ bookshelves. Perfect. (Mine’s on the left!) As you can see, our books are overflowing. And that’s after my electronic love, the Kindle, took over a lot of book purchases. My mission this week was to organize the office (Only so housing could get into the room to do maintenance, not for our own pleasure. Priorities, clearly.) I finished my mission, and then went to a friend’s house and picked up a box full of books. She’s moving and I’m always looking for a new book. It was the perfect pairing. Except I have no idea where to put those 20-30 books I just picked up…for now they’re sitting in the car.
And here’s the bigger, and much more impressive, collection.
February 2010
Not a shabby collection, right? Most of these movies were collected by my then-single husband while he was stationed in Italy. Movie buying slowed down considerably when we got married and actually had bills, but it’s been picking up speed steadily since we moved back overseas. Ask anyone, AFN (American Forces Network) isn’t the most entertaining television on the planet.
September 2011.
Yes, I’ve got stacks on top of stacks on top of the full shelves. We’ve looked for larger storage solutions, but found limited options over here. Surprisingly, not a lot of people have this size of a movie collection! Ha. The best part? That’s not even all of the collection. See those black squares under the television?
Oh, those are also stuffed with movies. One has all the gaming accessories, three are overflowing with television series. I tried to count the movies a couple times. I always forget the numbers, but they are clearly way up there. We keep them alphabetized as much as possible, which helps when we’re looking for just the right movie. Jeff wants to get them all listed on the computer so we can better keep track of where we need to fill in blank spaces (like trilogies) and what we have doubles of (like Boondock Saints). We started to make a wishlist on Amazon and gave up because every thirty minutes or so Jeff would yell out “Oh hey, what about ________?!” or “I love _____, we need to buy that one”, or any other similar comment. It was time consuming, even for a list lover like me. Especially since we each buy movies pretty frequently these days.
This post was prompted by me happily placing the last book just so on our organized and neat bookshelves in the office. The desk was clear, the closet doors could close, the clutter was contained, and my side of the bookshelf was in alphabetical order (I tried to organize Jeff’s books once, he went back and changed everything, so I gave up forever). My bubble of organization bliss was popped when I remembered the box of books in the car. 20-30 books that somehow need to be crammed onto the bookshelves that are pretty full even after I crammed all my old textbooks into a plastic container in the closet.
And we may or may not have just ordered some new books on Amazon recently… I shudder a little to think of how full this apartment is going to be when we move in 2014.
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