Monday, May 14, 2007

Explanations

I know I dropped off the face of the internet recently. Honestly, I had my plate full with real life. Dominic and I are at a transition in our lives, and we're working very had to try to adapt to the way things are going to be for a while. How long? We don't know. Dominic may even be getting out of the Air Force in the next year. Whether he stays or goes, however, things are going to be tough for us for a while. Personally, I had a hard time while he was deployed. I know he did too. So right now we're enjoying our time together, trying to appreciate each other more, trying to do new things, take trips, hang out in the back yard and drink cold beer or wine. We're sleeping in and going to movies and eating at our favorite restaurants and grilling out on Dominic's new gas grill. We're playing with our cats and lying in our hammock. We're sitting on the couch in our sunroom. Dominic's playing video games and I'm reading books.

Things are tough in all branches of the military at the moment, and while we're less affected by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq than most, we're feeling it too in these rapid and frequent deployments. Dominic goes back to Qatar in June for another 60 days. The deployment after that will happen in October, but the good news is that he will probably either go to England or Greece--which is exciting for us both because I will be able to visit him. Right now we're hoping that he won't be gone over Christmas. We don't think he will. But I've learned to be perpetually dubious when it comes to his deployment schedule. But even within Dominic's career field, among our friends he works with, our situation is both worse and better. I know some wives who have been with their husbands a total of maybe a month since the new year, and I know other officers who have deployed just once and aren't on any lists to go immediately back. Still, Dominic's here now. I'm finished with school for the semester and have decided not to take classes or work this summer, so I can be free to spend some uninterrupted time with him.

I feel very resentful about a lot of things sometimes. Mostly it has to do with our current situation in Iraq and our seeming inability to take care of Americans at home. I'm also very unhappy with the way I see people in the military being treated right now. I specifically mean the very small cross-section I have witnessed by observing what is happening to Dominic and his co-workers. These are good, hardworking men and women. The government spent millions of dollars training them...each. And they are not being treated very well in return. I cannot say whose fault it is. I suspect the situation is rooted in the very highest tiers of governmental authority. That means that everyone else is in a Catch-22, quite literally.

Let me qualify this all by saying that I have a very limited perspective of...just about everything. And I don't speak for anyone but myself, not even Dominic. I'm proud of him and I'm grateful to the Air Force for being able to provide Dominic with the opportunity to do so many good things in his life, to achieve so much. I think he would agree with me when I say that being in the Air Force has been the defining experience of his adult life. So many qualities I love about Dominic--his extroversion, his natural leadership skills, his ability to work hard, his relentless friendliness--are qualities that have been exacerbated by his being in the Air Force so long. I am grateful to live in a country that has institutions that can be so positive for people, but you know, things are just hard lately. Most have it worse than us.

Anyway, please know that my voice can only speak for my own experience. To end more optimistically, here are a few things Dominic and I have planned before he leaves, and also a few things I have planned for myself after her goes:

We're taking a road trip to Pittsburgh, PA! Dominic has a TDY (temporary duty...basically a work-related trip) from the 22nd through the 25th of May, and we've decided to make a vacation out of it. We're leaving early and driving out there, and on the way we're stopping in Chicago, Sandusky, Iowa (home of Cedar Point, a big amusement park), and Cleveland. We don't have our itinerary completely planned out yet, but that's the basic plan.

Camping!

Perhaps visiting a local vineyard.

I'm going to be visiting my sister in Birmingham during July. I hope we can drive down to Panama City Beach or Fort Walton for a couple days.

and...

I hope to be visiting Brooke and Dale in New Orleans during the end of the summer. I guess I need to start talking to them about that.

So those are all positive things...and I might even be taking a few more trips besides those. Summer 2007 is the summer of travel for me. One of the very few good things about Dominic being gone is I'm learning how to act a little more like an adult. As little as a year ago, all this travel would have intimidated me too much to attempt by myself...but I'm learning to take care of myself better in his absence. I'm bolder, less likely to let being afraid stop me from trying new things.

Friday, May 04, 2007

Attention Everyone!

I got a turkey in bowling.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Deployed


I dropped Dominic off at the base at 5:00 this afternoon.

I went to class, and I felt okay.

I came home at 10:00 and watched a little bit of junk food TV.

I folded some clothes.

I tried to sleep, but it turns out I can't

It turns out I do not feel okay.

And I cannot sleep.

And I do not feel okay.

At least not right now.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Christmas 2006?

Man, Kate and I are behind in the times! I came across some photos I need to post from this past Christmas. I'm so slow right now. Hope you like them! Hopefully while I'm away I 'll update the website with cool photos and updates. Keep rockin' everybody!

This is of course our 2006 Christmas tree!



This is the train I always wanted when I was a kid! Cool!



It was so hard not to peek in the stockings!


Kate Rocks! She's not really that good at trivia though...


Thomas's first Christmas morning...
/div>

This is all mine!!!


Mia's Favorite thing about Christmas...Boxes for eating!


Tom learning his patented "Reverse Nascar Entry"


The kids learning new tricks.


The call of the wild...


This is what I'll be missing!


Tom is always my Number One Model!

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Time Flies!

Time flies when you're having fun! Or at least time flies. A lot of things have been happening with Kate and I. She has been hard at work taking classes and teaching. She has a much more talkative class this semester so that is taking a lot of pressure off her. We have been stressing about an upcoming TDY I'll be leaving for later this month. That sucks, but will be keeping up with each other via email, phone, letters, and of course The Stick and String!

It has been terribly cold here in Omaha. We've been getting small amounts of snow nonstop. That sucks of course but so far it has been on the weekend. Convienent! That enables us to take Thomas Pynchon out in the snow on his leash. I had him out there about thirty seconds and then he tried to lay down and stop moving! I was like "Tom! You're a wild animal with a fur coat, you can't just lay down and die that quick!" He eventually came around and he's kind of a fan of the white stuff now.

I had surgery on my knee to have a cyst remove. Gross, I know. It was wicked cool watching myself be cut open though. The first time he cut me though it totally felt like I was just stabbed. I screamed a little. A manly scream though. Then it got infected. That's bad. Hopefully, the Doc will clear me as good tomorrow though. I feel fine though and am ready to move on.

Kate and I got new laptop computers though so now we can be trendy and type blogs in coffee shops. I've pretty much maxed out my trendiness for the day blogging in a coffeeshop while drinking an Italian soda. Kate's across from me being cute. We're livin' the dream!

Thursday, January 04, 2007

2007-ish

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but if I did, they'd probably go a little something like this:

1. Quit being such a black hole for random chocolate candies.

2. Scoop out the litter box more often than I do now, which is never, unless Dominic tells me I have to.

3. Be more ashamed of my Justin Timberlake habit instead of gleefully flaunting it about.

4. Stop entertaining people at parties with anecdotes about how in high school I stayed in on Friday nights and practiced my clarinet. Which I totally did.

5. Stop insisting that Dominic comment about how woefully less blonde my hair is now than it was three years ago. Even though it is, and he knows it, but won't admit it.

6. Pick up the phone and call someone. Anyone. Just use the phone.

7. Clean my glasses.

8. Stop burning holes in my friends' carpet. That's just rude.

9. Stop being afraid of loud noises.

10. Stop breaking wine glasses.

Notice almost all my resolutions have to do with my stopping myself from performing random annoying mannerisms. If I could purge myself of all my annoying mannerisms I'd be a much more pleasant and productive person. Happier too. I'd also be entirely unrecognizable.

Here's wishing you a good 2007...4 days of which you'll already never get back. Let's clink the proverbial glass to that. Cheers!

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Thomas Pynchon Wishes You a Merry Christmas

Who has a white beard and a little round belly that rolls like a bowl full of jelly?


Merry Christmas!