Wish me luck

We're unplugging the computer now. See you all on the flip side...

:)

$137.80

That's the total amount due on my 2006-2007 tuition. The rest? Financial Aid! Got it in the mail today. Wanna know the best part? IT'S ALL IN GRANTS!!! AHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go dance naked around a bonfire in homage to whatever gods just smiled on me.

:)

Why should I have to title these things?

Saturday night, while I was in Atlanta, I got a call from a friend at work. She'd been checking all the reptiles for water, and apparently my corn snake turned up dead. Sad, really, but if it was that unhealthy this early in the game, maybe it was for the best. We got a new corn snake in, though, a hatchling blood corn, who is now on hold for me.


Sorry about the poor quality, but I was using a camera phone.

The moving company manager came by this morning to do an estimate. He was really nice, and he told me that his company has moved 8 different generals in the past 6 years because of their reputation. I'm feeling much better about this move.

Party at the Masquerade

So this weekend was the combined birthday party for me and my hubby, since it fell right in between. And what did we do, you ask? We went and saw these two guys
with this guy
and this guy
play at the Masquerade Music Park in Atlanta. I tell you, I don't even know if I can put this show into words. It was hands down the best live show I've seen yet (not that I'm a seasoned veteran of live shows or anything, but still). I have yet to see the Duo and not be right up front on the rail, and this was no exception. I was standing next to this guy named Leon, he was from London and an English professor up in NC. He'd already seen a few shows of this tour, and he's been a Phish fan since '91. Very cool guy. I always like ending up next to interesting, friendly people at shows, it makes it easier for me to relax and just have a great time. The Duo played a short but solid first set, and when all four of them came out for second set, they rocked it from the start. The first four or so songs were killer! There was a lot of long jamming after that, Chris wasn't feeling well and some guy right down from us passed out and had to be lifted over the rail so they could get him out (he was okay, though), so I was kinda distracted for a while, but when Mike pulled out his electric banjo and Trey went acoustic, I was all ears. They sat and played a few simple songs, then busted out with "Mexican Cousin", the first Phish cover of this tour. The whole crowd was singing along, it was incredible! Joe and Marco came out after that and got halfway through Paranoid Android, which I've always wanted to hear them cover live, and when Trey came back out he looked like he was going to groove on it with them, but instead he broke in with a new riff....I was kida pissed, I wanted to hear the end of Android, but when they started playing Who Are You, the whole crowd went NUTS! I can't describe it. I have never rocked out that hard. I gave myself whiplash :) not bad, but I'll remember this show for a few days! We were standing right in front of Marco (Benevento, the keyboard player)...I LOVE watching him play, he's so happy and smiling all the time, he loves what he does and he loves seeing all of us digging on what he does, it's only been two days and I can't WAIT to see these guys again, even if I don't know when that wll be. But there will be a next time. Oh yes, there will be.

We had breakfast at Waffle House this morning. Two breakfasts: eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, orange juice and coffee. Waffle House food, what my husband has affectionally termed "crap on a plate". $15, including tip. Last night, after the show, we went to Gordon Biersch and had fresh brewed iced tea (for me), a half-litre handcrafted Hefeweizen (for him), and split a fresh from-scratch veggie pizza with tomatoes, artichokes, spinach, mushrooms and sun-dried tomato pesto, enough to fill up both of us. $21, including tip. The moral? If you ever get near a Gordon Biersch, go have dinner. You won't be disappointed.

Favorite Quote #2

I listened to Relentless today, and I think it's time to change my favorite quote.

Favorite Quote of the Moment:
Wouldn't you like to see a positive LSD story on the news? To hear what it's all about perhaps? Wouldn't that be interesting? Just for once?

"Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves.

Here's Tom with the weather."
~Bill Hicks

Life update

15 days until the movers come. I have not started packing anything, or even going through things to decide what goes and what stays, although this little voice in the back of my mind keeps telling me I should, don't wait until the last minute, you don't want to be going through your stuff after it's already moved, just take what important and leave the rest. I'm living in this strange mix of permanent and temporary. I still have things packed away in boxes in various closets because we don't have the space to unpack everything we have, but it all seems so solid, we've been here for a year and a half now and it feels like forever. I can barely remember what this place looked like when we moved in last February. Oddly enough, as solid as it seems, it has never really felt like home. I haven't had a "home" since I left my parents six years ago. Oh, living with Fletch came close, I actually had a house and a roommate I was comfortable with, but I haven't had the opportunity to put down new roots since I pulled the last ones up, and I don't know when I'm going to have the chance again. I don't even know how long we'll be staying in VA this time. The thing is, though, I don't know whether or not I would be comfortable settling down in one place and not moving again. I suppose as long as I was able to travel, it would be okay, but living the same life day after day gets monotonous so quickly. That's why I wasn't ready to leave VA the first time, hanging out with the guys in Arlington there was always something different happening, and it never got old. I miss them. I hope I can find a way to settle in to the next chapter in my life as well as I have in the past, because the sooner this one is over, the better.

Chris is still hanging in there. He's stressing over the amount of work he still has to do, apparently there are two change of commands this week so instead of spending quality time in his office he and the rest of his squadron have been practicing for those, but he's managing. Things have been a little strained around the house. I've started likening it to childbirth; right towards the end everything gets harder, your patience wears thin and all you want is for it to be over and done with. At least, that's what I've read. I've never had children, so I don't know if that's true or not. But we both realize the situation we're in, which makes it easier to get through the strain and say, "This is only temporary, we can get through it, and things will be better soon." Not that they're "bad" now, but we're both snappish and preoccupied, and we don't see much of each other, since I'm working nights. We get a break in a few days, though! We're going to Atlanta for the weekend to see the GRAB show. That's Gordon, Russo, Anastasio, Benevento for all you non-Duo and non-Phish people. Check out www.trey.com, www.mike-gordon.com, www.phish.com or www.organanddrums.com to find out more (this means you, Jimmy!). These guys are incredible!

All the pets are doing fine. One of my fish died a few days ago, but I'm not that upset about it. As long as Wilson (my betta) is okay, that's all I'm worried about.



One of my mice is pregnant again. This will be her third litter. The other two females are still too young, I think, or maybe they haven't started showing yet. Doesn't really matter to me, the pinkies are all going in the freezer for my corn snake. Who, by the way, started eating on his own! I finally got him to eat a brained pinky three days ago (yes, that means I squished its head, deal with it), and Jennifer gave him a not-brained pinky yesterday, which he grabbed onto with relish (dill, not bread-n-butter :P). I will definitely be taking him with me when we move. He's starting to show some orange around his head, I think he's going to turn out to be a standard coloration, which is fine with me. I'll share some pictures as soon as I get them.

Not counting my days off, I have eleven days of work left. Work is...work. I think I'm going to miss about half a dozen people from my job, but most of them are Myspace friends, so I won't be completely cut off! I don't really have anything to say about my job.

Still waiting on my financial aid. *sigh*

Israel and Lebanon just went to war. I am now trying frantically to learn 2.000 years of Middle Eastern history so I will understand not only what's happening, but why. My husband did a wonderful job of giving me the layman's version, but I still wonder where I've been for the past 24 years...do my parents know about any of this? If so, why didn't they teach me? Based on everything I know up to this point, I'm very pissed off at Israel right now.

That's all for now.

Why don't we have free college like the rest of the world?

I filled out my Master Promissory Note for a Federal Stafford Loan today. I'm mailing it first thing tomorrow. This should be good news, but let me tell you why it's not.

First of all, this is the first time I've had to do any of the financial paperwork myself. When I went to college back in '00, my parents took care of it. So, every time I think I have everything taken care of, and I call the Financial Aid office to check the status of my aid, they tell me, "Oh, wait, you need to fill out this form, and print out this form, and we need this additional paperwork from you, etc, etc...". It's very frusturating. Second, since going to college this fall instead of next spring was kind of a last-minute decision, I already know that my loans are not going to come through until after the deadline for tuition payment (Aug 4). I'm only responsible for around $1000, it's only community college and they finally granted my application for in-state tuition (yay!), but I'm probably going to have to pay that out-of-pocket and get reimbursed my the loans. They should have my FAFSA processed within the next two weeks, so I'll know how much of it the school is covering, but my tuition is due three days after I move, for crying out loud! We're also getting reimbursed some moving expenses by the military, but we won't get that money or Chris's last paycheck until sometime in the later half of August, since we're taking terminal leave and moving two weeks before his official seperation date. So, we're going to have to pay for our move (gas, food, etc.) out-of-pocket as well.

On the flip side, though, we have only 17 days until the movers come and pack up all our stuff. Can we say, AAARRGGHHHHHHHHH! (that was a happy one, not a frusturated one...)



I love you guys. You keep me sane.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

I found this video on a blog for introverts, which I'll be linking to shortly...I watched Mr. Rogers Neighborhood religiously as a kid, and watching this brings it all back. Fred Rogers did more for the children of my generation than anyone else, and this just proves it.

Kindred Spirit

I don't browse blogs. Not because I don't care, or because I think I already have enough friends, but mostly because I don't have time. All of my new friends, up until now, have been found through existing friends. But a few nights ago, whilst browsing for the first time, I came across the most astounding thing...

This girl reminds me so much of myself it's scary. I've read everything, all 3+ years of posts about life, love and finding yourself, and I just can't believe how closely some of her experiences mirror my own. Fletch, you can attest to this, you were there for most of it...

On a related note, another blog of interest was linked from this new one, and I recommend it to everyone reading this. I haven't gotten very far yet, but this woman is (was?) homeless and living in her car, and blogging from the local library. She's well educated and literate, and her story is captivating.

Thank you, Vicky, for sharing yourself with the rest of the world. You may think your story is boring and pointless, or maybe you know better by now, but it's very comforting to know that no matter where you live, who you know, or what your circumstances are, human experience is universal.

And the hits just keep on comin'....

I slept until noon today. Considering I didn't go to bed until about 3am, I figure I deserved it. Besides, it's my birthday, dammit, I can do what I want! :)

Chris woke me up when he came home from work. I went down to check the mail, and there was a birthday card from my grandparents with $20 in it. We already had dinner plans, so I decided to go see a movie while Chris went back to work. I hadn't seen X-Men 3 yet, and I really wanted to see it on the big screen, so I did. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, although there were a lot of plot holes in it. The storylines that were clear were really moving, considering the rest of the series. I actually cried a little...

I had to go back on base after the movie because Chris forgot his backpack in the car, so while he was PTing at the gym, I went over to the BX to look around and kill some time. The optical shop is having a sale, buy one get one, on their frames, and I found a pair I really liked. Since Chris hadn't gotten me a birthday present yet, I was all set to ask for a pair of prescription sunglasses, but when I got back to the gym to pick him up and told him, "I know what I want for my birthday", he got this deer-in-the-headlights look and I knew he'd already gotten me something. That's okay, I thought, but it was kind of a bummer. He said he would tell me what he'd ordered for me so I could decide which I wanted more, but where's the fun in that? I wanted to be surprised, and I wanted to see what he was so excited about getting me.

My mom called right when we got home, and Chris wanted to go out and "do something before we go out, you can come but you have to keep your eyes closed!", so I opted to stay home and talk with my mom. I asked her if she'd gotten me a birthday present yet, and she said no, so I asked, "Can I have fifty bucks for some new glasses?" and explained what happened. She laughed, and told me she was sending me $25 already along with our souveniers from her and my brother's trip to Alaska, so if I could make up the difference I could put her money towards that. So, I'm going to the BX in the next few days to get some new glasses!

Chris came home, carrying a bouquet of sunflowers and purple asters! I love it when he brings me flowers (it happens so rarely, you know). We went out to McGuire's (local resteraunt/brewhouse) to see if they had finished their Belgian White yet. Not yet, but next week. So, we hung around for a bit, and then went to dinner. Sushi! I love sushi. This was the same resteraunt we went to for our anniversary in January, and took Ryan on his last day before flight school back in March. We know the owner and the head waitress (I guess you'd call her the maitre d' in any other resteraunt), we've been going there since we moved here last February, and it seemed appropriate. Besides, they make a Darcy Roll with shrimp tempura, cream cheese and eel that's to DIE for!

As we left the resteraunt, complaining good-naturedly to each other about how full we were, I mentioned how much I love the pickled ginger they give you with sushi, because it's so good for digestion. He says to me, "You know what else is good for digestion? Chocolate." "Nuh uh!" "Yeah, it is!" "Okay, then, lets go get some." And he points to the glove compartment. There, wrapped in an ice pack so it won't melt, is a bar of Ghirardelli 60% Dark Chocolate. Gods, how I love this stuff! Now I"m glad I didn't suggest going out for ice cream, which I was going to do but now feel way too stuffed to even consider.

I waited until we got home to open it (just one piece, it won't kill me!), and slipped inside the wrapper was a small, folded paper, on which my husband had written, "For your dreams...." I unfolded it, and there was a picture of and the specs on my soon-to-be birthday present. He had told me he'd gotten me something we'd talked about, but I never in a million years would have guessed. A Sony MZ-NH700 Minidisc recorder. You see, I have a hard time remembering my dreams well enough to write them down, and usually can only do it after I've told it out loud, usually to him. The dream I wrote about yesterday morning is a good example. Now I'll be able to record them that way, instead of the words disappearing into the ether. Not only that, but I can title them and group them into folders, and if I forget something and remember it later, I can add onto the end of a file without erasing what's already there. I'm so excited!! I have no idea when it will be here, it should be in the next week but Im sorry, UPS cannot always be trusted. Here's hoping, though.

Shameless Self-Indulgence

I don't have any big plans for today, but I still enjoy it enough to want everyone to know about it!

Do you believe in the future?

11:00 a.m., and I'm just waking up. I'm a late sleeper, and as far as I know, all of my lucid dreaming happens between 7 and 11 in the morning. I don't know the exact implications of this one, meaning I don't know how deep it goes, but I think it's important.



I'm a reporter on Earth. It's Christmas Eve, and all I want to do is get the hell off this planet. The future has become the neo-technological space-age era of information predicted by the science-fiction writers. There are no trees left. Nature is totally gone, subjugated, used as a foundation for this new Age. I want to go explore the stars, see if there is anywhere else in the Universe I can be happy.

I'm standing on a balcony overlooking the main spaceport of Earth, and there's a couple standing there next to me. Young, about my age, dressed the way those on the fringes of society would dress (I can't explain it any better). I must have been thinking about Rent (I've been watching/listening to/reading about it a lot lately, and I can see thei influence in this dream), because they said to me how ironic it was, this was their last year on Earth.

"What do you mean? Are you leaving too?"
(laugh) "It's Christmas Eve, man. You're not going anywhere on one of those."
"So where are you headed?"
"The next world. We're going to kill ourselves."

I immediately recoil from the idea. It goes against everything I, as a reporter, believe in, eveything I can see, everything I was taught to see, to think, to understand. But these two don't seem crazy, and they don't seem depressed. They are, in fact, very casual, calm, and happy. I don't even know them, but it makes me sad to think of such a thing happening.

"Can I hold your hand while you die?"
(smile) "Yes, of course - on one condition."
"What's that?"
"Come with us...."
"Why?? Why would you want to do such a thing?"

They turn from the balcony and walk into what appears to be an old-fashioned general store. The store is filled with people, mostly people like them, like us, people too independent to feel comfortable in a world like this, people on the fringes of society, the bohemians, the punks, the artists, the dreamers. They are dancing, laughing with abandon, and as they pass, they all answer me, each voice melting into the next:

"THE GODS. The Gods, The Gods, The Gods, The Gods........."

I don't understand. What are they talking about? Don't they know how much knowledge we've gained in history? I follow them, trying vainly to make them understand:

"We have science now! We've mapped the atom down to nothing! Look at the technology! We know everything now! It was microscopic bacteria that created the universe!"

And suddenly, someone says to me (or I say to myself, in a dream I suppose the two are one and the same), someone says:

"Everything is energy. The gods created the energy. We can only manipulate it."

I stop dead. This thought hit home for me like very few others have in my dreams. Would it be better to go straight back to that implicate order than to search the stars, possibly in vain, to find what I'm looking for? I woke up soon after, and my dream self was still trying to hang on to his conviction that science is supreme. He never made a decision as to what course he was going to choose.



I know enough about myself to know a few things about this dream: This is a future I don't want, and am afraid will come to pass; the people are, like me, lovers/worshippers of Nature, of a pantheon of Divine influences; I may think I know what happens after death, I believe we go back to our source until we want to come back to this level of existence, and I'm not afraid to die, but at this point in my life, I don't exactly relish the thought. Perhaps there is something more to this, perhaps not. Either way, I had to get it out of my head.

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore has made a movie about the threat of global warming. The critics are raving about it, and the ones who are denouncing it as a bunch of hoopla or an attempt by Gore to put himself back in the spotlight are the same conservative extremists who support Ann Coulter and believe that George W. Bush is the next Messaih.

The movie is basically a filmed version of the slideshow presentation that Gore has been giving around the world for years, both before and after he ran for President back in 2000. Interspersed with that are personal anecdotes designed to show a man driven not by the promise of political gain, but by personal conviction and moral motivation. At times, these personal asides get to be a little too much, but the main body of the movie contains an incredible amount of information, most (if not all) of which is incontrovertible. The photos of glaciers today vs. 15-30 years ago cannot be denied, nor can the fact that the largest lake in Africa has dried up completely, and parts of China are showing record flooding while neighboring provinces are experiencing droughts like nothing they've seen before. Gore presents all the data in a clear, concise monologue, with a lot more warmth and personality than most of us have ever had the chance to see. This is not the man targeted by every political cartoonist as an automaton, and wooden non-person with no original thoughts. This is the man we had been told existed, speaking about an issue which deeply and personally concerns him.

I urge everyone who reads this to see this movie. It doesn't matter what your political position is, or what your opinion on global warming is. I believe that only an informed opinion can make a difference, and not to be trite, but the only way to be informed is to go out and get the facts. Roger Ebert said for the first time of any movie, "You owe it to yourself to see it". Someone else, and God help me but I can't remember who, put it best, imho: "If you don't see this movie, and one day you have grandchildren, what reason are you going to give them?" I also feel very strongly about this issue, and my first step is to try and educate anyone who will listen. I want to be able to take my future children to the National Parks, take them hiking in the mountains where you can still see wildlife in their natural habitat; hell, I just want to be able to show them Nature as it was intended to be. Don't you?