Blog Recovered???

This is a test.  I've only spent two days trying to recover this blog, so hopefully, this was the final step.
Just testing for now.

What a pain.  Not really all that impressed with Google taking over Blogger. At. All.

Out of One Frying Pan, Into Another Frying Pan

Well, tomorrow we leave Norfolk for DC. Today is the last day of DH's school, tomorrow is graduation. I spent all day yesterday running around, getting Kenny his vaccines so I can board him somewhere in DC, then random errands and cleaning out the car to get it ready to pack tonight. Tomorrow I go back out to the kennel to pick Kenny up, then pick DH up from his graduation then we hit the road. We leave one "extended stay hotel" for another. Out of one frying pan, into another frying pan. Yay.

The house hunting continues to be quite the "process". That is the word I have used to describe ti for weeks now, a "process". It's the best I can come up with. We'll hopefully see some houses on Friday with our Realtor, and Saturday as well, hit some open houses on Sunday and come to a decision by Monday. That's the plan. It was also our plan last weekend and no decision was made so we'll see how it goes this weekend. After 10 days our "hotel" expenses start coming out of our own pocket rather than Big Brothers so it's going to start getting painful. It's bad enough we have to pay for pet boarding, not to even mention the toll it's taking on my poor cat. On the upside, he does seem to be getting MUCH better with his social skills. I miss him so much and can't wait to have him back with me full time. "checking him out" for a day like a library book kinda sucks! He got a new haircut yesterday. I haven't seen him yet, but it's his first "Professional" cut. Poor baby usually has to suffer with whatever scissory hack job I torture him with every summer. If this works out, he may get this kind of cut every year. I wouldn't so much bother except that he gets such horrible mattes and they're not good for him and are probably painful so need to be dealt with.

Not much else to tell I guess. Just anxious to get back into my own place. Anxious to have my own things....the rest of my clothes, my bed, my pillow, my STUFF. And believe it or not, I actually miss cooking my own meals. As much as I love to eat out, it's getting old. And it's REALLY hard to diet when you have to eat out every day. The good news is I've lost two and a half pounds! The bad news is, I've gained about 20. Yikes.

Still

Still here

Still alive

Still tired

Still homeless

Still married ;P

Still getting lost daily

Still don't care

Still putting several hundred miles on my car weekly

Still house hunting

Still living out of my car

Still dodging maids daily

Still not fooling anyone

Still looking forward to getting my puppy

Still miss my Kenny-Cat terribly

Still ornery

Still trying to keep things organized

Still trying to diet and excercise

Still eating out every day and night

Still not sleeping well

Still have a stiff neck

Still refuse to go to the Dr.

Still downing 8-12 motrins daily

Still struggling with allergies

Still hate NorFUCK with the heated passion of a thousand fiery suns

Still drinking too much coffee and pop

Still stressed to the max

Still excited about the possibilites

Still

Still

Still

I am anything but still. Still.

On The Road Again

So, I left Norfolk this morning after picking up my cat from the boarding Kennel. Getting out of town was a bit of an ordeal, but I finally made it out. I'm headed for Michigan to visit my family for a couple of weeks. I spent 12 hours in the car today before deciding to call it a day. It was a long drive, but I wasn't really tired after lunch. Maybe that's because I had 4 large coffees, a Monster Energy Drink, a Wild Cherry DP, and a regular DP. All that caffeine coursing through my veins, it'll be a miracle if I ever sleep again.

The drive itself hasn't really been bad to be honest. I stopped because Tomtom took me on a county road in Ohio after dark and I wasn't expecting that...I thought I was going to cross the state line somewhere near Columbus, but instead crossed over near Parkersburg WV. After that I started seeing a LOT of deer, the road was near deserted AND it started snowing/raining. Yeah..time to call it a night. My goal was to get out of the mountains before stopping, not to get killed by kamikaze deer in the deserted cornfields of Ohio.

So, we finally made it to the hospital to visit our friend. He has cancer. Of the brain I think. They're still trying to get the proper diagnosis. It's crazy. One day he's training for a marathon, the next day he's in the hospital starting his first round of chemo. He JUST turned 40 a couple of weeks ago. We've known them for 18 years. We've seen them off and on every couple of years since then. We keep in touch by phone and Christmas cards and emails often. They're lifetime friends. I guess none of us ever thought that lifetime would be challenged at the age of 40. Its just crazy to even consider it. It was so great to see them, but so awful the circumstances it's under. We were planning a dinner out, not a hospital visit. I can't even begin to imagine the thought process' they must be going through. It blows my mind. I do know this. The hug that man gave me as we were leaving was the hug of a man who thinks he's dying. Physically, it was one of the best hugs I've ever gotten from anyone. Mentally, it was the worst. The tears in his eyes upon hello and goodbye about broke my heart. The hug from my girlfriend was equally heartfelt. My heart breaks for them both.

I'm in the process of having my bone marrow tested to see if I'm a donor match. I'm not sure how that will pan out, but I hope he finds a match soon. I have no idea what the process entails, thus far it's just a kit sent to my house (my parents) I do a cheek swab and send it in and wait. I figure, why not? What am I doing thats useful with my life?

It's Pretty Cold Out There.

Well, I've been in this hotel for several days now and I decided it's finally time to get out and go on a photo safari. I spent almost a week trying to determine if I'm sick or not. I'm pretty sure it's just allergies. Especially given the fact that as soon as I take an allergy med it takes less than an hour for my symptoms to clear up. It's been pretty bad...the worst I've had it in eons, but I'm almost certain I have it narrowed down to the ventilation/heating system in the hotel room spewing forth mold spores. If we don't use it the symptoms are mild compared to when we turn the heat or fan on. Almost instantly my eyes swell almost closed and extremely red and weepy and my sinuses all but close up. Only a few more days here and I move on to Michigan solo anyway. I'll suck it up.

I've been seriously tossing around the idea of making my photography work for me. I need new lenses. NEED I tell ya! I think I'm going to take a page from Leesa's book and try to market my photography in the form of prints and cards to the nature centers in my area. Who knows what that will bring? I'd be happy with enough money to buy a new lens or two. I'd be even happier if this lead to some photography classes and a little extra money on the side that kept me out of the workforce. I really REALLY don't want to work, but kinda feel like I need to do something a bit more productive with my life than just sit around playing FB all day. So, when I get to my new life in my new dwelling in my new town sometime this spring, the idea is for me to have a portfolio of photos ready to try to market to the nature centers. We'll see how that goes.

In that vein, I decided to go on a photosafari today here in Norfolk. Now mind you, I use Norfolk as a broad term to describe my general area, which may or may not include Hampton Roads, Suffolk, and other surrounding areas. Today my goal was to visit a couple of lighthouses. I made it to one. I was happy with that though, the one I did visit was at Fort Monroe, an active military base, which happens to also include a museum and the old Fort dating back to the 1600's and massive amounts of history having to do with the Civil War. I was entralled the entire day with the museum inside the Fort.

Because I'm used to VERY STRICT policies regarding photography on military bases, I actually tracked down what I thought was a base policeman to ask him some questions. The last thing I need is to be thrown in the brig and have to call my husband in the middle of his school day to bail me out. So I started asking this guy who I thought was base police all kinds of questions about base policy etc and how to get to the lighthouse (which was less than half a block away had I continued driving, a bit embarrassing, but oh well) and he starts giving me this history lesson about the fort and lighthouse etc, but had no idea regarding base policy and photography so he then gets out of his police cruiser and flags down a base policeman, when I finally noticed he was actually a "rent-a-cop" and not official military police. LOL Too funny. The military police was all too happy to help and answer questions as well. MUCH nicer than any naval military police I've had to deal with in the past. Those people come out with guns drawn when they see a camera. I can understand to a degree, but c'mon people, I don't look too much like a terrorist do I? Wait...maybe you better not answer that one.

So anyway, I got lots of pics, inside and out of Fort Monroe, and the lighthouse. VERY cool place. Do you know, it's surrounded by a moat? True story! I poked around in the giftshop while I was there. Very little photography items on display. I hope my photos turn out, I think I might know my first place to hit up! :) That would be awesome. I'm not sure if Im going to make it out for photosafari tomorrow or not. I have a few more weeks to get out around here when I get back from Michigan so we'll see how it goes. DH has an early day tomorrow and then we have the weekend to do whatever with, and then I pick up Kenny and head to my folks' place. Should be fun.

I may or may not write more tomorrow. I feel like I'm kinda boring here...not my usual humorous writing "flair" but I've had so much on my mind and I'm kind of still in "documentation" mode with the whole blog thing as I try to get my grove back. Mostly I just want to write things as they come before I forget them. I'm still worried about some friends here as well. I briefly mentioned in my last post about a friends' illness. He was diagnosed with brain cancer while we were still on the road coming out here. They were one of the first people we were going to get together with when we got here. We've known them for years and periodically get stationed near one another but hadn't seen them in years. We were all so excited to get to see one another again and then they got this news. It's so shocking. He only JUST Turned 40. I want to give her all the support and help that I can, but I hardly even know what to say to her, and we can't visit him in the hospital until we know for sure that what I have is just allergies and not a germ of any kind. I wouldn't even begin to take that kind of chance to make him sicker while he's going through chemo.

Cancer sucks.

And I never did talk about how cold it was out there, but I JUST got feeling back in my fingers and I've been "home" for almost 2 hours and had a really hot shower when I got back. It's not Montana cold, or Minnesota cold, but for this transplanted Cali girl, it's pretty dang cold! The wind is what's killer.

So hopefully tomorrow I'll have pics ready to post here. I'm still getting into the swing of things so it might take me a bit...

Arrival

Well, after a 6 day drive, we have finally arrived in Norfolk VA. It was a long drive, but we didn't rush it. Crazy to think our original schedule only allowed for 3 days though. I can't imagine having to cram those 6 days into 3. That would have been murder!

We were able to stay a night in NM with my inlaws, which made for an early day and a nice homecooked meal. I loved being able to stop there and visit for the evening and sleep in a familiar bed before moving on. The next night we stayed with my Amigo in Alabama. It had been 2 years since I'd seen her. Its funny, no matter how short our visits, we always cram a lifetime into them. I think we were there for just over 12 hours, more than half of those were sleeping, and yet we crammed as much as we could into those few waking hours. I miss that girl so much!

I'm not entirely sure what this week will bring to be honest. The school DH is going to only allows me to stay on weekends, so we're in a navy lodge across from the base for this week only. I had to board my cat because they charge $50 a night here for pets (nevermind that civilian hotels only charge $10-$25 at the most for pets and many were free) I swear the military nickles and dimes ya to death whenever possible! Grrrr. The boarding kennel is nice, and ridiculously cheaper than having him here and I don't have to worry about him bolting out the door when we head out or when a maid comes in. He's safer there than here at the moment. That didn't stop me from actually shedding tears when we pulled out of the parking lot.

I've kind of lost my entire train of thought for this entire post. I have a lot on my mind and a lot to do over the next week. We learned of a dear friends illness as we made our way across country, and I'm really still kind of reeling from it. I guess I'll post more tomorrow when I have my head in the game.

A New Year

*tap tap tap* Hello? Is this thing on? Wow, been awhile again eh? yeah, I pretty much stink at keeping up to date here. I'm TRYING to remedy that very soon. I think I'm going to try to make regular blog entries again. Lots of new stuff going on in my life, I miss my blog community, I miss the outlet, I miss those of you that don't do the FB thing, and I REALLY REALLY miss getting to say what I want. I have too many people on FB that keep tabs of my every breath that I don't necessarily want to share EVERYTHING with if you know what I mean. Not to mention my husbands job severely limits my freedom of speech. Oh dont even get me started on the irony of that!

SO. New year, new life. Again. We've been "empty nesters" for about 6 months now and still adjusting to that. I have to say I'm probably enjoying it much more than I should. I feel like a really bad mom when I read friends who are absolutely devastated that their kids have moved out and gone to college or are devastated thinking they'll move out in a year or two and I'm just relieved! I love my kids, I truely truely do, but they both needed to get out and experience life on their own to finish the growing up they need to do and I'm all too happy to have the stress and daily strife lifted from my shoulders. Both of my kids were in serious need of a reality check and now that they're getting it, things seem to be starting to fall into place for both of them which is good for our entire family dynamic. So, happy they moved out? Hell yes I'm happy they moved out. And now I feel guilty for being happy about it.

Well, today is my last day in California. I think. We could actually end up staying till Wednesday now, but thats just prolonging the agony of leaving. I'm a rip the bandaid off quickly kinda girl. I've made no secret of my absolute love of California. It's where I belong. The second I crossed the state line moving here I felt like I was home. I don't want to leave. it's the first place I've felt I belonged in my entire life and I only had a year and a half here. Sure, there are a couple of things I miss about the East Coast. Colors for one. Snow on Christmas day (and ONLY Christmas day) and I miss trees. real trees. Tall, drops leaves, changes color in the fall, full of acorns, whirlygigs, (maples) and pine needles, bark on the trunk, bird harboring, huggable trees. I miss them. Sure we have palms here, and the occasional fruit tree, but a forest is a little hard to find around here. Actually, one of my FAVORITE exhibits at the Wild Animal Safari Park is the tree exhibit. I never admitted that out loud to anyone before. But other than that, I don't miss much about the East Coast. Or anywhere else. I'm a Cali girl who had the unfortunate luck to be born and raised in Michigan and didn't make it home till I was 40. And now I have to leave.

I've also made no secret about how much I hate DC with a passion of a thousand fires. Guess where I'm moving? Yep. And so the new adventure begins. Me, Hub, and cat. 10 weeks in hotels and bouncing from family to friend while he goes to school, and then 3 years in Hell. 3 years at a minimum that is. If he gets a job there out of retirement, I'm doomed. My house is packed and the entirety of our belongings are in a warehouse somewhere on the East Coast. We are staying at friends' house for one more night, he jumps out of an airplane in the morning, and then we hit the open road straight into the bowels of Hell. The next 10 weeks will be an adventure. I'm going to be doing some serious road tripping on my own, driving from Norfolk VA (where he'll be for 10 weeks) to Michigan and Alabama and who knows where else. Then we find a house in DC and settle in in March and then I get to have a puppy. Well, in theory I get a puppy. DH is already trying to back his way out of the puppy thing because he wants, and I quote, "a dog that doesn't chew, pee in the house, or shed. Cant' we get an older, smaller, hairless dog? Can't you detooth a dog like you declaw a cat??" I won't repeat here what I told that man, but suffice it to say I'm pretty adamant about getting a puppy, with hair and teeth and lets just leave it at that.

So there you have it. A new adventure beginning with the two of us heading into our "golden years" with a cat and me still fighting tooth and nail for every bit of my sanity.

And people wonder why I'm certifiable....

I'm going to try to keep up with this fairly consistantly, but I know over the next few days I'll be scarce of time and privacy to write as I need to, but I WILL be back if only for a few sentences here and there when I can.