A Boohoo and a Hooyah #3

Week 3 of a boohoo and a hooyah with Mrs. Monkey! You can link up here.

[Small confession: I really like saying Hooyah because it reminds me of Navy SEALs. Yeah...]

Boohoo: We’re back in deployment land and this is our longest one to date. But it was the first time I didn’t cry when I took Chris to the airport.

Hooyah: I read an article this morning and they’re predicting that after this week, the temperatures are going to drop down and we should have a moderate summer with highs in the 80s. Yes! High 80s I can handle. Last summer was miserable.

Georgia or DC?

I’m not going to lie. When Chris told me that we were leaving the heaven that is the Monterey Peninsula for an Army post in the middle-ish area of Georgia, I was not thrilled. I loved waking up to see the ocean out the front window of my apartment, wandering around the Farmer’s Market on Tuesday afternoons, and hanging out on Alvarado Street on the weekends with my friends. And year round semi-chilly mostly overcast weather is my idea of perfection.

Having to make that move in the middle of the summer just added to the inhumanity of it all. (Did I mention that I was born and raised in Southern California? Humidity and heat were completely foreign concepts to me.) Bug spray feels and smells nasty and I suddenly had to wear it every time I stepped outside the door. You could say that Georgia and I started off on the wrong foot.

For the past two years, I’ve dreamed about our next duty station. Most of my friends from Monterey migrated to DC post graduation, and I’ll be near them again. I’ll have a Trader Joe’s within a reasonable distance. My dog will be able to get off steroids (Yes, my dog is truly allergic to Georgia.) I’ll actually be in a real city again and that’s exactly what I wanted.

Except maybe it’s not.

In spite of my best efforts, Georgia has grown on me. When I went up to DC for interviews, the sheer number of cars and people overwhelmed me. People were moving fast, in a hurry, and some people were just plain rude to me. A meter maid was going to give me a ticket for parking somewhere five minutes before the sign said it was allowed! It’s a far cry from the couple who watched Chris and I try to load a rocking chair in a Ford Taurus at Cracker Barrel, realized we couldn’t do it, and offered to go out of their way to drop it off at our house for us.

I’m starting to realize that there actually are a lot of things I will miss about Georgia. I’ll miss having Chris be able to come home for lunch, taking the dogs to the lake on post, walking the canal, going to Riverhawks and Greenjacket games, working out with my gym buddy, meeting up with friends for dinner, seeing my friends who just moved back and seriously have the cutest baby ever, eating at Sticky Fingers, living in my house, having Charlotte/Atlanta/Savannah/Charleston all within a three hour drive.

But New York and Philly are good trade offs I suppose. And I know that DC will be a good place and I like it up there. We won’t even be in the city city which is what made me reconsider this in the first place – I’m a suburbs kind of girl. Northern Virginia all the way!

By the way, thank you Georgia for the sudden influx of mosquitos, heat, and humidity. It seems fitting that the things that made me hate you in the first place are making a reappearance to remind me why I’m glad to be leaving.

P.S. Navy, please contact me for a list of people you can transfer up to DC ASAP.

A Boohoo and a Hooyah: Week 2

Week 2 of a boohoo and a hooyah with Mrs. Monkey! You can link up here.

Boohoo: The uniform shop on post didn’t have what we needed again. Dear uniform shop, you are on a JOINT base. Get with it. Navy needs uniform stuff quickly too.

Hooyah: The weather has been super nice! Having spent last week in the 90s, it’s dropped back down to the 60s/70s. I would gladly accept this weather for the rest of the summer.

Logistical Problems and Geobachelorhood

I was so excited at the idea of going back to work that I didn’t stop to think about some of the logistical problems associated with my impending geobachelorhood.

Ok, I did. And then I felt a little panicked and changed to thinking about how I’ll be getting a paycheck, using my degrees, and living near lots of good friends instead. Ahh, panic gone.

So what are these logistical problems, you might ask? Well, I’m moving on my own in a few ways.

(1) I’m not getting any kind of dislocation allowances or movers to pack my boxes and take them to my new house. All costs will be out of pocket and everything I take with me with have to fit in the back of my Hyundai Accent hatchback. With the dogs.

Have you ever seen a Hyundai Accent? Yep, they're this big.

(2) Chris isn’t coming with me, which means we’re maintaining two households. Which means that even if I did have military movers, I couldn’t take our couch, tv, coffee table, bed, dresser, etc. The only thing I can take are the pots and pans, because he doesn’t cook and we actually have an extra set that his mom gave us anyway.

(3) When I move, Chris will be far away under the sea somewhere. My dad said he was never coming back to GA again in the summer, but I’m going to bribe him (tickets to a Nationals game maybe?). And he can take up some more space in my Hyundai. Or maybe I can rent a U-Haul and he can drive that… and my extra pots and pans. Maybe a few boxes of romance novels.

On top of those issues, there’s a few more things that make me panicky.

(1) We’re going to pretty much wipe out our savings paying for the move up there, setting up a new apartment, and putting down the deposit and first month’s rent. It’s not a huge deal, because we can build it up again quickly. We’re debt free and pretty frugal. But having no savings makes me nervous.

(2) Speaking of places to live… do you know how much more expensive it is to live in DC than GA? What we pay for our house will get me the top floor of someone else’s house up there. I wish I could live on one of the bases up there (Ft Belvoir has some awesome housing!), but since I’m not there on orders with Chris, that’s not an option for me. Luckily, I have found some affordable places (with yards!) that will consider dogs so once I have my actual start date I’m going to start emailing.

(3) Dogs. The idea of finding a new vet, new kennel, and leaving my dogs alone all day makes me nervous. On the plus side, our trainer from down here just moved up there, so that’s a bonus. And come to think of it, she has a dog so might have recommendations for vets and kennel. Nice.

Actually writing down everything that makes me panicky somehow made me less panicky. Now if I could just get my start date set in stone, so I can start crossing things off the list.

Anyone out there ever gone the geobachelor/ette route? Have any helpful tips for the move?

Milspouse Friday Fill-In #40

Wow, 40!

Thanks Wife of a Sailor for hosting another fun-filled MFF! As always head over to her site, if you’re a milspouse/significant other who wants to link up!

1. Which was the best day of your life- Wedding day or Homecoming day? submitted by Pink Champagne, Gatorade & MREs

Hrm. I suppose I’ll go with wedding day. It was pretty laid back and mellow, but that’s how Chris and I roll. A quick stop at Starbucks when we realized we were running early, the ATM for money to pay the magistrate, then to the magistrate’s house with a stop at Sticky Fingers (who later catered our “Hey we got married!” party) for a late lunch/early dinner after. And yeah, that whole little wedding ceremony was pretty good too. Good times all around

2. Were you a part of the joining the military question or did you sign up for the relationship when your man was already in the military? submitted by Cammo Style Love

Nope. I met Chris when he had already been in for about 4 years. His initial enlistment was almost up, and he re-enlisted about a year and a half after we started dating. I had nothing to do with that decision either (but would not have objected).

3. What is your favorite Disney movie and why? submitted by Raising Roscoe

I’ve always been a big fan of the Sword in the Stone – castles and magic and wizards appealed to me long before Harry Potter! In terms of princess movies, Sleeping Beauty. I love the music and like Navy Girl said, I appreciate the fact that the prince actually has a role. Plus, you know… castles and magics and an evil sorceress. Oh, and for not animated movies – Remember the Titans. If I have to explain why, you’ve obviously never seen it and should remedy that now.

4. What is your favorite family activity to do on the weekends? submitted by Destination: RN!

We like to take the dogs on some kind of outing – we go to the dog park less often, and now usually head to the lake or river for a long walk and some swimming. As just the two of us, we like to browse Borders and Second & Charles (our local AWESOME used book store); and sometimes get giant sodas, wander around Sam’s Club and try samples; and sometimes go running. But we don’t really run together – we just run on the track at the same time.

5. Where do you secretly wish you could be stationed with you/your SO’s line of work (realistically speaking, not everyone can be stationed on NAS Fiji)? submitted by Wookie & Co.

Hmm, if this question means of the actual duty stations available to us, which would I prefer, I have three answers: Spain (except it’s not really available – boo colorblindness!), Washington DC, and San Diego. If you mean if I could be stationed anywhere, where I would choose, I pick Seattle, Monterey, Boston, or San Diego. Yes, the Navy is definitely the branch for us… all of those are actual duty stations

A Boohoo and a Hooyah

Mrs. Monkey over at A Monkey in the Navy has started this new meme. Super easy – you just share your boohoo of the week and your hooyah (oorah/hooah) moment of the week. So here we go:

Boohoo: We took the dogs to the lake today and Shecky got a fish hook stuck in her paw Luckily, it wasn’t very deep and I was able to pull it out. My poor baby.

HOOYAH: I’m running a 5K this weekend with Shanon from Modern Meets Traditional to benefit Raise the Woof! Cross your fingers for good weather!

A Random Round Up

Our backyard has a tendency to turn into a jungle because I don’t have the upper body strength to mow the hill in the back yard and by the time Chris gets home from work, he doesn’t want to deal with it. When I realized that I couldn’t see Bones if she was at the bottom of the hill, I decided something needed to be done and went at it with a weed whacker. It took me an hour and then I couldn’t move my arms for three days.

I got my candy from the Easter Swap – Jennifer at Life with the Haas absolutely spoiled me!

Shecky was convinced it was for her and Bones was disappointed I wouldn’t share

We’re still working on all this candy… thanks Jennifer!

I just got back from DC (no pictures!), where I got to visit with friends and met a rude parking meter maid who made me move my car when I parked at 6:25 because it wasn’t public parking until 6:30. As soon as I moved, someone took my spot. She didn’t make that person move. And then someone honked at me for stopping at a red light. Gosh, I can’t wait until I get to DC

Now I’m at home trying to recover from the plague I caught from the sick lady on the plane. You don’t want to see pics of me right now, so I’ll leave you with this picture of Shecky. You might think she’s rolling around, but no. She froze in that position and laid there without moving for a couple minutes. Wasn’t even chewing the rope, just holding it in her mouth. I think she wanted me to take a picture, so I obliged.

60 Pictures: Part 1

I’ve seen this picture meme going around a few blogs and I thought I’d try it out too because I love going through old pictures. Anyway, I don’t want to do it as a picture a day, so instead once a week I’ll post 6 pictures until I get to the end. And I’m doing it on Friday today, but since that’s normally for Milspouse Friday Fill In (cancelled today for Wifey’s Milspouse Appreciation Day Post, I’ll do it on Saturdays from here on out. So here’s the first 6:

1. A picture of yourself.

2. A picture of you and the person you have been close with for the longest.
This is Crap. She is awesome and we’ve been friends since kindergarten.

3. A picture of the cast from your favorite show.

4. A picture of your night.

It’s still morning, but it will probably look something like this.

5. A picture of your favorite memory.

Definitely up there. This is at our “we got married” party after the parents left and my brother, sister, and boy BFF finished off my bottle of vodka and decided we all needed knuckle tattoos. (My brother’s are actually real.)

6. A picture of a person you’d love to trade places with for a day.

Even though I’m not naming this person, you can probably guess who it is. And if you can’t… well, just stop and think about what I ultimately want to do with my life.

Here’s the list of what’s still to come:
7. A picture of your most treasured item.
8. A picture that makes you laugh.
9. A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.
10. A picture of the person you do the most messed up things with.
11. A picture of something you hate.
12. A picture of something you love.
13. A picture of your favorite band or artist.
14. A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.
15. A picture of something you want to do before you die.
16. A picture of someone who inspires you.
17. A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.
18. A picture of your biggest insecurity.
19. A picture of you when you were little.
20. A picture of somewhere you’d love to travel.
21. A picture of something you wish you could forget.
22. A picture of something you wish you were better at.
23. A picture of your favorite book.
24. A picture of something you wish you could change.
25. A picture of your day.
26. A picture of something that means a lot to you.
27. A picture of yourself and a family member.
28. A picture of something you’re afraid of.
29. A picture that can always make you smile.
30. A picture of someone you miss.
31. A picture of a tradition you have.
32. A picture of a crazy night.
33. A picture of the house you grew up in.
34. A picture of your currently most played CD.
35. A picture of your favorite place to eat.
36. A picture of your ‘other half’.
37. A picture of the people you spend most of your time with.
38. A picture of the best part of your day.
39. A picture of your favorite movie.
40. A picture of your favorite Disney character.
41. A picture of your pet.
42. A picture of your dream house.
43. A picture of something you can’t function without.
44. A picture of someone you’re told you look like.
45. A picture of your room.
46. A picture of where you wish you were right now.
47. A picture of your favorite place to shop.
48. A picture of your favorite actress/actor.
49. A picture of where you live.
50. A picture of your most frequented place.
51. A picture of your dream car.
52. A picture of your favorite sport.
53. A picture of someone you think is hot.
54. A picture of the one thing you would bring if you were stranded on a deserted island.
55. A picture of the last movie you saw in theaters.
56. A picture of something that makes you happy.
57. A picture of your favorite holiday.
58. A picture of your favorite animal.
59. A picture of a random item that you own.
60. A picture of something you’re excited about.

Two Book Reviews

I used to do more book reviews when I first started blogging. Now, I keep track of the books I read, but I rarely review them. I like reading other reviews on blogs though and I certainly read enough to make some suggestions, so I think I’ll start back up.

The first book is The Heart and the Fist by Eric Greitens. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw one of my three thousand tweets (ok, maybe like two) tweets about it. I have not loved a book this much since I read One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick.

Actually, in a lot of ways, the two books are very similar. Both books are about college boys who want to be warriors (and both reference the idea of modern day Spartans and feeling that they were born in the wrong time period) and find themselves drawn to the military. While Fick heads for the Marines, however, and turns his book into a(n awesome) Iraq war memoir, Greitens goes to Navy OCS and then BUD/S to become a SEAL and spends his book wondering about the relationship between force and humanitarian work, between courage and compassion. He comes to the conclusion that simply giving people what they need isn’t enough and that being good requires equals measures of strength and caring.

This philosophy leads him to develop an organization called The Mission Continues, which challenges returning wounded and disabled veterans to overcome their difficulties and use their military experience and leadership abilities to continue serving their communities at home. The Mission Continues website sums it up nicely: “While it is very important to tell our returning veterans ‘thank you’ for their service, we believe that it is also important to tell them ‘we still need you.’” What an amazing idea, right? Now go get this book and read the story of how his philosophy developed. You won’t regret it. And if you do, read it again because you probably missed the point.

The second book is not going to get anyone excited. Well, probably not anyone except for the bookseller who thinks you’re a terrorist for asking for a book about the transfer of bomb technology. It’s Exporting the Bomb by Matthew Kroenig.

The first sections of the book are dedicated to explaining the hypothesis and theory. I’ve never been into theory and research design. On a good day, it makes my eyes glaze over. When I spend the week on a brain candy binge and then pick up a book with sentences such as “To control for potentially confounding factors, I then evaluate the effect of each of the explanatory variables, including both control variables and the cubic splines,” it puts me in a coma. But then I skipped to the end of the theory chapter and got into case studies and came back to life.

The book actually comes from an interesting (and somewhat understudied) aspect of nonproliferation: the supply side. A lot of research has been done on why states pursue nuclear weapons, but not so much on why states with nuclear weapons technology would pass it on to states that don’t already have it. The case studies are much more interesting reading, but you’re still probably not going to want to read this book unless you’re really into nuclear weapons (like me), international security policy (like me), and history (like me). But if you do read it and make it through the research design chapter, don’t try to talk to me about it. I’ll fall asleep before you can say “cubic splines.”