I've always wanted to live like a hermit...

So the movers are at it, and legally I can't help so I get to sit here awkwardly pretending not to hear the cat yowling from the balcony and attempting to do homework so this weekend can be thesis-tastic.

Whilst labeling boxes overnight and early this morning (I was told about the move about 30 hours before it happened. Awesome), I wrote both my and hubs' last names for about three boxes, then just gave up and started labeling with his name. After all, if they get lost it will only confuse people to have mine on there and they know how to track him down with military precision. The epic battle of Army practicality versus feminist identity... today goes to making sure our stuff doesn't end up on a different continent.

I also find in funny ways that I'm getting less offended by military culture and the hubs is getting more so. Funny-ironic, mostly, as about a month ago I launched into a tirade about how spouses are treated and was regarded with a blank stare. After a long (and good) conversation, he'd brought to my attention that at least from where he stood, the actual policies didn't do much downplaying of spouses, but that perhaps the culture of the folks who tended to self-select led to a culture that does all the things that really scratch my eyeballs raw. However, as he lost the power of attorney when he changed computers, submitting the move paperwork was all but impossible for me (had to do it twice to two separate posts, gross boo hiss) but went through effortlessly as soon as he did it. I think I'd come to expect as much, but he was quite frustrated, no doubt mostly by the fact that his current training has him outdoors 18 hours with no phone on many days.

Well, tonight I will have only my mattress and the stuff that fits in two suitcases in my room. (And will be done with the insane doses of ibuprofen for all the medical/dental procedures I've been packing in. Yay!) How weird. However, it might help kick my butt into thesis writing mode as it becomes unavoidably apparent that the days are dwindling.... 

Vocab of the day:
Korean: 포장하기 위하여 = to pack (whoa! throw an infinitive in there, and it gets all fancy)
Military: PCS= permanent change of station (a recycled goodie)

In progress...

Stats on the countdown:

• St. Patty's Day dash in a bit over two weeks (in which I'll be wearing THESE beauties. Don't ask how much I've trained though...)
• Thesis/classes done in 3 weeks
• Hubby arrives in 4 weeks
• Move to Korea on week 5

After that, I'm a great blank slate.

Jumping back, I have to relate the second great weekend with the hubs in which I had such tooth pain I cried through our Valentine's dinner at a classy establishment. Well, a root canal set me right and a few hundred bucks back, and surely between the food poisoning/car wreck weekend and root canal weekend, our next reunion and subsequent months should be karmic-ly cleared for sheer joy and perfection.

I also had an amazing, hilarious IHOP night tonight. A guy came in asking about his free pancakes (National Pancake Day = free pancakes! starting at 7 am) and when he was told it didn't start until tomorrow, he started a hilarious diatribe about how excited he'd been about the pancakes and how he'd made up a "Free Pancake Song" on the way over in the car. The poor server tried to work around it and point out how the fruit pancakes were great regardless. "But they're not FREE!" came the response.

Good thing I wore a hat so I could hide the fact I nearly burst out laughing.

The rest of life is absolutely nuts. I'm going to work on blogging more regularly (I actually do have a bit of a backlog of military/moving stories...), but suffice it to say that my 1:00 am trip to QFC on the way home yielded bubble bath, a 6 pack of apricot ale (mm, thanks Pyramid) and a 6 pack of Smirnoff Ice. Smirnoff Ice- I'm definitely in trouble.

Vocab of the day:
Korean: 밤 = night
Military: NAAR = night to air refueling

OW

Impending root canal. Lots of vicodin. Lots to do. Big problems.

The Joys of Insomnia

Thesis draft due + insomnia= finishing my glass of wine and my work at 7:13 am.

I had the most amusing night at a coffe shop/IHOP (sequentially) which also seems to have stirred my productive vapors. Sitting on the balcony directly above the coffee grinder at Bauhaus made me think crazy thoughts like, "Can I find a coffee shop in Korea to sit and smell grinding beans?" After being booted at 1 am (sad change from the previous 2 am close), I moved to the ever-sketchy but so-much-fun 24-hour IHOP a few blocks away.

After trying unsuccessfully to diagnose the language spoken by the group of rambunctious men across from me, the most creatively dyed and tattooed group I've seen in a while came in and played NASCAR corners in the booth directly at the other end of the restaurant. A cute but silent older Hispanic couple sat across the divider next to me, and as I was finishing my draft up around 3:00, an agitated gent brought me a piece of paper with [10,000/hour seattle attorney] scrawled on it and asked me to google it for him (on the cleverly named "IHOP, yum!" wireless network). He told me at length about his pending case against National Insurance then wandered away without realizing that I still had earphones in listening to interviews, and the friendly server/host came to ask if "that man was bothering me."

Really, an epic way to spend your waking hours if they weren't meant to be waking and are usually far less entertaining. All topped off by the most ridiculous fog I think I've seen while driving home. So I cleverly took a few shots while driving (hey, there was nobody else on the road). 

I'm either going to sleep or run now... but later have some amazing stories about my first real trip onto a military post. Be very excited.

Vocab of the day:
Korean: 불면증 = insomnia
Military: PBS = project breakdown structure

Epic, fantastic disaster

So, I've been away for awhile. Apologies to my two amazing avid readers.=)  However, I think the story that follows will make up the absence. We'll play it in the style of Fortunately, Unfortunately... (told in Georgia font for appropriateness)

Fortunately, I got to go visit the husband this weekend in Atlanta before he began his next military training stint.

Unfortunately, it took a 7 hour flight to get there.

Fortunately, he was waiting at the airport and had amazing things planned like drinks atop a 73rd floor rotating bar, a trip to the Georgia Aquarium and chicken and waffles at Gladys Knight's restaraunt.

Unfortunately, the turkey wings at Gladys' gave him horrible, three day, projectile-vomiting food poisoning.

Fortunately, we had gone Chatanooga Contra dancing before he got sick. (Who knew square dancing could be so much fun?)

Unfortunately, we got in a fender bender on the way home and had to wait for the police for 1.5 hours in the FREEZING cold. (and dented the rental car door to near un-functionality): .

Fortunately, the hubs mostly recovered from the food poisoning and surprised me with a visit to the Agatha Christie's Mystery Dinner Theatre.

Unfortunately, they had our reservation booked for the following week, so we went home and watched Wall-E instead.

Fortunately, we had an awesome time visiting Martin Luther King, Jr's church and getting the hubs to his required station.

Unfortunately, he brought too much stuff to training and needed me to fly some back to Seattle.

Fortunately, the airlines tend to not charge for military baggage when you have orders.

Unfortunately, they did charge me and airport security took 45 minutes, making me miss my flight time and my reserved exit row window seat.

Fortunately, after some begging they let me on the delayed flight, squished in the back between about 12 pilots going to cover other flights abandoned by stranded DC pilots.

Unfortunately, our flight left an hour late (due to a missing pilot, ironically) and my gate-checked bag got left in Milwaukee.

Fortunately, I managed to catch the last light-rail train at midnight after filling out the missing bag forms.

Unfortunately, this train inexplicably stops halfway to Seattle on Sunday nights.

Fortunately, there was a bus to downtown from the middle of nowhere.

Unfortunately, there was no bus from downtown to home.

Fortunately, I caught a cab home for much less than the $50 it takes from the airport.

Unfortunately, I realized that the lost gate-checked bag contained my keys as I pulled up to my apartment and my roommate could not be woken by buzzer or phone.

Fortunately, we sometimes leave our balcony unlocked.

Unfortunately, I have not the monkey abilities that previous boy climbers to our balcony have and the evergreen trees nearby are not climbing-worthy, as I found out after imbedding sap in my hands.

Fortunately, I have some McGuyver in me and managed to balance the neighboring store's trashcan on the narrow cement ledge, throw a garden hose over the railing and knot one end into a foothold to arrive in the home with only some torn clothing and scratches worse.

Ah, life. I'm only glad to say that most of the disaster can be laughed off and I'm still glad we got some quality time together.

Vocab of the day:
Korean: 운이 좋은 = fortunate
Military: BAD = broken as designed