College in the Army

Cpl D started college last month...well college in the army anyways. This version of college is nothing like what I experienced at SCU, that is for certain. At SCU our professors were responsive, our assignments were well written and well explained to us, and we actually had real lectures. Now I admit that Cpl D's class is online, but I would still expect that there would be more to the class than here's the book write 4 papers and take a 50 question multiple choice test as a final. The professor is rather unresponsive, sometimes taking upwards of a week to respond to an email, which is beyond frustrating. When you are paying money for higher education, you expect to get more out of it than here's a book, now write me a paper. Did I forget to mention, that the only comment back on his first paper, was that "this was more complete than anyone else's"? How can you learn from that? Anyone with a library card can learn for free like that. College is supposed to be about someone imparting their far superior knowledge base unto you and you taking that, doing further research and learning even more. It is supposed to be about pushing yourself, it is supposed to be an environment that promotes the exchange of ideas, but this environment, thus far, doesn't even promote furthering your knowledge outside of your textbook. I can't wait until next semester when Cpl D tries another class and a different professor and hopefully gets the college experience that he deserves.

White Sands

So Cpl D is heading to White Sands, NM at the end of March for a month, lucky him, and oh yeah, lucky me too. I get to be alone in Washington for a whole month. Now let's remember that I'm up here by myself, in a pretty unfamiliar place, with almost no friends (although the people I work with are pretty cool, so that does help a little) and I'm going to be alone. Lucky for me I have my great attack cats for protection. (Don't they look scary, intimidating and ready to fight off intruders!)


Now I know that I signed up for all the army stuff when I married Cpl D, in fact one of the many things I love about him is his commitment to his job and what he does. How can you not love that about him. But you have to remember that the past two months I have been going through some pretty horrible medical stuff and when someone asks me what is wrong and I tell them that I'm upset because Cpl D is leaving the day I have my consult for my next major test and the procedure (one which is pretty painful, and which I cannot drive to or from) is going to be while he is gone and all anyone can say in response is "Well you signed up for it." All that makes me want to do is punch you in the face. I'm not looking for sympathy, but you can be a little more understanding than that! I mean come on, my husband is going to be gone for a month, I'm going through a ton of medical issues right now, I have to have at least one pretty painful medical procedure, AND on top of that potentially surgery. Don't just say "Well you signed up for it"! Don't you think I know that!!! Or do you think I wasn't there on my wedding day when he was wearing his Class A uniform and looking so handsome I could hardly keep my hands to myself?!?


This is really our first major adventure with the Army, and one heck of an adventure it will be, we will be separated for the first time since he got home from Germany (at least this time we will only be 1 time zone apart), I will be living on my own again (the first time in over 6 months) in a very unfamiliar place, and I will have to go through medical testing without any family around which will be entirely new for me. If we survive this (and I know we will), then, as the saying goes, we will survive anything.

Newly Discovered Passion

I always knew that I enjoyed cooking. At least, I enjoyed eating, and in order to eat you had to cook, so I enjoyed cooking in that sense. However, since marrying Cpl D I have come to realize that this may truly be one of my passions. I absolutely love trying new recipes, even when they turn out awful, like last nights dinner out of my "Cooking for Today: Quick & Easy" cookbook. I tried poached salmon with penne for two reasons, one it looked like something I could do with the skills I have learned the past few months and I am trying to learn to eat fish, so it was a perfect fit. Well, the recipe can be easily described with one sentence: Can I have a little salmon with my lemon? It was all LEMON! Cpl D and I hate wasting food, and for the first time ever last night we threw out the entire dinner and we got take out. It was that bad, and I can honestly say that I followed the recipe ingredient for ingredient, step for step, and it was just awful. Oh well, not every recipe I try is going to turn out perfect I guess.

Tonight I am making a fish stew out of "Cooking for Today: Pasta". This is a tried and true recipe that I have made once before that Cpl D and I really enjoy, only what Cpl D doesn't realize is that he is coming home to a candlelit dinner for two. Tomorrow is our four month wedding anniversary and I think we just needed something a little special tonight. Our apartment smells amazing (if I do say so myself) and I think he will really like my little surprise.

I am going to continue with my cooking adventures, trying new recipes and learning new skills. This weekend I am planning on baking a pie, by myself, for the first time ever. Cookies are no big thing, brownies are a snap, but a pie...now that intimidates me, so we shall see how I do. Especially considering I have the most unreliable oven on the planet. Who knows where all this cooking will lead...probably to just a really happy family in my future, but you know, that is all anyone can really ask for.

The sun and my mood

I have never really fancied myself as a true California Girl. I don't have blonde hair, I love the sound of the ocean, but I don't like to get into it (I need a much more tropical version of the ocean, give me Hawaii or Tahiti), and tanning is out of the question. However, ever since I moved to Washington, because of the good old US Army, I am beginning to realize just how much of a California Girl I am, and more importantly, just how much of a sunchild I am. I mean the sun came out today and today was the best I felt in a week or more (which is about how long it has been since I last saw the sun). I went for a mile long walk outside and another mile inside on a treadmill, and I have to tell you, even though I was freezing during the outside walk, I enjoyed it a whole heck of a lot more!

I heard recently that Seattle has the highest suicide rate in the US, or some crazy statistic like that, I am beginning to see why, the weather up here is pretty darn depressing, and if you let it, it can really get you down. I am starting to find coping mechanisms. I started working out last week, and even more this week, and the endorfins help unbelievably. I just wish my health had been better during the first 4 months we had been here and I would be working out just to keep healthy instead of to keep healthy and to get down from a size 8 (damn near 10, I'm not to proud, I can admit it to myself and the world) back to my old size 4. Part of the problem is I got sick, the other part of the problem is that several doctors put me on medications that cause weight gain, and guess what...I GAINED. Well, Cpl D and I are supposed to be celebrating our 1-year anniversary in beautiful Oahu and I think that is one heck of a goal to work towards and I am going to keep it constantly in my sights as I work out and try to get my body back to where I was comfortable. Cpl D is wonderful and tells me I am beautiful all the time and that I should never feel like I need to lose weight for him, and I'm not, I'm doing it because I want to be healthy, stay healthy, and I want to be more comfortable in my own skin. We already eat really healthy, so now that I am off the weight gaining meds, I am pretty sure that simply adding the daily workouts will be the key to success. Feel free to encourage me, and I will update you all on my progress as I go.

If I don't write tomorrow, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone celebrating. Cpl D and I are not celebrating until Saturday, we are going to go to the Sea Grille in Tacoma, and we are very excited.

Real Life Vampires

I have become convinced, and I mean absolutely convinced, that vampires exist. I think that they live amongst us and work at hospitals in labs and they take our blood. The guise is that they are doing it for our own good, but really, they just want it all for themselves. Really, the reason I have become convinced of this is because over the course of the past six weeks I have become a veritable pin cushion for the lab techs at Madigan Army Medical Center. I mean, I think I have had every blood test known to man, and some of them more than once, and what is worse, more than once in ONE WEEK!

It didn't even cross my mind until I finished reading my the novel I was engrossed in last night "Blood Canticle" by Anne Rice, one of my favorite authors. I have read all of the Vampire Chronicles and all of the Mayfair books, and I honestly am beginning to think that maybe they aren't just books...fantasy come to life maybe?

Out of fantasy land and into reality land, tonight I am making Cpl D Turkey Paprishka over noodles with broccoli. This afternoon, after the trip to the vampire lair, I did an amazing workout on my workout ball that I know I am going to feel in the morning and I know will make me sleep through the night. However, best thing of all is that I wrote this post and I know that at least one of my readers will be shocked to see two posts in two days from me, and he knows who he is :)

Hello February

So it was pointed out to me, yet again, that I haven't posted in awhile and I am being a bad blogger. Ok, well last week was like a really really bad week. Just when I decide, on the first day of Lent, that I am going to try to give up stress (or at least deal with it better) I land myself in the emergency room, for the 9th time in 6 weeks!!! Can you believe it?!? This time for something completely unrelated to the migraines and I get to go through an entirely new set of tests starting next weekend with a CT scan of my abdomen.

Well after the horrible week that Cpl D and I had, we decided that for date night this week we would go to a great restaurant called Indochine in downtown Tacoma. The food was amazing, the atmosphere was phenomenal and the best part was that it was a truly adult restaurant and there were no screaming children there. We enjoyed a nice quiet meal on the water (they have a fountain inside), some wonderful conversation and had a truly nice time without evening thinking about the week's events.

The rest of the weekend we spent resting and relaxing. I'm not really too sure what we are going to do for Valentine's Day, my sense of it is, not too much. I'm not too big on the holiday and Cpl D just gets home from work so late that doing anything too big at night is kind of difficult. I am however looking forward to the long weekend coming up. We will need to find another new restaurant to try (comment me a suggestion!) and maybe something fun to do in the area since it is a 3-day.

I promise to do better this week with posts.