Merry Christmas to All...

I'm here at work, having just watched Nightmare Before Christmas (Yes, it IS a Christmas movie - it says so right in the title) and am feeling all Christmasy.

So I'm listening to Nightmare Revisited. Specifically, Town Meeting Song by The Polyphonic Spree. Freaking rad. Here.

I'm a lot more exctied for Christmas this year than I usually am. It's not that I'm not ever un-excited. But this year I've been tearing my hair out waiting for it. I want it now.

Sure, I want my presents. And sure, I want to see how excited some people are when they see what I got them. But aside from that, I'm just really feeling it this year. I started (willingly) listening to Christmas music long before Thanksgiving and didn't want to hurt any small creatures. Wifey and I sang together in the car on the way to her parents' a couple weeks ago. And it was GREAT!

I don't know what's changed. I'm thinking it might be that there's a good chance of me being away next year. Yes, I've been away once before, but this time around, it's going to be different. I have Wifey to miss. She wasn't around last time. Shoot, she was still in HIGH SCHOOL last time. Haha.

I'm looking forward to spending some good quality ('cause it definitely won't be quantity) time with my family tomorrow. I'm getting off work at midnight and Wifey has to be back for work 24 hours later.

I wish everyone the Merriest of Christmases. And Happiest of Hannukahs (yes, even though it's over, I hope it was lovely). And Kwaziest of Kwanaas.

That is all.

PS: If I offended you with that last line, here's what I want you to do. Close your browser window and don't read this again. The end. It's that easy.

PPS: Yeah...I knew I couldn't keep my cynicism out of this for long :P

Let the Baby Seal Punting Commence!

Let me take you way, way back. Back to a more innocent time. A time when people could sleep worry-free, without fear of violation.

May 2008.

See, at this time, the lock on my car's driver door wasn't all effed up. In June it started being all wonky and making me jack with it for about five minutes before actually unlocking.

What did I do about this? Well, I asked my friend to take a look at it to see just what I needed to get it fixed. After a couple hours of dissecting my door, messing with electronics and testing this and that and the other he came to his conclusion: It was necessary to aquire a new door.

So what did I do about this? Since I live in Logan, freaking, Utah I just stopped locking my door.

And Friday night it caught up with me.

I walked out of work to start my car. Whenever I start my car I reach over and turn on my little iPod radio transmitty thingy. Upon doing this I noticed a key element was missing. The iPod. I checked my pockets, thinking I must have taken it in with me. No dice. I looked around my car confusedly. The center console was open and my GPS was no longer snugly nestled therein.

It was at this point that I swore LOUDLY to myself. Several times. Then I started bawling. Hard. Tears freezing against my little cheeks, I ran back inside. There, my much clearer thinking supervisor suggested I call and report it. I did this and after a few minutes I was talking with a cop outside in the parking lot. As I was giving him all the information a call came across his radio reporting another burglary from a car about three blocks away.

Honestly, I don't have high hopes. I'm not too concerned about the GPS. But my iPod was my life support. After one day of listening to the radio while driving I'm already wanting to stab a puppy. And shot-put a kitten. And pile-drive a lemur. And, of course, PUNCH A BABY LAMB IN THE FACE!!!

I guess I'll just play this for now.

That is all.

As I was...

So, all (3) of you can ignore that last post. Turns out I am going to school after all. Yes, I'm still going to miss a month for army training, but I'm only going to do two classes that will work well with me.

I'm taking German 2020. Dr. Tweraser has been really great with my army schedule and when I had to miss two weeks due to illness this semester, he just dropped that whole chapter from my final grade. I love taking classes from this guy.

My other class is from a professor from whom I've never taken a class (yeah, that sounded nerdy and pretentious, but there's a good reason why...keep reading). It's Linguistics 4100 from Lackstrom. I've heard good things. I also emailed him to ask what the curriculum was like and how homework was handled. He sent me back a syllabus from this past semester. The course is graded entirely by exams and all the homework is extra credit. Score!


The downside to this of course, is that I only get about half as much for REAP (Reserve Education Assistance Program). This semester I've been sitting pretty at just over a grand a month from my dear old uncle just for going to school. Oh, well. Wifey's employed and I'll get a nice chunk o' change for my month of army stuff.



In other news, well, I'll probably blog other news later. I like to keep posts topical.



...ok, we all know that's a blatant lie, but I'm tired and about to go home for the night.



That is all.

...and the choice has been made

Remember that time I was wondering what to do as far as work and school next semester? If not, scroll down one post. I'll wait.

Anyway, the decision has been made. It turns out my security clearance has gone through and I'm all signed up to go to FDC school Feb 26-Mar 28. So I'm not going to school. And I'm going to work.

So that's that. It's not quite what I wanted, but it'll be nice to not have to have cook obligations hanging over my head anymore.

Also, that picture has nothing to do with anything. I just needed one for this post to be complete. I liked it. So it won.

That is all.

I fail at this...

So, I'm sitting here the other day, thinking why the crap doesn't anyone on here write anything for me to read? And I realize durr...you don't write anything either, knob. So I'm writing. Or typing. Or shut your face and just read.

Right now I'm trying to make a decision. I have three options. They are as follows:

1) Keep doin' what I'm doin' and work while I'm going to school next semester...

2) Quit work (or at least go part-time) so I can focus on school without that extra stress...

OR

3) Work all next semester and not worry about school until I get back from my possible deployment...

They all have they're ups and downs...

1 would be the best option financially, but would stress me the freak out and I don't know if I can mentally handle that anymore.

2 is the one I want to do the most because I really want to go to school and I'll still make money going, but I don't know if it will be enough without my job on top of it.

3 would let me just work (and maybe get a part-time job somewhere else, too) so I can just live in stasis and get ready for the deployment.

Ok, so in actuality, I really don't want 3 to happen. But at the same time, I do. But really, I want 2 to happen. Becuase I want to not work anyway. If we can swing it so that it'll work out financially, that's what I want to do.

ON TO OTHER THINGS

How was Thanksgiving? Mine was pretty dang good. I got to see my family (minus one step-brother) and give my little sister hugs and make her feel better 'cause she misses her husband (doof went and joined the Marines...), while at the same time worrying that I might snap her in two. She's tiny.

Having a break from school is nice too. Sure, I had one last month (mental issues followed by swine-flu [yes, I know I said it was fake and stupid and I still believe the media hype is...getting sick sucks, but it was no worse than any other flu I've gotten, so nyah!] contributed to that one) but this one is actually sanctioned by the school.

The only crappy thing is how short the holiday itself was. I had it off work, but still came in today without feeling like I missed a day at all. Lame.

So, let me hear some thoughts on my choices. I like to get other peoples' opinions, even if I don't take them into account :)

That is all.

I will find you... I will submit you...

Dear Terrible Parkers of Logan, Utah:

I have a new hobby. And that is taking pictures of crappy parking jobs and submitting them here. I've only submitted 2 so far, but I'm now on the lookout, keeping a keen eye for those of you who choose to say, You know what? I'm so awesome that I feel like parking like an asshat today.

You are not awesome. But you provide me with hobby-fodder. And for that, I thank you. As for that ding in your door, don't park so farking close, knob gobbler.

That is all.

PS: If you want to see mine, just look for the ones from Logan, UT. So far they're Sep 10 and Oct 3. I'll keep updating with new ones!

Let's play catch-up, shall we?

So, it just occurred to me that I haven't done a What's-Going-On-In-My-Life blog since maybe...April or so. When we got Charlotte. I'm here to rectify this problem.

(I just read a blog that used this same storytelling format and I liked it...so here goes.)

Apply at Chrysalis. Get interview. Don't get called back. Find Dog. Get a different Dog. Finish semester. Watch Wifey graduate, wonder if you ever will. Go on honeymoon. Be somewhat disappointed, but have a generally good time. Return to work. Hope Wifey finds a job soon. Work. Tolerate it. Work. Dislike it. Work. Begin to actively resent it. Go play army for three weeks. Miss Wifey TERRIBLY because this is the longest the two of you have been apart since you MET. Hear more deployment rumors. Come home. Enjoy time with Wifey. Start school again. Be excited for it. Get behind on homework all too soon. Get alerted for deployment. WIFEY FINDS A JOB! Consider quitting your job and find some menial, easy, part time job. Wifey leaves job a week later. Scrap part time plans. Continue to dislike job. Sink farther behind in homework. Come across opportunity to switch to Utah National Guard as a linguist...

So that's my Late Spring/Summer/Early Fall for this year. Short, yes. But with everything you really need to know.

But here's the stuff worth pointing out. I'm continually slipping behind in school. I know I'm smart enough, but I just don't have the time. Well, technically I do. But when work is factored in I just don't have the time to balance between homework and Wifey. She gets enough time stolen from her because of all the extra shifts I've been picking up at work; most of them graves... So homework gets sacrificed.

Meanwhile, I'm not enjoying my job. It's not the environment. It's not the coworkers. Heck, it's not even the clients, really. It's the field. I came into this job by chance, having no prior interest in Human Services. It turned out I was damn good at it though. So I stuck with it. Now I'm beginning to realize I really don't enjoy it though. I've stayed here for others. Not for myself.

On the topic of the army... Well, we got our alert message on Friday, the 4th. What does this mean? It basically means we went from being likely to deploy to being more likely to deploy. Nothing is set in stone. We may not go.

But do I believe this? No. I'm fairly certain we're going. And it sucks, but what can you do? Oh, that's right. Transfer to the Logan unit. And no, not so I can get out of a deployment. So I can be a linguist. I want to be an interpreter some day and I think this would be a good step to take in getting there. First I have to take a test to measure my proficiency at learning a new language (easy-peasy, I think), then, pending my passing the test, I have to write a letter of intent to my commander. A little scary for me, yes. But he came down to talk to us at drill this weekend and said that we're over-manned and if anyone is wanting to do interstate transfers, do 'em.

So that's my life as of now. Hope yours is less cluttered.