(no subject)
So, I'm back in the habit of ignoring this for 2 months at the time.
Lots of things have been going on and most of them have been not good. Within the last week or two things have been looking up, but you'll have to read the bad before the good I guess.
- I mentioned a couple posts ago that David got promoted. Well, he had applied for Physician's Assistant School, as I think I also mentioned. He was accepted. You'd think I'd announce that with a little more joy. Well, he had been told that applicants would be placed into one of three classes, with start dates ranging from January to August of 2009, which is next year. He was placed in the January 2010 class. A full year and a half from when he was accepted, rather than the 6 months we were expecting. Part of his decision to apply to PA school while in the Army, rather than attending college when he got out, was to get us stateside sooner. We are scheduled to leave when his contract would be up, February 2010. So, if he takes PA school, we leave one, maybe two months earlier than we had planned. For 6 more YEARS in service. He tends to be wishy-washy but I'm 95% certain he's accepting this slot in PA school. What that means is that I spend another 1.5 years here, then at least one year in Texas, and then who knows for the next 5. I am clinging to the fact that he will have a Master's Degree in Medicine and can start making about twice what my parents make combined when we finally make it back to Raleigh. You know, if he doesn't sign up for more service and retire. Because he'll have a little over 10 years in once his PA obligation is up. So...yeah. More ambiguity.
- We had some pretty epic fighting, mostly about moving, his career vs mine, and children. I'll spare you the details unless you really want to know, in which case just ask. It got bad enough that he was going to fill out Early Return paperwork and send Kaina and I home. I don't know what changed his mind, but by the end of the very same day, he'd decided not to do it. I was really confused but since then, he's been outrageously nice. You can imagine I am even more confused now. I'd like to take some solace and think things are going to go well but there seems to be a pattern in that, and I think it's really weird anyway. So I'm rolling with it for now but still a little skeptical.
- I've been working a lot. My hours were increased so though I don't work 40 hours, I do work 5 days a week and they're later in the afternoon than a regular job, so it wears me out. We got a new director and there were a lot of changes. I was really worried at first...two women quit and then Erik and Nadera started acting all weird. After a few weeks things settled down and now it seems that things are way better than before. There were a lot of misunderstandings but I think they all turned out well in the end. I was finally allowed to train on the long-arm and, just as I'd hoped, I seem to have an aptitude for it. I just started working on it last Monday, and within the week I finished two practice quilts and I'm allowed to work on this one customer's quilt next. If things go well, the director is putting me in Page's old position as the store's quilter, rather than cashier. I know I'm nowhere near Page's caliber right now, but I think with practice I'll be really good, so I am really looking forward to changing positions.
- Kaina was doing really well for awhile and then she pulled a ridiculously bad stunt. She had ruined our camera and her MP3 player a few months ago, then turned up with a new camera. She said a friend of hers was PCSing and let her have it but didn't provide the cables or anything, so I assumed it was broken and they were just trying to prevent me from being mad for a little while. When I finally got a battery for it, I went through the memory and found some really raunchy home footage of a nasty threesome, with no identifiable faces. Imagine my horror, thinking that Kaina's 14 year old friend might be on tape getting gang-banged. I questioned Kaina and she told me to see were the pictures on the memory card or the camera's memory. I took the memory card out and apparently it had been blocking me from accessing what was on the camera's memory - more nasty porn. I was beyond relieved to discover that the female in the video was NOT Kaina's friend, but a soldier, and beyond disturbed to discover the males involved were all dudes I knew. I am not going to name names online but...we had some friends that we decided weren't the kind of people we really wanted as friends, but we still babysat for them when they needed it. I could blow them off for dinner and hanging out, but I couldn't make myself blow them off for that. Well, that's who was on the camera - the man, 2 of his friends, and some chick. After talking to the wife and her friends I remembered that Kaina and her friend babysat for these people, so I assumed that the friend accidentally swapped cameras while she was over there. The people and their friends accused Kaina of stealing and I let loose on them about how they were horrible people, etc. And then it turned out Kaina DID steal it. SOOOOOOOOOO yeah. It was beyond bad. I had to have this talk with the man about how I was sorry it had to happen this way but that I meant everything I'd said about him, his family, and his friends, and he understood which was bizarre. But more importantly, Kaina stole and lied to me about it, repeatedly and in greater detail, for weeks. Many people tell me that she's probably trying to get me to send her home. I agree, but I had a talk with her and she denied it. I don't know. She is grounded all to Hell though, and she seems to be responding to me a little better over the past few days, but my trust in her is pretty much destroyed for some time to come.
- I'm sure you recall I had been fighting a Cold War with my family. Well, I talked to some of them. Round 1 with my mom was pointless, but Round 2 went much better. She finally seems to understand to some degree and seems apologetic. My dad seemed to understand some of the issues immediately and offer me support, but I wonder if he understands how deeply I'm upset. It was far more pleasant that I expected, though. I never spoke to Matty. I did speak to Kari and it was a disaster. So...that's going...better? Yeah. My mom and dad are visiting in about a month. I was really apprehensive but now I am starting to look forward to it a little.
- My friend Sandra had back surgery. It seemed to go well, but then she got pulmonary embolisms and it got really bad. I was really worried for a while but it looks like she's doing a lot better. We've been hanging out more now that she's out of the hospital and there's even a chance she might take over the register for me at the store, but at this point it's only hopeful speculation. She is starting to volunteer there, which is cool.
- ERIN IS BUYING A HOUSE! There's not much to elaborate on there. It's just awesome.
- My little Joshingtons moved in with his parents so he's got internet access now. He has DIAL UP. It's crazy.
- We're selling our house. Just like Erin buying one, it's pretty straightforward. There are a few complications but uh, oh well. It will get sold. I don't like the neighbors, I hate the sunroom, it's got bad mojo from us being screwed by Nancy and the inspector, we're not going to be there for at LEAST 2.5 years now, if not longer, and most importantly, it's no longer practical. If we get stationed at Bragg, gas prices are now too high for me to feel good about David commuting 45 minutes, one way, every day. If we don't move back until he's out of the Army, then the house is too far away from most of our friends and the things we're interested in, and it no longer needs to be closer to Bragg, so what's the point? So we're trying to make at least some profit to put in savings for a downpayment on House: V2.0.
- I changed my hair. My hair was boring me, Erik made a comment about me in reference to Japanese school girls, and I had an urge to get dread extensions again, so those three factors combined led to me in the bathroom taking scissors to myself, and here I am with pin-up-esque bangs. I regretted it immediately but so far it's had good reviews. I also tried dyeing it as dark brown as possible without being black, and it just turned black. Pah! It's ok though, I am getting used to it.
- In addition to sewing my butt off for the store and quilts and stuff, I've started making cloth pads. I want to donate to charity, specifically Goods For Girls although I'm open to other charities, and I got a lot of donated material from the store. I was thinking a couple dozen pads...and now I have batting for over 200. I talked to the women on cloth_pads and diy_pads and they think it's ethical to use the scraps that are too small for pads to make wingless liners, then sell them to recoup the costs it will take for the waterproof layer, snaps, and flannel tops for the full-sized donation pads. Had it been $20 I would have just taken it, but so far it's over $150. So I'm working on all that now. While I'm working on sewing, I'm extending the offer to my friends - if you're interested in cloth pads but the prices you find online are discouraging you, let me know what color you'd prefer and I'll work to accomodate than when I send you a set of 7 pads to start out with. ^_^ (note: this is what that weird entry to other day was about - I meant to post it to a pad community and posted it here instead, but I've since deleted it.)
I guess that's the majority of it. If I think of anything else I will let know. For now, I'm going to go eat and continue to rip all my CDs onto my computer, then go sew. Oh, I got a new MP3 player. Well, I found Kaina a replacement for hers that she ruined for $60, but since she stole the camera and all I decided I'd use it. I told her if she's good enough, I'll get a new one for Christmas. We'll have to get skins or something because we'll end up with the same player. Meanwhile, it's going to really chap her ass every time she looks at my MP3 player. Hahah. -_^ Anyway, time for food, ripping music, and Bones. Yay!
Lots of things have been going on and most of them have been not good. Within the last week or two things have been looking up, but you'll have to read the bad before the good I guess.
- I mentioned a couple posts ago that David got promoted. Well, he had applied for Physician's Assistant School, as I think I also mentioned. He was accepted. You'd think I'd announce that with a little more joy. Well, he had been told that applicants would be placed into one of three classes, with start dates ranging from January to August of 2009, which is next year. He was placed in the January 2010 class. A full year and a half from when he was accepted, rather than the 6 months we were expecting. Part of his decision to apply to PA school while in the Army, rather than attending college when he got out, was to get us stateside sooner. We are scheduled to leave when his contract would be up, February 2010. So, if he takes PA school, we leave one, maybe two months earlier than we had planned. For 6 more YEARS in service. He tends to be wishy-washy but I'm 95% certain he's accepting this slot in PA school. What that means is that I spend another 1.5 years here, then at least one year in Texas, and then who knows for the next 5. I am clinging to the fact that he will have a Master's Degree in Medicine and can start making about twice what my parents make combined when we finally make it back to Raleigh. You know, if he doesn't sign up for more service and retire. Because he'll have a little over 10 years in once his PA obligation is up. So...yeah. More ambiguity.
- We had some pretty epic fighting, mostly about moving, his career vs mine, and children. I'll spare you the details unless you really want to know, in which case just ask. It got bad enough that he was going to fill out Early Return paperwork and send Kaina and I home. I don't know what changed his mind, but by the end of the very same day, he'd decided not to do it. I was really confused but since then, he's been outrageously nice. You can imagine I am even more confused now. I'd like to take some solace and think things are going to go well but there seems to be a pattern in that, and I think it's really weird anyway. So I'm rolling with it for now but still a little skeptical.
- I've been working a lot. My hours were increased so though I don't work 40 hours, I do work 5 days a week and they're later in the afternoon than a regular job, so it wears me out. We got a new director and there were a lot of changes. I was really worried at first...two women quit and then Erik and Nadera started acting all weird. After a few weeks things settled down and now it seems that things are way better than before. There were a lot of misunderstandings but I think they all turned out well in the end. I was finally allowed to train on the long-arm and, just as I'd hoped, I seem to have an aptitude for it. I just started working on it last Monday, and within the week I finished two practice quilts and I'm allowed to work on this one customer's quilt next. If things go well, the director is putting me in Page's old position as the store's quilter, rather than cashier. I know I'm nowhere near Page's caliber right now, but I think with practice I'll be really good, so I am really looking forward to changing positions.
- Kaina was doing really well for awhile and then she pulled a ridiculously bad stunt. She had ruined our camera and her MP3 player a few months ago, then turned up with a new camera. She said a friend of hers was PCSing and let her have it but didn't provide the cables or anything, so I assumed it was broken and they were just trying to prevent me from being mad for a little while. When I finally got a battery for it, I went through the memory and found some really raunchy home footage of a nasty threesome, with no identifiable faces. Imagine my horror, thinking that Kaina's 14 year old friend might be on tape getting gang-banged. I questioned Kaina and she told me to see were the pictures on the memory card or the camera's memory. I took the memory card out and apparently it had been blocking me from accessing what was on the camera's memory - more nasty porn. I was beyond relieved to discover that the female in the video was NOT Kaina's friend, but a soldier, and beyond disturbed to discover the males involved were all dudes I knew. I am not going to name names online but...we had some friends that we decided weren't the kind of people we really wanted as friends, but we still babysat for them when they needed it. I could blow them off for dinner and hanging out, but I couldn't make myself blow them off for that. Well, that's who was on the camera - the man, 2 of his friends, and some chick. After talking to the wife and her friends I remembered that Kaina and her friend babysat for these people, so I assumed that the friend accidentally swapped cameras while she was over there. The people and their friends accused Kaina of stealing and I let loose on them about how they were horrible people, etc. And then it turned out Kaina DID steal it. SOOOOOOOOOO yeah. It was beyond bad. I had to have this talk with the man about how I was sorry it had to happen this way but that I meant everything I'd said about him, his family, and his friends, and he understood which was bizarre. But more importantly, Kaina stole and lied to me about it, repeatedly and in greater detail, for weeks. Many people tell me that she's probably trying to get me to send her home. I agree, but I had a talk with her and she denied it. I don't know. She is grounded all to Hell though, and she seems to be responding to me a little better over the past few days, but my trust in her is pretty much destroyed for some time to come.
- I'm sure you recall I had been fighting a Cold War with my family. Well, I talked to some of them. Round 1 with my mom was pointless, but Round 2 went much better. She finally seems to understand to some degree and seems apologetic. My dad seemed to understand some of the issues immediately and offer me support, but I wonder if he understands how deeply I'm upset. It was far more pleasant that I expected, though. I never spoke to Matty. I did speak to Kari and it was a disaster. So...that's going...better? Yeah. My mom and dad are visiting in about a month. I was really apprehensive but now I am starting to look forward to it a little.
- My friend Sandra had back surgery. It seemed to go well, but then she got pulmonary embolisms and it got really bad. I was really worried for a while but it looks like she's doing a lot better. We've been hanging out more now that she's out of the hospital and there's even a chance she might take over the register for me at the store, but at this point it's only hopeful speculation. She is starting to volunteer there, which is cool.
- ERIN IS BUYING A HOUSE! There's not much to elaborate on there. It's just awesome.
- My little Joshingtons moved in with his parents so he's got internet access now. He has DIAL UP. It's crazy.
- We're selling our house. Just like Erin buying one, it's pretty straightforward. There are a few complications but uh, oh well. It will get sold. I don't like the neighbors, I hate the sunroom, it's got bad mojo from us being screwed by Nancy and the inspector, we're not going to be there for at LEAST 2.5 years now, if not longer, and most importantly, it's no longer practical. If we get stationed at Bragg, gas prices are now too high for me to feel good about David commuting 45 minutes, one way, every day. If we don't move back until he's out of the Army, then the house is too far away from most of our friends and the things we're interested in, and it no longer needs to be closer to Bragg, so what's the point? So we're trying to make at least some profit to put in savings for a downpayment on House: V2.0.
- I changed my hair. My hair was boring me, Erik made a comment about me in reference to Japanese school girls, and I had an urge to get dread extensions again, so those three factors combined led to me in the bathroom taking scissors to myself, and here I am with pin-up-esque bangs. I regretted it immediately but so far it's had good reviews. I also tried dyeing it as dark brown as possible without being black, and it just turned black. Pah! It's ok though, I am getting used to it.
- In addition to sewing my butt off for the store and quilts and stuff, I've started making cloth pads. I want to donate to charity, specifically Goods For Girls although I'm open to other charities, and I got a lot of donated material from the store. I was thinking a couple dozen pads...and now I have batting for over 200. I talked to the women on cloth_pads and diy_pads and they think it's ethical to use the scraps that are too small for pads to make wingless liners, then sell them to recoup the costs it will take for the waterproof layer, snaps, and flannel tops for the full-sized donation pads. Had it been $20 I would have just taken it, but so far it's over $150. So I'm working on all that now. While I'm working on sewing, I'm extending the offer to my friends - if you're interested in cloth pads but the prices you find online are discouraging you, let me know what color you'd prefer and I'll work to accomodate than when I send you a set of 7 pads to start out with. ^_^ (note: this is what that weird entry to other day was about - I meant to post it to a pad community and posted it here instead, but I've since deleted it.)
I guess that's the majority of it. If I think of anything else I will let know. For now, I'm going to go eat and continue to rip all my CDs onto my computer, then go sew. Oh, I got a new MP3 player. Well, I found Kaina a replacement for hers that she ruined for $60, but since she stole the camera and all I decided I'd use it. I told her if she's good enough, I'll get a new one for Christmas. We'll have to get skins or something because we'll end up with the same player. Meanwhile, it's going to really chap her ass every time she looks at my MP3 player. Hahah. -_^ Anyway, time for food, ripping music, and Bones. Yay!