Carmen SanDiego? Anyone remember that show? PBS? Ring a bell? Good show! However, now I feel like it is my life. Soon we will need to put in our "preferences" of where we'd like to live next. What a daunting task - "You can live anywhere in the world. Where to?"
They do help you out a little bit. They have you rank (in order) the following areas: East Coast, West Coast, and Overseas. So really you are just saying in general where you'd like to go. It's not guaranteed, but they do try to match your preference with the needs of the Marine Corps. It's a tough decision, and we'd like your input. There's a poll in the margin and we'd like you to vote (once only, please). Where would you like to see the Parkers move next?
East Coast = most likely either South Carolina, North Carolina, or Virginia
West Coast = most likely California (29 Palms desert town or SanDiego area)
Overseas = most likely Okinawa, Japan (island) or (less likely) Hawaii
A little info to help you in your decision making, in chronological order:
- Tommy lived overseas in London for 1 1/2 years (and I temporarily for 3 months, where we met)
- We lived on the west coast (California/Arizona) for 2-3 years
- We lived on the east coast (D.C.,Virginia & Maryland) for 3 years
- We lived in Iowa for 3 1/2 years
- Currently living in Virginia for the next 4-10 months
Also, things to consider, in no particular order:
- Tommy's family lives in Virginia
- My brother & his family live in California
- We have friends in all locations
Happy Voting!!! And be sure to leave a comment explaining how you voted!
Monday, December 15, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
No More Tears
I feel like Johnson & Johnson right now!! I dropped Wyatt off at daycare this morning and there were NO MORE TEARS!! In fact, he even seemed somewhat interested in being there! (I'll stop short of saying happy). It may be due to the fact that I told him there might be a Christmas tree in there (there wasn't), but he walked into the room without even holding my hand! He gave his teacher a hug and went to feed the fish and I got out of there. He whined a little but there were NO TEARS!!! YAAAAAY!!!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tipped Off
Today during the Rat Race I was listening to a morning radio talk show and they were discussing Holiday Tipping Guidelines. My ears perked up because I'm wondering what in the *world* to get Wyatt's THREE daycare teachers at school. (If you have any ideas, leave them in the comments section!!)
I'll admit that the holiday tipping guidelines get a big fat eye roll from me every year, but this year they have just gone over the top. Do you know that you are now supposed to tip TEN percent for "curb side" orders at restaurants like Applebees, Chilis, etc.??? Are you freakin' kidding me? So let me get this straight. I call you to make my food. I drive to your restaurant to get my food. I PAY YOU for my food. And now I'm supposed to give you 10% MORE just because you handed me my bag??? I'm sorry - what? As soon as someone can explain to me how that is different than going through the drive through at McDonald's, I'll be all over that.
Tipping in general just annoys me. I don't get the rules. Like how now all of a sudden I'm supposed to tip the Baskin Robbins guy for dipping my ice cream? How am I supposed to GET the ice cream I'm paying you for in the first place if you don't scoop it out and put it in a bowl for me??? Jump behind the counter and do it myself? Gladly. I can make bigger scoops that way.
I recently found a hair salon that I really like. The lady who cuts my hair has this cool accent like Zsa Zsa Gabor. (No idea if I spelled that correctly). The only issue is, not only are you supposed to tip her (duh), but you're supposed to tip the chick who washes your hair for her, which totally confuses me. So because you poured shampoo on my head and rinsed it off, I'm supposed to give you $5? Do I at least get a 5 minute head massage for that? I mean that's the going rate for massages, right? $1/minute?
Don't get me wrong. I absolutely believe in tipping those who take good care of you and your family. I was a waitress all through high school and for a year in college. I appreciate good tips and think they are necessary to reward good service/performance, and therefore generally tip well. However, I think society is confused about the nature of tipping. Tipping is supposed to be earned, not expected. It should be a reward used to encourage one to go above and beyond, and not just "because" or for simply doing something that should be expected anyway.
Who sets these "rules" for tipping? And why don't I get tipped at work? I think my students should start tipping me. Smoked some weed? You're suspended. And by the way, you owe me a $10 tip for that. Have a nice day.
I'll admit that the holiday tipping guidelines get a big fat eye roll from me every year, but this year they have just gone over the top. Do you know that you are now supposed to tip TEN percent for "curb side" orders at restaurants like Applebees, Chilis, etc.??? Are you freakin' kidding me? So let me get this straight. I call you to make my food. I drive to your restaurant to get my food. I PAY YOU for my food. And now I'm supposed to give you 10% MORE just because you handed me my bag??? I'm sorry - what? As soon as someone can explain to me how that is different than going through the drive through at McDonald's, I'll be all over that.
Tipping in general just annoys me. I don't get the rules. Like how now all of a sudden I'm supposed to tip the Baskin Robbins guy for dipping my ice cream? How am I supposed to GET the ice cream I'm paying you for in the first place if you don't scoop it out and put it in a bowl for me??? Jump behind the counter and do it myself? Gladly. I can make bigger scoops that way.
I recently found a hair salon that I really like. The lady who cuts my hair has this cool accent like Zsa Zsa Gabor. (No idea if I spelled that correctly). The only issue is, not only are you supposed to tip her (duh), but you're supposed to tip the chick who washes your hair for her, which totally confuses me. So because you poured shampoo on my head and rinsed it off, I'm supposed to give you $5? Do I at least get a 5 minute head massage for that? I mean that's the going rate for massages, right? $1/minute?
Don't get me wrong. I absolutely believe in tipping those who take good care of you and your family. I was a waitress all through high school and for a year in college. I appreciate good tips and think they are necessary to reward good service/performance, and therefore generally tip well. However, I think society is confused about the nature of tipping. Tipping is supposed to be earned, not expected. It should be a reward used to encourage one to go above and beyond, and not just "because" or for simply doing something that should be expected anyway.
Who sets these "rules" for tipping? And why don't I get tipped at work? I think my students should start tipping me. Smoked some weed? You're suspended. And by the way, you owe me a $10 tip for that. Have a nice day.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Stupid Things I've Done...
This Weekend. There are many, but here's a fun sampling.
Stupid Thing #1
We - and by "we," I mean Santa and his elves - are getting Wyatt a Little Tikes Step 2 Kitchen for Christmas. Read: Very large, sorta expensive, piece of plastic that will occupy my child for hours and take up all available space in my living room. Wyatt's always been a fan of "helping" me in the kitchen, but lately he'll get food out of the 'fridge and pots out of the cupboard and put them on the stove for me, then turn on the burner (!). Even when I'm not cooking. And I can't tear him away from the kitchen my neighbor has for her kids. So since I couldn't get him cast in Hell's Kitchen, we decided to buy him one for Christmas.
I fought the crowds at 1 Target and 2 WalMarts, and they had no kitchens. So I bought one online from Walmart and did Site to Store Shipping. I have ants in my pants about getting this kitchen so you can imagine how SUPER excited I was to get the email that it was here, so I dragged (drug?) Tommy to Walmart to pick it up, *patiently* waiting for someone to occupy the Site to Store Department.
After 15 minutes and 2 pages, a woman finally enters the pickup area, and I proudly announce that I am here for my kitchen, and hand her the confirmation email. She types in the number. BEEP! Item Not Found, displays the computer. Hmmm... try it again, please... BEEP! Item Not Found. Okay, it has to be here, can you look it up by name? BEEP! Item Not Found. AGH~! Where Is My Kitchen?!?! Ma'am, are you sure you shipped it to this store? Umm... I think so.... oh, crap. I don't remember telling it where to ship it! Then I read the email. Your item has been delivered to WalMart, Grand Ave., Ames, Iowa. CRAP~! My kitchen is in Ames!!!
Well, of course this is a problem. A large one. And 4 WalMart employees have no idea what to do about it because apparently in the HISTORY of Site to Store Shipping, no one - but me - has been stupid enough to do this. So I did what any mom would do for her kid for Christmas. I ordered another one online.
Stupid Thing #2:
So we're in Richmond for Thanksgiving, and one of my absolute favorite restaurants is Texas Roadhouse, of which the closest to us is in Richmond. I tried to go there 2 weeks ago when we were there for the ball, and there was a 1 hour, 45 minute wait, so we didn't go. I was SO disappointed. So this time I had a plan - order takeout!! So Friday night I made everyone hand me their orders and I called it in, then went to pick it up. It's just a few miles down the street from my MIL's (mother in law's), but it's in a busy mall area so I tried getting the GPS to help me out. No such luck. It couldn't find it. Not a big deal - I only made just 2 or 3 wrong turns - and finally found it. Unfortunately, on one of those wrong turns, a median jumped out at my car. Out of nowhere! Well, actually, it was because I was trying to avoid a wrong turn... and it didn't so much jump out as it did up - into my car. And now it's making this weird rattling noise.
I perservered, however, and succeeded in my mission to obtain Chicken Critters from Texas Roadhouse. I backed out of my spot and made a quick turn to the stop sign, and some guy in a sporty little sports car number swung out wide and missed hitting me by just a few feet. My heart was pounding and I was cursing the driver. What an idiot! Couldn't he see me? I turned out onto the main road and realized things were sort of dark. Must not be a moon tonight. Oh, wait... I don't have my headlights on!!! Apparently the driver couldn't see me. My bad...
Stupid Thing #3
We're in the Px (think department store) on base at their big after-Thanksgiving sale. We've been in the Px for one hour and 22 minutes, and I have once again picked the absolute slowest line possible. You know on the movie Office Space where the guy is in traffic and his lane isn't moving, so he switches lanes and that lane stops and the other one starts? That's how I am when it comes to checking out of stores.
Anyway, Tommy has taken Wyatt and all our crap out to the car and I have to re-enter the freakin' line because Tommy forgot to buy MoleSkin the first time around. One hour and 39 minutes later I am leaving the store with that and a roll of wrapping paper, walking to our car. I veer to the left at the last minute, realizing our car is one aisle over, and somehow trip over the median and bite it right in front of the store. And I mean BITE IT! As in, full on fall on the ground spread eagle, think-I-am-dying, laying on the ground unsure of whether to get up or not, BITE IT. A car that was backing out of its space stops to see if I'm okay. I ignore them (I have my pride, after all!) and FORCE myself to get up, trying (unsuccessfully) not to cry.
My wrapping paper is smushed. My vision is blurry. My hip is bleeding and bruised. My wrist and shoulder are throbbing. I have a 6-inch scrape on my opposite forearm, and practically a hole in the knee of my favorite jeans. I open the car door and throw myself into the seat. Tommy just looks at me, and wants to know what happened? I told him I tripped, and he asked on what, the ground? And started laughing. MEN!
Stupid Thing #1
We - and by "we," I mean Santa and his elves - are getting Wyatt a Little Tikes Step 2 Kitchen for Christmas. Read: Very large, sorta expensive, piece of plastic that will occupy my child for hours and take up all available space in my living room. Wyatt's always been a fan of "helping" me in the kitchen, but lately he'll get food out of the 'fridge and pots out of the cupboard and put them on the stove for me, then turn on the burner (!). Even when I'm not cooking. And I can't tear him away from the kitchen my neighbor has for her kids. So since I couldn't get him cast in Hell's Kitchen, we decided to buy him one for Christmas.
I fought the crowds at 1 Target and 2 WalMarts, and they had no kitchens. So I bought one online from Walmart and did Site to Store Shipping. I have ants in my pants about getting this kitchen so you can imagine how SUPER excited I was to get the email that it was here, so I dragged (drug?) Tommy to Walmart to pick it up, *patiently* waiting for someone to occupy the Site to Store Department.
After 15 minutes and 2 pages, a woman finally enters the pickup area, and I proudly announce that I am here for my kitchen, and hand her the confirmation email. She types in the number. BEEP! Item Not Found, displays the computer. Hmmm... try it again, please... BEEP! Item Not Found. Okay, it has to be here, can you look it up by name? BEEP! Item Not Found. AGH~! Where Is My Kitchen?!?! Ma'am, are you sure you shipped it to this store? Umm... I think so.... oh, crap. I don't remember telling it where to ship it! Then I read the email. Your item has been delivered to WalMart, Grand Ave., Ames, Iowa. CRAP~! My kitchen is in Ames!!!
Well, of course this is a problem. A large one. And 4 WalMart employees have no idea what to do about it because apparently in the HISTORY of Site to Store Shipping, no one - but me - has been stupid enough to do this. So I did what any mom would do for her kid for Christmas. I ordered another one online.
Stupid Thing #2:
So we're in Richmond for Thanksgiving, and one of my absolute favorite restaurants is Texas Roadhouse, of which the closest to us is in Richmond. I tried to go there 2 weeks ago when we were there for the ball, and there was a 1 hour, 45 minute wait, so we didn't go. I was SO disappointed. So this time I had a plan - order takeout!! So Friday night I made everyone hand me their orders and I called it in, then went to pick it up. It's just a few miles down the street from my MIL's (mother in law's), but it's in a busy mall area so I tried getting the GPS to help me out. No such luck. It couldn't find it. Not a big deal - I only made just 2 or 3 wrong turns - and finally found it. Unfortunately, on one of those wrong turns, a median jumped out at my car. Out of nowhere! Well, actually, it was because I was trying to avoid a wrong turn... and it didn't so much jump out as it did up - into my car. And now it's making this weird rattling noise.
I perservered, however, and succeeded in my mission to obtain Chicken Critters from Texas Roadhouse. I backed out of my spot and made a quick turn to the stop sign, and some guy in a sporty little sports car number swung out wide and missed hitting me by just a few feet. My heart was pounding and I was cursing the driver. What an idiot! Couldn't he see me? I turned out onto the main road and realized things were sort of dark. Must not be a moon tonight. Oh, wait... I don't have my headlights on!!! Apparently the driver couldn't see me. My bad...
Stupid Thing #3
We're in the Px (think department store) on base at their big after-Thanksgiving sale. We've been in the Px for one hour and 22 minutes, and I have once again picked the absolute slowest line possible. You know on the movie Office Space where the guy is in traffic and his lane isn't moving, so he switches lanes and that lane stops and the other one starts? That's how I am when it comes to checking out of stores.
Anyway, Tommy has taken Wyatt and all our crap out to the car and I have to re-enter the freakin' line because Tommy forgot to buy MoleSkin the first time around. One hour and 39 minutes later I am leaving the store with that and a roll of wrapping paper, walking to our car. I veer to the left at the last minute, realizing our car is one aisle over, and somehow trip over the median and bite it right in front of the store. And I mean BITE IT! As in, full on fall on the ground spread eagle, think-I-am-dying, laying on the ground unsure of whether to get up or not, BITE IT. A car that was backing out of its space stops to see if I'm okay. I ignore them (I have my pride, after all!) and FORCE myself to get up, trying (unsuccessfully) not to cry.
My wrapping paper is smushed. My vision is blurry. My hip is bleeding and bruised. My wrist and shoulder are throbbing. I have a 6-inch scrape on my opposite forearm, and practically a hole in the knee of my favorite jeans. I open the car door and throw myself into the seat. Tommy just looks at me, and wants to know what happened? I told him I tripped, and he asked on what, the ground? And started laughing. MEN!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Note to Self:
Do not shop at the commissary the weekend prior to a major holiday. Ever.
I ventured out to the commissary (that’s “grocery store” to you civilians) on Saturday to grab some necessary items. Mind you, the commissary is generally packed to the gills any day, any time of the week. But this was different. This was madness. Think Black Friday madness. Which, after having done only once several years ago with my sisters-in-law, I vowed to never do again.
Had those items not been so extremely necessary, I would have turned around the minute I saw the parking lot, which sported rows of vehicles who had essentially “made up” their own parking spots in an effort to buy their birds. And had my son not been at home sleeping after spending the last 4 hours puking his guts out, I would have just went off base, but I was in a hurry.
So I buck up, brace myself, and head into the store. Problem #1: There are no grocery carts. Okay, no big deal… I go outside to check the reserve spots. None to be found. Yet there are people entering the store who have carts. ??? Then I realize… there is actually a line to receive a grocery cart. Well, not so much a line as… people standing around snatching carts from those checking out. After 5 minutes, I am unsuccessful at snatching. What is going on?? The bagger tells me they are now out of secondary carts (the carts the baggers put the bagged goods in to take to the car). So they are using the regular carts for that purpose. Thus, no carts at the cashier line.
Baffled, I return outside and spy a lonely cart off in the distance about 20 yards out and make a mad dash to it, beating out several other would-be cart snatchers. Successful in my feat, I go into the grocery store, thanking heaven that Wyatt is not with me as I notice the kid strap is broken, the wheel is falling off, and the mass of people inside.
I get in line to go down the produce aisle. Yes, I said get in line. I snag my grapes and wait patiently for people to get out of my way. Problem #2: People will not get out of my way. There is no way around them. So I stand... and wait.... patiently, of course...
Problem #3: There is no food. The shelves have large bare spots where food sat mere hours ago, but alas, I was too late for many items on my list. The staff is doing its best to re-stock, but it’s impossible with their big carts to get through the volume of people.
After waiting *patiently* through several aisles, I have written half this blog in my head and am wondering who to contact to let the commissary know that it should implement the following simple set of rules for its patrons on weekends before major holidays.
Commissary Rules for Keeping the Peace:
Dear Patrons,
1. Read the coupons booklets outside the store. How ‘bout clipping them in the car? You know, the one that’s parked in that nice little parking spot you made up for yourself because you think you are more special than me?
2. U-turns in grocery aisles are not allowed. There are two lines of traffic – one per side of the aisle. If you missed an item, back that a** up and go get it sans grocery cart.
3. Shoppers are limited to one per family. If it is essential that you bring your spouse, 4 children, and parents who are in town for said major holiday, at least keep ‘em in the car.
4. As previously stated in rule #2, there are two lines of traffic. Parking your kiddie cart in the middle of an aisle is grounds for removal and subjects you to loss of future commissary priveleges.
5. GET. OUT. OF. MY. WAY. Seriously.
As I wade my way through the last aisle at a speed equivalent to rush hour traffic on I-95, I enter the Wall O’ Items (a display of various food items that creates a “wall,” and therefore, a line to get to the cashiers). I count no fewer than 36 patrons in line, but an hour and ten minutes after entering the store, I was checking out at last! I swiped my credit card just as I realized that I had no cash to tip the baggers. Baggers at the commissary work for tips only, so of course I felt like a complete jerk and told them I would take the cart myself. Which scored me evil looks from all three baggers and several pedestrians.
Good thing I had my Starbucks.
I ventured out to the commissary (that’s “grocery store” to you civilians) on Saturday to grab some necessary items. Mind you, the commissary is generally packed to the gills any day, any time of the week. But this was different. This was madness. Think Black Friday madness. Which, after having done only once several years ago with my sisters-in-law, I vowed to never do again.
Had those items not been so extremely necessary, I would have turned around the minute I saw the parking lot, which sported rows of vehicles who had essentially “made up” their own parking spots in an effort to buy their birds. And had my son not been at home sleeping after spending the last 4 hours puking his guts out, I would have just went off base, but I was in a hurry.
So I buck up, brace myself, and head into the store. Problem #1: There are no grocery carts. Okay, no big deal… I go outside to check the reserve spots. None to be found. Yet there are people entering the store who have carts. ??? Then I realize… there is actually a line to receive a grocery cart. Well, not so much a line as… people standing around snatching carts from those checking out. After 5 minutes, I am unsuccessful at snatching. What is going on?? The bagger tells me they are now out of secondary carts (the carts the baggers put the bagged goods in to take to the car). So they are using the regular carts for that purpose. Thus, no carts at the cashier line.
Baffled, I return outside and spy a lonely cart off in the distance about 20 yards out and make a mad dash to it, beating out several other would-be cart snatchers. Successful in my feat, I go into the grocery store, thanking heaven that Wyatt is not with me as I notice the kid strap is broken, the wheel is falling off, and the mass of people inside.
I get in line to go down the produce aisle. Yes, I said get in line. I snag my grapes and wait patiently for people to get out of my way. Problem #2: People will not get out of my way. There is no way around them. So I stand... and wait.... patiently, of course...
Problem #3: There is no food. The shelves have large bare spots where food sat mere hours ago, but alas, I was too late for many items on my list. The staff is doing its best to re-stock, but it’s impossible with their big carts to get through the volume of people.
After waiting *patiently* through several aisles, I have written half this blog in my head and am wondering who to contact to let the commissary know that it should implement the following simple set of rules for its patrons on weekends before major holidays.
Commissary Rules for Keeping the Peace:
Dear Patrons,
1. Read the coupons booklets outside the store. How ‘bout clipping them in the car? You know, the one that’s parked in that nice little parking spot you made up for yourself because you think you are more special than me?
2. U-turns in grocery aisles are not allowed. There are two lines of traffic – one per side of the aisle. If you missed an item, back that a** up and go get it sans grocery cart.
3. Shoppers are limited to one per family. If it is essential that you bring your spouse, 4 children, and parents who are in town for said major holiday, at least keep ‘em in the car.
4. As previously stated in rule #2, there are two lines of traffic. Parking your kiddie cart in the middle of an aisle is grounds for removal and subjects you to loss of future commissary priveleges.
5. GET. OUT. OF. MY. WAY. Seriously.
As I wade my way through the last aisle at a speed equivalent to rush hour traffic on I-95, I enter the Wall O’ Items (a display of various food items that creates a “wall,” and therefore, a line to get to the cashiers). I count no fewer than 36 patrons in line, but an hour and ten minutes after entering the store, I was checking out at last! I swiped my credit card just as I realized that I had no cash to tip the baggers. Baggers at the commissary work for tips only, so of course I felt like a complete jerk and told them I would take the cart myself. Which scored me evil looks from all three baggers and several pedestrians.
Good thing I had my Starbucks.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
This Sucks.
I absolutely hate leaving Wyatt at daycare. The first day he whined a little but was okay when I left. The second day he was really clingy to me and didn't want me to go, and had a minor meltdown when I left. Today as soon as we stepped in the classroom, the big pouty lip came out and he started crying. And I'm talking full-on crying with tears, clutching to me, "ma ma".... of course I started bawling which did not help the situation. The teachers tried really hard to help but he wasn't having it. Once I eventually left (with meltdown still in progress) I watched him on the monitor for awhile. He seemed better, but I cried halfway to work....
They told me it would probably be like this for about two weeks. Two freakin' weeks?!? I can't take that. He is also doing things at home that he didn't do before, like full on hitting me in the face. I think he's mad at me for leaving him. Tommy thinks it's a phase and that I just feel guilty. Which would be an understatement.
This sucks.
They told me it would probably be like this for about two weeks. Two freakin' weeks?!? I can't take that. He is also doing things at home that he didn't do before, like full on hitting me in the face. I think he's mad at me for leaving him. Tommy thinks it's a phase and that I just feel guilty. Which would be an understatement.
This sucks.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Identity Confusion
What a whirlwind this past week has been. Thursday was the spouse orientation for Tommy's company. I have good stories but will refrain from publishing them here ;) Friday I drove to Mason to sign paperwork and took Wyatt to the daycare in Fairfax while I did that. On my way back, I got a call from the Child Development Center on base (1/4 mile from our house!) that we were off the wait list and they had an opening for Wyatt!! I was SUPER excited because it is a WONDERFUL center. I love, love, love the teachers there and the facility, and as a BONUS it is almost $700 a month less than the other center. So - I had to do MORE paperwork, get health records, get a notary to witness, and arrange for childcare on Monday (the opening started today, Tuesday). All before our Marine Corps Ball that night. A BIG thanks to my neighbor Holly for watching him yesterday!
Yesterday was my first day at work. Whew! It's really hard to work out, get ready, get Wyatt ready, coordinate breakfast, take him to daycare, AND commute to work in this traffic all before 8:30 a.m. In fact, I am not sure it is actually possible. I have been late to work both days so far. Yeesh. Luckily, they are very understanding but it drives me nuts.
What else. Oh, I know. Apparently people here are confused by what I am doing here. I think it is due to the fact that I am a former employee, but that was a contract employee because my old department is privatized. Also, my weird "temporary" assignment was pushed through in a rush and the paperwork hasn't all caught up. Regardless, I have had the same conversation with the ID Card office, the Parking office, and Human Resources & Payroll, which goes something like this:
Me: Hi, I am a new staff member and need to __________(get parking, get an ID card, etc.)
Them: What is your G Number?
Me: [Give it to them]
Them: Do you have your student ID Card?
Me: [Confused... Long pause...] Um... no.
Them: Were you a student here?
Me: No.
Them: Are you sure?
Me: Yes. I used to work here though.
Them: It says you were a student.
Me: Um... no.... unless you want to award me a Ph.D, which is fine.
Them: [Ignoring my comment] Are you faculty or staff?
Me: I don't really know. I am staff, but I think I am classified as a temporary administrative
Faculty appointment.
Them: [Blank look. Staring...long pause] I'm sorry, but you're not in the system.
ARGH!!!! So annoying. I know it's not their fault, but it would be nice to know that I do, in fact, exist? Not to mention to not have to pay $10 to park in the parking garage every day.
On a brighter note, they reactivated my old email. Apparently you don't have to be "in the system" to do that. So I spent 45 minutes deleting the OVER 2,000 emails that had been accumulating there since the last time I used it in 2004! Then I deleted all my old folders, subfolders, sent items, and deleted items. LOL. I'm sad though, because I missed out on tons of great offers - discounts on Viagra, ways to make my man's @#$# bigger, and TONS of work at home opportunities! Crud.
Anyway, it's fun to be back and to see people I haven't seen in a few years. Yesterday we had several meetings and I recognized several members of the GMU Police that I knew from back in the day. Somehow, I'm not sure that is a good thing. :)
Yesterday was my first day at work. Whew! It's really hard to work out, get ready, get Wyatt ready, coordinate breakfast, take him to daycare, AND commute to work in this traffic all before 8:30 a.m. In fact, I am not sure it is actually possible. I have been late to work both days so far. Yeesh. Luckily, they are very understanding but it drives me nuts.
What else. Oh, I know. Apparently people here are confused by what I am doing here. I think it is due to the fact that I am a former employee, but that was a contract employee because my old department is privatized. Also, my weird "temporary" assignment was pushed through in a rush and the paperwork hasn't all caught up. Regardless, I have had the same conversation with the ID Card office, the Parking office, and Human Resources & Payroll, which goes something like this:
Me: Hi, I am a new staff member and need to __________(get parking, get an ID card, etc.)
Them: What is your G Number?
Me: [Give it to them]
Them: Do you have your student ID Card?
Me: [Confused... Long pause...] Um... no.
Them: Were you a student here?
Me: No.
Them: Are you sure?
Me: Yes. I used to work here though.
Them: It says you were a student.
Me: Um... no.... unless you want to award me a Ph.D, which is fine.
Them: [Ignoring my comment] Are you faculty or staff?
Me: I don't really know. I am staff, but I think I am classified as a temporary administrative
Faculty appointment.
Them: [Blank look. Staring...long pause] I'm sorry, but you're not in the system.
ARGH!!!! So annoying. I know it's not their fault, but it would be nice to know that I do, in fact, exist? Not to mention to not have to pay $10 to park in the parking garage every day.
On a brighter note, they reactivated my old email. Apparently you don't have to be "in the system" to do that. So I spent 45 minutes deleting the OVER 2,000 emails that had been accumulating there since the last time I used it in 2004! Then I deleted all my old folders, subfolders, sent items, and deleted items. LOL. I'm sad though, because I missed out on tons of great offers - discounts on Viagra, ways to make my man's @#$# bigger, and TONS of work at home opportunities! Crud.
Anyway, it's fun to be back and to see people I haven't seen in a few years. Yesterday we had several meetings and I recognized several members of the GMU Police that I knew from back in the day. Somehow, I'm not sure that is a good thing. :)
Saturday, November 8, 2008
This Just In
On Friday I was offered a position as the Interim Associate Director for Judicial Affairs at George Mason University! This has been in the works for awhile now, but I wanted to keep it under wraps until I had an official offer. It is a temporary position until June 2009 (at which time they will do a proper search), which is perfect for me since Tommy graduates from TBS in May. I start on Monday, November 17.
I am excited for a few reasons, which include returning to Mason (I worked there from 2002-2004 in residence life as a hall director) and continuing my professional career at a great school. Mason is a large public university with a very diverse mix of 30,000+ students. This is a step up for me and gives me valuable experience in an area that could potentially prepare me for a higher level administrative role like Assistant Dean or Dean of Students. And, they offered me a sweet deal, which never hurts ;).
So it was surprising to me, then, that I was more than a little sad yesterday when I realized that this coming week will be my last week home with Wyatt. I have really come to enjoy my time with him. He is a great kid and we have so much fun together. At first staying home was a hard transition for me. The first day I called my friend Michelle and asked her what I was supposed to be doing. Was I supposed to be teaching him stuff? I had no clue. But I did. I taught him lots of things, like how to Jump, new words (about one per day), and how to eat with a spoon. And he'll use those skills for the rest of his life!
A few weeks ago, before Tommy started class, we went up to Fairfax and checked out the different daycares there, so we have a spot reserved for him in a daycare just 10 minutes from Mason. It's a great center, and he'll learn new things there, too, I'm sure. And I'm thankful that I had these past 6 weeks to get to know my son better. He is funny, smart, silly, and caring. And I love him so much.
So, we'll see what this next chapter holds for us as I start my new position and he starts school, and we enjoy the 45-minute commute together. Let the Rat Race begin!
I am excited for a few reasons, which include returning to Mason (I worked there from 2002-2004 in residence life as a hall director) and continuing my professional career at a great school. Mason is a large public university with a very diverse mix of 30,000+ students. This is a step up for me and gives me valuable experience in an area that could potentially prepare me for a higher level administrative role like Assistant Dean or Dean of Students. And, they offered me a sweet deal, which never hurts ;).
So it was surprising to me, then, that I was more than a little sad yesterday when I realized that this coming week will be my last week home with Wyatt. I have really come to enjoy my time with him. He is a great kid and we have so much fun together. At first staying home was a hard transition for me. The first day I called my friend Michelle and asked her what I was supposed to be doing. Was I supposed to be teaching him stuff? I had no clue. But I did. I taught him lots of things, like how to Jump, new words (about one per day), and how to eat with a spoon. And he'll use those skills for the rest of his life!
A few weeks ago, before Tommy started class, we went up to Fairfax and checked out the different daycares there, so we have a spot reserved for him in a daycare just 10 minutes from Mason. It's a great center, and he'll learn new things there, too, I'm sure. And I'm thankful that I had these past 6 weeks to get to know my son better. He is funny, smart, silly, and caring. And I love him so much.
So, we'll see what this next chapter holds for us as I start my new position and he starts school, and we enjoy the 45-minute commute together. Let the Rat Race begin!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The Playground
The Playground is an interesting phenomenon to me. I say "phenomenon" because it is so strange. The Playground, theoretically, should be grounds for play for children, not adults. However, over the past month or so I've become very aware that the Playground seems to be used more for adult benefit than for the kids. And I've summed up the women who go there into 4 categories:
Nancy Drews: These are the women who want to know everything about everyone's business, and can't stop talking about it. They stand there snooping around for clues, watching to see who's home and who's not, and who is hanging out with who. Or is it whom? I forget. Some journalism major I was.
Bitter Bees: These ladies want to tell you how bad everything is in their world. I have had one woman tell me (repeatedly) that she's moved 3 times in 3 years, can't wait for her husband to retire, and has made no friends during this time. Well, guess what lady? You just made me run screaming away from you as fast as possible. Yesterday a lady told me she hates it so much here after 2 months that she told her husband she wanted to move back to their house in North Carolina, and he told her to pack the truck. I almost burst out laughing!
The Social Bees: These are the women who go to The Playground under the guise of doing it for the children, when in reality, they just want to get out of the house and have some adult conversation. Admittedly, I fall into this category. I am not proud of it, but chasing Wyatt off the street, steering him away from the woods, and trying to prevent him from falling off the jungle gym is not my idea of a good time. He does get to burn off some steam, which is good, but this is a fringe benefit to the two reasons listed above. One day two women told me I'd have to forgive them, because they'd just drank an entire pot of coffee. With Bailey's. And it was 2 p.m. Hey, whatever floats your boat, I said.
The Model SAHMs: These moms are the Model Moms who do everything right. They go to the playground right after nap time (when they made fresh-baked cookies) but well before dinner so they still have time to prepare the 5-course meal and get it on the table by the time their spouse arrives home. Their houses are spic-and-span and their kids use perfect playground etiquette, while mine shoves them out of the way to get down the slide. One of the Model SAHMs told me she had to cancel our plans the day before Halloween because she had a costume "emergency." By all means - stop the press!!
I realize most of these categories have some sort of negative connotation, and by all means there are many very nice women that I've met at The Playground who are starting to become my friends. And when you think about it, we're all just trying to survive, and we seem to do it in one of these crazy ways. So no harm meant to anyone, I'm just trying to put people in a box :) For you dog lovers out there, I've likened the moms at The Playground to a pack of dogs trying to figure out their pecking order: Some of them growl, some of them shy away, some fight back, and some of them just plain roll over and play dead. And in the end, it's just survival of the fittest. See you at The Playground.
Nancy Drews: These are the women who want to know everything about everyone's business, and can't stop talking about it. They stand there snooping around for clues, watching to see who's home and who's not, and who is hanging out with who. Or is it whom? I forget. Some journalism major I was.
Bitter Bees: These ladies want to tell you how bad everything is in their world. I have had one woman tell me (repeatedly) that she's moved 3 times in 3 years, can't wait for her husband to retire, and has made no friends during this time. Well, guess what lady? You just made me run screaming away from you as fast as possible. Yesterday a lady told me she hates it so much here after 2 months that she told her husband she wanted to move back to their house in North Carolina, and he told her to pack the truck. I almost burst out laughing!
The Social Bees: These are the women who go to The Playground under the guise of doing it for the children, when in reality, they just want to get out of the house and have some adult conversation. Admittedly, I fall into this category. I am not proud of it, but chasing Wyatt off the street, steering him away from the woods, and trying to prevent him from falling off the jungle gym is not my idea of a good time. He does get to burn off some steam, which is good, but this is a fringe benefit to the two reasons listed above. One day two women told me I'd have to forgive them, because they'd just drank an entire pot of coffee. With Bailey's. And it was 2 p.m. Hey, whatever floats your boat, I said.
The Model SAHMs: These moms are the Model Moms who do everything right. They go to the playground right after nap time (when they made fresh-baked cookies) but well before dinner so they still have time to prepare the 5-course meal and get it on the table by the time their spouse arrives home. Their houses are spic-and-span and their kids use perfect playground etiquette, while mine shoves them out of the way to get down the slide. One of the Model SAHMs told me she had to cancel our plans the day before Halloween because she had a costume "emergency." By all means - stop the press!!
I realize most of these categories have some sort of negative connotation, and by all means there are many very nice women that I've met at The Playground who are starting to become my friends. And when you think about it, we're all just trying to survive, and we seem to do it in one of these crazy ways. So no harm meant to anyone, I'm just trying to put people in a box :) For you dog lovers out there, I've likened the moms at The Playground to a pack of dogs trying to figure out their pecking order: Some of them growl, some of them shy away, some fight back, and some of them just plain roll over and play dead. And in the end, it's just survival of the fittest. See you at The Playground.
Friday, October 31, 2008
A Spook-tacular Day
Hello everyone!
I hope everyone's Halloween was super spooky! We had a GREAT day here - for many reasons, but most of which is that I seriously have the cutest freakin' kid EVER! Seriously - he was SO cute dressed up in his little golfer outfit!! One lady told me that he was the talk of the neighborhood! I took him to the library Halloween program in the morning with my friend Michelle and her two boys. It was so much fun and there were a TON of people there, and everyone kept pointing at Wyatt saying how cute he was! Then at trick-or-treat tonight I found out that there had been a discussion amongst the moms and they had decided that Wyatt had won the title of "cutest kid" there!
I really don't know who had more fun today, me or Wyatt. Not only was he so cute I just had to keep pinching his cheeks, but it was so much fun to see him get excited by the other costumes. Elmo was at the library program, and that was a BIG deal! And the firetruck came to our neighborhood tonight with McGruff the crime dog! Couple that with the fun dancing we did and the 3 lollipops he ate and Wyatt was in heaven, and I was in heaven watching him.
The other great thing is that Tommy got picked up by Alpha Company!!! This is GREAT news for us! I am super proud of him and we are both excited to get this journey moving. As I write this (at 8:30 p.m.), he is still at work, and has been since 5 a.m. I really admire his dedication to serve his country and know he'll do well in this school.
Also, it was a good day for me in the friend-making business. I know this sounds weird, but when you're married to the military, meeting friends is sort of like speed dating in some ways. You have a quick convo and if you don't hit it off, you move on. And everyone knows it. No one takes it personally, it's just part of the deal. It can be a long process of elimination, but today I hit the jackpot. I met this woman at the library today whose son is just 5 days older than Wyatt and her husband is also here for TBS! We are going to try to get together next week. And tonight after trick-or-treating I had chili at my neighbor/friend Holly's, and got to meet two of her friends that I really liked, and exchanged contact info. So, it was a great day for all of us and I am counting my blessings that things are going so well for us.
I hope everyone's Halloween was super spooky! We had a GREAT day here - for many reasons, but most of which is that I seriously have the cutest freakin' kid EVER! Seriously - he was SO cute dressed up in his little golfer outfit!! One lady told me that he was the talk of the neighborhood! I took him to the library Halloween program in the morning with my friend Michelle and her two boys. It was so much fun and there were a TON of people there, and everyone kept pointing at Wyatt saying how cute he was! Then at trick-or-treat tonight I found out that there had been a discussion amongst the moms and they had decided that Wyatt had won the title of "cutest kid" there!
I really don't know who had more fun today, me or Wyatt. Not only was he so cute I just had to keep pinching his cheeks, but it was so much fun to see him get excited by the other costumes. Elmo was at the library program, and that was a BIG deal! And the firetruck came to our neighborhood tonight with McGruff the crime dog! Couple that with the fun dancing we did and the 3 lollipops he ate and Wyatt was in heaven, and I was in heaven watching him.
The other great thing is that Tommy got picked up by Alpha Company!!! This is GREAT news for us! I am super proud of him and we are both excited to get this journey moving. As I write this (at 8:30 p.m.), he is still at work, and has been since 5 a.m. I really admire his dedication to serve his country and know he'll do well in this school.
Also, it was a good day for me in the friend-making business. I know this sounds weird, but when you're married to the military, meeting friends is sort of like speed dating in some ways. You have a quick convo and if you don't hit it off, you move on. And everyone knows it. No one takes it personally, it's just part of the deal. It can be a long process of elimination, but today I hit the jackpot. I met this woman at the library today whose son is just 5 days older than Wyatt and her husband is also here for TBS! We are going to try to get together next week. And tonight after trick-or-treating I had chili at my neighbor/friend Holly's, and got to meet two of her friends that I really liked, and exchanged contact info. So, it was a great day for all of us and I am counting my blessings that things are going so well for us.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
And so it begins!
I realize that I haven't posted much about Tommy's experience here in his school, so I thought I'd give everyone an update since some of you have been asking. He will be participating the next 6-7 months in a training designed for new Officers. During this training he will be tested mentally and physically, and toward the end of the training they will tally up how well he has done and use this information to determine what his "job" in the Marine Corps will be (he puts in a list of preferences) and where we will be stationed for the next 3-4 years.
Here's the deal. What they didn't tell us before we came is that they actually assigned over 400 people to his Company, which has only 300 slots. Now I'm no mathemetician, but that means about 25% of the Marines will be dropped at some point in the first 2 weeks. Which is tomorrow.
So, we actually don't know if he is going to be in this Company or not. If not, he won't get another chance to pick up in the next class until late DECEMBER!! Yeesh.
So far, he is enjoying what they have done, and he really wants to continue. They have said they will be evaluating them on their Swim Qualifications and PFT's (Physical Fitness Tests) to determine who gets to stay and who goes. So far, Tommy got the highest Swim Qual class he could get, and his PFT is today. He typically does fine in these areas, but you never know, and as he said, he is now competing with 22-year olds, and he is no "spring chicken"! I have every confidence he will be fine - after all, he is pretty amazing, but keep your fingers crossed!
Here's the deal. What they didn't tell us before we came is that they actually assigned over 400 people to his Company, which has only 300 slots. Now I'm no mathemetician, but that means about 25% of the Marines will be dropped at some point in the first 2 weeks. Which is tomorrow.
So, we actually don't know if he is going to be in this Company or not. If not, he won't get another chance to pick up in the next class until late DECEMBER!! Yeesh.
So far, he is enjoying what they have done, and he really wants to continue. They have said they will be evaluating them on their Swim Qualifications and PFT's (Physical Fitness Tests) to determine who gets to stay and who goes. So far, Tommy got the highest Swim Qual class he could get, and his PFT is today. He typically does fine in these areas, but you never know, and as he said, he is now competing with 22-year olds, and he is no "spring chicken"! I have every confidence he will be fine - after all, he is pretty amazing, but keep your fingers crossed!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Adventures of a SAHM
That's "Stay at Home Mom" for those of you who are wondering! Sorry for the acronym; I know Liz Kurt is thinking "Did I teach her nothing?" But, my world is all about acronyms right now living life on a military installation.
Anyway, many of you have told me you especially enjoy my stories on the blog, so here's another one for you. So I heard about this thing called Classy Kids Consignment that is a semi-annual seasonal sale here. It's baby and kids stuff. You name it, they got it. I decided to brave the waters and did not, in fact, heed the warning on the web site that although children were welcome, they might not be...convenient.
BIG mistake. First of all, that information should be reclassified to say that bringing children is dangerous. I rolled up in my little mazda a few minutes after the doors have opened and saw the line. Immediately it hit me. You know those sales where they have bridal gowns for free or cheap and everyone is pushing and shoving like mad to get a gown? Suddenly the picture was very clear to me.... this was one of those sales!!!
Panic hits me. Am I going to be able to do this? I rush around, trying to get Wyatt out of the car seat and into the umbrella stroller. That should have been my 1st clue: there are no "big" strollers allowed. Just umbrella strollers. Well, I rarely use the umbrella stroller, so it takes me like 5 minutes to get it set up, and another 5 to figure out how to strap him in there. Alas, I get it, and away we go!
I enter the sale (read: warehouse), and am handed a "Hold" slip. What? What is a Hold Slip? OH...you're new. She explains that it is for bigger items you can't carry around. I look up for the 1st time at the warehouse. Holy mother of God! I knew at once that I was outmatched by these women. There were things everywhere. Strollers, cribs, furniture, bedding, toys, racks and racks of clothing. Exersaucers, bouncers, bottles, rocking hourses, rocking chairs... and women running from section to section. Oh, dear. Where do I go first? Toys. I hate paying full price for toys. But before I can pick up something to look at, women grab it from the table. Pushing, shoving, strollering across my feet or into Wyatt.
It took me a few minutes to realize that "Excuse me" was not in these people's vocabulary. I try to move on to the clothes section but Wyatt does not want to move on. He throws a minor tantrum and like any good mom, I pluck a truck off the table and give it to him, clearly ignoring the posted "Please do not let children play with toys" sign. En route to the clothes section, I see a booster seat we need. Suddenly this other mom locks eyes with me and I see she, too, wants the booster seat! We both stroller our way over and I get to it first. Score one for the girl from Iowa! But now, I have a stroller, a truck, and a booster seat. And only two hands. Oh wait! The HOLD ticket! Thank goodness for hold tickets.
We find Wyatt's clothes size and start rooting around. Baby Gap, Gymboree, Children's Place, Tommy Hilfiger.... jackpot! After a few minutes, though, I am exhausted from competing for my place in front of his clothes size and give up. I go to pay, and that's when I see the line. By this time Wyatt has had it. He is squirming, wanting out to run free, and I am struggling to hold the things and my purse and keep him in the stroller. I am sweating, because I have on a fleece jacket, and have been running around like a mad woman. Finally we get through and pay, and everything goes in the car. I can't figure out how to collapse the stroller though, so it goes in the trunk fully assembled. I collapse into my Mazda, exhausted! Who knew?
A few days later I am looking through my purse and I find a handout they gave me at the checkout line. Sunday is Dollar Dash! Everything not already sold is just a dollar! Hmm.... my brain starts calculating. Sunday comes, and I need a break from being in the house. It has not escaped me that I haven't been anywhere alone in 3 weeks. I leave Wyatt with Tommy and decide I'm going back to the sale to do this the right way.
I arrive a few minutes early this time, sans jacket or purse. Just my money in my pocket. No stroller, no child, nothing to carry. I have properly stretched ahead of time and am ready for the mad dash. And Dash it was. I have never seen such a thing, but this time I was ready, and I scored some pretty great stuff! And I felt better about myself for having conquered the Classy Kids Consignment on its last day.... until the March sale, that is ;)
Anyway, many of you have told me you especially enjoy my stories on the blog, so here's another one for you. So I heard about this thing called Classy Kids Consignment that is a semi-annual seasonal sale here. It's baby and kids stuff. You name it, they got it. I decided to brave the waters and did not, in fact, heed the warning on the web site that although children were welcome, they might not be...convenient.
BIG mistake. First of all, that information should be reclassified to say that bringing children is dangerous. I rolled up in my little mazda a few minutes after the doors have opened and saw the line. Immediately it hit me. You know those sales where they have bridal gowns for free or cheap and everyone is pushing and shoving like mad to get a gown? Suddenly the picture was very clear to me.... this was one of those sales!!!
Panic hits me. Am I going to be able to do this? I rush around, trying to get Wyatt out of the car seat and into the umbrella stroller. That should have been my 1st clue: there are no "big" strollers allowed. Just umbrella strollers. Well, I rarely use the umbrella stroller, so it takes me like 5 minutes to get it set up, and another 5 to figure out how to strap him in there. Alas, I get it, and away we go!
I enter the sale (read: warehouse), and am handed a "Hold" slip. What? What is a Hold Slip? OH...you're new. She explains that it is for bigger items you can't carry around. I look up for the 1st time at the warehouse. Holy mother of God! I knew at once that I was outmatched by these women. There were things everywhere. Strollers, cribs, furniture, bedding, toys, racks and racks of clothing. Exersaucers, bouncers, bottles, rocking hourses, rocking chairs... and women running from section to section. Oh, dear. Where do I go first? Toys. I hate paying full price for toys. But before I can pick up something to look at, women grab it from the table. Pushing, shoving, strollering across my feet or into Wyatt.
It took me a few minutes to realize that "Excuse me" was not in these people's vocabulary. I try to move on to the clothes section but Wyatt does not want to move on. He throws a minor tantrum and like any good mom, I pluck a truck off the table and give it to him, clearly ignoring the posted "Please do not let children play with toys" sign. En route to the clothes section, I see a booster seat we need. Suddenly this other mom locks eyes with me and I see she, too, wants the booster seat! We both stroller our way over and I get to it first. Score one for the girl from Iowa! But now, I have a stroller, a truck, and a booster seat. And only two hands. Oh wait! The HOLD ticket! Thank goodness for hold tickets.
We find Wyatt's clothes size and start rooting around. Baby Gap, Gymboree, Children's Place, Tommy Hilfiger.... jackpot! After a few minutes, though, I am exhausted from competing for my place in front of his clothes size and give up. I go to pay, and that's when I see the line. By this time Wyatt has had it. He is squirming, wanting out to run free, and I am struggling to hold the things and my purse and keep him in the stroller. I am sweating, because I have on a fleece jacket, and have been running around like a mad woman. Finally we get through and pay, and everything goes in the car. I can't figure out how to collapse the stroller though, so it goes in the trunk fully assembled. I collapse into my Mazda, exhausted! Who knew?
A few days later I am looking through my purse and I find a handout they gave me at the checkout line. Sunday is Dollar Dash! Everything not already sold is just a dollar! Hmm.... my brain starts calculating. Sunday comes, and I need a break from being in the house. It has not escaped me that I haven't been anywhere alone in 3 weeks. I leave Wyatt with Tommy and decide I'm going back to the sale to do this the right way.
I arrive a few minutes early this time, sans jacket or purse. Just my money in my pocket. No stroller, no child, nothing to carry. I have properly stretched ahead of time and am ready for the mad dash. And Dash it was. I have never seen such a thing, but this time I was ready, and I scored some pretty great stuff! And I felt better about myself for having conquered the Classy Kids Consignment on its last day.... until the March sale, that is ;)
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Stuff I Worry About
I think it's funny that I know I worry about stuff I cannot control, yet I do it anyway and can't seem to not do it. It's almost as if I would be better off without that knowledge, because knowing that I shouldn't worry about it, but doing it anyway, makes me worry about why I am worrying about it. ACK! I am so annoyed with myself.
One of the things I have been worrying about lately is, where will Wyatt say he is "from"? I mean, people ask you all the time, "Where are you from?" When I was in Iowa, I would say, "A small town about 90 miles north of here called Wesley." Now that I live in Virginia, I say, "I'm from Iowa." Then I tell them where Iowa is. Seriously. [Insert big eye roll here].
Anyway, I digress. So, the question is, Where is Wyatt From?!?! He was born in Iowa, is now living in Virginia, and in 6-9 months will be living in yet another state. This makes me sad, because I want him to have a "From."
I'm not sure why this is so important to me right now. Most likely it's because we are in transition, but I like to have something to blame, so I blame NSP (my old job). We make the Cyclone Aides (orientation leaders) do their introduction: "Hi, I'm Megan Parker, I'm a senior in Journalism and Mass Communication from Wesley, Iowa." Every year I have a discussion with at least one Cyclone Aide who doesn't have a "From" - and, inevitably, they grew up in the military and moved a lot. So, what do I do, as a good student affairs practitioner? I tell them to pick the place they liked best. GAG.
This is what I'm worried about. I want Wyatt to have a home, a place he grew up in, a source of pride and for this place to be part of his identity. I love that I grew up in Iowa. And I feel like it's my job as a mom to give him the same stability and security I had, but I'm not sure I can.
Maybe some of you out there might have opinions on this. Especially those of you who grew up moving a lot. Where are you "from?" I need some words of wisdom here.
One of the things I have been worrying about lately is, where will Wyatt say he is "from"? I mean, people ask you all the time, "Where are you from?" When I was in Iowa, I would say, "A small town about 90 miles north of here called Wesley." Now that I live in Virginia, I say, "I'm from Iowa." Then I tell them where Iowa is. Seriously. [Insert big eye roll here].
Anyway, I digress. So, the question is, Where is Wyatt From?!?! He was born in Iowa, is now living in Virginia, and in 6-9 months will be living in yet another state. This makes me sad, because I want him to have a "From."
I'm not sure why this is so important to me right now. Most likely it's because we are in transition, but I like to have something to blame, so I blame NSP (my old job). We make the Cyclone Aides (orientation leaders) do their introduction: "Hi, I'm Megan Parker, I'm a senior in Journalism and Mass Communication from Wesley, Iowa." Every year I have a discussion with at least one Cyclone Aide who doesn't have a "From" - and, inevitably, they grew up in the military and moved a lot. So, what do I do, as a good student affairs practitioner? I tell them to pick the place they liked best. GAG.
This is what I'm worried about. I want Wyatt to have a home, a place he grew up in, a source of pride and for this place to be part of his identity. I love that I grew up in Iowa. And I feel like it's my job as a mom to give him the same stability and security I had, but I'm not sure I can.
Maybe some of you out there might have opinions on this. Especially those of you who grew up moving a lot. Where are you "from?" I need some words of wisdom here.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
The Pumpkin Patch
I have always wanted to take my kid to the pumpkin patch. Last year's attempt was not very successful (think cranky baby + exhaustion + roadside pumpkin stand), so we decided to give it a try again this year. We were visiting Tommy's family in Richmond this weekend so we decided to go check out the Ashland Berry Farm, where Tommy worked in high school.
Now this is not just any pumpkin patch. It was crazy - HUGE pumpkin fields, a straw bail maze/obstacle course, a haunted forest, a haunted house, a Christmas store, a Fall store, a lunch place, fields of berries (as the name indicates), a pond with huge fish in it... you get the idea. There were so many people there it was a little overwhelming!
Tommy's mom, sister Kelley and her son Jake (Wyatt's cousin), and the three of us all piled in the hay rack and they took us out to the pumpkin patch and it was SO fun to watch Wyatt and Jake find their pumpkins and try to carry them. We did the $20 all-you-can-carry special so we loaded Tommy up with 6 pumpkins and paid our tab! The boys also went through the hay bail maze thing. It was ENORMOUS! I have never seen such a thing. It had lots of obstacles like drawbridges and stuff so it was a lot of fun for them.
I did get a little wave of Iowa homesickness while we were there though. There were a few contributing factors, but the final straw was when we went to this restaurant and it had grits on the menu. I was like, I don't want grits! I am from Iowa! I just want regular food! Completely irrational, but I was missing my family being there and with Tommy starting class on Tuesday I was beginning to realize our little game of "House" was about to end. Anyway, Tommy's family probably thinks I'm nuts, if they didn't already, but my pity party is over now and I'm okay, I think.
Now this is not just any pumpkin patch. It was crazy - HUGE pumpkin fields, a straw bail maze/obstacle course, a haunted forest, a haunted house, a Christmas store, a Fall store, a lunch place, fields of berries (as the name indicates), a pond with huge fish in it... you get the idea. There were so many people there it was a little overwhelming!
Tommy's mom, sister Kelley and her son Jake (Wyatt's cousin), and the three of us all piled in the hay rack and they took us out to the pumpkin patch and it was SO fun to watch Wyatt and Jake find their pumpkins and try to carry them. We did the $20 all-you-can-carry special so we loaded Tommy up with 6 pumpkins and paid our tab! The boys also went through the hay bail maze thing. It was ENORMOUS! I have never seen such a thing. It had lots of obstacles like drawbridges and stuff so it was a lot of fun for them.
I did get a little wave of Iowa homesickness while we were there though. There were a few contributing factors, but the final straw was when we went to this restaurant and it had grits on the menu. I was like, I don't want grits! I am from Iowa! I just want regular food! Completely irrational, but I was missing my family being there and with Tommy starting class on Tuesday I was beginning to realize our little game of "House" was about to end. Anyway, Tommy's family probably thinks I'm nuts, if they didn't already, but my pity party is over now and I'm okay, I think.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Cyclone Nation
Hello, hello! Happy Friday, to those of you reading this at work today ;)
I am continually reminded of how great ISU is, even from halfway across the country. We met some neighbors the other day, only to find out that he is a '97 alum of the NROTC program at ISU (the same time I was there), and she is from Richmond, just like Tommy. How weird is that? And there are also several others in our small neighborhood who went to Iowa State, who all give a friendly "Go Cyclones" to us when they see our Iowa State rock outside our door.
We came in the base gate the other night and the Marine saluted Tommy, then cleared his throat and said under his breath, "Cyclones are better." We were confused until we realized he thought we were Hawkeye fans. It was funny because you could tell he thought he was going to get in trouble for saying it, but we both just started laughing and said, "We know." He gave an "ooh rah" and went back to his business!
Then we were driving the other day and passed "Ames Street" and "Burke Shire" (Berkshire was our old street in Ames), and just got this totally creepy feeling that someone's looking out for us, giving us signs of support from over 1,000 miles away.
We're having a Cyclone reunion with some friends who live down the street on Saturday. Corey was in Tommy's unit at Iowa State and her husband Brad is here doing TBS too. We are excited to see our 4-5 other Cyclone friends from the ISU NROTC batallion this weekend! I love the Iowa State connection.
Now, if we can only beat Nebraska....
I am continually reminded of how great ISU is, even from halfway across the country. We met some neighbors the other day, only to find out that he is a '97 alum of the NROTC program at ISU (the same time I was there), and she is from Richmond, just like Tommy. How weird is that? And there are also several others in our small neighborhood who went to Iowa State, who all give a friendly "Go Cyclones" to us when they see our Iowa State rock outside our door.
We came in the base gate the other night and the Marine saluted Tommy, then cleared his throat and said under his breath, "Cyclones are better." We were confused until we realized he thought we were Hawkeye fans. It was funny because you could tell he thought he was going to get in trouble for saying it, but we both just started laughing and said, "We know." He gave an "ooh rah" and went back to his business!
Then we were driving the other day and passed "Ames Street" and "Burke Shire" (Berkshire was our old street in Ames), and just got this totally creepy feeling that someone's looking out for us, giving us signs of support from over 1,000 miles away.
We're having a Cyclone reunion with some friends who live down the street on Saturday. Corey was in Tommy's unit at Iowa State and her husband Brad is here doing TBS too. We are excited to see our 4-5 other Cyclone friends from the ISU NROTC batallion this weekend! I love the Iowa State connection.
Now, if we can only beat Nebraska....
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Low Battery
You know that episode of Friends where the smoke detector is going off repeatedly and Phoebe ends up throwing it down the trash chute and the fire departments ends up coming? It's one of my favorites, but I felt like I lived it a couple days ago.
The day we moved in, the housing rep came and walked us through the house. The smoke detector upstairs was beeping that real annoying high pitched beep - and to top it off, would then say, "Low battery" in this computerized voice. The lady says she'll have someone come out to change the battery. Okay, perfect. We were busy unpacking the cars anyway. A few hours later, we noticed it had stopped beeping/talking. We thought it was strange, since we didn't notice a repair person come in, but were thankful it was fixed. We hit the rack at about midnight.
Fast forward to 2 a.m. We are exhausted from the drive, unpacking, and the emotion of the move itself and are sleeping soundly on our air mattress. Then, out of nowhere, BEEP! "Low battery." I wake up, confused... um... WTH? Are you kidding me? So this continues for the rest of the night, and we have no way to fix it. No ladder. No batteries. No SLEEP~!
Morning dawns and no maintenance man. All morning: Beep! Low Battery. Call the housing office. Oh, we forgot. We'll send someone out. Great! Man comes, fixes it while the movers are here delivering our belongings. Great, thank you!! No more BEEPING and Low Battery.
WRONG! Movers leave around 7 p.m. We order pizza and get Wyatt ready for bed. Then, out of nowhere: CHIRP. CHIRP. CHIRP. What is going on?!?!? It's not the same smoke alarm. We check every room, every alarm. Not there. But still... CHIRP. CHIRP! CHIRP!!!
At this point we are so confused and exhausted we think maybe we are hearing things. Then we realize it's in a box somewhere. The movers wouldn't take anything with batteries, so we had to take the batteries of everything... and some gadgets don't like that. We start laughing hysterically, mostly because there are boxes EVERYWHERE and we have no idea which one it is in! We finally figure out what room it's in and search through boxes and find the culprit. Our carbon monoxide detector!!! We search high and low for a battery and finally find one, install it, and go to sleep! Yay!
I would say that this week we've all been on Low Battery ourselves. Tommy and I are both tired. Me more so mentally and emotionally from the move, but physically too. It's a lot of work to set up shop but we're almost there. We drove to North Carolina on Friday afternoon to see some friends and had a great time with them. Unfortunately, Wyatt got sick and cut our trip short, but it helped recharge our batteries enough to get us through a few more days of getting settled, I think. So, it just goes to show, you can't get by without a little help from your Friends ;) (Do you like how I tied that in? The Friends line from the 1st paragraph? Clever, aren't I??? LOL.)
Miss you all,
Megan
The day we moved in, the housing rep came and walked us through the house. The smoke detector upstairs was beeping that real annoying high pitched beep - and to top it off, would then say, "Low battery" in this computerized voice. The lady says she'll have someone come out to change the battery. Okay, perfect. We were busy unpacking the cars anyway. A few hours later, we noticed it had stopped beeping/talking. We thought it was strange, since we didn't notice a repair person come in, but were thankful it was fixed. We hit the rack at about midnight.
Fast forward to 2 a.m. We are exhausted from the drive, unpacking, and the emotion of the move itself and are sleeping soundly on our air mattress. Then, out of nowhere, BEEP! "Low battery." I wake up, confused... um... WTH? Are you kidding me? So this continues for the rest of the night, and we have no way to fix it. No ladder. No batteries. No SLEEP~!
Morning dawns and no maintenance man. All morning: Beep! Low Battery. Call the housing office. Oh, we forgot. We'll send someone out. Great! Man comes, fixes it while the movers are here delivering our belongings. Great, thank you!! No more BEEPING and Low Battery.
WRONG! Movers leave around 7 p.m. We order pizza and get Wyatt ready for bed. Then, out of nowhere: CHIRP. CHIRP. CHIRP. What is going on?!?!? It's not the same smoke alarm. We check every room, every alarm. Not there. But still... CHIRP. CHIRP! CHIRP!!!
At this point we are so confused and exhausted we think maybe we are hearing things. Then we realize it's in a box somewhere. The movers wouldn't take anything with batteries, so we had to take the batteries of everything... and some gadgets don't like that. We start laughing hysterically, mostly because there are boxes EVERYWHERE and we have no idea which one it is in! We finally figure out what room it's in and search through boxes and find the culprit. Our carbon monoxide detector!!! We search high and low for a battery and finally find one, install it, and go to sleep! Yay!
I would say that this week we've all been on Low Battery ourselves. Tommy and I are both tired. Me more so mentally and emotionally from the move, but physically too. It's a lot of work to set up shop but we're almost there. We drove to North Carolina on Friday afternoon to see some friends and had a great time with them. Unfortunately, Wyatt got sick and cut our trip short, but it helped recharge our batteries enough to get us through a few more days of getting settled, I think. So, it just goes to show, you can't get by without a little help from your Friends ;) (Do you like how I tied that in? The Friends line from the 1st paragraph? Clever, aren't I??? LOL.)
Miss you all,
Megan
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Home Sweet Home
Wow! So much has happened in the last week, I feel like I could write a book. Here are some of the highlights in no particular order.
ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE
So.... disregard the picture of the house below. That is not our house anymore! We rolled onto base after our 3-day drive and had to run some errands before checking into housing. One of those errands drove us past "our" house, which clearly had other people's belongings there... surprisingly, I didn't totally freak out. Instead, I took Wyatt to the playground and sent Tommy to the housing office so I didn't yell at anyone, and they gave us a different house! I'll post a picture soon, but it is pretty simliar, just blue instead of yellow. It is very nice and very big! However, we are situated on some prime real estate! We are right across the street from a park!
WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Apparently our "prime real estate" is not making us any friends. Three women have already commented to us (2 to me, 1 to Tommy), about the fact that we have a 4-bedroom and only 1 kid. As in, they are not happy, because there are people here with 2 kids in a 3-bedroom. One woman today actually said to me, "How are you enjoying your 4-bedroom house?" Yeesh.
THE DRIVE
Thanks to all my mom friends who submitted ideas for keeping Wyatt occupied! Worked like a charm. He was the LEAST of our concerns! What I should have asked for, was tips to calm the cats down. Picture this scenario - how much fun does this sound???
Car: packed to the absolute brim, with 2 cats, a litter box, car seat, diaper bag, purse, DVD player, bag of toys, bag of snacks, etc. Absolutely no room to move or maneuver anything. Wyatt: Has a dirty diaper and is sprawled out with his pants down across Tommy, who is in the driver's seat. The poop REEKS!
Peaches: Under Tommy's feet going "Meoooooow! Meooooooow! Meoooooow!"
Tenga: In the console under Wyatt hissing and meowing, and reaching down to beat the crap out of Peaches.
Me: In the passenger seat, trying to wipe Wyatt's butt, getting poop all over myself. And the kicker.... the car is still moving.
JUST KIDDING! The funny part is that this scenario happened more than one time........
DAVID & DOUG
These guys were the two who showed up to drop all of our stuff off on the 18-wheeler. On the whole, I can't complain, because aside from our 4 floor lamps, all of our furniture made it in one piece, which is interesting considering we saw one entire wall of our stuff come tumbling down onto the floor of the truck and onto David's head. There were some things in boxes that didn't make it, namely my wedding bouquet and Tommy's ceramic Marine stein, but all in all things went okay. David and Doug were at our house for no less than 8 hours, so we got to be very good friends in between their fighting and smoke breaks. So, we got our stuff and now we are unpacking!
I think this is long enough for now. Thanks for all the good wishes and to all my ISU friends, THANK YOU for the wonderful parties on Friday. It was great to see everyone before I left and I appreciate all the kind words, cards, and gifts. I miss you!
ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE
So.... disregard the picture of the house below. That is not our house anymore! We rolled onto base after our 3-day drive and had to run some errands before checking into housing. One of those errands drove us past "our" house, which clearly had other people's belongings there... surprisingly, I didn't totally freak out. Instead, I took Wyatt to the playground and sent Tommy to the housing office so I didn't yell at anyone, and they gave us a different house! I'll post a picture soon, but it is pretty simliar, just blue instead of yellow. It is very nice and very big! However, we are situated on some prime real estate! We are right across the street from a park!
WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Apparently our "prime real estate" is not making us any friends. Three women have already commented to us (2 to me, 1 to Tommy), about the fact that we have a 4-bedroom and only 1 kid. As in, they are not happy, because there are people here with 2 kids in a 3-bedroom. One woman today actually said to me, "How are you enjoying your 4-bedroom house?" Yeesh.
THE DRIVE
Thanks to all my mom friends who submitted ideas for keeping Wyatt occupied! Worked like a charm. He was the LEAST of our concerns! What I should have asked for, was tips to calm the cats down. Picture this scenario - how much fun does this sound???
Car: packed to the absolute brim, with 2 cats, a litter box, car seat, diaper bag, purse, DVD player, bag of toys, bag of snacks, etc. Absolutely no room to move or maneuver anything. Wyatt: Has a dirty diaper and is sprawled out with his pants down across Tommy, who is in the driver's seat. The poop REEKS!
Peaches: Under Tommy's feet going "Meoooooow! Meooooooow! Meoooooow!"
Tenga: In the console under Wyatt hissing and meowing, and reaching down to beat the crap out of Peaches.
Me: In the passenger seat, trying to wipe Wyatt's butt, getting poop all over myself. And the kicker.... the car is still moving.
JUST KIDDING! The funny part is that this scenario happened more than one time........
DAVID & DOUG
These guys were the two who showed up to drop all of our stuff off on the 18-wheeler. On the whole, I can't complain, because aside from our 4 floor lamps, all of our furniture made it in one piece, which is interesting considering we saw one entire wall of our stuff come tumbling down onto the floor of the truck and onto David's head. There were some things in boxes that didn't make it, namely my wedding bouquet and Tommy's ceramic Marine stein, but all in all things went okay. David and Doug were at our house for no less than 8 hours, so we got to be very good friends in between their fighting and smoke breaks. So, we got our stuff and now we are unpacking!
I think this is long enough for now. Thanks for all the good wishes and to all my ISU friends, THANK YOU for the wonderful parties on Friday. It was great to see everyone before I left and I appreciate all the kind words, cards, and gifts. I miss you!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Gettin' a Move On
So we are about 3 days out from moving to Virginia. I vascilate between not wanting to leave my home, family and job and being excited to move so I can get everything set up and see what's in store for us. For someone who's Type A like me, it can be fun to think about how you are going to organize things in a new space (weird, I know).
We went to Virginia over Labor Day to check out housing options and eventually decided to live on base, after weighing the pros and cons. Here is my pro/con list, in no particular order:
Pro: It's a nice 4 bedroom house w/ a fenced in yard and 2+ car garage. Albeit, the garage and the house are separated by the fenced in yard in between them.... so that's weird... but I'm trying to look at the "Pro" of this feature.
Pro: It's on base. I'll (hopefully) get to meet people.
Con: It's on base. I'll get arrested for not wearing a bicycling helmet, talking on my cell phone while driving, and a myriad of other rules that I don't know exist.
Pro: There's daycare available on base in case I get a job!
Con: I don't have a job.
Pro: There is a really nice family center with adult and kid pools, an exercise room, and there are lots of playgrounds nearby for Wyatt!
Pro: We live on a nice little cul-de-sac with a bunch of cute houses!
Con: Our house is not one of the cute houses. It goes: cute house, cute house, cute house, our house, cute house. :)
Okay... so some of these things aren't really on my list, I just thought they'd be funny to post here. In reality we are very fortunate to have been offered base housing and I think it'll work out really well! And, I've put a picture of the house here on the web site. What do you think????
Also, I'm wondering... is it a problem if, after the movers pack a box marked "vases", I shake the box and I hear glass clinking together?!?!
We went to Virginia over Labor Day to check out housing options and eventually decided to live on base, after weighing the pros and cons. Here is my pro/con list, in no particular order:
Pro: It's a nice 4 bedroom house w/ a fenced in yard and 2+ car garage. Albeit, the garage and the house are separated by the fenced in yard in between them.... so that's weird... but I'm trying to look at the "Pro" of this feature.
Pro: It's on base. I'll (hopefully) get to meet people.
Con: It's on base. I'll get arrested for not wearing a bicycling helmet, talking on my cell phone while driving, and a myriad of other rules that I don't know exist.
Pro: There's daycare available on base in case I get a job!
Con: I don't have a job.
Pro: There is a really nice family center with adult and kid pools, an exercise room, and there are lots of playgrounds nearby for Wyatt!
Pro: We live on a nice little cul-de-sac with a bunch of cute houses!
Con: Our house is not one of the cute houses. It goes: cute house, cute house, cute house, our house, cute house. :)
Okay... so some of these things aren't really on my list, I just thought they'd be funny to post here. In reality we are very fortunate to have been offered base housing and I think it'll work out really well! And, I've put a picture of the house here on the web site. What do you think????
Also, I'm wondering... is it a problem if, after the movers pack a box marked "vases", I shake the box and I hear glass clinking together?!?!
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