Wednesday, September 24, 2014

What a Summer~

This summer has been quite an adventure for us.  We left Sicily for good on July 3rd and arrived to Baltimore, Maryland early morning July 4th.  We weren't supposed to be arriving in Baltimore we were supposed to arrive aboard NAS Norfolk, but there was a pesky storm called Hurricane Arthur that diverted our flight.  We were held on the plane for hours while waiting for Customs officials to arrive so we could deplane and get on with our lives.  We were given the option of terminating in Baltimore and finding our own way from there or waiting for 12 hours and be comped a hotel and food.  We chose to terminate and headed out to find a rental car one way to Virginia Beach.  Boy, did we pay out the nose for that one.

We rented a car and drove to Virginia Beach where we promptly headed to Car Max and bought a new car!  We stayed the night at Dam Neck (right on the beach).  We were there for two days before I drove Cody to Pennsylvania.  We dropped him off at IUP and headed directly back to Virginia.  We stopped in Fairfax and visited one of my best friends and her family.  We also went to the NRA National Firearms Museum...didn't realize there was even such a place, but there it was.  Gavin loved seeing all the different guns.  It's actually a nice collection of guns and it's free to go into.

We, the kids and I, drove halfway to Georgia; stopping in North Carolina for the night and finally arriving in Georgia.  We spent two weeks in Georgia before Cody flew down to spend a week with us there as well.

Then we drove to the St. Louis area to visit Cody's Grandma, Uncle and Aunt and cousins for a few days.  From there we headed west and made the long trek to Bremerton, Washington.

And here I am.

Here we are.

Living in Bremerton, Washington.

A new location and a new adventure.


Friday, January 3, 2014

Stranded on Laundry Island

I hate doing laundry.  I shouldn't say hate, that is much to strong of a word, it implies that I have strong feelings about something; I do not care for laundry.  I'm, if anything, indifferent to its existence.  It piles up and smells but I don't care one way or another about it.  Today I'm busting through the mounds and mounds that create the island of laundry I must do every week.

There is a strange phenomenon that surrounds my laundry.  It seems that some days I will start the task and wash a load and put it into the dryer and add another load into the wash.  Then for some reason it takes hours to get the one load dry and when it finally does I can move the washed load into the dryer and that is usually as far as it goes.  I may or may not start another load in the washer, but it will not get completed for a day or (let's face the truth here) two.  I do not know why this happens.  But then on other days, such as today, it runs like a fine oiled machine and I bust through several loads; washing, drying, repeat and it all gets done.  It's the weirdest thing.


Thursday, January 2, 2014

Pity Party Musings for the New Year

Here we are starting another new year.  Many people are reflecting on the last year and making plans for the new one.  I think our 2013 was good.  We all survived it and are ready to take on another one.  

This was our last New Year's Eve in Sicily.  We spent the night at home, playing Monopoly and watching movies and just relaxing.  We really are home bodies.  We enjoy just being at home, doing nothing in particular.  We were invited (somewhat last minute) to a gathering, but declined instead stayed home to enjoy our family time.  I think it's easy for me to decline such invitations because I know that this time next year, I'll still be with these crazy people that are my family and in all reality may never see the people here ever again.  Or if I do see them, it will be in passing.  I've become painfully aware of how very few truly close friends I have in this world.  I suppose it's my personality that puts people off from getting close.  I think my honesty is too much for most people, but I refuse to lie.  I think it's disrespectful to lie to people.  

 I'm tough.  I'm strong.  I don't have to have people around me all the time or anything like that.  However, sometimes I do get my feelings hurt and feel jealous (but would never tell anyone!).  Sometimes I wonder why no one asks us to go anywhere with them.  Are my kids too much to handle?  Am I too much to handle?  I see families getting together with others to travel, go out sightseeing or just out to eat and wonder why no one ever asks us.  I guess I've made it clear that we don't have a lot of money to be doing that so even if they would have liked to ask us they won't.  I don't know. I think it's more likely that I'm just not the kind of person people want to hang out with.  Most of the time it's okay; but some times, some days I cry over it.  

I'm ready to move along to our next assignment.  In the States it's easier for me to do my own thing and not feel sad or rejected because I can do whatever I want and it's not difficult. Simple things here are difficult due to the cultural and language differences.  If I want something I have to brave the traffic, then try to decipher the language on packaging or even scarier; I have to try to communicate with someone.  I'm ready to just be home.  I can speak English.  I can go anywhere and do anything without hesitation.  

We are supposed to go back to Virginia and that makes me happy.  I know some people that still live there. I'll have been gone three years by the time we get back there so I don't know if people will want to hang out or how much everyone will have changed, but I'm hoping it will be good.  

I guess all of this rambling I'm doing is really my way of saying that I'm tired of chameleon fake friends.  I'm tired of the "we should get together and do such and such or so and so" and at first I'm excited about the possibility and then the sad realization that it wasn't sincere and were just words hits me and it breaks my heart.  

I want to live sincerely this New Year.  I want to have genuine and real relationships with people that want me to be their friend.