Saturday, April 30, 2011

Artist: Little Brown Pen

Nichole of Little Brown Pen.

Chronicling the vibrancy of everyday Paris.

Paris Graffiti, Kiss- 8x10 Fine Art Photo

Paris Photo Collection - 5x5 Orange

Friday, April 29, 2011

It's All Gravy, Baby

The last time I posted, I think I was  in some sort of psychological/emotional breakdown. Since then, my husband and I kissed (metaphorically) and made up, so it's all good, baby.

The good of it is, (other than being back to happy, clearly) is that I learned that my dog has taught himself how to pet people.

This may be kind of weird, but really, it's very comforting and hilarious. When he senses I'm upset, he has learned a new trick: he takes his paw, puts it lightly on the center of my forehead, and pets down my nose.

Speaking of the dog-o, he just watched me put socks on, which in his mind means we're going on an adventure.

Socks= good times.

He's a funny little beast.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Spiritual Sunday: Just Deserts

On reaping what you sow:

"God does not burden any soul with more than it can bear: each gains whatever good it has done, and suffers its bad".

-The Qur'an
Sura 2:286

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Artist: Carletti

Carlo Carletti

Italian wedding photographer whose artwork is always romantic and nostalgic.




Sunday, April 17, 2011

Spiritual Sunday: Being Humble

On humility:

"You who believe, do not cancel out your charitable deeds with reminders and hurtful words, like someone who spends his wealth only to be seen by people, not believing in God and the Last Day."

-The Qur'an
Sura 2:264


Saturday, April 16, 2011

Artist: Karsh

Yousuf Karsh.

Arguably the best portrait photographer of all time. 











Friday, April 15, 2011

I'm Coming Home

Tonight...is my last night in Massachusetts. 


I'm heading out to OK, which means he's coming home soon!


YAY YAY YAY!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Spring!

I did not wear a winter coat to work today. It's spring!





Sunday, April 10, 2011

My Bad Haircut

This is what happens to furry little dogs who shed too much.


I butcher the crap out of their manes (especially since the clippers don't work right now.)


Don't give me that face. If you didn't grow so much hair I wouldn't have to do this.


Did you stick your tongue out at me?!?


Oh it's on now.


Spiritual Sunday: Brotherhood

On brotherhood and tolerance of other faiths:

"The [Muslim] believers, the Jews, the Christians...all those who believe in God and the Last Day and do good- will have their rewards with their Lord."

-The Qur'an
Sura 2:62

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Artist: Avedon

Avedon.

Brilliant photographer.







Friday, April 8, 2011

I'm the Mayor

I am the mayor of Crazy Town.

The husband is coming home at some point in the very near to kinda near-ish range.

Coincidentally, I've become a whole bag of nut job.

I think every military spouse goes through a lot of emotional hoops when the deployed spouse returns: the nervousness about hair, skin, nails, weight, how we'll act with one another, if he'll still be attracted to me, blah blah blah. I don't know about anyone else, but I also have a thing about wanting to have a "nest" set and ready to go for him when he arrives home. I don't know if it's a woman thing or what, but I have this drive from somewhere deep down (my ovaries?) that just makes it imperative that there is some kind of home in which I can care for my little family.

Issue: I will be heading out to Oklahoma in a week and there's a possibility that the apartment may not be secured before I can get there in person. I really need to decorate the hell out of something and if I don't buy curtains soon I'm worried about what I'll do. Options played out in my mind so far: a) tattoo b) Avril Lavigne-esque eye makeup for my everyday look, or c) causing a traffic accident. (Welcome to Crazy Town! As Mayor, I'm proud to welcome you to our rapidly expanding little city!)

I'm also leaving my job and once you've put in your two weeks, you really drag your feet, ya know? I mean, I will absolutely miss my kids and co-workers but I've already started to check out. I'm worried about finding a job back in Oklahoma because last I heard, there was a major hiring freeze. Not. Awesome.

On the  plus side, my brother is coming home from training tomorrow and so I'll get to see him for a week before I head out. He's going to be deploying a little later this year so it's possible this is the last time I see him before he heads out.

There are a million other things going on right now (when it rains, it pours!) and I know it's affecting J and I. We have been fighting a lot lately. Some of it is legit stuff. Some of it is just plain freaking out stress, which I didn't totally get until this afternoon. J and I got into a massive argument. In a fight, I never say anything that I don't mean- instead, I tend to get very aggressive and pretty violent in conversations with other people. Anyway, the point being that I never said anything that wasn't true, I just don't think everything needed to be said right now, right before he comes home, and especially as dramatic as it was. Yes, my feelings were/are real, but I absolutely took the freight train to Crazy Town.

Right after we hung up, I watched the last episode of Scrubs, cried hysterically, and then began YouTubing to find a song I would play at my baby's wake, if I ever had a  baby and they died in infancy.

I should probably not be allowed out in public for the next couple of days. I've decided to self-medicate what I've diagnosed as situational depression with Disney movies and flavored schnapps. Probably some ice cream.

Yeah, definitely ice cream.








Sunday, April 3, 2011

It's Christmas and My Birthday and Our Anniversary and...

J called me this morning and asked me to get a piece of paper and a pen.

He gave me an address and a code and told me to call him after my scavenger hunt.

That beautiful, wonderful, sweet man sent me to Best Buy.

You know what he got me?





Love love love love love!

Spiritual Sunday: Freaky Sex

Responding to a Jewish belief (during the time of Muhammed) that having sex doggie-style would give you deformed children:

"Your wives are [like] your fields, so go into your fields whichever way you like".

-The Qur'an
Sura 2:223



Saturday, April 2, 2011

To the Moon, Alice

"One of these days ... one of these days ... Pow! Right in the kisser!" 



Right now, this pretty much sums up my feelings on the military. I definitely want to punch it in the face.

Disclaimer: I do not, in fact, hate the military. I understand why schedules are never set in stone- my husband's job is reactionary; because we can't predict what country is going to get dangerous and when, there's no way to know where he'll be in 10 months or 10 days. It's just like a cop can't say where he'll be at during his shift because who knows what convenience store might get robbed or, in the case of The Honeymooners, what house he may have to visit due to a domestic violence call.


All that aside, I'm pretty frantic right now.

Situation: 
Husband is deployed.
Wife moved back in with parents in Massachusetts.
Wife has a full-time job where she is also completing her student internship for her M.Ed.
Husband is coming home early. 

This is tricky because I have to complete my internship hours and I already gave my notice with a certain time frame. (I wanted the school to know what was up as soon as I did so I didn't burn any bridges for when we move back up here in a few years.)

Also tricky is that, due to OPSEC, families will not be informed of their soldiers actual return date until the soldiers are already on the flight home. We will only have roughly 12 hours notice but are given a four-week time frame of possible return dates. It means that I need to have an extremely flexible schedule, which is the crux of the problem.

I don't have an extremely flexible schedule.

My dad, great guy that he is, volunteered to drive out with me so we could get there as fast as possible and I just pray he's not getting in even a day early because I don't know how we'll get there in time.

Stress is the word right now, which just hit a new high point on the Richter of scale of Personal Anxiety; unfortunately, the apartment we had set in stone? Not so much. They now say that we have to be in person to sign the lease and they can't accept any rent money or anything since we don't have a legally binding contract. What is especially frustrating is that they ALREADY ACCEPTED MONEY FROM ME and when I had called last week to make sure everything was guaranteed they said yes and then sent a letter saying we were set to move in as of April 1st. It's pretty screwy, but frankly, I really don't understand how Oklahoma works most of the time.

Don't get me wrong, I will be PSYCHED to see my husband. It's just, I can't even imagine it's real yet and I'm focused right now on just wading through these messes that keep popping up this week.



I'm going shoe shopping.