Hooray!!

The day that I have been awaiting for the last 5 1/2 months is FINALLY almost here!

Matt and I have been doing the long-distance relationship thing since January, when I moved back up to DC to start work and he remained in Atlanta to finish working on some music projects. But this weekend, it's finally going to be over! Tomorrow evening, I will be flying to Atlanta, and Saturday morning, we will start the drive back up here with a truck full of Matt's stuff! We'll be splitting the drive into two days, with a stop at his best friend's house in Chapel Hill, NC on the way up. But by Saturday afternoon, we'll be back up here in time to enjoy the fireworks, as viewed from our sunroom :)

He'll still be heading down to Atlanta now and then to work the music, but he'll be based up here, which makes me VERY happy. Being separated like this is never an ideal situation, and it was absolutely not what we wanted, but the need for a steady income and the fact that I couldn't find one in Atlanta made it necessary. I can't wait to see Matt - we haven't seen each other since mid-March, for a variety of reasons, and I miss him!!

Just keep your fingers crossed that my flight is on time and that we get out of Atlanta early enough on Friday to miss the holiday traffic!

Have you read the Rolling Stone article yet?

If not, get hot.

Seriously. In order to REALLY understand what's going on here, you have to read the article. The media reports are OK, but they're not really getting it. For example, this wasn't an interview with General McChrystal. Nor were 90% of the quotes actually spoken by him. And how the RS guy wasn't supposed to be with them that long. And oh by the way, he got a chance to take a chop on the article before the author sent it to press. MESS. I have one question: Why not just tell the guy, after his original 2 days, to find somewhere else to hang out??

I can't get over this whole business of demoting GEN Petraeus to take over a job that fell under the purview of CENTCOM. The overwhelming thought seems to be that President Obama did this with the thought that it would take him out of the running for a possible Presidential run in 2012, although I'm not sure how likely that would have been. The names that were being tossed around as possible McChrystal replacements are now being thrown around as Petraeus replacements. Personally, I'm cheering for Lt Gen John Allen, who was the Commandant of Midshipmen while I was at USNA. It will be interesting to see where that goes....

There really is no disagreement, at least among those with any military experience, that this was a fireable offense, and President Obama really had no choice. That's not the interesting part here. The interesting part, in my mind, is what comes next.

The Heat Is On

Go figure, just a few months after the most snowfall in the history of DC, its ridiculously hot. Doesn't it always work out this way? High yesterday was 91, and it was supposed to be the coolest day this week. Amazing.

There just has not been much going on in my world lately, just a bunch of little things. Nothing worthy of a big long blog post, so instead of a bunch of little ones, they're all together.

This weekend I got to make a trip down to Suffolk, VA for my good friend from USNA's Freedom Party. Divorce from d-bag is final, and we had a pinata complete with his face to celebrate the occasion. I hadn't seen her in quite a while, and it was great to catch up. And not only did I get to see her, I got to see her partner in crime in about 98% of my plebe year corruption. (It's OK, they freely admit it, and are proud of it even!) Seriously, though, it was fantastic to see both of them, and the rest of the folks that came out for her. I miss that crowd!!

This whole GEN McChrystal thing is a big old mess. 3rd law of the Navy, anyone? Take heed what you say of your seniors, be your words spoken softly or plain, lest a bird of the air tell the matter, and so shall ye hear it again. It was drilled into us Plebe year at USNA; I'd imagine there's something equal to it in the Army that the good GEN learned at West Point. Rule number one in the military - never talk sh*t about your seniors!! It will be interesting to see how it all plays out, and to see how much more politicized this can get. Its already pretty bad, as anything is these days when it involves talking about President Obama.

9 days and a wake up until I see Matt!! Hooray for finally getting him moved up here! I seriously cannot wait to have him back in the same place with me. Its been really difficult doing the long distance thing. Its lasted longer than either of us wanted it to, and I'm glad its finally over.

Quite the shot, if I say so myself

This is what the sky looked like when I left work today. I actually think it looked way cooler in real life, but this isn't a bad picture for a cell phone camera!

Music Recommendations

I went to the Birchmere the other night for the first time to see two ladies that I absolutely love play an acoustic show. It was fantastic, as I had no doubt it would be.

My best friend Molly turned me onto Toby Lightman's music back in 2004 or 2005, when we were still roommates living in Va Beach. She's just put an acoustic CD of some of her fan favorites from over the years, and its really good. She has 3 full band CDs available as well.

I first heard Aslyn on the radio around the same time when "Be The Girl" first came out. I met her for the first time in 2005 after missing her opening for Better Than Ezra, and have since enjoyed following her career and hearing her music evolve. I've also had the privilege of getting to know her a little bit over the years both on The Rock Boat and from my time living in Atlanta. Her latest CD is the best CD I bought in 2009, and not nearly enough people will hear it.
 
I highly recommend you all get ahold of as much of the music these ladies have made as you possibly can. The usual itunes, amazon, etc has them all, or click on the album titles to go to their merch stores to order hard copies.

Aslyn: The Dandelion Sessions

Toby Lightman: Know Where I'm From

Glee

Yes, I am a Gleek. I freely admit that as exhausted as I may be, I've stayed up on Tuesday nights for the last 2 months or so until Glee was over because I couldn't bare to have to wait until Wednesday to watch. I got excited by the guest stars. I wondered which songs were going to be covered this week. I laughed, I cried, I sang along.

So last night, after lots of crying during the episode, I realized that the season is over, and I'm sad. It helps that they're reshowing the entire season, including the episodes already on DVD, all summer. That will get me my fix, for sure. But its not nearly as good as its going to be in the fall when the new episodes start back up.

I know I'm not alone here. What were people's favorite episodes? For me, anything involving Kristen Chenoweth and/or Idina Menzel, with the Neil Patrick Harris episode way up there as well. And any time Brittany got to talk. GENIUS writing. What did you like?

Hello, spring? I think you missed your exit

It's been 90 degrees, hazy, and humid with afternoon thunderstorms this week. About 3 weeks ago I was wearing a sweater. What happened to spring? I think it forgot us.

But that's all OK, because Thursday I bought my plane ticket to fly down to Atlanta and help get Matt up here for good! Hooray! We haven't seen each other in 3 months now - the constantly changing schedule of the move combined with his trips to Tallahassee to help his parents move has made it really hard to plan visits, and I miss him! 4 weeks from now, we'll be on our way. I can't wait.

I'm finally really settled into work. I've just about got the new boss figured out, or as well as I could expect to, anyways, and I'm getting into the groove again. Not gonna lie, it feels good!

Almost as good as the thought of the completely relaxing Saturday I'm about to have. Pool til the storms start, then Friday Night Lights marathon! I recently started watching FNL from the beginning, and I'm hooked. Thank goodness for Instant Netflix.

Oh, and the Arthritis Walk went really well. We're still taking donations until July 1st, so if you can spare a little bit, please head over to my website and support this amazing cause. Here's a picture of my sister Emily with all of us that walked for her - that's me, my cousin Elisabeth, Emily's best friend Caitlin, and my other sister Sophie. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and a great time.

Just needed to share

This is the sky out my window right now. Absolutely beautiful sunset, the picture doesn't quite do the colors justice.

Where's the Grease?

Yesterday was 8 years since I graduated from USNA. It was also Herndon day for the class of 2013. They did it 2 minutes, 5 seconds. Yup. You heard me. Blink, and you missed it.

CDR Salamander, a Navy blogger I've been reading for several years now, had this picture on his page this morning:

Glad to see they were at least a little bit upset about it.

As for the removal of the grease... LAME. Seriously, there are more injuries in FAR more events than Herndon every year. There's something to be said for the tradition of it all, stupid, not all-inclusive, a litany of other arguments against it notwithstanding. I would NOT want to be a part of the first class that doesn't climb Herndon, and I would NOT be happy to be a member of the class of 2013 that had to climb it ungreased. Just sayin.

More Colorado Pictures

I'm still just amazed at the nature I saw while I was in Colorado. Seriously, you don't see things like that in the DC area!! I also got a chance to visit the US Air Force Academy, the first time I've ever visited an Academy other than the one I attended. It was really different looking, but so much the same. The biggest difference: I can't get over how much space they have!! Their cadet area is pretty small, but the base itself is HUGE!! All the things we don't have space for in Annapolis, they have right there. It totally does look like something out of the Jetsons though!!

The Garden of the Gods is this amazing park full of red rock formations. My favorite one, the Kissing Camels:

If you look really closely you can see the camels just to the left of center.

Here are some more shots of the Garden of the Gods:

Absolutely beautiful.

And here are some of the Air Force Academy. SO different than Annapolis!!

Chapel:

Cadet area:

Dorm building:

I think the only thing I'm really kinda jealous of at USAFA is their view. Who wouldn't want to see this on a daily basis:

Colorado is Beautiful

I've been to Colorado twice before. The first time doesn't really count - I had a long layover in Denver when I flew out to Salt Lake City when my niece was born. The second time was a 36 hour visit for a 1 day meeting. This time, I'm here for 3 full days, and I'm staying a little closer to the mountains. I am absolutely floored by how beautiful it is here. I've never spent a lot of time in the mountains - that trip to SLC was the first time I'd seen the Rockies other than from an airplane on the way to California.

I've taken a couple of pictures out my hotel room window, but I think this afternoon I'm going to brave the cold with my coworker who's lived here several times over her Air Force career and go do a little sightseeing. For now, though, here's a view of Pike's Peak from the window:

You Can Call Me Grammar Nazi.

I've gotten two emails today from much older than me Government Employees that said "Your welcome." This irritates the living crap out of me. Did we all not have to take and pass basic English classes for the better part of 16 years, if not longer? I thought so.

Its not that difficult, folks. Figure it out!! That goes for the guys who like to use there, their, and they're interchangeably too.

Disclaimer: A Bit of a Political Rant

I find it extremely amusing that I seem to be the most liberal person in my office. Especially since, as those of you who know me already are aware, I am not liberal. I tend to be just to the right of center - I tend to be fiscally conservative, but socially not so much. I don't like mandatory health care, but having been without while I was unemployed and unable to afford COBRA and therefore unable to get my medication for a while, I agree that there needs to be reform. I agree with the concept of the Arizona anti-immigration law, but until the amendments were signed I had a problem with the way it was written.  I don't necessarily believe in abortion, but I don't believe its the government's place to make that decision for anyone. I absolutely could care less whether or not two gay people get legally married, but I don't see a problem with churches not allowing them to do so in their facilities if they're against it - I see a clear and distinct difference between Church marriage and legal marriage (you still have to get the legal paperwork to get married in a church) and I wish the religious right would leave the legal union out of the religious one.

However, there are folks in my office (who I love, by the way) that are straight up tea party types. I'm not a huge tea party fan. I agree with some of their ideas, but not their platform, as shown by the Founder of the Tea Party, Judson Phillips, in a Washington Post Live Chat yesterday. A commenter made the following statement:

Liberals are just as American as you are and you and your movement has no right to question people's patriotism or Americanness just because they disagree with you.

I think his response speaks for itself:

Yes we do. You folks in the left do far worse. Patriotism is not something that cannot be measured. It can be. And you folks on the left, as a general rule are not patriotic. You do not love this country. You are embarrassed by us.

I hate to tell you this, but those of us in fly over country are the real americans.

Does anyone else see the problem with this? The Tea Party movement tries to make people believe that the media is just being mean to them, then their founder posts a statement like this. I'm a proud Military Veteran that comes from a long line of proud Military Veterans, all the way back to and before the Revolutionary War. And you're going to tell me that because I disagree with you I'm not a "Real American"? I call BS. That's almost as good as an earlier response he made saying that moderates have no values. Awesome.

I'm sick to death of the polarization of politics in this country, and I would love nothing more than to see real live political debate make a comeback over the silly, substance-free back and forths. I think many Americans agree with me. With the two party system in our country consisting of two parties moving more and more to the extreme of either side, I'd love to see a viable 3rd party candidate. But until the time comes where that third party candidate can seriously run without just being a splinter from another party and splitting their votes, I just don't see that happening.
In happier news, I'm wearing a pair of pants today that I haven't been able to wear in months. Yay for master plans going my way!

My cats are nuts

I love my cats.

Really. I do.

I mean, honestly. How do you not love these faces???

(Yes, this is a bit of an old picture, but since my hard drive crashed its one of the only ones of both of them I have until I pay someone to get the rest off)

Here's a recent one of Mattie in her favorite place:

And a not so recent one of Charlie but one that I love anyways....

They're adorable, right? But they DRIVE ME CRAZY!!! Charlie has decided that he likes to play with the carpet. At 3 am. It wakes me up. He also likes to chase Mattie, especially when she doesn't want to be chased. Which would be OK, except she throws a hissie fit about it - growling, hissing, snarling.... they never actually hurt each other, and they DO love each other - they groom each other, they lay together on the bed with me... but holy crap they can make some noise.

I like to think that Charlie will grow out of it - Mattie has always been more mellow, plus she's 13 months older (she just turned 4 in February, he was 3 in March), and she's a girl. But so far he has not. Granted, he relaxes a little bit more than he used to (right now he's laid out on the floor in the middle of the guest room). 

But on the other side, he is the sweetest, most snuggly, loving, lovable little animal on the planet. Don't get me wrong, I love them both - if anything, Mattie is more my favorite (although I hate to say that) if only because I had her first, and Charlie is definitely Matt's favorite because while Mattie is running away from him, Charlie gets excited to see him every time he walks in a room. But Mattie runs away from everyone. Including me. Unless she really wants to cuddle. Which is usually as I'm trying to go to sleep or at 6 am, like it was this morning.

When I first got Charlie, I had a hard time with him. I'd had Mattie for 8 months at that point, and she was so quiet and reserved. I struggled with keeping him, but it was the sweet, loving, cuddly side of him that made me totally melt. I think he's just a typical little boy - he can be a real sh*t sometimes, but he's not destructive - he just wants to play. Now, while I still wonder sometimes if Mattie would have been better off as a single cat, I know that she would probably be as lost without her brother as I would be.

Random Thoughts on a Monday Morning

So, first things first, I've seen the previously mentioned name show up more than once on my chat list since the email exchange the other day, and have heard exactly nothing back. So deletion from the contact list has happened. And probably should have a LONG time ago.

Alpha Rev released their new album "New Morning" in digital version today, hard copy tomorrow. Amazon has it as their Daily Deal for $3.99 until midnight tonight. I highly recommend it to everyone - its really good, and these guys are going places. Look for them opening for Carolina Liar on their May tour dates. Thanks to JrzyGyrl for turning me on to yet another great band!

I really want to start writing again. Atlanta was supposed to be an opportunity for me to get a little bit more involved with music and take advantage of a scene really open to local singer/songwriters. However, being broke meant that I wasn't out and about as much as I had wanted to be, and being in a job I wasn't particularly fond of was extremely draining. I managed to write exactly one song while I lived there - and I wrote it with Matt. So... if anyone's got any ideas on how to get rid of the ridiculous writer's block I've had for a good while now, please share.

Off to Gettysburg tonight for 2 days of meetings at a DOD facility in the mountains. Should be interesting, to say the least...

To Chat, Or Not To Chat?

Last night a name popped up on my gchat list that I hadn't seen in a LONG time. I think this is partially because I told my gmail account not to show him on my chat list and that doesn't necessarily apply on my phone, but either way, its someone I haven't thought about in quite a while, and haven't talked to in probably 2+ years. That part is partially because he has a tendency to fall off the face of the earth for large periods of time, and primarily because I got sick of being the one to initiate all the conversations. What kind of a friend is that? Not one, I decided, and stopped trying. It wasn't really a big loss either. I mean honestly - we met in the military, deployed together, and once we came back I think we saw each other exactly one time, for about 5 minutes in a parking lot. And we came back 5 1/2 years ago.

But, back to the whole popping up on my gchat list. Sometimes, gchat on my phone gets confused and forgets to refresh itself, so he was popping up there as being online. I looked at his name several times, thought about it, wished I hadn't seen it, thought a little more, and eventually decided wht the hell, and shot him a chat - well hello there. That's all it said. Of course, there was no response by the time I went to bed, because, in fact, he was not online. But my phone didn't realize that until this morning when, after seeing an email from him responding to a chat while sent offline, and with him still showing as online, I signed off then back on again. But back to that email - Wow out of the blue! What, where, and how are things?

I replied, somewhat briefly - I'm trying to share too much at this point - and we'll see how it goes. But all I can think as I'm writing this was why did I bother? Its not like it will go anywhere (and I'm talking one hundred percent in the realm of friendship/acquaintance chatter here people... Matt and I are happy and just fine and still together, etc).  And I've worked so hard to cut people like that completely out of my life. So I'll play it by ear, but next step will surely be deleting his information completely out of my system so there's no chance of seeing that name pop up again and tempting me to do something less than intelligent like chatting again.

Rain, Rain, Go Away....

I can't see the window from my desk. Its 3 cubes down, and we have high cube walls. However, I can usually tell by looking in the general direction of the window what the weather is like. When its nice out, that direction is a little brighter. Today, its NOT nice out. And looking in that direction is gloomy. Its amazing what that does not only to my mood, but to my general energy level. I don't really want to DO anything, you know?

But on top of that, the rain is just overall annoying. I can't wear certain shoes because I don't want the material to get messed up, or my feet to get wet and take forever to dry. My hair pretty much goes crazy at the first sign of wetness. My purse gets wet, and if its not a somewhat waterproof material and/or zipped up everything inside gets wet too. I've almost gotten down the science of getting into my car when its parked on top of the parking deck without getting myself wet, but still manage to get the inside part of my door (and whatever happens to be in the pocket on the side) soaked.

And let's talk about the drivers. People, water falling from the sky is not a new thing. It has happened occasionally since the dawn of man. It is not an excuse for you to suddenly forget all the things you've learned over the past however many years you have been driving. It is also not scary. Yes, you need to slow down a little and be careful on wet roads. But you do not need to rush to cut me off because ZOMG ITS TEH RAIN! I promise, if you wait til I pass you'll get to turn because if you look, you'll see that there is NOBODY BEHIND ME.  You do not need to go 39mph on the Beltway. I promise if you hit the raindrops at 55 or even 65 they won't break your windshield. Sigh....

On that note, its almost time to go out and brave said drivers on this rainy afternoon....

The View (No, not the TV show)

The other day I mentioned how much I love the view from my apartment, and over the past few days I've taken a few pictures to share with y'all:

An overcast afternoon, rain on the way:

A beautiful Spring day:

The sun's coming up:

There's just something about being able to look out my window from the comfort of my Lazy Boy and seeing all this that makes me smile.

Help A (Well, My) Sister Out!

 When my sister Emily was almost 3 years old, she was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis.  One of nearly 300,000 children under 18 affected by the disease, Emily has been one of the lucky ones. A combination of outstanding doctors and excellent response to her medications, Emily has, for the most part, been able to live the life of a normal child.  Now 18 and about to graduate from high school, Emily is a member of her high school's track team (she pole vaults!), and will be attending York College in Pennsylvania this fall.

On May 15th, I will once again be joining my family in the Arthritis Walk, which is among the largest fundraisers for the Arthritis Foundation. In past years we've held a small walk in Fairfax County, but this year we're combining with some of the other smaller walks to have a bigger and hopefully more visible walk on the National Mall. My goal is to raise $500 for the walk, and I could use any help anyone can give me. I know times are rough, but if you can spare a little, it's going to a GREAT cause. Please click on the website, read a little about the walk, and donate if you can. If you're in the DC Area and would like to participate, please join the team my sisters co-captain, the Flying Pigs.

Thanks for your help! Here's hoping that some day all kids can have the opportunity to have the sorts of results that Emily has had!

I kill myself

I really should have gone to bed at 9 like I wanted to last night. But I just couldn't bear the thought of having to wait until today to watch Glee, and missing all the good stuff / getting the good stuff spoiled by the inevitable tweets / status updates (which usually aren't TOO spoilerish, I just like to be fully surprised). And really, I just love the show and wanted to see it on time. And I still managed to not stay awake all the way through Sue Sylvester as Vogue. Luckily it is on the DVR.

But today... I'm EXHAUSTED. I've been feeling tired all week, well, more tired than normal, anyways. I blame part of it on just plain not sleeping enough this weekend - I couldn't get back to sleep after waking up at 630 Saturday morning, stayed up a little later than I should have on Saturday, and didn't go to bed early enough on Sunday night. Part of it is also due to some emotional exhaustion due to some conversations with Matt. And, of course, a lot of it is due to my sleep disorder. Believe me, its SO much better now that I'm back on the medication.  But it still makes it really hard to be productive at work. So why do I still torture myself by staying up at night? Perhaps some day I'll learn...