First with the horrible part, I suppose. A colleague of mine was injured in Afghanistan this weekend, by an improvised explosive device. He's got burns and sight and hearing problems right now, but he's alive and he'll heal and he's on his way back home. A soldier he was with, as I understand it, didn't make it. When I learned he was off to Afghanistan and the project he was working on, I was worried something like this might happen. I don't know him too well, but what I do know of him, he's a warm guy with a sense of humor and joie de vivre that I appreciate. This is why I hate war.
We have a friend stationed in Iraq at the moment, too. I haven't worried too much about her because I don't think she's seeing direct combat per se. But damn. I do worry about her mental health on her return; depending on what she's been exposed to, I suppose. Trauma like surviving an explosion, or battle or whatever, fundamentally changes you. I'm keeping both of them in my prayers as well as the family of the fallen soldier.
Now for the happiness (because that's what gets us through the day, right?):
Ein - I learned today we will be getting a full week off of work at Christmas. Whee! I'm sure it's unpaid, but a week off is a week off. I'll take it.
Zwei - Cute costumes tonight. We had a toddler Mad Hatter accompanied by a grown up Alice. A teenaged girl with a lime green spiderweb and plastic barbed wire around her neck. ("Are you a psychedelic spiderweb?" "No, I'm a dustbunny - and would you believe, some people keep barbed wire behind their couch?!") A ninja with vampire teeth. I kept trying to insist he was a vampire ninja, but he swore he wasn't. A quartet of 10-year-old girls: a witch, a devil, an angel and something else. A cat burglar.
Drei - Wonderfully friendly children. Some good friends trick or treated by our house tonight and brought with them a friend and her sons. I'd only ever met the boys once or twice before. They're 4 1/2 and 2 1/2 years old respectively. The girls as always were delightful - excited to find participation ribbons on Babydog's crate. The boys were just adorable. As they were all leaving to hit up more houses, the 2 year old (dressed in a Jiminy Cricket costume) flung his arms up for a hug. Then he stuck his tongue out and started humming. So I hugged him and picked him up under his arms and held him in front of my face. I copied his face and sound and the two of us were there, at arms length face to face, tongues protruding humming against eachother. I think he could've done that all night. It was awesome!
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Good Things and East Coast Guilt.
1. Honey called in the new cell phone company to transfer over our old phone numbers onto the new carrier. I only heard his side of the conversation, but it sounded like he was making fast friends with the customer service guy, chatting about everything from our dog to how many children we expected to show up on our doorstep for Halloween!
2. Discovering one of my weekly recipe e-mails from Texas Monthly was for a Cream Filled Pumpkin Pie Roll. Mmm. We're hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year. Honey hates pumpkin flavored deserts, but I think I might try to make this anyway, as he will not be the only person at the table. Just thinking about it makes me all fuzzy with anticipation!
3. We're heading back over the mountain this morning so Babydog can do her second leg of her JHD trial. The last time we went to a herding trial/exhibition, it was all corgis; this time she's the only corgi in a sea of border collies and a few shelties. It's really only intimidating for me. HOWEVER, though she's not as disciplined as a lot of the border collies - and most of them are rural dogs anyway, so they have more room for practice than just a living room - in her part of the trial, she was still a lot better than some of the other dogs. (My chest puffs.) What can I say? I guess I'm a competitive American mommy.
I visited SonnjeaB's Friday post, today. It's interesting, her conundrum about volunteering and being a better person is not only somewhat personally familiar - I too sometimes have trouble reconciling my desire to make the world a better place and not really wanting to work the volunteer places I've sold myself on - but its familiarity seems to translate to another area of my life: the professional one. I think I'm only just now finding the general direction I want my career to take, but boy do I feel like I've been slow to the game.
In this part of the country people are defined by and happily define themselves by their employment or their achievements. (I may have blogged on this before.) If you're 5 years old, it's assumed you're a good reader. If you're 18, it's assumed you're applying to top tier schools and the state university is only your "safety." If you're 60, it's assumed you've made it to the top of your game, you still work-out and you've got a healthy retirement waiting with which you can travel the world in your twilight years. If you're out of college, it's assumed you're on your career track and you know what that is. So here I am, 30, just now starting up what I want to be doing and I feel like I'm perceived as a dilly dallyer, when really all it was was schlepping to pay the bills and sampling till I found the dish I liked. (And some days I think I might still want to switch the dish.) It's hard to be human in a part of the country that assumes over-acheivement on everything and everyone. (see #3 above!)
Revision to #3: I'm happy that Babydog gets a thrill from herding. It makes me happy to see her happy, even when she's over-eager!
2. Discovering one of my weekly recipe e-mails from Texas Monthly was for a Cream Filled Pumpkin Pie Roll. Mmm. We're hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year. Honey hates pumpkin flavored deserts, but I think I might try to make this anyway, as he will not be the only person at the table. Just thinking about it makes me all fuzzy with anticipation!
3. We're heading back over the mountain this morning so Babydog can do her second leg of her JHD trial. The last time we went to a herding trial/exhibition, it was all corgis; this time she's the only corgi in a sea of border collies and a few shelties. It's really only intimidating for me. HOWEVER, though she's not as disciplined as a lot of the border collies - and most of them are rural dogs anyway, so they have more room for practice than just a living room - in her part of the trial, she was still a lot better than some of the other dogs. (My chest puffs.) What can I say? I guess I'm a competitive American mommy.
I visited SonnjeaB's Friday post, today. It's interesting, her conundrum about volunteering and being a better person is not only somewhat personally familiar - I too sometimes have trouble reconciling my desire to make the world a better place and not really wanting to work the volunteer places I've sold myself on - but its familiarity seems to translate to another area of my life: the professional one. I think I'm only just now finding the general direction I want my career to take, but boy do I feel like I've been slow to the game.In this part of the country people are defined by and happily define themselves by their employment or their achievements. (I may have blogged on this before.) If you're 5 years old, it's assumed you're a good reader. If you're 18, it's assumed you're applying to top tier schools and the state university is only your "safety." If you're 60, it's assumed you've made it to the top of your game, you still work-out and you've got a healthy retirement waiting with which you can travel the world in your twilight years. If you're out of college, it's assumed you're on your career track and you know what that is. So here I am, 30, just now starting up what I want to be doing and I feel like I'm perceived as a dilly dallyer, when really all it was was schlepping to pay the bills and sampling till I found the dish I liked. (And some days I think I might still want to switch the dish.) It's hard to be human in a part of the country that assumes over-acheivement on everything and everyone. (see #3 above!)
Revision to #3: I'm happy that Babydog gets a thrill from herding. It makes me happy to see her happy, even when she's over-eager!
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Fastest. blog. ever.
The next 48 to 96 hours are going to be hectic, but for the most part exciting. As for today? I get a temporary promotion at work (hence the image) which may last through tomorrow. At work they're calling it "filling in" but I'm calling it a temporary promotion because what i'm learning while i'm filling in i can apply to my next job. and hopefully there'll be some eyes watching who are already thinking ahead to whom they want to fill upcoming positions with. Tonight? Another crunch-night adding onto my thesis. This weekend? Babydog's first herding competition. Sleep? Overrated!Now to put on my shoes and hustle to my assignment!
ps. thanks to some police org in the UK for giving me an image that illustrates my day and uses a model who looks like she could be my sister ... or uncanny cousin.
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