Too Long...

Today is not the day I've decided to make a change in my life, that happened a few days ago. BUT today is the day I've decided to start keeping up with my blog. Since I have two whole followers, I shall not let them down.

Well, life has gone on much as I expected it would. Brandon isn't down here yet and I'm not thinking he's going to come. He and I have made some pretty major decisions together and so that means more time apart but very good things are on the way. That's pretty much all I can say now but as soon as things start happening I will start updating.

I've decided that I'm going to challenge myself to be better, do better and to feel better. This may seem like a pretty generic challenge and all I'd really need to do is to make some small changes here and there and voila, I've met my goal, but I'm really challenging myself to a lot more than that. I'm going to push myself physically, I have things I want to see myself do that I've never done before. I want to start changing my attitude and the way I think and over think things so that I'm not miserable and I'm not making those close to me (mainly Brandon) miserable as well. I've already changed how and what I eat but sometimes I still fall off the wagon so I'm going to try and be better about that as well. My life is my own and it's the only one I have so I might as well be proud of myself while I'm living it and the only way to do that is to make some major lifestyle changes.

I've also cut my hair. For those of you who have known me well and for a long time, this is huge. My hair has always been my thing and I've always somewhat abhorred short hair but not any more :) It's still my thing and it's super cute and short and I love it.

Brandon cut his hair as well. He's got it cut military style (hint, hint) which is HUGE because his hair has always been his thing. I'm still waiting on a picture of it because I've never seen him with anything other than a super stylish faux hawk. And I've never seen him clean shaven, either. Two years and that man has never shaved his face...

Today is National Running day so after I take my dog to the vet, I am going running.

Peace.

New Hair. And new glasses.

Back in the Motherland, Getting Back to Life

After two and a half wonderful years in Kansas I have finally returned to Texas. Brandon (the boyfriend) should move down here by next summer. Hopefully sooner but I've got a lot to keep myself busy until he arrives, in the form of fixing up/remodeling a house. Basic story behind this house is that it was my grandmothers and when she died she left it to my mom and my aunts. My older sister and I lived in it together for a while until she went to college up in Kansas, where she eventually stayed and started her own family, and I lived there until I went to Afghanistan and eventually moved to Kansas after my deployment. So during the time when I was in Afghanistan and Kansas we had someone I considered to be a good friend of mine living in the house. He had fallen on some hard times so he made a deal with my family that he could live there rent free under the agreement that he would keep and maintain the place. Well, that didn't happen at all. In fact, quite the opposite. So I'm working on fixing the place back up, because right now it is not at all live able. Anyway, so I'm working on like replacing floors and bleaching everything, ripping up carpets, doing yard work, etc. just trying to get things in shape so I can move my things in. Especially since I'm not working anywhere at the moment, I really have nothing else to do with my time.

So that's pretty much all that's new since I wrote last.

Change is a-Comin...

Not that I needed any more change in my life but it looks like I'll be moving back to Houston. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet, it's pretty bittter-sweet. I love it here in Salina, I love working at the YMCA but I can't continue to work par-time and skate by on my bills. I'm barely keeping my head above water as it is. I would love to stay in Salina but I can't get a full time job here to save my life. I think right now what's best for me would be to go back to Houston, try and get a job there at a YMCA until I get a real job. Plan is right now to start packing up my stuff and head home after drill and then figure out another time to get the rest of my stuff.

In other news, I'm sure all of my readers (all two of you) know that I have a new-ish nephew. One should definitely know since she's the one who delivered him :) He is very cute and wonderful. His name is Levi Douglas Carson and he's a weenie.

Here's a shocking piece of news. The Navy hates me.

When I move home, I'm going to hopefully live in the trailer out in Magnolia, the one that my former supposedly best friend of almost ten years was living in for free and subsequently destroyed. So he's going to be owing me a lot of money and he's going to be spending a lot of time helping clean up the place. I think, depending on the extent of the damages, I'm going to have to organize work days and get a bunch of guys out there who will help work on the place. I'll bribe them with food and beer :) It's gonna take a lot of work to get the place back up into living conditions but I'll do it...It's not a bad place when it's being taken care of. I definitely like the quiet that the place provides.

A Toast to Mickey and Julie

Mickey and Julie Haranda. Hands down, two of the best people I know, two of my most favorite people in the world, two of my good friends, two people I can't imagine NOT having in my life have just had their one year anniversary!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! It seems like yesterday I was at their wedding and I'm still as happy for them as I was a year ago...I freaking love those two and I can't wait to see them next time I'm in Houston!!! So, here's to you Mr. and Mrs. Haranda, you two are seriously wonderful people and I wish everyone was just like you :] 

On a side note, I hate my job. I know, everyone in America says that, what makes me special? Nothing. But still, commiserate with me a little bit. I'm really trying to make the most of the situation that I'm in but in all honesty I hate waking up in the morning just for the fact that I know I'll have to go to work. I really, really dread going in each day. I love the people that come into the facility, I like the people that I work with on a day to day basis, but what I hate is how we get treated. The executive director doesn't consider us ("us" being the people who work at the front desk) to be part of the "professional staff" which is BS. If anything we're probably some of the most professional people because we know everything that is going on each day and we bear the brunt of the complaints and yelling and questions that people have. It's not a hard job, it's nothing fancy but it is probably the most thankless job I have ever had. Anyways, I digress, I could go on and on about how horrible my job is but I'm not going to.

For the past few weeks I've been feeling pretty down about how my life has been going while here in Kansas. I love the town, I love seeing my sister every day (even if the feeling isn't reciprocated) and I am SO excited for my nephew. But the thing that is so difficult for me is that I don't have very many friends. I definitely don't have anyone I can call up when I'm having a bad day and ask to go get coffee so I can vent, I rarely go out on weekends, I really have no social life. Granted, that's not a bad thing at all, but I would just like to have a friend that I can go to and know that I can count on them. However, I got a good piece of advice from a guy up here that I'm talking to and he told me that I need to stop thinking about Texas so much and look at what surrounds me here and my life here will only work out if I want it to, I need to find out what's important to me and let things flow. And he's totally right. I think that since I'm dwelling on the life that I left in Houston I'm really not able to really start my life here, and that's something I need to remember.

So, back to the real reason I started writing this blog (sorry Julie, I got a little side tracked when I went on my rampage). Mickey and Julie. I wish you two all the happiness in the world, you guys are always in my heart and I love you two so much and I hope you have at LEAST 74 more anniversaries.

Love y'all :]

Just Another Day...

I wish I was talented enough to write a book. I'd sell it as fiction but really it'd be a story of my life with a little bit more flair. Honestly, how cool would that be? I think I've had a pretty interesting life, granted some parts are a bit more boring and dry than other parts but that's why I would embellish things, make them slightly more entertaining. Badass? Yes.

True or false: Life sucks when you have no friends. Answer: True. 

Speechless...

Sometimes I amaze even myself with how stupid I can be...I am supposed to be driving down to Ft. Worth today for drill and I realized just yesterday that I have no freaking clue where I'm supposed to be staying or where I'm supposed to be going to actually drill. I emailed my Senior Chief and he gave me the contact information for the guy at the Ft. Worth NOSC who is in charge of berthing, so hopefully I'll get something back from him today. Otherwise, Senior told me not to come and just request AA's if I have no berthing. We'll see what happens. I'll just gear up like I'm going to go down there today and if not, great, if so well, not so great but I don't really have a choice.

In other news, Casey Anthony...let me hop up on my soap box real quick because I haven't had a chance to do so yet...HOW IN THE HELL DID SHE GET OFF?!?! There are way too many holes in the case for her to have even had a shot at getting released. I don't understand how a jury could have found her innocent of murder, we all know she did it. At the very least she should have gotten some kind of a negligence charge if Caylee actually drowned in the pool. What kind of a parent could have their child missing for a month before she reported it? I honestly don't get it...if I was on that jury I would have been the ass hole who caused a mistrial because ain't no way that girl is innocent. HER DAD THINKS SHE DID IT!!! To me that means something...there's a special place in hell reserved for people like her. I hope, on her first day back on the streets, that she gets hit by a bus and dies. That's what she deserves.

Ok, you wanna hear something totally nasty? I'm not even joking, this is gross and pretty unbelievable...a woman drowned in a pool. That's not unusual, what's strange is she wasn't found until two days later. Still not entirely out of the ordinary. What's strange is that she drowned in a public pool that had lifeguards and other people there swimming. So a lady drowns in a public pool and no one notices for two days...impossible, you say? Nay, says I. Apparently the water in the swimming pool was so cloudy that no one could see her until her body eventually floated to the surface. Now what's really gross is the fact that people were still swimming with this lady's body for two whole days!!! GRRRRRRROOOOSSSS!!! And what's even more disturbing is a little boy told one of the lifeguards that the woman went under the water and never came back up and the lifeguard totally dismissed him. WTF?!?!?!?! I know that when I was lifeguarding if the pool started to get even remotely cloudy it was my responsibility to make the water clear again, and if someone told me that a swimmer was drowning or whatever I would be in the water SO FAST you would think my ass was on fire. You can't dismiss things like that, if you do you're obviously terrible at your job or maybe your company doesn't instill the fear of God in you like mine did. I know if I didn't keep the pool deck or bathrooms clean I would get nailed to the wall. Anyways, that's all I have to say about that, it's just gross and disturbing. Here's a link to the story if you want to read it: http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/woman-dies-in-public-pool-in-fall-river-25-apx-20110629

That's all for me today, I'm working on getting some laundry done so I can have clean clothes for the weekend...

July 4th Weekend

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!

I'm SO wiped from this weekend, we (me, Sarah Jane and John) drove down to Houston for the weekend to hang out with the family and go to a baseball game...oh my goodness. I am so tired of driving, I'm surprised I'm still awake, I can hear my bed calling my name. But this weekend was SO MUCH FUN and it was also a much needed break from the monotony that is Salina, Kansas.

I got into town early Friday morning and unloaded the Mazda and helped Bee get acquainted with Bo, April, Teddy and all the cats. I talked with Meatloaf and Dad for a bit, took a shower and went to bed at 5 in the morning. The reason I know it was exactly 5 was because as soon as my head hit the pillow my alarm went off :( NOT an excellent start to the weekend, but whatever. I think I slept for about 6 hours until the dogs woke me up, so I get up and start getting ready for a VERY long day.

Here's my weekend in a nutshell, I'm too tired to dish out all the details...

Friday:
Wake up, take Elizabeth with me to get lunch for my BFFF, Lindsey, because she was going to Vegas Saturday and that would pretty much be the only time I got to see her. So we did that, then we hoofed it over to Ramiro's apartment to meet up with him and Clinton and Dianna to go shopping for outfits for Clinton's party that night. It was a "Jungle Fever" themed party so we drove down to Harwin, which is this kinda sleezy place off of Westheimer to go look for outfits. Dianna and I got the sluttiest animal print dresses for $20. It's nice that everything is so cheap there, that way I don't have a dollar attack for buying something so horrid. So we left and Elizabeth and I went back to Cypress to run some more errands for Meatloaf then we went home and got ready for this party. Much to my chagrin I find out that Ramiro invited Elizabeth to go so Meatloaf pretty much made me take her. Good thing she acted like a decent human being while we were there and she didn't embarrass me at all. So, here's some awful pictures of the party, and please, please, please don't judge me. I'm really not a prostitute...

 Me and Dianna

 Ramiro in his drag

 Dianna and Clinton

 Clinton in his outfit

Beer pong :)

So that was Friday. Here's Saturday:

Wake up, get ready to go to Sarah Jane's baby shower. I knew about this in advance, however, I thought it was going to be at our house. Nope. It was at a tea room...I was forced to go there while my dad and John Carson are out at St. Arnold's brewery having a grand old time drinking beers...something about this was not fair...well after this little festival of babies I go home with EK and we both take naps, she jets off to the drive in movies with some of her friends and I go meet up with everyone else at Don Julios for dinner and margaritas :). After that I drive myself down to the outlet mall because I was in desperate need of some shorts for the ball game on Sunday. Then I grab a Redbox and head home for some Narnia action.

Sunday:
BASEBALL GAME DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Astros vs. Red Sox. So, I'm 99.9% stoked about this game, I know going into it that the Astros are going to lose, I actually thought they were going to get spanked, but that didn't happen!!! It was 2-1 Sox, and both of those runs could have been avoided by the Astros if someone hadn't blown a throw to home when someone else was stealing the base, or if some dumb ass manager hadn't decided to walk a batter which in turn caused the bases to be loaded when the Sox's next batter was their big stick. But whatever, I'm not paid millions to make those decisions...anyways, I had SO MUCH FUN!!! I love baseball, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Astros and that's pretty much my most favorite place in the world. Humphrey Bogart said it best, "A hot dog at the ball game beats prime rib at the Ritz." And that is so true...my heart belongs in the Juice Box, that's where I'm going to marry Hunter Pence at :) he just doesn't know it yet...oh, and P.S. I HATE Red Sox fans. I don't have any feelings for the Sox themselves, but I wanted to punch all of their fans in the face. Especially that loud ass guy sitting behind us...

Game photos!!!

 Choo choo!

 My love striking out

 We LOVE baseball!!!

Hunter Pence. Love him.

And to wrap up the weekend, that night I went out to Big Texas to meet up with my most favorite cousin, Kasy, and some of his friends to see Roger Creager. But since I had to drive back to Kansas the following morning, I left around 12ish but it was still really good to see him. And Creager. He's always fun.

Monday:

Drive. Drive. Drive. 12 hours of it. I never want to see the inside of a car again...and neither does Bee.

And that's the 4th of July weekend in a nutshell. Now, trying to go to sleep with all these fireworks going off is going to be a bit of a hassle...it sounds kind of like Afghanistan...

Good night, and Happy Independence Day.