Tidbit

I do not have, nor do I want, a cell phone. I'm not sure how many people have had to experience this, but when you tell someone that you don't have a cell phone, they look at you like you like your closest relative has died.

"I'm so sorry... I had no idea. You looked so happy."

"You don't have a cell phone? What, do you hate technology? Do you have a computer?"

"No cell? Where are you from?"

I used to be one of those people that had a cell phone pressed up against their ear non-stop. I never answered my cell phone during a movie or a play, but that's only because I actually wanted to watch the show.

While we were in Texas, and the first month of living here, we had cell phones. The reception in the area is awful and we had the worst provider possible as far as customer service goes. Against our better judgment, we signed a 2 year contract with Sprint on the condition that we could cancel our plan, at any time, with no cancellation fee since My Husband is in the military.

Sprint screwed us. Hard. We ended up fighting for months to get the cancellation fees waived, and finally settled on having them cut in half. They did not want to do it, but a previous rep had left a note (thankfully.... most of them promised the world but didn't leave any notes) saying that they could waive the cancellation fee on one line. $500 and a lot of emotional trauma later, I vowed that we would not have cell phones until we could find a good plan that worked for us.

We stopped looking about 7 months ago.

At one point, we got "emergency" pre paid Virgin mobile phones. I love Virgin Enterprises and have always had great luck with them. All we had to do was buy minutes and load them onto the phone. Easy peasy. I can only think of one time that I actually used that phone. I was shocked that I even had it with me, and was even more surprised that it had a charge.

We eventually forgot about the phones and never put any more minutes on them. The minutes expired, along with our phone numbers.

There are times when I really wish that I could call My Husband and see if he picked something up, or just remind him that I love him... but I wouldn't trade our newfound freedom for anything.

When you have a cell phone, people want to get ahold of you 24 hours a day. Even if you turn your phone off, there's a pile of text messages waiting for you when you turn it back on. What part of that sounds appealing?

People are always loudly wondering how we ever lived without cell phones. Quietly! We didn't have to raise our voices in a restaurant just to be heard over someone screaming about their infected toenails. Before everyone had a cell phone, I never heard someone talk about 'that time they got crabs' in line at the DMV. Sermons were not interrupted by these annoying personalized ringtones.

Sure, they have their perks. You can call AAA if you car dies on the freeway. You can call and get directions while en route. Show times are just a few buttons away. You can get updates on everything sent straight to your phone so you are always ahead of the curve.

To me, the convenience is not worth the hassle. Be happy that I'm not answering your call, because I might be in the bathroom or 'in the middle of something'. So, the next time you try to call me and I don't answer, leave me a message and I will get back to you eventually.

Hmm...

It looks like I'm really going to keep doing this blog thing, so I need to find a direction.

I can do unstructured posts like I have been, or I could try and focus on one area. I figure I'll let you guys, all 3 of you, tell me what you want. Do you want updates on the skills, my opinions/reviews, or just a general life update. If you have any other great ideas I'm open to suggestion, so just let me know what you want to see.

Pretty soon I want to start a weekly "crafting corner" (with a better name of course) and do tutorials (Hey You, I haven't forgotten about the bow making... I just haven't resized the pics yet.)

Hopefully after the trip I'll do a blog overhaul, but it might take a bit longer.

YAY!

Vacation?

Wednesday we will get on a plane and go home, together, for the first time since My Husband got out of Basic Training. I was able to go home a little over a year ago, but he has not been back for two years.

This trip is mostly to visit my dying Mammaw, but it turns out my Aunt is having surgery just before we arrive. She fought with breast cancer a few years ago (she even wrote a book. Find out more here.) and thought she was doing well, but it looks like it is back in full force. It has spread, and they are going to try and remove as much of it as possible... There is a small chance that she will not make it through the surgery.

This means that we will be adding some hospital visits to our agenda, leaving even less time to try and cater to My Husband's family.

During this time we will have to adjust to a different time zone and switch from being night people to having a daytime schedule. Immediately upon return, My Husband starts working overnight. I will have one day to re-adjust to normal life before plunging back into my 11 hour workdays. We are going to have a lot of fun, and we are going to wish that we could stay forever... but this is going to be really hard on us.

Meanwhile, no news from the doctor yet. They are checking my hormone levels to see if they can figure out what's going on.

I've started knitting an afghan for the living room. It is going to be huge and just might function as our new home if we are not able to get our finances together in time. I mean, financially we are doing just fine, but we need to come up with a large (for us) amount of cash in a really short amount of time. This is the part that's killing us.

We have worked really hard to achieve a certain comfort zone and, as it turns out, we do not want to stick to a strict budget (even short term) that requires us giving up the things we have become accustomed to.

Now, I'm not talking about lobster dinners every night, or even spending a lot of money on entertainment... I just want to be able to buy some shoes or a handbag without worrying when payday is.

During our first year of marriage, I became an expert at "Poor People Math". If you are not familiar with the term, PPM usually involves calculating exactly when a purchase will hit your bank account, how close it is to payday, and the likelihood of that purchase putting your account in the negative. Often you are trying to figure out how many meals you will have to skip if you rent a movie, or how many pennies you think you can find between now and the end of bank hours.

We considered ourselves very lucky if we had 17 cents in our bank account at the end of the week, and every indulgence required a corresponding sacrifice. I ate once each day, usually around 2 am, and it was carefully chosen from the dollar menu or the "Manager's Special" space at the grocery store where I worked. I remember one week I was going to buy a head of lettuce and my debit card was declined. How embarrassing is that? I had to have one of my cashiers ring me up, and then my debit card was declined... Fortunately, I found 54 cents on the floor so we were able to have a ranch salad topped with Parmesan cheese packets.

Admittedly, that was one of the low points.

This year we have, financially, been better off than I ever could have imagined. I usually don't have to worry about the bank account unless I overspend while grocery/clothes/entertainment shopping or if we make a major purchase.

We really enjoy having less stress, and we are finally getting out of debt. I'm really not sure whether I want to give all of that up for a house... especially for one so small... and expensive...

Decisions, decisions...

the crow flies at midnight...

So... I was told to stop being so cryptic. Basically, I was afraid that the offending party might read a rant about them and get mad.

The crazy thing is... I don't really care. I'm not saying anything that isn't true, and they are aware that I feel this way, so I don't think expressing my feelings should be a bad thing.

We are planning a trip home at the end of the month because my Mammaw is dying. She has lung cancer, and the doctor gave her 6 months about 4 years ago. She just celebrated her 91st birthday and her health has really gone down since I last saw her.

Since My Husband's family lives a few towns away, we wanted to stop by and see them while we were down. This turned into a huge mess, because they thought that we should entirely devote our trip to them. His Mom wanted to know why we have not made time for his grandma's and basically just wanted to guilt us into canceling plans with my family.

His family came down for about a week a few months ago and were planning to come back in November. Since I have not seen my family in over a year, and My Husband has not seen them in over 2 years, I don't think it's fair that His family want's to monopolize our time.

There was some drama, and My Husband ended up yelling at his parents. He told them that they were being selfish and that if they were going to be jerks we wouldn't see them at all.

I do not want anyone to tell me how I can spend my time. This is my vacation time, and I can use it however I want. I swore that we would not come home again simply to avoid all of this drama, and now I realize that I shouldn't have to stop myself from seeing the people I love.

In other news, we were supposed to go camping with The Roommate and Our Neighbors this weekend, but that didn't happen. I went up to the campsite to drop off The Roommate and hang out for a bit. Then O and I went to pick My Husband up from work. I needed her help to get down the mountain because we got so lost on the way up. We thought we were going to be late, and ended up having to wait for almost 3 hours since My Husband had to sit through a debrief. I don't know all of the specifics, but My Husband took a shot that helped blow something up somewhere in the world. Less than an hour after the debrief, we were roasting marshmallows over a campfire.

It takes someone with amazing mental capacity to go straight from blowing things up, to singing songs and having fun.

In other other news, my skill for the day is lactating. Which, is not so much a skill as a medical concern. Since I'm not pregnant I've made an appointment with the doctor next week to get my hormone levels checked, as well as getting checked for tumors and whatnot.

It scared the crap out of me.

So, for now, everything is great. I've got some pictures taken for a future post, the cat isn't being completely insane, and we have a few hours left to ourselves.

Life is awesome!

Hypotamoose

So, lately I've been a bit of a Drama Llama I guess. When something dramatic happens in my life, I like to share it with others so that I can get it off my chest and get their unique viewpoint. I always hope that learning someone elses view will help me clarify my own.

I will not be sharing the most recent drama just yet, but this is what has caused me to be so lax with my updates. I promise I will have something great this weekend, but for now... I'm in Zalcatraz with no forseeable escape.

Have a good night!