Homework break.

I feel like I've not written a real blog post in a mabillion years and it hurts.  I have this guilt that I should post blogs, except that I literally don't have time.  Teh Bear keeps asking me what's wrong based on facial expressions that I seem to consistently have, and I have to admit that I'm stressed about the mountain of homework that I have from taking 2 classes...  which I'll never do again.  8 week courses aren't the same as 16 week courses.  Online school isn't the same as brick and mortar school.  Being a student isn't the same as working full-time and being a student.

I will walk away from this "semester" (it's still hard to call 8 weeks a semester) with some marks, but I will walk away.  My HR class is going splendid, but my Strategic Intel class is kicking my bootay and the instructor is... well, not my cup of tea, which is ironic, because I'm pretty sure he's British.  While I understand he's trying to challenge me, I feel like his minimal interaction with the class as a whole is bringing the class down.  If it were a go-to-class-class, he would be the instructor that stands at the front of the class and talks for the entire time then tells you to go home and read 400 pages and come back next week with your 2 page paper in hand.  Granted, the guy is extremely knowledgable, but I don't feel like he's trying to share that knowledge, so much as show the class he knows the knowledge, which makes him come across as a prick.

See how so far this has only been about school, well, that's how my life feels.  I feel an extreme amount of guilt for sitting down and watching TV with Teh Bear in the evening while eating dinner.  I loathe the feeling that I should be doing homework at all times.  I feel like its school work or my life and that's just not the right balance for me, which is why I've decided that I'm definitely not taking more than 1 class at a time anymore (because I know that if I had just the intel class alone, I'd be able to manage the load a bit better, although I'd still complain about it just as much), and I'm probably taking off the month after these classes end to focus on non-school things (like Christmas and that stupid EAWS pin that the Navy says I should have).

In non-school things, Teh Bear is still in MD and it's still amazing for him to be here.  I've finally gotten over my OCD with the kitchen lights (there's 2 switches and I liked for one switch to always be down), I'm used to reloading the dishwasher to fit more stuff or to make sure the plastic bowls don't flip over, I'm coming to terms with the extra laundry, I'm relieved that I don't have to be Betty Crocker every night and that Teh Bear cooks dinner on days that he's off, I'm slack-jawed at the fact that Teh Bear has used the new (yet-to-be-named) vacuum more than I have, I'm loving the fact that Teh Bear gets self-motivated and cleans and I don't even have to ask him to, and I really just love being able to get hugs whenever I want.  All the crazy stuff in my head from pre-move-in seems silly and I knew that my worries were unfounded then, but it's nice to be proven wrong.

Teh BFF came to MD to visit while she was on vacation.  It was awesome to be able to hang out with her for an extended period of time without having to deal with work schedules (I was able to get Thursday off and Friday was a family day at the hangar).  Teh Bear was cool with hanging out with us or giving us girl-time, which was awesome.  We visited the National Zoo in DC on Thursday (maybe one day when I'm school-free I'll post the pics) and one of the pandas was out!  WIN!  After the Zoo, we tried to go get pics of the White House, but due to trick-or-treating, access was blocked off, so it meant far away photos.  We did also go across the street and check out the Washington and Lincoln Monuments.  Teh BFF's favorite part was driving around DC, I think.  She was glad we didn't make her drive, and I'm not sure why she thought she'd be doing the DC driving, but that's just silly after she'd already driven 8 hours to come visit (in addition to her limited big city driving experience).  Thursday night, we had a handful of trick-or-treaters and the best part was when they would ring the doorbell and Phil would be the first at the door.  Most of the kids were like, Wow, check out that big dog, while some of them, literally, screamed and ran away.  LOLZ.  We had so much candy left over.  Le sigh.

Friday, we took Teh BFF on a tour around base and she got a full show with all the air traffic that was going on.  Even I was impressed, except at the jet flying overhead... NOT impressed by the noise on that sucker.  At. ALL.  After the base tour, where I learned that my favorite tree had lost most of it's leaves before I could get photos, we went on a 5 hour shopping spree, which was awesome and wore us both out.  We were happy being lazy for the rest of the evening.  Sadly, she left on Saturday and Teh Bear had to work, so I did homework (of course) and laundry and took Phil on a walk with Teh Greyhound Neighbor, who purchased Phil's mustache coat (and he was in very dire need of a new coat).

And I returned $20 in stuff that didn't fit properly...
This is how you win at shopping.

Love my Philbo

Can I just say that I have awesome friends?  I mean, not like, YAY presents for me!  But literally, awesome friends who I can just hang out with and talk to and who take care of me and let me attempt to take care of them and there's really no way to repay that.

What other big news have we missed out on?
Hrm.. some big news coming down the pipeline potentially on the "stay in or get out of the Navy" front.  I'm not purposely trying to be vague, but I am, as I don't want to jinx myself or anything and I'd rather not get a huge hype going about this particular item and then it not happen, but I will tell you that it's a big deal and something I've considered since I was a baby in GTMO and it's currently got the Command Master Chief and Skipper involved.  I have no idea what the actual timeline is on this entire ordeal, so feel free to inquire if I fail to mention it, which I probably won't, but just in case.

I volunteered to sing with the praise band at church Sunday since 2 of the 3 singers were away for the weekend.  Many people gave their compliments, which I really appreciated.  I can't really say if it was good or bad, I was there, I had been praying about it for a long time, I just sang.  The lady who leads the praise team gave me a very long hug after it was over.  I'm not sure if it was relief that it was over (since working with me wasn't as easy as working with her normal team, I'm sure (in addition to my lack of choral education)) or that I had done well.  I'm always doubtful of myself in regards to performance, and this isn't me fishing for compliments.  I even had a dream on Saturday night that the leader had decided that we weren't going to perform as we had practiced on the Tuesday prior, I wasn't going to sing with her, and that she was just going to take requests from the audience.  When I told her about it, she laughed and said, I'd never do that!  But that's just how worried I was that I was going to bring down the quality of the service.  Although, since I was on stage, I dressed it up a bit to include heels and dress pants (the ones I wore for my NCSU graduation actually).  I even got a compliment on my shoes, which credit really goes to Teh Worldwide Jesus Lover for picking those torture-devices babies out in 2007.

I finished the last season of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.  1.  FINALLY.  2.  MORE!  I say more, in a I-wish-I-had-more-time-in-my-life-for-fun-activities-that-aren't-homework-or-homework-guilt type way.  I have a significant amount of photos to edit from the zoo trip and from a walk Teh Bear and I took at one of the local state parks, so maybe one day I'll get to those.

In the meantime, I've started a blog series called 4 Things that I found on Brit's blog forever ago.  Maybe doing that post with the weekly sunglasses will make me feel slightly less guilty about neglecting Teh Blog, but probably not.

And just FYI, it has been an absolutely delightful feeling to be able to sit here and type and ignore the homework-guilt.  I miss blogging so, so much.  Academic writing makes me want to dig my eyes out of their sockets.  Writing in my voice and in my improper, non-formal style is just so much more satisfying than meeting all the rules of a Turabian or APA paper.

Happy Fall/November/impending Christmas season, Gentle Readers!



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