You Are Here.

This is the Pacific Ocean, courtesy of Google Earth.
I am going there.
Look at how huge it is... that's New Zealand on the left-hand corner, I believe that's Hawaii near the top, Antarctica at the bottom obviously, and if you squint really hard, that's the west coast of good ole' MURICA on the right hand side. I'm gonna go out there and do figure-8s and get bitched at. On the plus side, I might get to play with some tv's, and I keep hearing talk of visiting Thailand. I'll post as much as I can... the pics will be sparse until I hit port, but expect lots of fitness posts.

Haze Grey +25 [the homestretch]

Haven’t really had much to write about lately, mostly just absurd work BS. Some bath-salts freak tried to break into our house a couple weeks ago; hubby wanted to nail him with the compound bow but the cops got there in time instead. Funny thing is, almost the exact same incident happened at almost the exact same time, not more than a mile down the road.

Have been working out mostly regularly, nothing particularly interesting to update there. My knees are killing me; considering my mom has old sports injuries and my dad just had surgery for his knee last week, I’m a little nervous. Bring on the fish oil, I suppose. Was chatting with coworkers and to be “healthy” I will take a handful of about 15 supplements and vitamins each day. Looking forward to that. *sarcasm*

Last night my I let my phone battery run down all the way on accident, and ever since, it has not wanted to turn back on. Hopefully I can just get away with replacing the battery once I’m home, but that’s going to make my next few days extremely annoying. I miss my phone!

When we hit SanD the other day I was able to get Steam into offline mode via my phone [because that’s the one Starbucks in all of America that doesn’t have wifi—wtf?]. Since then I started a new Gods & Kings [Civ 5] game as Babylon and I am generally digging the expansion. They nerfed a couple things that I will miss, but the whole Faith aspect is a really cool game addition. Hubby bought us all the DLC too, so we have every possible leader. I can’t wait to get home and try it out with hubs! After I beat the pants off of this game, I’m going to try a harder difficulty and also explore some of the other cultures. I also got the brilliant idea to do some research [I am still comparatively new to Civ, I only picked it up at civ4] and make an afghan with squares from each core civilization. They all have “team colors” and a little icon, so I think it could be really cool. For example, USA is a white star on a blue background, and England is a white crown on a red background. Hubs thinks I’m a geek.

Speaking of crochet, I have kind of been letting that slide lately. It’s hard to keep up with finding patterns that are mindless enough for me to pick up and put down whenever—tapestry style [using charts] is not particularly good for that. I learned how to do a treble front-post, but can’t get the squares to look neat since I’m not alternating colors. My bad.

Haze Grey +20

Well, I went and got myself all backwards again. Stayed up too late last night, slept too long today.

I have forgotten to mention last week that I have now seen two pods of dolphins and also a whale. The whale was super cool.

This slow internet is really really killing me. I think I’d almost just rather have no internet; it’s like being teased. Nothing decent ever loads besides facebook, making it nearly impossible to do any sort of research [ie, for good spa deals on Groupon, or to add ideas to an Amazon wishlist].

I’ve had a pretty nasty migraine all day. I don’t have much to write about. Just tired of being away from home but at the same time, going home just means that it’s time to get ready to leave again. If you have time, look up the song “Xxyzz Road” by Stone Sour [I think that’s what it’s called, I’d tell you for sure except it would take me over ten minutes just to confirm that through google]. That song is exactly how I’m feeling right now.

Dan Adriano from Alkaline Trio wrote in one of his songs, “You know, all my favorite singers have stolen all of my best lines.” And I thoroughly agree. When I was in college and listening to a lot more music than I do now, I used to compile the lyrics that really got to me, the ones that I related to on a level that was too intense to ignore. I may have to bring that back. Which means I need to listen to more music. Sounds win/win to me.

Haze Grey +16.5

Okay yes I know 16.5 is a strange number. Mainly because today would be 17, but I’m more writing about yesterday, which was 16. I managed to go to bed at grandma hour just because I couldn’t entertain myself to stay up any later, and ended up sleeping for about ten hours. I think I needed that, I feel a lot more normal today.

Which somehow reminds me… I want one of those deployment countdown calendar things… Like when we were kids and you’d make the paper chain to count down til Christmas? I want one of those. Unfortunately if I made one, it would probably go around our shop about ten times on the day we leave. I mean, we’re talking somewhere in the nature of like 250 days. That’s depressing as all hell.

ANYways, on a more positive note. Yesterday we did circuit training based on muay thai. It wasn’t that great of a workout because it wasn’t consistent activity. I can see how it could be really awesome, but it’s essentially fat kid camp, so we had to keep stopping and what not. Aside from the guys instructing us, I’m practically the most in-shape one there… until I have to do anything on my back. Situps, crunches, leg lifts, etc. All of that, I am basically a cripple. The back pain is fairly instant; feels like muscle spasms. I’m not going to freak out about it yet, I’m kind of blaming it on a weakness on my part. I have been thinking about it too, and if I can meet the requirements later on, I think I’d like to take over that job. I know you have to score well on the fitness test, but honestly, if I have to be there all the time anyways, doing it is probably the only way I will keep working out, because I’m so lazy. So if I volunteer to help out, I have a reason to be there. And I think I can motivate people more by saying, honestly, “I’ve been in your shoes before, quit whining and do your best.”

After an hour of circuit training I went to do my run. My mile hit at about 12 minutes, my 1.5 mile was around 18. However—at my max time to pass the 1.5 mile, I was only 0.10 short!! That makes me feel pretty good. I ran for a total of 30 minutes including cool down, and hit 2.5 miles. I think I want a mile meter like the yarn meter I have. I’m curious to see how much [if any] weight I’ve lost. I’ll know on the 16^th, and also probably my measurements. The good/bad news is that since will be deployed, they generally don’t make us run the whole fitness test, just do the body fat part. That means I should be able to pass no problem if I keep this up. My issue has always been not preparing, being inconsistent… now I really have no excuse to be inconsistent, and if I keep this up for the… oh… four months I have left before the test, I should be able to get down to size. It just rubs me the wrong way to walk around out here and see so many “real” fat people in the military, to where I don’t understand why they are still in, and yet everyone wants to give me a hard time just because I am Super-Pear shaped. The way they measure fat is completely BS. Granted I don’t know that switching to other, more accurate ways would be in my favor, but still. Measuring my “hips” below my hip bone just because it’s the “widest point” [read, “fattest part of yo ass”] doesn’t sit well with me.

Haze Grey +15

Man this sucks. I’ve managed to get almost completely backwards and barely able to write. Pretty much I’m going 24/up 12/down, and it’s not exactly working out.

Today I ran for 55 min and clocked 4.45 miles. I didn’t run yesterday because of my lovely adventures with the Admiral and his bad news… crab legs and ice cream do not for a deployment redeem. I did however have fun last night making a fairly inclusive list on Amazon to help out. I think the day before that I ran for 55 minutes and only managed 4 miles. I was really not feeling so hot and only made myself go so that I could try to get back on schedule.

So, what is with girls and showers? We only have three of them, and there’s roughly 30-40 of us. No joke, I waited for about ten minutes, took a shower, and got out, and one of the other girls still wasn’t done. It was fairly ridiculous. Granted I didn’t shave today, but what on earth can possibly take that long? Wash your self and get out. On a semi-related note, I can’t stand people who decide they should have their meetings in the middle of a high-traffic hallway. Seriously. Kind of goes along with the “who ever is carrying the heaviest or bulkiest item gets the right of way” concept. I mean, that’s common sense, right? Wait… military… that’s right, common sense isn’t welcome here.  

I was watching some stupid show today, Family Jewels I think—not by choice—and, well, I gotta say. Maybe it’s our accelerated culture pushing everything to overkill, but I am really sick of the general public’s “support the troops” façade. Everyone puts on such a big show about it, but aside from talking a big game, what does anyone really do? You say you respect veterans, but do you really? You can stand on your moral soap box all you want, but the truth is, America tends to take its military for granted. I think this whole “Support Our Troops” movement is just a bunch of hype, a bunch of people just jumping on a bandwagon that they support intellectually but not in any other life changing aspect. Sure celebrities go to the USO and Walter Reed Military Hospital, and I guess that’s great and all, but what about the rest of us? I get really sick of seeing so much cheesy “positive thoughts” propaganda… but how many people actually work to do something about it? And I don’t just mean donate to organizations, because I think that’s a load of bullshit no matter what organization it is. Money is stupid. Donate your TIME and EFFORTS. Like the church that sends us pillowcases so we can have a bit of color in our day. Or friends and family who actually write letters or send pictures and care packages. Maybe the world has a skewed view of what they think “helps” or what is “important” to active duty deployed military folks.  

Okay, I’m done here. You can have this soapbox back.

Haze Grey +11 [Bass Ackwards]

Accidentally stayed up for 24 hours on the 3^rd. Then accidentally slept for 12 hours. Then stayed up for 24 hours again out of necessity… Tried to sleep through the night, and got interrupted by a drill, so I had to run down to the office. Should have stayed up and worked out, but I was grumpy so I went back to bed for a couple more hours. Got up for ‘midrats’ [oh, I love you midrats, yes please, feed me at midnight] and now I think I’m up for the day. That’s a little frustrating, and I’m sure I’ll regret it, but I should be back around to normal in a couple days. I guess we started a night shift effective immediately, and I am pretty bummed I’m not on it. I’d be so good on night shift!

I hate the way people just mosey here. I mean, come on. I’m not always in a hurry, but I walk with purpose [blame my dad]. Get from point A to point B, and if you’re just walking around to waste time and look busy, get the eff out of MY way. People have absolutely no self awareness.

In other news, due to a glitch/bug with Steam on the ONLY day I put it online [in order to download the Gods and Kings expansion] my gaming ability is incapacitated. Which makes me sad. I was really enjoying playing Civ on watch, and I was supposed to practice with the expansion so hubby doesn’t wipe the floor with me when I get home. But now I’ll have to wait a while before I can fix it, since we don’t get real internet. And that’s only if we’re lucky enough to get a couple hours free in SanD. Not gonna lie, pretty bummed out. And I can’t even crack it either.

I really want a cup of coffee, but since our coffee supply is limited [our hookups aren’t exactly pulling through] I guess I’ll settle for tea. Also I hear tomorrow my semi-boss might be building a power supply from scratch. I told him I wanted to help.

Haze Grey +7

Oh, damn, I see… I’ve been doing it wrong all along.

First day of mandatory PT today… I understand the “working out til you feel like you’re going to puke” kind of thing now. I still don’t like it and I still hate working out. After an hour or so of that I did 2 miles in 22 minutes, keeping with my 11 min/mi average… BUT. My mile is about 12 minutes, and my 1.5 mile is at 17. That’s one minute over fail, and two minutes over my goal. Again, I use either a hill climb or a cross-country program for shits-n-giggles, I’d probably be a little faster on a flat course. I got myself coughing on the elliptical; that’s good, right? I can say now that running to TV is more entertaining but running with music is more effective. But it’s hard to manage electronics and I don’t want anything to get stolen or broken, so I’ll just trade off I guess. I definitely missed watching Tara today while I ran. On off days my goal is to do 5 miles. On PT days I’ll cut it down to 2 miles. I might just cry tomorrow. I also tried to do a bit of yoga afterwards, if nothing else to stretch out my poor legs. It’s really not as worthwhile without a good instructor, and I miss the 104* room at Expand Yoga in downtown Tacoma. I really noticed a difference when I went. When I get home again I’d like to go at least once a week, maybe twice. Plus it’s another excuse to run… it’s about 1.4 miles from my house.

They’re doing a rally-cross course on Top Gear [yeah we always watch the BBC actually]… if I didn’t love my little car as much as I do, I would jump at the chance to do that kind of craziness with it. I bet she would rock.

Today is the second time in a row that I have walked off and left my water bottle somewhere, then had to go back and get it. I should come up with a solution for this problem.

Haze Grey +6

So it’s been tough to write daily. Yesterday we got facebook back so I did that instead. I know, I know, slap my wrists and call me bad. Yesterday I also went to the dentist, who then told me I should go take a nap. So I did, and it was glorious. Setting someone up to fail big time tomorrow, not on purpose, but it’s just kind of an inevitability. Mandatory PT starts tomorrow, it makes me sad. I did just over 4 miles today in 45 minutes. Still keeping with my 11 min/mi average. Honestly if I got it down to 10 minutes I’d pass. That is on an elliptical though, and it’s so much easier to do that than run on a treadmill. I hate treadmills. I’d rather run on the street than on a treadmill. And you know, I really hate thinking about working out. I really really hate working out. I dread it so fiercely. It goes against everything I believe in, except wanting to be hot and flexible. But once I actually get out there, and once I get done, I do feel better. It’s just getting started that is so hard to do. I need more motivation. I’m thinking of doing some P90X or Insanity at home, except I don’t think that would work well in an upstairs apartment. Trying to get the videos from someone before we get home.

Apparently my old senile puppy-girl misses me even though she’s losing her mind. She’s safe with my mom down in CA, because she’s home more and has a yard and can make her more comfortable than I can in an apartment. I still feel like an asshole for letting her go. Maybe when we move I can bring her home. But she apparently misses me and doesn’t understand why I’m not there, so I need to send a pillow or a blanket or a shirt. I’m thinking of making her a blanket and then sleeping with it for a couple nights to get it to smell right. I don’t think we kept her doggie bed or I’d send that too. Maybe I’ll throw in some bones or treats or something because I feel guilty and I want her to be happy. It sounds like she is, but I feel so bad abandoning my dog. We got her when she was like a month old, way too early, and she’s been with me 13 or 14 of her 15 years. When I first moved to college she couldn’t come with me, but by the time I was a junior she was back. She stayed with my mom then too.

This is a photo of Nelly when she was “young,” back in 2000-ish. She was already about 5 by then I think.

Haze Grey +5

Getting harder and harder to write.

Today was annoying and stupid and maybe I’m just being hormonal but I can tell my attitude and my emotions are all out of whack. I don’t like it. So to kind of punish myself or something, I ran through two episodes of Tara instead of just one. I screwed up the program on the elliptical, but I can say I definitely hit 4.75 miles, and it was probably like 50 minutes or something. I guess my self-destructive body knows I did something good, because now it wants me to pig out. It’s weird, because my muscles don’t hurt, but my knees are starting to instead.

In other news, I’ve finished two new sets of crochet squares. Pics will be added when I get to SanD. I hope my girls are keeping up on their ends, but as someone said to me today, “it’s not like they have hours of watch to sit around and work on stuff.”

I also rigged some “test equipment” today, because I’m tired of getting sent all the way back to our shop because someone doesn’t know how to plan for a trouble call. It would have been prettier if I had access to a soldering iron, but I made it work just fine with some electrical tape.

PS. I now hate airplanes. I used to have a general affinity for them, thanks to my dad, but now… well… those jerks are loud and just ruin your day.

Haze grey +3

Forgot to write yesterday. Seems like everything is breaking all at the same time, we have been so busy lately.

My thought for the day is this: You can definitely tell which people are only children, and which ones were raised with brothers and sisters. Two of the gals I bunk with are fine and dandy and polite and friendly, and we try to stay out of each others’ way. Two of them must be on different schedules from me because I never ever see them. But one, oh the one… if I don’t make it out of bed before her in the morning, I’m screwed.

In other news, I may have lost my headphones somewhere inside my sleeping bag. But I ran 3 miles on the elliptical in 32 minutes. I know by most standards that’s slow as shit; almost 11 minutes per mile. I need to get down to a 10-minute mile or better, my goal is 1.5 in 15 minutes. [someone may need to check my math]. It’s cool because it seems like the way I arranged my schedule I was about 10 minutes ahead of one of said bunkmates, so it actually ran quite smoothly, and I still had time to eat. But if I’m going to do a repeat of that I need to go now, especially since I need to find my headphones… that way I can run and watch United States of Tara, courtesy of Miss J.T.

Haze Grey +1

Please. Thank you. Excuse me. Sorry. Smiling. Not being selfish. Not being greedy. Not being wasteful. Cleaning up after yourself. Chewing with your mouth closed. Taking personal responsibility. Respecting people for and despite their differences. Treating people equally. Asking for a favor politely and directly. When someone asks you for a favor, not acting like they’re asking for you to re-build the pyramids. Showing appreciation for people who do nice things. Appreciating what you have, and appreciating more what people give you, especially when it’s for no reason but the goodness of their hearts. Thanking people who deserve it. Making new friends. Reaching out to those who need a hand, or a hug.

The world would be a much better place if people practiced more of these behaviors. I know I’m not perfect, but I also know I wasn’t raised, as they say, by wolves or in a barn [although I did spend one summer in a renovated barn… nevermind]

On a side note… did you ever have a dream, where someone in your dream asks you if you remember [xyz] that happened, and you do, but you remember it because it was a dream you had weeks ago?

Haze Grey +0

Man, I got really spoiled at home. I haven’t worked this much in a while. Granted it is mostly BS, but you know. I got lazy. Today I got extremely intimate with the innerworkings of Bose audio systems, and let me tell you… waste of damn money. They’re like Macs, you have to just buy a new one. You can’t upgrade or replace a damn thing. They suck!

I hear that my babes ain’t doin so hot, so if any of you Tacoma folks are reading this, please drop him a line to at least say hi and remind him you’re around. You know he’s too stubborn to ask for much unless he really needs it, so please, if he asks for something, know that he must mean it.

I also went to the dentist today… at 7 pm… those guys don’t screw around! My mouth hurts but I really liked the dental officer. I’ll have to go back in for a few touch ups, so that will make this week extra fun. Is it weird that any time they give me novacaine I generally end up taking a nap while they work on my teeth?? Sitting at the dentist halfway inspired me though; I really do need to take better care of myself and work towards becoming a better person. I’m kind of feeling bittersweet though, because I always do this: get fired up, make grandiose promises to myself, then bail within the week. I need to turn my life around. I mean diet, exercise, mental and physical health, finances, business, career, attitude, balancing act, time management, etc etc etc. No time quite like this to start changing habits for the better. I’d like to actually succeed this time. I always feel compelled to make lists… but never follow through. I want to follow through. How can I track my progress?

My face is still numb, but I’m looking forward to getting rocked to sleep by the waves tonight… not quite as nice as having someone’s arms around me and three other furry someones monopolizing the rest of the bed, but it’ll do, I guess. I’m not looking forward to washing dishes in the upstairs sink.

Haze Grey

Well, it’s been about 5 hours so far and I’ve already smashed my hands up three times… twice out of clumsiness and only once out of anger. This morning I was almost excited, thinking I’d finally gotten a handle on this stuff… alas, not true, you can never truly be ready for this level of stupidity and attitude. But I do feel more prepared. I would rather be home, of course, but this is the next step in an exercise of lessening the blow. So far I’m actually optimistic. The spaghetti has been a big hit, although I’m still getting ribbed on the dubious quantity—it’s not a 55 gallon drum, so it can’t possibly be enough. For those of you who don’t know, my spaghetti is somewhere in the realm of legendary. This time I grabbed some on-sale rotinis though, and turns out they were gluten free, and therefore made out of corn. Corn noodles… yeah, just not the same. They feel a little funny as leftovers. Next time I’ll be more careful. I don’t do recipes really, but if you want to give it a shot, here’s the ingredients:

-hamburger meat

-italian sausage

-diced tomatoes

-fresh diced green onions

-loads of fresh diced garlic

-fresh diced onions

-mushrooms chopped to your desired consistency [I don’t like the way they feel so I cut them very small]

-grated zucchini

-Hunt’s spaghetti sauce [doesn’t really matter what variety, but it’s cheap, and comes in huge cans, and it’s all I’ll ever use]

-spices: garlic, garlic salt, oregano, basil, mixed Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, minced onion, bay leaves

Sauté garlic and onions in olive oil. Add hamburger meat, season, cook almost through. Add sausage, cook through. Add everything else, season again. I can still guarantee you it won’t come close to mine, but you might get close. You can use whatever kind of noodles you prefer, but it won’t be quite right if you don’t use rotini.