A Post About Nothing for Your Thursday

I've decided these random posts are my favorite.

So I didn't get a ton of questions on my blog post asking for questions.  At first I was really embarrassed and almost deleted the post because I'm the human embodiment of the socially awkward penguin, but then I stopped being so weird and instead chose to take the question-pandering to Instagram.  If you have any questions you'd like to see me awkwardly answer on a vlog, visit the post or my Instagram and ask away or risk making me crawl into a deep hole of social awkwardness. THAT'S ON YOU.

Amie's been here for almost a week and so far it's been really awesome.  For those of you who don't already know the goal currently is to have Amie stay with us at least through September and perhaps October. A lot of people expressed concern that we'd get sick of each other or miss our personal space especially in such a tiny house, but we've made it work.  Also, she's been washing the dishes and making me breakfast sammies whenever I want them.  I'm thinking this arrangement will work out well for both of us.  Robbie's due home (hopefully) the middle of next week and I think he'll enjoy having her around too. I know Cypress does.

Speaking of my prodigal husband, he's been gone since August 25 and as of August 28 he was sent to a fire in Idaho that is smack dab in an area of no service.  The separation is at least six times harder when I can't talk to him or text.  I feel like maybe he was just some sort of figment of my imagination and that I actually live alone here in Santa Fe with my weird dog.  Last Monday he got the chance to call from some sort of torture-device-cum-telephone which allowed him to connect a call for 3 minutes before automatically cutting him off.  Basically it was the most unsatisfying conversation ever because I was trying to cram a week's worth of things into the call while still asking him how he was doing. FIRE SEASON IS SUCK, my friends. I can't wait until this shit is fucking over and I have my husband and my married life back.

Onto things that don't make me want to throw myself on the floor and cry like a petulant 3-year-old. After a recent post in which I vented semi-incoherently about writing I received a comment from my dear friend Nova suggesting I write some short stories.  The idea has remained stuck in my head since then, in particular since I've never considered trying to write fiction because I always assumed I'd be terrible at it.  Frankly, I figured my stories would be of the "it was a dark and stormy night" variety and they'd make everyone's heads explode and not in a good way.  Talent be damned, I decided to give it a try, and after finally getting over my fear of actually setting "pen" to "paper" (read: keys to Microsoft Word) I word-vomited out about a quarter of a story.  I have no idea where I'll go with it or what will happen to the protagonist (I'm literary!) but for now I'm just enjoying the actual crafting of sentences and story lines.  Maybe I'll share a few here if I can tolerate the criticism. If you have any advice for me or would be willing to offer some light criticism (until I can handle the tougher stuff) please let me know!

Also, tonight in the lovely city of Santa Fe is Zozobra.  This is an annual event started in 1924 in which around 50,000 people cram together together in a park and burn a giant marionette symbolizing "Old Man Gloom" and then celebrate Fiesta (a celebration of the Spanish retaking Santa Fe from the Pueblo Indians in the late 1600s in that lovely colonialist way).  As an aside I'm pretty sure that was the most Pagan sentence ever written. Unfortunately inherent in the event is a celebration of Spanish domination here in Santa Fe which can leave the Native Americans a little understandably peeved.  Apparently there is also a history of violence against Native Americans during Fiesta.  Because of all this--and because I hate city parking, walking a mile from my parked car, and cramming into a field with 50,000 other people to watch a giant terrifying marionette get burned while people scream "BURN HIM" because I have a mild phobia of giant representations of small objects--Amie and I will be sitting comfortably at home watching "Archer" reruns...and maybe drinking a little to honor our shared Pagan history. If you want to watch a video of the 2007 Zozobra, click here, but be warned that if you're scared of clowns this will probably be terrifying. Also, Old Man Gloom fucking screams as they burn him and the whole crowd chants "BURN HIM!" In case that wasn't clear initially.

Other than that and plans for a new (and relatively spontaneous) tattoo, I'm just hanging out and about, relishing the beginning of fall and eagerly awaiting the return of my better (and more handsome) half.  I miss the crap out of that guy, figuratively of course.  I hope you are all having a wonderful--and if you're in the U.S., short--week.

Sickness, Santa Fe Fires, and Surprise Nights Off

I always enjoy alliterative post titles, don't you?

Anyway our last few days have been full of all of the things I list in the title.  First off, we went out to eat at the Zia Diner, which has been a frequent eatery of ours in the last few months.  I had nachos and Rob had chile cheese fries with wings.  For at least 2-3 days later, we both had symptoms of food poisoning. Let's just say that ours was not a fun house to spend time in.  We were together, though, so I can't really complain. The best food poisoning is shared food poisoning, am I right?

Don't worry, I won't share pictures.

The fire "weekend" ended on Thursday and Robbie went back to work on Friday.  It was hard, but for some reason not nearly as hard as it's been in past times.  Frankly I was kind of hoping he'd go out quickly because I've learned that the sooner he goes out, the sooner he comes back. On Friday they told us that Rob was unavailable--not on call--until the following day, Saturday.  Of course, my husband chooses government jobs, and he wasn't available on Friday...until he was.  He got sent to a fire in the Santa Fe ski basin for the night and was set to head to Arizona on Saturday morning.

But remember that whole government job thing I was talking about so long ago, in that last paragraph? Sometimes, just sometimes, the unpredictability works in your favor.  The buggy Rob's squad drives in broke down in the parking lot as they were heading to Arizona, and because it was so late in the day they let them come home for a night before leaving at 5a.m. on Sunday.  It was really, really fucking awesome to get a whole other unexpected night to snuggle, catch up on "Breaking Bad," eat a dinner of pizza and breakfast sammies, and watch MST3K together.  Some nights we're together we're both so present and I'm reminded of how lucky we are to be so fucking in love, and that we as humans invented italics so that I could stress how awesome it is in a blog post.

Anyway, like it always does, our evening ended and now I'm back to where I was, sitting on the couch and watching X-Files episodes.

As a side note, you know how long I've been watching X-Files? I'm not even halfway through the episodes on Netflix.

I hope you are all having a stellar weekend.

Yet Another Post About Nothing

You gotta love a post about nothing.

I've decided that more bloggers need to free-write.  I'm kind of over the whole 'having to plan an entire post with readers in mind' thing.  Maybe that's not new, though. Maybe no one else worries about that shit anymore.  Wouldn't surprise me, because I'm usually behind on these things. And, well...everything, I guess.

It's 1:30am and I am wide the hell awake for some reason.  You know how sometimes you try to sleep and your bed feels like the absolute least comfortable place you could be at that moment? THAT THING.  I'm watching Eddie Izzard's "Circle" special on the Netflixes which is hilarious and I'm snuggled in Rob's Army poncho liner because the air conditioner makes my house too cold. Warmest thing in the world, that poncho liner, by the way.

I've had a busy couple of weekends which has been awesome-pants (totally going to try to get that phrase started) because Rob comes home tomorrow (or technically today I guess) and staying busy is what needs to happen (other parenthetical statement). I've been rained on and went swimming in Abiquiu Lake, got a new tattoo and drank a prickly pear margarita at a convention in Albuquerque, bought some local art in downtown Santa Fe, and checked out the Science Museum up in Los Alamos, where the Manhattan Project was based.

Funny thing about the Science Museum--it's run by the government since the Los Alamos lab is actually a national lab. We watched a video about the Manhattan Project that really awkwardly skipped past the whole, you know, bombs-dropping-and-killing-people thing and focused more on the awesome martini soirees the scientists held while their countrymen were fighting and dying in World War II. I mean why deal with the massive world-changing implications of your actions when you can just wear awesome '40s clothes and hairstyles and drink martinis, am I right?

Forgive me for bringing up X-Files for the second time in my Posts About Nothing, but what on earth is Scully's deal?! Bitch has seen some crazy shit with her own eyes, and yet each episode when Mulder suggests that maybe, just maybe, some paranormal activity is responsible, and she acts all condescending and lame? I hate that "Mul-DER!" tone she has.  HE'S ALWAYS RIGHT, why do you doubt him every single goddamn time?! Rob thinks that it's probably more pronounced to me because I'm watching them all in a row, but I think a girl has a right to expect some measure of continuity.

Can you tell I'm home alone a lot?

Oh hey, before I forget, my darling husband turns 27 today! He's officially in his late 20s, though he'd argue with me on that point if he wasn't all the way in Colorado. He should arrive home later which is great because he'll be just in time for birthday week. 

Look, a rainbow!

A Post About Nothing

I am officially not going to stress about to coherence of this post.  And if you make it through it, I will reward you with a photo of a bunny.

Can anyone else believe that this summer is almost halfway over? I've been feeling really conflicted about this fact, since summer is my favorite season but winter this year means that I'll have Rob all to myself for 6 straight months.  Plus we're planning some pretty badass activities (including a possible trip to Europe, maybe a few new tattoos, a cross-country drive to Maine for a month or so, and lots of snuggles) so for the first time since childhood I have some very positive associations with winter.

Robbie and I were talking the other day about how despite the fact that we've been apart before, and that we have been apart for most of this summer, it never gets easier being away from each other.  Quite  to the contrary, actually, it seems to get more difficult. Rob is of the mind that it's impossible to really "get used" to something like this and that it's more likely that we're just getting more burned out and more tired.  Makes sense, I suppose. I know a lot of people think it's ridiculous that two people could be so attached to one another, but it's just how we are.  Neither of us have felt a need to spend time away from the other or ever needed a break, ever.  The man's my best friend and I think I could spend every second with him.

I know it sounds like everything is all doldrum-y sadness around these parts but that's far from the truth.  It's difficult but I've been keeping busy and hanging out a lot with awesome new friends, as well as planning some trips for the end of this summer (get ready, Michelle and Lindsey!).  My friend Amie is coming to stay with us for awhile in early September, and we're planning on checking out the Grand Canyon and California once Robbie's done with fire season.  All in all, despite the difficulty, I think I will be able to confidently say that 2012 was a great summer.

You know what my favorite part of the X-Files is? Seeing all the outdated technology and shitty special effects.  I saw Scully typing away on what appeared to be a laptop, but when they showed the blue screen with DOS font I realized that it was just a word processor.  Isn't it crazy to think that I carry around a super-computer in my hand that can do more than the machines that were used to power space shuttles not all that long ago? Sometimes I like to imagine what our world would look like to a person from, say, 1950, who just magically appeared here.  Something like Star Trek used to, I would imagine. Oh, you want to hear any fucking song in the world? Here, let me do that for you.  Want to communicate with someone 10,000 miles away in real time? NBD motherfucker. Am I the only one that thinks this kind of stuff?

Well there you go, a post that I didn't stress at all about.  And since I'm a girl of my word: