Things I Love Thursday

Tiny apartments of China.  These apartments made me feel super claustrophobic, I can't imagine living in one.

Awesome vintage posters for modern products. This site (Lost at E Minor) has some really neat-o websites, some of which I'm sharing here.

Like looking at crazy shoes? Check out the Virtual Shoe Museum.

Brad Pitt eating things.

Need some filler text for your site but don't want to lose hipster cred? Try Hipster Ipsum.

The scale of the universe.

Cringeworthy advertising.  Not all of these are legit but far too many are.

Subway Douchery.

Photoshopped Russian Wedding Photography.

The museum of endangered sounds. Love this, especially the dial-up.

20 Supporting Characters from '90s TV Shows Then & Now.

Brian Hanson's comic about rape jokes on Twitter.

This article "The Tyranny of Pink" about "breast cancer culture," pinkwashing, and the unfortunate actions taken by Susan G. Komen Foundation and various corporations to cash in on women's suffering. There are far better, more helpful ways to support women with breast cancer than buying (or selling) pink buckets of KFC chicken or pink bottles of toxic, carcinogenic perfume.  Thanks ChemoBabe!

Awesome video game cakes.

11 Memorable Images from the 1970s.

Back to the Future: Old & New Photos.

This could probably keep me busy for a long, long time.

Perspective & Our Week

I think the main problem I have in dealing with Rob being gone--and with my anxiety in general--is a lack of perspective.

Rob was telling me when he first got home that when his fellow Hotshots complained about losing a day off that was initially promised or something else relatively minor, he'd always remember that at one time he had it a lot worse and how much worse his situation could be.

Specifically he reminded me of what happened to a Stryker unit out of Alaska who was returning home from deployment right around the time he was gone.  After 12 months in Iraq, the decision came down that deployments would begin to last 15 months instead; as a result of some horribly brazen decision made by some fucker sitting in a nice office, soldiers who were literally on the runway getting ready to reunite with the loved ones had to go back to Iraq for an additional 3 months.  Rob told me that no matter what happens, he isn't one of the guys on that plane, and any hardship he confronts now by its nature can't be as horrible as that.

My husband is much better at maintaining perspective in this way.  In contrast, when I'm upset at something minor I'm generally at the same level of anxiety that I would be in a much, much worse situation.  I think this is where the discrepancy comes in our stress levels when one of us is away, and why sometimes it seems (to me) like I'm "missing him more" than he misses me.

Anyway Robbie becomes available and on-call as of Friday, and I'm hoping that with each fire this will get slightly easier.

So here's a recap of our week, which has mostly been Rob's weekend since he's had the last three days off.

Since last year we instituted the tradition of birthday week, I got to pick most of what we did this week.  Rob took me out to lunch at the Coyote Cafe (fucking yummy) and P.F. Chang's (yes, again).  On Thursday, he made me grilled cheese and a margarita, and for dinner made me turkey-feta-onion burgers with corn on the cob and wouldn't let me do any dishes.  I got pretty lucky el department de husbands.

Also, ignore how much I look like a little boy in a dress in the following photos.

Anyway I hope you're all having a great week so far.  I haven't been myself lately and I'm hoping to get back into blogging slightly more regularly; I just can't imagine that you guys want to hear "sat around the house staring at the TV screen all day"on every post.  

Memorial Day

Just stopping in to say Happy Memorial Day as it draws to a close.  If you haven't already please take some time to remember the reason for this holiday and those men and women who didn't make it home to barbecue and spend time with family this weekend.

Below are a couple of (unposed) photos I took of Robbie earlier this evening, having a drink in honor of fallen comrades.

Wishing you all a great start to the week.

A Birthday Recap

I had a pretty awesome (and extended) 26th birthday this year.

On Thursday I drove to Albuquerque to pick up my sisters.  I get really anxious meeting people at the airport (who knows why) but I was super excited to see them walking into the terminal.  We drove home, lounged around, and walked Cypress.  It was really cool to see Santa Fe through their eyes; since I've been here for 3 months I've gotten pretty used to the scenery and sort of take it for granted at this point.  When I came home from a walk they had pretty much conked out with jet lag so we napped, snacked, watched 30 Rock and had some drinks.

Friday and Saturday were spent hanging out and checking out downtown Santa Fe, along with Netflix and lots of yummy food.  We also visited my dad's alma mater, which Ashleen hadn't seen yet.  My dad's stories about the College of Santa Fe (now the Santa Fe College of Art and Design) were a huge reason why I wanted to come here when Rob decided to be a Hotshot.

On Saturday my sisters were kind enough to take me to P.F. Chang's for a birthday dinner because, as you all should know by now, I love me some Chang.  We even got all dressed up because we're awesome like that.

In the next photo I'm wearing Ashleen's hair extensions.  I totally think they work.

As we were getting on the highway to go to Albuquerque, a cop pulled up next to us and told us we were getting a flat tire.  To my (happy) surprise, I didn't freak out or cry at all but very calmly called our 24/7 roadside assistance program through our insurance (thank goodness we sprang for that).  I think we definitely looked like stereotypes when the guy finally came because we were all three in dresses, standing on the side of the road completely oblivious as to what to do with a flat tire.

Apparently I had driven over a bolt at some point because it was firmly lodged into my tire.  

In accordance with our stereotyped selves, Ashleen and I totally asked the mechanic, and the bolt was not supposed to be there.

Anyway we got the donut on the car, rented a car from the airport, and made our way to Albuquerque to ride the Chang.  It was a lot of fun and the food was delish, as always.

They left early in the morning on my birthday to head back home and I miss them already.  I had a lot of fun having fun and bullshitting with each other and it was a welcome distraction from the stress of fire season.

Later that day I ran errands and got the house ready for Robbie to come home. Natalie came over and took me to a yummy lunch at the Coyote Cafe to keep ourselves busy.  While there we found out that though the boys were home by 1 or 2, they had to work until 6, which was a bummer but a few hours doesn't really make that much of a difference when you've waited 14 days.  

Finally at around 6:15pm Robbie came home.  And it was awesome.  I had missed him so much, and the last few days before he got home had been rough on me in a few ways.  Mostly my stomach was in absolute turmoil from Wednesday until this morning and I couldn't eat without feeling crazy nausea.  What can I say, things are just easier when he's home.

Anyway Rob has 3 days off, so we're having an abbreviated birthday week.  I'm sad that he'll have to go back out so soon (most likely as soon as they go back to work) but I'm really thinking and hoping that it'll get easier each time. 

I hope you all had a good weekend, and thanks for the sweet birthday messages you left on my last post.  You're all amazing!

Day of Birth!

Today I am 26!

 

I'm spending the day driving my sisters to the airport (sad) and then snuggling the absolute shit out of my husband when he comes home (happy).

I hope you're all having a great Memorial Day weekend.  Along with my birthday we will of course be celebrating Rob's comrades that were lost.

Lately.

Man, I've really let my blog slide in terms of regular posting.  These last two weeks I pretty much gave up everything extraneous (including Jillian Michaels, shame face) to focus on my mental health while Rob was away.  Call it excuses but I'm doing a lot better, and dammit you gotta do what works.

I had a real turning point last weekend where I stopped worrying about Rob leaving me or preferring to be working with fire than home with me.  There was nothing specific that initiated it but rather a combination of things--more time with fire wives, therapy, Rob calling and texting more often, etc. One of the biggest factors was that the fire wives and I made a sort of unofficial agreement according to which we can't talk about whose husband called and whose didn't (unless there is some news that all of us should know).  We realized that talking about it was just making each of us resentful and there really was no need for it.  I still fall into the pit of worry every now and then but for the most part I keep reminding myself that he loves me, and if he didn't love me he probably wouldn't have been stupid enough to marry me, and that's all I can go on.

Anyway just like the first breakthrough at the beginning of this fire call I know that my mind could easily slip back into old ways if Rob doesn't call, or if he does call and is exhausted, or for any number of reasons.  All I can do is take it a day at a time, I suppose.

This week all in all has been pretty mellow.  On Thursday my sisters arrived in Albuquerque and will be here until Sunday (which, coincidentally, is my birthday and the day that Rob's due home) and it's been so awesome showing them around.  My little sister in particular hasn't spent much time out west, so it's fun to see everything as new and exciting all over again.  The timing of their visit couldn't have been more perfect, quite frankly!

Today we're going to check out downtown, visit my dad's alma mater, and eat some yummy food.  I think tomorrow they're taking me to Albuquerque to ride the Chang, about which I am pretty damn excited.  I'm even going to wear my new dress because I'm awesome like that.

Anyway I believe that's all the news that's fit to print.  I'm feeling really awesome and lucky this week and I hope you are too.

Things I Love Thursday

15 Things Kurt Vonnegut Said Better Than Anyone Ever Has or Will.

25 Everyday Things You Didn't Know Had Names.

48 Things that will Make You Feel Old.  This was trippy as hell, especially the one about Heath Ledger.

Sarah writes about the one (and in my mind, only) rule of blogging that matters.

What happened in your birth year?  (Thanks Jess!)

20 Shocking Consequences of Massachusetts Legalizing Gay Marriage.

Will Smith raps "Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire." So awesome.

Rob and I go back and forth on the subject of kids and sometimes entertain the possibility of being totally childfree.  I really enjoyed this blog post about one couple's choice to not have children.

Check out these neat race/ethnicity maps by city (I think it's just the US but still very interesting). Thanks Meg!

This gif of music format usage from 1980-2010.

Pencil vs. Camera by Ben Heine.

Garfield minus Garfield.  I've shared this before, but it's one of the funnier websites I've seen so here it is again.

An edible candy bowl?! YES PLEASE.

Off the Grid: Photos of People Living Outside Mainstream Society in the USA.

Cool conceptual photography.

Unusual view of an unusual house.