FICTION OF THE NINJA KIND

So far this year the following has happened:

1. River has lost her ever loving mind. Which means that it's true you should watch who you name your pets after. This dog is too smart for us. I guess I'm the Simon to her River because I left and she flipped out.

2. I have returned to Texas. As it turns out there is a nice part of Texas it is called The Woodlands, and it's where my parents moved. I got to see the new house they will be closing on soon. It's wonderful with a pool. Texas just became an interesting place to visit.

3. Orbitz will no longer be getting my business. I have the e-mail they sent me about my ticket information It very clearly shows a departure time from Houston of 5:40 PM. However, when they finally found my reservation at the airport, it turns out my flight left at 3:40 PM. FAIL. When I called Orbitz customer service line later they just said "That's too bad. At this time this is an issue you'll need to take up with the airline to get on another flight." and as to why I was not alerted to a change in my flight status "your spam filter probably blocked it"

4. On the other hand Continental and United will continue to get my business. The woman at the Continental line upon finding my reservation and wondering why I thought my flight was at 5:40, was wonderful. She searched for all flights going to Fresno. She could get me to all the airports that do fly to Fresno, but not actually Fresno. So I got to spend another night with my parents and Haley. She got me to Fresno today, and the people at both airlines were really helpful.

5. I have been assaulted by a baby. I had to sit next to a woman and her very small child on the plane. Very small child instead of bursting into tears at the sight of me, decided he had to hit me. All throughout the flight. With respect to the Mom she did try and stop him as much as possible. But random baby hand to the face was not fun. Nor was it fun when he chucked his bottle at me a few times. I will not be having children.

6. Statistics. I've got four more weeks left. October 29, 2011 is when I finish my degree. Can you tell I'm excited?

7. I briefly glanced over my friends page and it seems like there's some goal to read 50 books in 2011? I'm at three so I might have to go and sign up. It also looks like we're all reading the same books-The Hunger Games. I'm on book three right now. I read the first two in Texas and bought the third at LAX. Must know what happens.

So far, I'm 4 days into 2011 and it's been a very interesting year. I like interesting, but I'd like it to calm down some.

So, it's looking more officially like Chris will be going to the Middle East for a year and we will be apart again. The part of me that has always rebelled assures me I will be fine even if I don't want to do this. Today, as he left to go do his four day shift at Yosemite I knew I was lying to myself. I mean yes, overall, I will probably be fine, but I will be lonely. We've already done a year apart and it sucked. I don't know what I'd do in Fresno-where Chris is the only one I have to hang out with gone. I'm considering options.

Option A: Follow in the footsteps of Chris and try and get a job overseas for a year. He's going to be making good money, but as long as I can pay COL expenses and my loans it would be okay. Japan would of course be my number once choice-but given that it's almost September I don't see that as being very likely.

Option B: Leave Fresno and move to LA, get a job there, and live with my Mother in Law, three dogs and the other fuzzy one. Not sure how I feel about having to start job hunting again. Especially when I'm doing well in my Fresno job even if it doesn't pay as much as I'd like.

Option C: Go to Asia and work. Not sure how this would work. This is my ideal option. The MIL has said she'll take the dog it's just the other fuzzy I'd have to worry about. I think working in Asia and being bombarded with my own new experiences would probably keep me distracted from the fact that my husband was away for a year in a place that frequently experiences bombings.

Option D: I convince someone to move out to Fresno and live with me while Chris is gone.

The benefit of Chris and I both being overseas for hopefully a year long period that would be almost the same is that when we came back we'd have the financial buffer to chose where in the country we really did want to live and to find a job. I guess the same would hold for Option B when he got back.

I don't know. Chris is getting responses from contractors for his resume, and he's almost done with Paramedic testing (finally). It's hard to know what to do next.

On that front it's a little less then one month until my sister moves out to Los Angeles and half of my family will reside in the broken state of CA where the rights of its citizens are not as important as making sure conservatives are happy. Nope, I'm not bitter at all. If you had asked me many years ago if I thought any of us would be in CA I would have said no. I would like to be elsewhere.

I just finished reading The Girls From Ames which was lent to me by Robin who had heard good things about it. It's written by the co-author of The Last Lecture . It was a good book. It made me reflect on my friendships with other girls and women and how truly sad I am that most of them have not lasted. My longest friendship is with a wonderful woman though, and we're not super close but I'm glad Lindsey and I have stayed in touch. I was very honored to be a part of her wedding last summer. However, other friendships like Abby, high school Caitlin, Ann, Kei and Christine (to some extent) have really not lasted even though I always felt very close to those people. Losing Abby hurt deeply, I wonder if she were to be alive today (I really don't know) what she would think of Chris and what happened. Abby and I always made grand plans for the future involving horse ranches and being little old ladies together. By high school though when I found out Abby was dating on accident (I was so anti boy she was afraid to tell me) I knew her heart wasn't in it. However, Abby never made predictions for my future. Lindsey pretty much had it on the nail "You keep saying you don't like guys, but I bet you end up married first." I miss having girlfriends even though I refuse to believe I'm girlie. They give good advice and I could really use some about now. If you have close friends hug them and thank them for their wisdom.

True Blood made my little fangirl heart very happy last week. Now I think I'm going to stop watching before my favorite character gets killed and my little fangirl heart breaks all over again. Not that I know anything for sure since my favorite character is still causing trouble in the books but TB is going to take a turn soon from the books so that's one risk I think I'll just avoid.

I have this sinking suspicion at work that I'm overachieving. The job still seems to be too easy which means I'm cruising through rx packets with ease. To the point where I'm in the top two of the new people hired. I suspect that the girl who's with me is actually better over all as I am sometimes somewhat scattered. I still really like my job because it makes me think. It may be a nine hour a day office job but it's hard and I like a challenge.

My parents came this weekend which was really cool if somewhat stressful. They enjoyed coming to see us in Fresno and took us out to dinner. Additionally, we went to Sequoia National Park which was a lot of fun. Those trees are huge. Plus no bears, but we did see a mule dear. And got some killer home grown strawberries on the way up there.

Chris and I have picked up swimming as a hobby which is fun for us. It's a good way to cool down and stretch out after a day of work.

The Olympics have been really fun to watch. Mostly for the footage of China where it's like "I've been there, only it was cold". I'm still mad that the equestrian footage isn't on any station, but I am pleased that they are streaming it live. The last time I checked the US was in third over all. The Cross Country course looks amazing. Very pretty. The best part about streaming online is the lack of commentary other then someone they paid to type some comments here and there. Those tend to be helpful and brief.