Is that a hair in my sock?

In the last year I have had two haircuts, one in South Korea and one in North Carolina (sidenote- I can't tell you how many times I've started a sentence with "When I lived in North Korea" because of that combination of living places). If you include the redo of the NC-mall-haircut a day later, I've actually had three hair cuts in the last 16 months. I can't remember how long it had been before I left for Korea that I had a haircut, but as you can see based on last year, it was most likely several months prior. Every day I've been telling myself to just go down to SuperCuts and get it cut, just a trim because lord knows you shouldn't make drastic style changes while hormonally challenged. Every day I convince myself not to, it's just a little pain after a shower to get it combed out, no big deal, suck it up your husband is at war ya wuss. And then today I had a brilliant idea, one that would continue enabling my haircut-laziness as well as serve a good cause for this uber-vitamined hair I've finally got going for me. I will commit to growing my hair the entire time SGT T is deployed, with the rare trim thrown in for avoiding the dry heaves caused by the disgust I get when looking at the split ends I'm sporting, and then chop it all off after he is back and donate to Locks of Love. It's a win-win, no? I win, because I don't have to worry about getting my hair cut, the kids win because they get some red locks, and my husband wins because not only am I "growing out my hair the entire time he is gone to show my support for him and the rest of the troops" but I will cut it all off shortly after he returns so he doesn't have to live with my nasty long hair getting into everything. So really, it's like a win-win-win^2 situation.

I've missed you

I've had a bit of social life overload lately and I fear my blog may have paid the price for my lack of life-balancing skills. It's been quite some time since I've had more than one thing at a time to do (i.e., interact with human beings and write here once in a while, see? it's so much!) and I fear I'm a bit rusty. Last week a friend from Utah came to visit, it was awesome and a little weird to have Utah visiting me in Oregon instead of me visiting Utah! To remedy that I rode back out to Utah with her so I could visit a couple of other people, which is what I'm currently doing.

I've got to say, it's been such a roller coaster week for me and I've been pondering some blog decisions I feel I need to make but am no closer to reaching a conclusion. First though, I want to thank one of the most awesome women I know for doing that which I've needed done for the gods only know how long: she knocked me right the hell out of the funk I've been in for at least a year, probably longer. The first night I was at her house I was in the bathroom and noticed that something looked kind of weird with my face. I stared in the mirror for several minutes before I figured out what it was: my laugh lines - I could see them! And they were red from overuse. I can't tell you how incredibly awesome it has felt to experience three days of laughter and fun and lightheartedness, even with a serious conversation here and there, after wondering for so long if this was me now. This miserable, frowning grumpy face that I just know people look at and think, wow, what's her problem? Incredibly awesome, and I don't know how to thank you!

Anyways, so I guess that would be part of the high, fun roller coaster stuff. The lower parts of the ride have to do with this blog and some contact I've recently had from a couple of exes (why more than one has recently blessed, ahem, me with their presence on facebook is beyond me). I've been contemplating starting a new blog and keeping it more anonymous so that I feel more comfortable talking about some things that right now I am not comfortable talking about because my parents and aunts and uncles and friends read this. There are some things that I think I'd like to ramble about but that I don't necessarily want people we know to know about, you know? Nothing big, but if I wanted to vent about SGT T's ACU infatuation and not worry about it hurting his feelings by it coming up in conversation unexpectedly, I could! And now with the unfortunate ex-perience, at least one of them potentially knows of this blog and can pop in anytime he wants and I don't think I like that. Granted, it probably empowers him if I stop writing, but why should I make my life available to him if all he does is make assumptions and judge me? Talk about inhibiting what I will share, you know?

I know, I'm probably overreacting and this is what I want your guys' help with. I would love some suggestions or advice on if you think I should keep this blog or not. I thought about keeping it and just doing pregnancy updates for the family and stuff, but that probably wont happen if I think unwelcome readers may be lurking nearby. If this were like a totally popular blog that more than 5 people read, I would probably just say screw it because chances are I'd have more than one asshole reading it, but I'm not and I happen to know the asshole reading this one. And oh boy did I just stir up a shitcan of worms, right?

By far, though, the positive of the last week and a half has far outweighed the negative and I have been having a great time catching up with everybody. I still think they should all just pack up and move with me whenever I move, but for some reason nobody things that is a good idea. Well, one of them is somewhat willing, but only if it is a more permanent move than a 3 year enlistment provides, which, AWESOME!

Spring is on the way

Being back in my hometown has been pretty great, regardless of my continual crankiness. I've been more active on a regular basis, going for walks, going to the park, going to great food places . . . I just wanted to share a couple of pictures from my recent outdoor excursions even though I don't really have anything to share in the form of words.

A spring time yard

A sidewalk picture

My feet in the sky as I swing

Taking this picture myself was quite a challenge, try it sometime!

SGT Chili T

I went to a real, honest-to-goodness, OB/GYN doctor last Wednesday for the sole reason of being pregnant (and having that verified). No ER doctor, no Family Practioner, no nurses, just a board certified pregnant lady doctor, and it was great! I got free pamphlets, free tums, and a free book, oh my! I also got a more recent picture of the thing residing inside my body. [note: I've yet to come up with a cute little nickname for it like all the other mommybloggers I've read, who had perfect little names like "nubbin" and "wombat". And I refuse to use a common name like peanut or button, because how barfingly cute are those, right? So, I'm open to suggestions on that little matter].

I scanned the ultrasound picture in and emailed it to SGT T who thanked me profusely for the picture of our baby.

Original Picture

I asked him if he was able to tell what he was looking at, I swear this is the clearest, most obvious profile picture I've ever seen from an ultrasound, and he said NO. So this is what I just emailed him, in an effort to make him as much a part of this experience as I can.

SGT T Picture


All of this to say that, yes, things are well and good and moving right along, thank you all for your concern and reassurances!

You either get it or you don't

This took place on the way home from dinner, driving past Taco del Mar, whose sign reads "Mission Style Burritos":

me: What are mission style burritos, are those like what you would get from San Francisco or something? (referring to the yummy yummy burritos you can get in the mission district)

mom and dad: I don't really know.

brother: Those are when the burrito is on top.

Almost a great day

Just now, when I was getting ready to shower, I weighed myself and I weighed 10 (TEN!) pounds less than yesterday. While the rational part of my brain was being violently shoved into a tiny little box with a heavy duty padlock on it as I checked and rechecked the truth of what I saw, my hormone brain was rejoicing and not in the least bit worried that I lost the equivalent of both of my feet in weight while sleeping last night. Unfortunately, the part of me that is concerned for the well-being of the other-being inside me took over and made my mom step on the scale for double checking's sake. Her weight was correct and my hormone brain continued rejoicing until I stepped back on and was at yesterdays weight again. So close, yet so very very far.

Etiquette

You may not know this, but I've been applying for a lot of jobs over the last, well, year, but my eventual point is more relevant to the immediate past. I've been applying for lots of jobs and while I haven't been called for an interview on a single one, I'm thinking that eventually somebody will call and I will need to know how to handle a certain aspect of the experience. And that aspect is this:

If I'm not showing yet, is it inappropriate to not tell the interviewer that I am pregnant?

Your thoughts?