There are SOME perks to living in Washington state! I always loved watching the Olympics when I was a kid. For the summer Olympics I was fascinated with gymnastics and for the winter games I loved watching ice skating. Something about the fact that I will never in my life be able to do anything remotely close to what these athletes do seems to catch my attention. I can barely ice skate in a straight line and I've never been able to master a cartwheel, so I get my joy from watching others do the things I only wish I could do!
Since Vancouver is practically in my backyard (I live closer to Vancouver than I do to Seattle), I decided that when the Olympics arrived here I would have to find a way to go see them.
I managed to get tickets to the first round of ice dancing and I was thrilled! I wanted to go to the Olympics and I would have taken any tickets that I could get, but since ice skating was always my favorite thing to watch I was thrilled to end up with tickets to see this event live!
So on Friday, February 19, I headed off to Vancouver. Mr. V had to work, and while I know he wanted to check out the Olympics in general, I don't think he was too upset to miss ice dancing. Since he had to work, he passed his ticket along to a friend of mine and the 2 of us went off to have some fun. After a fairly easy border crossing (the easiest one I have experienced, which was odd since I would think that during the Olympics security would be tighter), we stopped at the British Columbia visitor's center to get some maps and information. This was probably the smartest move we made because Vancouver wasn't letting people drive and park downtown. We had to park in the town of Surrey and take the Skytrain into Vancouver. Since I didn't even know that the town of Surrey existed, the visitor's center was definitely a smart move.
The first thing we did was head off to the waterfront to see the Olympic torch (which is being called a cauldron for some reason). Amazingly, Vancouver has this entire thing under control. The crowds in the city were insane, but I am completely amazed at how well they have the crowds managed. I never felt like I was in a huge unruly crowd, and volunteers in blue jackets were set up everywhere to direct people around to keep traffic moving. I guess I was expecting pure bedlam, but we got the exact opposite.
After the torch, we had to head to the Pacific Coliseum to see the ice dancing. We had an amazing time! We got to meet some of the ice dancers and get their autographs and we got a big kick out of the excitement that the Canadians were radiating off of them. At one point I had to say "Wow I've never seen so many Canadians!" I know, I know. We were in Canada, so obviously there were Canadians everywhere, but what I meant was that everywhere we looked we saw red. It seemed like every single person was dressed in something red, something that had a maple leaf on it, or something that said Canada. The fact that it was all red is what I think stood out the most. We could look down a street and just see a sea of red everywhere and when the Canadian ice dancers preformed, the crowds watching went insane!
By the time the event was over we had to head back to Washington. However, we realized that there was still a lot of stuff in the city that we had wanted to see, so we made plans to come back on Sunday. So on the 21st, my friend and I collected our husbands and the 4 of us went back to check out more of the sights. We definitely had fun and for once I'm happy to be living out here because I'm not sure that I would have ever experienced this if I was living anywhere else!
I posted my pictures from the weekend on Facebook, and I'm going to try to post them here. I've never tried to use the public link to pictures on Facebook before, so I'm not completely sure this will work, but instead of creating a whole new album for the sake of this blog, I'm going to try it. If you find yourself clicking on the link and its not working, please let me know!
I just have a simple point and click camera, but my friend has an amazing professional type camera so her pictures turned out much better than mine. I didn't even bother trying to take pictures of the ice dancers because I knew they would come out small and blurry with my camera. She took tons of pictures though so I'm going to try to get the public link to her Facebook album (which she has to give me access to - I can't just get it myself) and then I'll post her pictures too. For now though, here are my pictures.
Olympics - Vancouver 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Goodbye Again
My bags are packed and ready to go, but I still have a few more hours before I need to leave for the airport. I always hate leaving my home. As much as I would love to live by the motto "Home is where the Navy sends us", I really can't. In many ways, that is true. Where Mr. V goes, I follow and it will always be that way as long as he is in the Navy. We're a family and we will make a home together wherever we go. However, at the same time, I don't know if I can ever call any of these places "home". So far the Navy has put me in Texas, Florida and Washington, yet when people ask me where I'm from, I still say "New Jersey". This will always be my home, while those other places will be a temporary home.
I've never been a person who has dealt well with change, so marrying someone in the military probably wasn't the smartest thing in the world, but I guess we can't help who we fall in love with! It took me 3 years to get used to North Carolina when I was in college there. I spent many school breaks at home in NJ claiming that I wasn't going back to NC and that I hated it there. It wasn't until my senior year when something finally clicked, and suddenly, I loved it there! That's why, when I did move out of NJ permanently, NC is where I went. But it took 3 years! 3 years for me to fully adapt to a place and 3 years to fully love a place. Unfortunately, 3 years is the standard amount of time that we will live anywhere, so sometimes its really depressing to me because I feel like I'll never have time to settle down and really feel like I am home.
I feel like I'm kind of rambling here. This isn't to say that I hate the experiences the Navy has given me. If anything, I love these experiences. I have been to places I never would have been to. I've seen things I never thought I would see. I've gotten "vacations" on the Navy's dollar. I am not sure if I ever would have seen Washington state if it wasn't for the Navy. I have always wanted to visit all 50 states at some point, but Washington was never on the top of my list, so who knows if I would have ever made it there. So while I am thankful for these experiences, it still makes me sad that I don't quite feel at home anywhere but at my childhood home.
I realize that this is pointless whining. If I want to be married to Mr. V then I have to deal with this life, and I'm willing to do that. But sometimes I feel like I need to have a good cry about it all. Most of the time I feel like having that good cry when it comes to leaving a place I am familiar with.
I think the hardest thing about leaving NJ this time is my grandparents. I came out here to celebrate their 80th birthday. I am their only grandchild and I admit that I have always been spoiled rotten by them. They mean so much to me, and in the past few years, they have been very depressed (especially my grandpa). They miss me and they make that very clear. I used to go to their house all the time, but now at the end of their lives, I barely see them. I wish I could see them more because it upsets me to see them crying when I say goodbye to them. I know that they won't be around forever. My grandpa has been pretty sick recently so I know that his time here is limited. I can handle saying goodbye to my friends. I can handle saying goodbye to my other family that is still left here. But I can't handle saying goodbye to them. Its hard enough that I have a hard time dealing with change as it is!
I'm not really sure what the point of this post is. I'm just sitting here, waiting to leave, and thinking a lot about my time spent in this house. There is a large part of me that wishes that I could still be here and that this was still my house to live in. There is so much that I miss about this place in general, and so many good memories, yet in a few hours, I'll be gone for who knows how long.
I guess I need to just suck it up, but I've never been good at doing that. I do miss Mr. V. I miss the cats. I miss my friends in Washington, but life would be ideal if I could just combine everything and everyone that I miss and put them all in the exact same place! I've always wanted a life of stability, but I chose a life of anything but that. Maybe one day I'll be able to handle change better. Maybe one day I'll be able to say goodbye to people without hurting and without crying.
So I guess this is goodbye to New Jersey for a while again. I don't know when I'll be out here again, but I do know that I want and need to see my grandparents again soon. Hopefully I'll plan another trip in a few months, and then I'll just go through this whole sad process again! To end this on a somewhat happy note, the best thing about this life is the freedom its given me. I guess that sounds weird as I sit here complaining about wanting stability, yet being happy about my freedom, but it does make sense. Mr. V has a great job that provides for us and allows me not to work full time. At one point this was a huge downer for me. I always wanted a career and I was upset when I realized we would be living in places that simply wouldn't allow for me to have that career. So I have worked temp jobs and I've worked as a nanny. I work part time and pretty much chose my own hours. His job allows for me to travel and do the things I want to and need to do and for that I am thankful :-).
Well...I guess its time to go pack up the car and head on out of here. I'll be back soon....I promise! :-)
I've never been a person who has dealt well with change, so marrying someone in the military probably wasn't the smartest thing in the world, but I guess we can't help who we fall in love with! It took me 3 years to get used to North Carolina when I was in college there. I spent many school breaks at home in NJ claiming that I wasn't going back to NC and that I hated it there. It wasn't until my senior year when something finally clicked, and suddenly, I loved it there! That's why, when I did move out of NJ permanently, NC is where I went. But it took 3 years! 3 years for me to fully adapt to a place and 3 years to fully love a place. Unfortunately, 3 years is the standard amount of time that we will live anywhere, so sometimes its really depressing to me because I feel like I'll never have time to settle down and really feel like I am home.
I feel like I'm kind of rambling here. This isn't to say that I hate the experiences the Navy has given me. If anything, I love these experiences. I have been to places I never would have been to. I've seen things I never thought I would see. I've gotten "vacations" on the Navy's dollar. I am not sure if I ever would have seen Washington state if it wasn't for the Navy. I have always wanted to visit all 50 states at some point, but Washington was never on the top of my list, so who knows if I would have ever made it there. So while I am thankful for these experiences, it still makes me sad that I don't quite feel at home anywhere but at my childhood home.
I realize that this is pointless whining. If I want to be married to Mr. V then I have to deal with this life, and I'm willing to do that. But sometimes I feel like I need to have a good cry about it all. Most of the time I feel like having that good cry when it comes to leaving a place I am familiar with.
I think the hardest thing about leaving NJ this time is my grandparents. I came out here to celebrate their 80th birthday. I am their only grandchild and I admit that I have always been spoiled rotten by them. They mean so much to me, and in the past few years, they have been very depressed (especially my grandpa). They miss me and they make that very clear. I used to go to their house all the time, but now at the end of their lives, I barely see them. I wish I could see them more because it upsets me to see them crying when I say goodbye to them. I know that they won't be around forever. My grandpa has been pretty sick recently so I know that his time here is limited. I can handle saying goodbye to my friends. I can handle saying goodbye to my other family that is still left here. But I can't handle saying goodbye to them. Its hard enough that I have a hard time dealing with change as it is!
I'm not really sure what the point of this post is. I'm just sitting here, waiting to leave, and thinking a lot about my time spent in this house. There is a large part of me that wishes that I could still be here and that this was still my house to live in. There is so much that I miss about this place in general, and so many good memories, yet in a few hours, I'll be gone for who knows how long.
I guess I need to just suck it up, but I've never been good at doing that. I do miss Mr. V. I miss the cats. I miss my friends in Washington, but life would be ideal if I could just combine everything and everyone that I miss and put them all in the exact same place! I've always wanted a life of stability, but I chose a life of anything but that. Maybe one day I'll be able to handle change better. Maybe one day I'll be able to say goodbye to people without hurting and without crying.
So I guess this is goodbye to New Jersey for a while again. I don't know when I'll be out here again, but I do know that I want and need to see my grandparents again soon. Hopefully I'll plan another trip in a few months, and then I'll just go through this whole sad process again! To end this on a somewhat happy note, the best thing about this life is the freedom its given me. I guess that sounds weird as I sit here complaining about wanting stability, yet being happy about my freedom, but it does make sense. Mr. V has a great job that provides for us and allows me not to work full time. At one point this was a huge downer for me. I always wanted a career and I was upset when I realized we would be living in places that simply wouldn't allow for me to have that career. So I have worked temp jobs and I've worked as a nanny. I work part time and pretty much chose my own hours. His job allows for me to travel and do the things I want to and need to do and for that I am thankful :-).
Well...I guess its time to go pack up the car and head on out of here. I'll be back soon....I promise! :-)
Monday, February 15, 2010
My Trip Home - With Some Whidbey Weirdness
I've been back home in New Jersey since the 12th and it was an interesting trip.
It all started with the Whidbey Sea-Tac shuttle. Mr. V had to work and couldn't drive me to the airport so I had to hop on the shuttle to get there since leaving my car at the airport would have been much more expensive. The shuttle is great, but slightly annoying in the fact that they won't allow you to book a shuttle that will get you to the airport less than 2 hours before your flight. I understand why they have this policy, but it would also be nice to just say "Hey I claim responsibility if I miss my own flight." So with this policy in place, I had to take a shuttle that left Oak Harbor at 8:15 and arrived at Sea-Tac at 10:30..for a 1:30 flight.
I was already pretty cranky, because if you know me, I'm not a morning person. I planned on attempting to take a nap on the way down to Seattle. But this is where I ran into some fun Whidbey Weirdness. When I got on the shuttle in Oak Harbor, about 5 other people also got on. One lady was saying goodbye to her son and another lady was alone. As soon as we got on, the lady who was alone started talking to the lady with the son:
Alone Lady: "Oh hi! It looks like you were saying goodbye to family. Were you just out here visiting?"
Lady with son: "Yes, my son just had heart surgery, so I came out here to help him through the surgery and recovery."
So far a pretty normal conversation, but this is where the lady, who was by herself, got really weird. She proceeds to start asking the lady with the son tons of questions:
Alone Lady: "Why is your son out here?"
Lady with Son: "He's in the Navy."
Alone Lady: "Oh can he stay in the Navy with a heart condition?"
Lady with Son: "Well he's not sure. He has to go to some follow up appointments before they decide if he needs to be medically discharged."
Still a normal conversation right? But it was at this point that the Alone Lady proceeds to burst into tears. And not just small tears. I mean full blown crying, gasping for breath tears. In between sobs and gasps she manages to get out something along the lines of:
"Oh your son is soooooo wonderful! *sob* It is SUCH a huge sacrifice to serve your country. *gasp* I thank God every single day for the people in our military *sob*." She proceeds to ramble on for at least 15 minutes crying and saying these exact same things over and over.
Now don't get me wrong. I am grateful for our military too and I understand the sacrifices made. Heck, I'm married to a guy in the Navy. But I have NEVER seen someone react like this to the military. I've seen people get choked up. I've seen people who are very grateful. But I have never once seen a person so hysterical that she can barely breathe as she thanks someone for their service. It was actually a little weird, and she sort of seemed a little unstable.
By this time the shuttle had reached Coupeville, where it made its next stop to pick up more people. At this point the crying lady desperately asked the shuttle driver if he can go into the convenience store at the gas station where the shuttle pickup was, to buy her some tissues. He looks at her like she's crazy and tells her that she can get out and buy tissues herself (he was nice about it), but eventually he gave in and got her the tissues.
After blowing her nose loudly, several times, the woman proceeded to cry some more and then launch into an explanation about her entire life. In betwen sobbing and gasping I learned that her husband had been in the Navy, but he got out after only a few years because she "just couldn't bear the separation". However, this apparently led to them not having a steady income and now they have no insurance...and her husband has back problems and her medical bills are $1000 a month...so if the heart guy is able to stay in the Navy then he should...in case his wife has large medical bills in the future...oh and to serve the country too. She was still crying hysterically at this point.
By this point the woman in the seat across the aisle from me was rolling her finger around her head making the crazy symbol and rolling her eyes. Then the lady behind me yelled at the top of her lungs (this lady had to be at least 70, if not older) "Excuse me sir?? What's the policy about cell phones on the shuttle?" He replied "You're welcome to use them, just please be considerate of other passengers." However, apparently she didn't want to use a cell phone, she just thought that the crying lady was on a cell phone. She proceeded to tell the driver that someone had been on a cell phone for the entire trip, and she was loud, and needed to quiet down. When the crying lady didn't quiet down, the old lady spent the rest of the ride sighing as loudly as possible.
We hadn't even reached the ferry yet and I was ready to shoot myself.
By the time we finally got to the airport I was thrilled to be out of that van. My plane boarded on time and I thought the annoyances of the day were over. But apparently these particular Delta employees missed kindergarten because they can't count. There were several people trying to fly stand-by and they let 5 of them onto this flight. But....there were only 4 empty seats. The flight attendent must have walked up and down the aisle 10 times, if not more, counting empty seats because she had one person who had nowhere to sit. I didn't realize that it was that hard to realize that there wasn't a single empty seat on the plane.
My luck continued though, because a guy, probably in his mid 30s, sat down next to me. He was a stand-by passenger and apparently he thought that he deserved to sit in first class First he called his wife while the flight attendents were trying to figure things out and ranted to her about how unfair it was that he couldn't sit in first class. I guess he missed the memo about the fact that stand-by means you take whatever seat you can get. When he hung up with his wife, he then proceeded to rant to me. Awesome. Thankfully, a flight attendent managed to switch him to first class, because she was cleary sick of his complaining, and a very nice, very quiet man, with a book and headphones, sat down next to me. He had been a stand-by passenger sitting in first class who thankfully agreed to move to any seat if it meant this other guy would stop complaining.
So FINALLY they figured out that this one woman just simply wouldn't fit on the plane so they had to take her off and tell her to wait for another available flight. By the time we took off, we were 20 minutes late! I was a little annoyed because I had a layover to make in Salt Lake City, and someone's inability to count or recognize that there are no empty seats almost made me miss my connecting flight.
Needless to say, my day wasn't off to a good start!
I'm happy to say though, that at this point, everything started going right and the rest of my trip was uneventful. I'll bore you all with info about it at a later time :-).
For now, I'm enjoying one last dinner with my grandparents before heading back to the Pacific Northwest tomorrow. (Do I really have to go back?? :-().
It all started with the Whidbey Sea-Tac shuttle. Mr. V had to work and couldn't drive me to the airport so I had to hop on the shuttle to get there since leaving my car at the airport would have been much more expensive. The shuttle is great, but slightly annoying in the fact that they won't allow you to book a shuttle that will get you to the airport less than 2 hours before your flight. I understand why they have this policy, but it would also be nice to just say "Hey I claim responsibility if I miss my own flight." So with this policy in place, I had to take a shuttle that left Oak Harbor at 8:15 and arrived at Sea-Tac at 10:30..for a 1:30 flight.
I was already pretty cranky, because if you know me, I'm not a morning person. I planned on attempting to take a nap on the way down to Seattle. But this is where I ran into some fun Whidbey Weirdness. When I got on the shuttle in Oak Harbor, about 5 other people also got on. One lady was saying goodbye to her son and another lady was alone. As soon as we got on, the lady who was alone started talking to the lady with the son:
Alone Lady: "Oh hi! It looks like you were saying goodbye to family. Were you just out here visiting?"
Lady with son: "Yes, my son just had heart surgery, so I came out here to help him through the surgery and recovery."
So far a pretty normal conversation, but this is where the lady, who was by herself, got really weird. She proceeds to start asking the lady with the son tons of questions:
Alone Lady: "Why is your son out here?"
Lady with Son: "He's in the Navy."
Alone Lady: "Oh can he stay in the Navy with a heart condition?"
Lady with Son: "Well he's not sure. He has to go to some follow up appointments before they decide if he needs to be medically discharged."
Still a normal conversation right? But it was at this point that the Alone Lady proceeds to burst into tears. And not just small tears. I mean full blown crying, gasping for breath tears. In between sobs and gasps she manages to get out something along the lines of:
"Oh your son is soooooo wonderful! *sob* It is SUCH a huge sacrifice to serve your country. *gasp* I thank God every single day for the people in our military *sob*." She proceeds to ramble on for at least 15 minutes crying and saying these exact same things over and over.
Now don't get me wrong. I am grateful for our military too and I understand the sacrifices made. Heck, I'm married to a guy in the Navy. But I have NEVER seen someone react like this to the military. I've seen people get choked up. I've seen people who are very grateful. But I have never once seen a person so hysterical that she can barely breathe as she thanks someone for their service. It was actually a little weird, and she sort of seemed a little unstable.
By this time the shuttle had reached Coupeville, where it made its next stop to pick up more people. At this point the crying lady desperately asked the shuttle driver if he can go into the convenience store at the gas station where the shuttle pickup was, to buy her some tissues. He looks at her like she's crazy and tells her that she can get out and buy tissues herself (he was nice about it), but eventually he gave in and got her the tissues.
After blowing her nose loudly, several times, the woman proceeded to cry some more and then launch into an explanation about her entire life. In betwen sobbing and gasping I learned that her husband had been in the Navy, but he got out after only a few years because she "just couldn't bear the separation". However, this apparently led to them not having a steady income and now they have no insurance...and her husband has back problems and her medical bills are $1000 a month...so if the heart guy is able to stay in the Navy then he should...in case his wife has large medical bills in the future...oh and to serve the country too. She was still crying hysterically at this point.
By this point the woman in the seat across the aisle from me was rolling her finger around her head making the crazy symbol and rolling her eyes. Then the lady behind me yelled at the top of her lungs (this lady had to be at least 70, if not older) "Excuse me sir?? What's the policy about cell phones on the shuttle?" He replied "You're welcome to use them, just please be considerate of other passengers." However, apparently she didn't want to use a cell phone, she just thought that the crying lady was on a cell phone. She proceeded to tell the driver that someone had been on a cell phone for the entire trip, and she was loud, and needed to quiet down. When the crying lady didn't quiet down, the old lady spent the rest of the ride sighing as loudly as possible.
We hadn't even reached the ferry yet and I was ready to shoot myself.
By the time we finally got to the airport I was thrilled to be out of that van. My plane boarded on time and I thought the annoyances of the day were over. But apparently these particular Delta employees missed kindergarten because they can't count. There were several people trying to fly stand-by and they let 5 of them onto this flight. But....there were only 4 empty seats. The flight attendent must have walked up and down the aisle 10 times, if not more, counting empty seats because she had one person who had nowhere to sit. I didn't realize that it was that hard to realize that there wasn't a single empty seat on the plane.
My luck continued though, because a guy, probably in his mid 30s, sat down next to me. He was a stand-by passenger and apparently he thought that he deserved to sit in first class First he called his wife while the flight attendents were trying to figure things out and ranted to her about how unfair it was that he couldn't sit in first class. I guess he missed the memo about the fact that stand-by means you take whatever seat you can get. When he hung up with his wife, he then proceeded to rant to me. Awesome. Thankfully, a flight attendent managed to switch him to first class, because she was cleary sick of his complaining, and a very nice, very quiet man, with a book and headphones, sat down next to me. He had been a stand-by passenger sitting in first class who thankfully agreed to move to any seat if it meant this other guy would stop complaining.
So FINALLY they figured out that this one woman just simply wouldn't fit on the plane so they had to take her off and tell her to wait for another available flight. By the time we took off, we were 20 minutes late! I was a little annoyed because I had a layover to make in Salt Lake City, and someone's inability to count or recognize that there are no empty seats almost made me miss my connecting flight.
Needless to say, my day wasn't off to a good start!
I'm happy to say though, that at this point, everything started going right and the rest of my trip was uneventful. I'll bore you all with info about it at a later time :-).
For now, I'm enjoying one last dinner with my grandparents before heading back to the Pacific Northwest tomorrow. (Do I really have to go back?? :-().
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Grizzlys and Eagles and Hawks...oh my!
First things first. If anyone reading this knows how to scare away a hawk, to make it never come back, PLEASE let me know how. And please let me know soon.
Not only has my life as a Navy wife moved me out of my comfort zone and ALL the way across the country to the Pacific Northwest, but it has also introduced me to things that I have never had to deal with before (although I guess that could also be filed under "out of my comfort zone").
First, as soon as we moved here Mr. V wanted to check out the Cascades National Park. Please see one of my very first blog posts for a recap of that adventure. The short version of that event is that I learned what "real" camping is. Apparently, there are places where you have to get a permit to go camping. I believe its called a back country permit. When I questioned Mr. V as to why you would need one of these, his answer was something along the lines of "Well that way, if a grizzly bear kills you and you don't come back, the park rangers know where to look for you." I'm sorry....GRIZZLY BEARS??? What happened to the somewhat cute and not quite as terrifying black bears of the Appalachian Mountains?? The horrifying thing about that comment was that he was dead serious.
Second, one of the first things we discovered when we moved here was that there are bald eagles EVERYWHERE. At first, I liked this. I thought it was pretty cool to see bald eagles everywhere. I had seen them in zoos before and we saw one once behind out apartment in Jacksonville, but I had never truly witnessed these giant birds in their natural habitat. As a kid I always learned that bald eagles were "beautiful" and "majestic" and that is the description that I also carried with me. What people fail to mention is that these "beautiful and majestic" creatures are actually vicious, violent, cold blooded killers. I guess in the back of my mind I knew this, but I try very hard not to watch National Geographic shows that involve animals killing animals. That's not really my cup of tea. So needless to say, when I witnessed the way these creatures kill, live and in person - NOT on TV, my view of the bald eagle population around here drastically changed. I no longer think they are pretty and majestic. It now creeps me out when I see them flying around and sitting in trees around here. As far as I'm concerned, if all the bald eagles in the world disappeared tomorrow, they wouldn't be missed by me.
To illustrate what I am talking about, here's a picture of the bald eagle killing an innocent, cute creature. Last April a group of friends and I were at another friend's house for a barbeque. We were all sitting on his porch, enjoying the cool air and the scenic view of the water in front of his house. A small cluster of ducks were floating around carelessly. Everything was beautiful and serene...until a "beautiful and majestic" bald eagle appeared out of nowhere. In a split second it killed the serenity of the moment by swooping down into the water and grabbing a duck out of the water. To make matters even worse, he then proceeded to fly around a few times as if he was showing off his catch!! Of course, all the guys around thought this was the coolest thing ever. I wanted to cry. It seriously disturbed me and any time someone mentions how great it is that there are bald eagles everywhere I think of that moment. I know its the food chain. I know how nature works. But I really had no interest in seeing that nature demonstrated right in front of me. Since Mr. V was one of the ones who was excited to see the eagle with the duck, he grabbed his camera and as the eagle made one of his passes in front of us (this was probably the 2nd or 3rd time he flew past us showing off) he snapped a picture. The picture is small, but if you click on it and zoom in, you can clearly see that the eagle is holding a poor little duck in his talons :-(. Maybe I shouldn't post the picture, but I promise, it was much more disturbing in person!
Now finally, what brings me to this post in the first place. If you've read my recent posts, you'll know that I have a family of cats living in my backyard. They are completely feral, and we have set out on a mission to trap them all to get them spayed/neutered, so they don't reproduce in our backyard. However, feral or not, they are cats. I'm a cat lady. I have 10 cats of my own. So while the cats in my backyard my never be cuddly or sweet, they still look like the cats in my house, and they are fun to watch in the backyard when we sit and watch TV at night (ever see a cat climb trees, jump from tree to tree and then on the roof of a house?) I would never want anything bad to happen to these guys. I realize I can't protect them from everything, but I'd like to make my backyard as safe as possible for them.
Once we realized we had feral cats out there Mr. V and I had a conversation that went something like this:
Brooklet: "You know, my friend, who works at a local vet, said that they frequently get cats that have been dropped by eagles."
Mr. V: "Yeah a friend of mine was driving to work and saw a cat fall out of the sky - it was dropped by an eagle."
Brooklet: *horrified* "What if an eagle swoops down into our backyard and kills the cats?"
***It should be noted that cats being caught and killed and/or dropped by eagles is apparently something that happens often around here. Another lady told us a few nights ago that her friend had an eagle nest fall out of tree and there were 20 collars inside of it.****
Mr. V: " No there's no way that can happen. Our backyard is small, fenced in and has trees. Its too small and cluttered for an eagle or a bird of prey to swoop down into."
Brooklet: "Are you sure?"
Mr. V: "Yes, absolutely."
Fast forward to yesterday. I was in another room when I heard Mr. V yell "Brooklet come quickly!" I ran into the living room to see what he was yelling about and he says to me "Remember when I said our backyard was too small for a bird of prey to swoop down into? Well....I think I was wrong."
It turns out that a hawk had swooped down into our yard and was sitting calmly on our fence. Granted, a hawk isn't an eagle. But its still a bird of prey and it can still easily kill small animals. Needless to say, we haven't actually seen any of the backyard cats in 3 days. I seriously doubt that one hawk would have been able to kill all 6 of them that quickly, but where did they go??
I did some research today and learned that cats may be scared away by hawks, so I am hoping that is what happened and that they will come back. In the meantime, I also learned that once a hawk appears somewhere, it will come back, especially if there is a food source for them.
Fantastic!! Now I have a hawk living in my backyard and I'm worried about the cats out there. So back to my original question, does anyone know how to make a hawk go away and stay away?
At this point, I really don't think I will ever be completely comfortable in Washington. I've had enough of the "beautiful" nature out here! I miss my back yard in New Jersey. There were woods behind my house, but the only creatures we ever saw were deer, squirrels, chipmunks, an occasional wild turkey, and a groundhog that lived under our shed. That is much more peaceful and much more preferred by me!
Not only has my life as a Navy wife moved me out of my comfort zone and ALL the way across the country to the Pacific Northwest, but it has also introduced me to things that I have never had to deal with before (although I guess that could also be filed under "out of my comfort zone").
First, as soon as we moved here Mr. V wanted to check out the Cascades National Park. Please see one of my very first blog posts for a recap of that adventure. The short version of that event is that I learned what "real" camping is. Apparently, there are places where you have to get a permit to go camping. I believe its called a back country permit. When I questioned Mr. V as to why you would need one of these, his answer was something along the lines of "Well that way, if a grizzly bear kills you and you don't come back, the park rangers know where to look for you." I'm sorry....GRIZZLY BEARS??? What happened to the somewhat cute and not quite as terrifying black bears of the Appalachian Mountains?? The horrifying thing about that comment was that he was dead serious.
Second, one of the first things we discovered when we moved here was that there are bald eagles EVERYWHERE. At first, I liked this. I thought it was pretty cool to see bald eagles everywhere. I had seen them in zoos before and we saw one once behind out apartment in Jacksonville, but I had never truly witnessed these giant birds in their natural habitat. As a kid I always learned that bald eagles were "beautiful" and "majestic" and that is the description that I also carried with me. What people fail to mention is that these "beautiful and majestic" creatures are actually vicious, violent, cold blooded killers. I guess in the back of my mind I knew this, but I try very hard not to watch National Geographic shows that involve animals killing animals. That's not really my cup of tea. So needless to say, when I witnessed the way these creatures kill, live and in person - NOT on TV, my view of the bald eagle population around here drastically changed. I no longer think they are pretty and majestic. It now creeps me out when I see them flying around and sitting in trees around here. As far as I'm concerned, if all the bald eagles in the world disappeared tomorrow, they wouldn't be missed by me.
To illustrate what I am talking about, here's a picture of the bald eagle killing an innocent, cute creature. Last April a group of friends and I were at another friend's house for a barbeque. We were all sitting on his porch, enjoying the cool air and the scenic view of the water in front of his house. A small cluster of ducks were floating around carelessly. Everything was beautiful and serene...until a "beautiful and majestic" bald eagle appeared out of nowhere. In a split second it killed the serenity of the moment by swooping down into the water and grabbing a duck out of the water. To make matters even worse, he then proceeded to fly around a few times as if he was showing off his catch!! Of course, all the guys around thought this was the coolest thing ever. I wanted to cry. It seriously disturbed me and any time someone mentions how great it is that there are bald eagles everywhere I think of that moment. I know its the food chain. I know how nature works. But I really had no interest in seeing that nature demonstrated right in front of me. Since Mr. V was one of the ones who was excited to see the eagle with the duck, he grabbed his camera and as the eagle made one of his passes in front of us (this was probably the 2nd or 3rd time he flew past us showing off) he snapped a picture. The picture is small, but if you click on it and zoom in, you can clearly see that the eagle is holding a poor little duck in his talons :-(. Maybe I shouldn't post the picture, but I promise, it was much more disturbing in person!
Now finally, what brings me to this post in the first place. If you've read my recent posts, you'll know that I have a family of cats living in my backyard. They are completely feral, and we have set out on a mission to trap them all to get them spayed/neutered, so they don't reproduce in our backyard. However, feral or not, they are cats. I'm a cat lady. I have 10 cats of my own. So while the cats in my backyard my never be cuddly or sweet, they still look like the cats in my house, and they are fun to watch in the backyard when we sit and watch TV at night (ever see a cat climb trees, jump from tree to tree and then on the roof of a house?) I would never want anything bad to happen to these guys. I realize I can't protect them from everything, but I'd like to make my backyard as safe as possible for them.
Once we realized we had feral cats out there Mr. V and I had a conversation that went something like this:
Brooklet: "You know, my friend, who works at a local vet, said that they frequently get cats that have been dropped by eagles."
Mr. V: "Yeah a friend of mine was driving to work and saw a cat fall out of the sky - it was dropped by an eagle."
Brooklet: *horrified* "What if an eagle swoops down into our backyard and kills the cats?"
***It should be noted that cats being caught and killed and/or dropped by eagles is apparently something that happens often around here. Another lady told us a few nights ago that her friend had an eagle nest fall out of tree and there were 20 collars inside of it.****
Mr. V: " No there's no way that can happen. Our backyard is small, fenced in and has trees. Its too small and cluttered for an eagle or a bird of prey to swoop down into."
Brooklet: "Are you sure?"
Mr. V: "Yes, absolutely."
Fast forward to yesterday. I was in another room when I heard Mr. V yell "Brooklet come quickly!" I ran into the living room to see what he was yelling about and he says to me "Remember when I said our backyard was too small for a bird of prey to swoop down into? Well....I think I was wrong."
It turns out that a hawk had swooped down into our yard and was sitting calmly on our fence. Granted, a hawk isn't an eagle. But its still a bird of prey and it can still easily kill small animals. Needless to say, we haven't actually seen any of the backyard cats in 3 days. I seriously doubt that one hawk would have been able to kill all 6 of them that quickly, but where did they go??
I did some research today and learned that cats may be scared away by hawks, so I am hoping that is what happened and that they will come back. In the meantime, I also learned that once a hawk appears somewhere, it will come back, especially if there is a food source for them.
Fantastic!! Now I have a hawk living in my backyard and I'm worried about the cats out there. So back to my original question, does anyone know how to make a hawk go away and stay away?
At this point, I really don't think I will ever be completely comfortable in Washington. I've had enough of the "beautiful" nature out here! I miss my back yard in New Jersey. There were woods behind my house, but the only creatures we ever saw were deer, squirrels, chipmunks, an occasional wild turkey, and a groundhog that lived under our shed. That is much more peaceful and much more preferred by me!
Dear New Jersey
Dear New Jersey,
Hi its Brooklet. Remember me? I spent the majority of my life living with you.
It has come to my attention that its been snowing quite a lot there recently. When the first large blizzard hit a few days ago I have to admit that I was a little jealous. Washington hasn't had a winter this year and I would have preferred a full blown blizzard instead of 50 degrees, gray and rainy every day.
But then a second blizzard hit, and it occurred to me that your recent weather pattern may severely affect my ability to get home tomorrow. Its been a long time since I've seen you and I really don't want that to happen.
As of this morning, it appears that the weather is going to warm up so I'm writing this letter to make sure that the weather stays that way. Hindering my trip home is going to make for one very unhappy Brooklet.
However, I would also like to mention that the 10 day weather forecast also predicts small snow showers in the early days of next week. This type of weather would be wonderful. If anything hinders my trip back to Washington, I would be 100% okay with that!
So please, please keep your runways clear of snow and ice and if you do, then I will see you tomorrow!
Sincerely,
Brooklet
Hi its Brooklet. Remember me? I spent the majority of my life living with you.
It has come to my attention that its been snowing quite a lot there recently. When the first large blizzard hit a few days ago I have to admit that I was a little jealous. Washington hasn't had a winter this year and I would have preferred a full blown blizzard instead of 50 degrees, gray and rainy every day.
But then a second blizzard hit, and it occurred to me that your recent weather pattern may severely affect my ability to get home tomorrow. Its been a long time since I've seen you and I really don't want that to happen.
As of this morning, it appears that the weather is going to warm up so I'm writing this letter to make sure that the weather stays that way. Hindering my trip home is going to make for one very unhappy Brooklet.
However, I would also like to mention that the 10 day weather forecast also predicts small snow showers in the early days of next week. This type of weather would be wonderful. If anything hinders my trip back to Washington, I would be 100% okay with that!
So please, please keep your runways clear of snow and ice and if you do, then I will see you tomorrow!
Sincerely,
Brooklet
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Weekend Re-cap
Mr. V has been home from Iraq for over 2 months now, but I feel like I haven't seen much of him. In fact, there have been a few days when I've thought "Wow I talked to him more when he was in Iraq than I have now that he's home." So this weekend was a nice change because aside from his Christmas leave, this was the first weekend where we actually spent the whole weekend together. He had no duty, no flights and no squadron related business and it was wonderful!
We managed to unintentionally get in a nice mix of girly stuff and manly stuff.
Friday night we stayed home and cooked dinner. I'd be tempted to say that this is one of the girly moments of the weekend, but its not. I'm a horrible cook, while Mr. V is a wonderful cook. I do however, have an enormous supply of cook books and recipes because in the back of my mind I like to think that one day I will use all of them and become a good cook. While Mr. V was deployed, a friend and I spent 2 or 3 nights going through cookbooks and creating new meals. I've been wanting to do this with Mr. V because I want him to teach me how to cook. This way, the next time he's deployed I won't have to live on TV dinners and spaghetti for half a year. We haven't been able to do this before because we never have the time to sit together, pick out meals that look appetizing and then cook them. So on Friday night, that's finally what we did. We picked out cranberry-orange pork chops, sweet potato fries and stuffed red potatoes (I know, I know, thats 2 side dishes of potatoes, but I happen to love all forms of potatoes.) It took a few hours, but we pulled off a very yummy meal. I can't say that I learned how to cook though. All I did was cut the sweet potatoes into strips, season them, and stick them in the oven. Not really very complicated. Mr. V took care of the pork chops and stuffed red potatoes. If I can find the recipes again (I probably should have taken note of what cookbook magazine, out of 200, they came from) I'll post them, because I promise, it was one of the best dinners I've had in a long time!
On Saturday I got my girly day, which was honestly completely unintentional. I love Nicholas Sparks books and one of the recent ones that I read was "Dear John". The movie version of this book just came out so I was excited to see it. We planned to go to the movie theatre in Burlington, and since that is 45 minutes away we armed ourselves with shopping lists and headed out there a few hours early. First stop was Petsmart to get some cat related items. The next stop was Michael's to get some cross stitch thread. I've been doing cross stitching since I was a little kid and I just got a new book of patterns. Since the only places that sell the thread are in Burlington, I had a list of the thread needed for 4 different projects, just so I wouldn't have to make frequent trips back to Burlington if I decided to finish off 4 large projects in the course of a few weeks (yeah thats probably not going to happen). Of course, out of the 40 different colors I needed, Michael's was out of stock in 3 of the colors so we meandered down to Joann's in Mt. Vernon to find the missing colors. I also picked up a bunch of new Easter stamps while in both places because I REALLY plan to make Easter cards for everyone this year (we'll see if that actually happens too). The 3rd stop was Target to buy some new bras. I also found some fun jewelry while I was there too. And finally we ended up at the Cascade Mall where I bought 2 new pairs of shoes and then went in to see Dear John (which was pretty good compared to the book). It wasn't until we were driving home that Mr. V pointed out that he just came along on a very girly day with me and didn't complain for even one second. The day wasn't intended on being a girly day, but it turned out that way, and he didn't complain...which is wonderful. However, this meant that the next day I had to keep my mouth shut and not complain about his manly day.
Sunday was Superbowl Sunday. Mr. V was born and raised in New Orleans, so of course, he was rooting for the Saints to win the game. Apparently, the fact that the Saints were in the Superbowl was a HUGE deal and people who aren't from New Orleans just don't get it. Mr. V has a high school friend who lives in Seattle who invited us down there to watch the game with him. His invitation consisted of basically stalking us until we agreed to go down there. I have met this guy once, and I was bombarded by him the moment I signed into my Facebook account a few nights before the game (i.e. "Hey!!! Are you guys coming down??? Are you??? Are you??? Are you???"). We didn't go to Seattle though because this high school friend had taken Monday off and planned on partying all night long. Since the Navy could really care less if your football team wins the Superbowl, Mr. V was not going to get Monday off, so he had to say no to his high school buddy. (high school buddy hasn't said anything to either of us since the moment that Mr. V declined the invite so hopefully he doesn't hate us now!). It turns out that there is another guy from New Orleans in Mr. V's squadron and they flew on the same crew in Iraq. This guy was having a Superbowl party at his house...well sort of. He only invited "real" New Orleans fans...which basically meant he only invited people from New Orleans. Mr. V barely knows this guy, but he jumped at the chance to watch the game with him. So thats what we did. We headed over there and I feigned interest in the game and tried to look happy when the 2 resident New Orleanians freaked out many, many times throughout the game. For my own sanity, I'm thrilled that the Saints won the game! My manly day wasn't as much fun as my girly day way, but I got a happy Mr. V for the evening and I guess I owed it to him for putting up with me and my girly day :-).
We managed to unintentionally get in a nice mix of girly stuff and manly stuff.
Friday night we stayed home and cooked dinner. I'd be tempted to say that this is one of the girly moments of the weekend, but its not. I'm a horrible cook, while Mr. V is a wonderful cook. I do however, have an enormous supply of cook books and recipes because in the back of my mind I like to think that one day I will use all of them and become a good cook. While Mr. V was deployed, a friend and I spent 2 or 3 nights going through cookbooks and creating new meals. I've been wanting to do this with Mr. V because I want him to teach me how to cook. This way, the next time he's deployed I won't have to live on TV dinners and spaghetti for half a year. We haven't been able to do this before because we never have the time to sit together, pick out meals that look appetizing and then cook them. So on Friday night, that's finally what we did. We picked out cranberry-orange pork chops, sweet potato fries and stuffed red potatoes (I know, I know, thats 2 side dishes of potatoes, but I happen to love all forms of potatoes.) It took a few hours, but we pulled off a very yummy meal. I can't say that I learned how to cook though. All I did was cut the sweet potatoes into strips, season them, and stick them in the oven. Not really very complicated. Mr. V took care of the pork chops and stuffed red potatoes. If I can find the recipes again (I probably should have taken note of what cookbook magazine, out of 200, they came from) I'll post them, because I promise, it was one of the best dinners I've had in a long time!
On Saturday I got my girly day, which was honestly completely unintentional. I love Nicholas Sparks books and one of the recent ones that I read was "Dear John". The movie version of this book just came out so I was excited to see it. We planned to go to the movie theatre in Burlington, and since that is 45 minutes away we armed ourselves with shopping lists and headed out there a few hours early. First stop was Petsmart to get some cat related items. The next stop was Michael's to get some cross stitch thread. I've been doing cross stitching since I was a little kid and I just got a new book of patterns. Since the only places that sell the thread are in Burlington, I had a list of the thread needed for 4 different projects, just so I wouldn't have to make frequent trips back to Burlington if I decided to finish off 4 large projects in the course of a few weeks (yeah thats probably not going to happen). Of course, out of the 40 different colors I needed, Michael's was out of stock in 3 of the colors so we meandered down to Joann's in Mt. Vernon to find the missing colors. I also picked up a bunch of new Easter stamps while in both places because I REALLY plan to make Easter cards for everyone this year (we'll see if that actually happens too). The 3rd stop was Target to buy some new bras. I also found some fun jewelry while I was there too. And finally we ended up at the Cascade Mall where I bought 2 new pairs of shoes and then went in to see Dear John (which was pretty good compared to the book). It wasn't until we were driving home that Mr. V pointed out that he just came along on a very girly day with me and didn't complain for even one second. The day wasn't intended on being a girly day, but it turned out that way, and he didn't complain...which is wonderful. However, this meant that the next day I had to keep my mouth shut and not complain about his manly day.
Sunday was Superbowl Sunday. Mr. V was born and raised in New Orleans, so of course, he was rooting for the Saints to win the game. Apparently, the fact that the Saints were in the Superbowl was a HUGE deal and people who aren't from New Orleans just don't get it. Mr. V has a high school friend who lives in Seattle who invited us down there to watch the game with him. His invitation consisted of basically stalking us until we agreed to go down there. I have met this guy once, and I was bombarded by him the moment I signed into my Facebook account a few nights before the game (i.e. "Hey!!! Are you guys coming down??? Are you??? Are you??? Are you???"). We didn't go to Seattle though because this high school friend had taken Monday off and planned on partying all night long. Since the Navy could really care less if your football team wins the Superbowl, Mr. V was not going to get Monday off, so he had to say no to his high school buddy. (high school buddy hasn't said anything to either of us since the moment that Mr. V declined the invite so hopefully he doesn't hate us now!). It turns out that there is another guy from New Orleans in Mr. V's squadron and they flew on the same crew in Iraq. This guy was having a Superbowl party at his house...well sort of. He only invited "real" New Orleans fans...which basically meant he only invited people from New Orleans. Mr. V barely knows this guy, but he jumped at the chance to watch the game with him. So thats what we did. We headed over there and I feigned interest in the game and tried to look happy when the 2 resident New Orleanians freaked out many, many times throughout the game. For my own sanity, I'm thrilled that the Saints won the game! My manly day wasn't as much fun as my girly day way, but I got a happy Mr. V for the evening and I guess I owed it to him for putting up with me and my girly day :-).
Monday, February 1, 2010
February
February is going to be a good month. I'm judging that by the fact that today is the first day of the month and its the first day in almost 2 months where I've had absolutely NOTHING to do! Its a fantastic feeling, especially since I have been so stressed and overwhelmed lately.
As for other good things during the shortest month of the year:
~In less than 2 weeks I'm on my way home to New Jersey. I'm excited because the last time I went home was in October, and that was for my Grandma's funeral, so it wasn't exactly a happy vacation. This time its to visit my other set of Grandparents who are turning 80 (Grandma in February and Grandpa in March). My grandparents have been pretty bummed for the past few years because I have been moving around and not living anywhere close to NJ and my mom moved to Georgia a few years ago. Couple that with the fact that my aunt lives in Vermont, and they have no family nearby anymore. Its sad to me because the few times that I have seen my grandparents, my grandfather always cries and tells me how much he misses me. I've always been really close to this set of grandparents so its so hard for me to see him like that. Anyway, my mom is planning a surprise 80th birthday party for them. They know that my mom will be coming into town and taking them out to dinner. They don't know that I'll also be in town and thats the surprise :-). My mom wants to keep it a secret that I am coming out there for a few days so I'm getting excited. I know they are going to be thrilled to see me and I'm thrilled that I am going to see them! The only downside is that Mr. V can't come with me so I'll miss Valentine's Day. I guess we can always celebrate earlier or later though.
~Less than a week after getting back from New Jersey I'm off to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics. I figured that since I live closer to Canada than to Seattle, then I might as well try to get tickets to the winter games. I've loved watching figure skating in the Olympics since I was a little kid, so I hunted out some tickets for ice dancing and will be headed that way on the 19th. Mr. V is less than thrilled about going to see figure skating, but since he wasn't nearly as excited as I was about the Olympics being so close, he just went along with it. He's not sure if he'll be able to get off of work to go with me (and he won't know until the night before...grrr), but thankfully I have a friend who will be my "backup" if he can't make it. I doubt he'll be too upset if he misses figure skating though :-).
~And finally, about a week ago Mr. V passed his PPC board (Patrol Plane Commander). For P3's this is the farthest he can advance job wise in the actual plane (its not a rank promotion). This means that I will hopefully be able to see a little more of him this month. Each advancement requires hours upon hours of studying so I feel like I actually talked to him more when he was in Iraq, than I have since he's been home. So thankfully, while I'm sure he'll still be overworked, at least he won't have to hide away in a room on base to study anymore. Maybe I'll really have my husband back now :-).
And that's February for me! Hopefully it will continue to be a happy month!
As for other good things during the shortest month of the year:
~In less than 2 weeks I'm on my way home to New Jersey. I'm excited because the last time I went home was in October, and that was for my Grandma's funeral, so it wasn't exactly a happy vacation. This time its to visit my other set of Grandparents who are turning 80 (Grandma in February and Grandpa in March). My grandparents have been pretty bummed for the past few years because I have been moving around and not living anywhere close to NJ and my mom moved to Georgia a few years ago. Couple that with the fact that my aunt lives in Vermont, and they have no family nearby anymore. Its sad to me because the few times that I have seen my grandparents, my grandfather always cries and tells me how much he misses me. I've always been really close to this set of grandparents so its so hard for me to see him like that. Anyway, my mom is planning a surprise 80th birthday party for them. They know that my mom will be coming into town and taking them out to dinner. They don't know that I'll also be in town and thats the surprise :-). My mom wants to keep it a secret that I am coming out there for a few days so I'm getting excited. I know they are going to be thrilled to see me and I'm thrilled that I am going to see them! The only downside is that Mr. V can't come with me so I'll miss Valentine's Day. I guess we can always celebrate earlier or later though.
~Less than a week after getting back from New Jersey I'm off to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics. I figured that since I live closer to Canada than to Seattle, then I might as well try to get tickets to the winter games. I've loved watching figure skating in the Olympics since I was a little kid, so I hunted out some tickets for ice dancing and will be headed that way on the 19th. Mr. V is less than thrilled about going to see figure skating, but since he wasn't nearly as excited as I was about the Olympics being so close, he just went along with it. He's not sure if he'll be able to get off of work to go with me (and he won't know until the night before...grrr), but thankfully I have a friend who will be my "backup" if he can't make it. I doubt he'll be too upset if he misses figure skating though :-).
~And finally, about a week ago Mr. V passed his PPC board (Patrol Plane Commander). For P3's this is the farthest he can advance job wise in the actual plane (its not a rank promotion). This means that I will hopefully be able to see a little more of him this month. Each advancement requires hours upon hours of studying so I feel like I actually talked to him more when he was in Iraq, than I have since he's been home. So thankfully, while I'm sure he'll still be overworked, at least he won't have to hide away in a room on base to study anymore. Maybe I'll really have my husband back now :-).
And that's February for me! Hopefully it will continue to be a happy month!
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