Beth's Contradictory Brain

Nice Weekend

It's been a pretty good weekend. Nerdstar was planning on coming back from Houston on Thrusday, but her car broke down closer to Houston so she had it towned back there. (Actually, one nice thing was that the family's mechanic who had checked out the car the day before towed it back to his garage at no cost.) I thought it might be as simple as the fuel filter because the car has only been driven a few times while she was deployed.

As you know we had tickets to Bob Schneider friday night. I was pmsing and already kinda down so missing the show and having her be gone a few days more would have totally sucked. Fortunately, the mechanic changed out the fuel filter and she finally got on the road about 3:30 or so. Then, she called from the road saying she had had to pull over to the side of the road again. It's now about 6:15 and she's just over an hour outside of Austin. Worst case scenario, I go and get her and Ramen, leave the car to be dealt with later, we grab something to eat and get to the concert. She decides to wait about ten minutes and try driving again. I start holding my breath.

The car made it the rest of the way home. (She bought it at Carmax and got the really long warranty, so we'll get it checked out this week.) She got here about 7:45, time for us to grab some dinner at her favorite Twainese place and head downtown for the show. We got there in plenty of time to do some people watching before the music started. While Antone's here in Austin has some of the best musicians come thru, and has a fantastic sound system, the crowd there is always annoying.

It's hard to say why they're annoying. Nerdstar and I talked about it last night, it's not that the people there aren't doing exactly what they would be expected to be doing - preening, drinking, talking on their cell phones, flirting. And I'm sure there are people there who were annoyed with us, the two lesbians being affectionate in a straight venue.

Anyway. The music was really good. The opening band was Dragonfly Jones, it was just vocals, bass, lead guitar and drums, but they reminded me of Led Zeplin type music, but some songs were more bluesy or southern rock. They were good.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon plant shopping. Found a great nursery and got a couple of strawberry plants, some rosemary, some cute little blue flowered plant, and some peppermint and spearmint plants.

Then we went to a midnight showing of Shawn of the Dead. It was fantastic!! The movie was supposed to start at 11:55. The theater is one that serves dinner while you watch the movie, so they generally start seating plenty early to get the orders taken. Not last night. We finally started seating at about 12:20. While we're all out there standing in line, about three different couples decided to just hang at the front of the line. Huh? That and the waiting at that late hour made us a little cranky, so thankfully the movie was really funny and entertaining!

It's still hot and humid, but within the next thirty six hours that's all supposed to change - we can't wait!!

Bad Luck, Optimism, Fate??

Let's see if I can transfer some of my weird thoughts from my brain to the keyboard.

I've been thinking a lot about optimism, fate, destiny, free will, bad luck, curses, positive thinking - all that sort of thing.

Nerdstar and I have said for most of our relationship that we have bad luck. My mother has always refered to Mauldin luck as a bad thing. And yet, in spite of sometimes popular opinion, I think I'm an optimist, just usually a disappointed one. I spent seven or eight years totally believing God had a very direct affect in/on my life, and yet I wasn't any less disappointed or depressed then.

About a year before I met Nerdstar I lost my faith and took my life back and changed what I could. I'm not sure how that's working for me.

Anyway. Now Nerdstar's back home and we're trying to figure out what next. That obviously means job hunting. We've got money in the bank for a couple of months, but it won't last forever, and there are better things to do with it than be unemployed. But neither of us really has any direction or great ideas on just what kind of job we'd like. I realized the other day that the idea of trying to find a job after not working for a year terrifies me, I was nauseous the other day. I think I'd like to get into HR, but I'm afraid I look totally unqualified on paper.

Again, anyway. It's the little things that are getting my down this week. Nerdstar's call from unemployment about needing a different form. She's trying to take a couple of pre-requisite classes for a physical therapist program she wants to get into and is hitting nothing but roadblocks.

Now she's stuck in Houston with a broken car after being gone since Sunday. We've got tickets to a concert tomorrow that I've been looking forward to. With luck (ha ha ha) the mechanic will fix the car easily in the morning and she'll be home way before the concert (thankfully doors are at 9, show at 10).

It just seems nothing ever goes smoothly. Are we cursed? Do we really just have bad luck? Should we just be grateful that it's not anything more serious? I told Nerdstar that not having a terminal illness shouldn't be the bar.

More importantly, how do we change things not going smoothly? Is it as simple as re-programming our brains to positive thoughts and reality follows? It is really just bad perception on our part, things aren't that bad? I wish I knew.

Congrats

Congrats to the Red Sox - wow, they did it. I suppose hell was just a little colder tonight.

Tony puts it all so well.

New Kid

How exciting!! Nerdstar decided to start her own blog!! Atypical Asian Syndrome check it out!! I've always encouraged her to write on here and we'd talked before about her getting her own site, so this is a great surprise.

I Did It

I voted yesterday. I went to the mall where they had early voter set up, showed my voter registration card, signed my name, got instructions on the electronic voting machine and did it. I didn't ask what happens if I show up on election day proper and try to vote again - how would it be detected, but I was tempted to. They did check my voter registration card in a computer, so maybe they do keep a database of who's already voted.

Yes, I voted for Bush. You know how many people are voting for Kerry because of how much they hate Bush, well, I think it came down to me voting against Kerry like that. The way most of my readers feel about Bush and Republicans is how I feel about Kerry and Democrats, I just can't stand them. (Please be clear that I don't mean my readers who are Democrats, I mean the leaders of the Democratic Party.)

I'd give my right arm for a true third party candidate in '08. If I had any idea how to make it happen I would. I don't believe the majority of Americans are truly represented by either the Republicans or the Democrats.

On the other candidates on the ballot I admit I didn't know a damn thing about any of them. So, if there was a Liberterian (damn if I can ever spell that right) I voted for them, otherwise I left that choice blank. And I'll never understand why there are places to vote for someone running unopposed.

One of the main reasons I went ahead and voted was to vote against light rail here in Austin. Yes, it's a nice idea, but no one will use it, so why spend the money? We've got road construction going on all over the city, which while that is always behind demand, is at least logical.

Get It Over With Already

I pretty much stopped talking politics on here a while ago. It just didn't seem to be worth it, I'm pretty sure most of my regular readers have known for a long time who they were going to vote for, and any brilliant thoughts on here weren't going to change that.

Then Nerdstar's homecoming and our roadtrip pretty much got me weaned off of obsessing over this election. Yes, we listened to or watched the debates, but since then it's been more just catching news bites while channel surfing. Because I'm sick to death of this election and have been for a while now. As both sides ratchet up the rhetoric, noise, and drama, I just think - why?? The media loves to play up that there are undecided voters, but I'm certainly not convinced there are enough truly undecided people out there to matter anymore.

So when I read Michele's post this morning it made me wonder if all this big finale crap won't turn off more voters than it turns on. Nerdstar isn't going to vote, and I'm more than a little tempted not to. But, I've voted in every presidential election I've been eligible to, so I'd feel guilty if I didn't vote in this one.

I said back in August I didn't think the final vote would be close, and I still think it won't. I know we're all praying it's not. I don't understand how after the absolute debacle of 2000 every voting precinct in this country hasn't made major progress in simplifying voting. It's nuts.

So, here's happy voting to everyone, I guess we just hold our noses and do it.

Books and movies

Nerdstar and I both love books and movies, and sometimes we even like the same ones :-)

A friend of hers recommended Kitchen Confidential so we checked it out at the library the other day. I enjoyed it. It's a "behind the sceens" look at what one man's life as a chef is like. Then, one of the men in her unit gave her Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike before leaving Iraq. She really enjoyed it. I'm about halfway thru and I'm really liking it. I think we're both more into fiction than non-fiction these days, enjoying biographies and travel stuff.

We went to see What the *&##)* Do We Know the other day. I heard some women at the Psychic Fair raving about it and we figured ok we can check it out. It wasn't nearly as good, or as intellectually deep, as I would have liked. Honestly, Nerdstar and I have had lots of conversations about life's big questions, and taping those would have been as interesting. Between that, the Psychic Fair, and a couple of other things I have felt like we're in a kind of grace period. It's good to be patient and wait on things, not rush them. We'll see how long that lasts.

Friday night we rented Chris Rock's new stand up dvd, Mean Girls and Jersey Girl. (As a fan if Gigli and former New Jersey resident, Nerdstar could not resist Jersey Girl.) We both like Chris Rock, and his new stuff was funny, but his segment on politics wasn't that funny to me. I think I'm too burned out for it to be funny. His last segment on relationships was hysterical. Mean Girls wasn't as funny as I thought it would be. Maybe it was just too good intentioned. I think I'm finding I'd rather my comedy didn't have good intentions, didn't try to make a point. And Jersey Girl, oh my, it was horrible. Beyond horrible. Nerdstar swears Gigli was even worse, but I don't believe it. I'm totally convinced Ben Affleck is the Worst Actor EVER, yes, even worse than Keanu. It was torture to sit thru.

I am looking forward to seeing Ray, then The Incredibles and Spongebob!

Sunday Ramblings

Another Sunday evening. Nerdstar is finally going to visit her family in Houston for a few days, she left this afternoon after a late lunch. While she's missed her family a lot (she hasn't seen them since she was home on leave in March), they do tend to take a lot of energy to deal with. Her grandmother has been totally pissed at her grandfather lately because she thinks he has a crush on another woman. Her grandmother even left the house one evening and "showed him". I keep telling Nerdstar it's all kinda cute because, really now, two people in their late 80s acting like teenagers. We can only hope to have that much spunk!

Anyway, she's planning on being there until Thursday, but we'll see if she can last that long. At least she has Ramen with her!

I'm hoping to finally get the house clean and maybe start the hell called job searching.

We've got a desktop computer we bought several years ago that I think we're going to give to my nephew so we can buy him some cool kids cd-roms. Every time we're up there he's even happy to just type nonsense in MS Word. Last Christmas I got him a LeapPad and he loves it, but I think the cd-roms would be more fun. He's also starting to play soccer, which considering he's not even four yet is kinda fun. We're going to go see him run around in a couple of weeks. Oh, but the point was, I'm spending this evening trying to "clean up" the computer and get anything personal off of it before handing it over to my family. My brother has a computer but he won't let Zach do anything on it for fear of crashing it. I tell him it's not that easy to do, but oh well.

Shared Hobbies

I've written a couple of entries on relationships, but this post by another Beth is right on.

But I’m also not sure why you’d want to be with someone who didn’t like to do any of the things you like to do. I’m not sure why you’d want to date someone active and outdoorsy if you just wanted to sit on the couch and watch television. I’m not sure why people who love books marry people who don’t read; I don’t get why there is even a phenomenon of men who love the outdoors but have wives who won’t camp. What on earth brings these people together in the first place?

Do you and your love share hobbies or use them as time for yourself?

I'm pretty big on shared time and hobbies. That was part of why it was hard for me to get out and do things while Nerdstar was deployed, most things, especially like traveling or going somewhere new, I would rather wait until she was back home to do them with me.

Life At A Snail's Pace

That's how it feels since we've been back in Austin. And I'm not actually hating it. It took a couple of days to adjust. At first I felt that life had been on hold long enough and now we needed to Get Stuff Done. But, we are getting things done. Nerdstar has had to go up to Camp Mabry (her local reserve drilling place) several times to straighten out pay issues and such. We've gone thru most of the house and gotten things set aside for a garage sale my parents are having next month. We got the bicycle that was damaged repaired so we can now ride the bikes we bought right before she was deployed. She's catching up on all the good food in Austin.

It's interesting all the little things being out of the country for a year affects, especially since she didn't even really get to watch tv over there. She loves commercials.

A friend asked the other day if the homecoming was going about like I expected. I think for the most part they are. The patience that was beaten into me over the past year and a half is a very handy thing. I think our communication has actually improved. And we're still a couple of twelve year olds most of the time we're hanging out at home.

We're both taking the finding a job thing slowly, and I don't think either of us are at all stressed about it yet. I'm back to being signed up to substitute teach, but we'll see if that works out. Right now we only have one car anyway, although if I need to I can ride the motorcycle to work since it's so damn warm here. (It's been in the mid 90s with 80% humidity. It sucks!!) She'll pick up her car from her grandparents' place in Houston when she goes to see them soon.

Sunday Afternoon

It's been a nice weekend. I like that we did some volunteer work together, even if it was just three hours of getting bike riders ready for their rides. Austin seems to have no shortage of volunteers for all of the many charity organizations and events here, that says a lot about the city.

The weather is a little hotter than we'd like, but I suppose it's silly to complain about sunny and in the mid 80s in early October.

Today we went and had a nice lunch at Hoovers, a home cooking place that has soul food and good bbq.

Then we decided to be adventurous and go to a Psychic Fair we'd read about in the local weekly rag. On the same street about a block or so down was also a little set up at the local fire station and they had a couple of the police officers who ride patrol on horseback there. They were nice guys and very calm horses. It strengthened my longing to go horseback riding soon.

Then we found the Psychic Fair. It was small but interesting. There are several little stores in Austin that cater to that sort of crowd. We hung out for a while and finally decided to have a tarot card reading separately. The lady didn't tell us anything we didn't really know already, but I guess it was kinda cool that she knew them. For the most part it was nice to be reassured that yes things have been hard, but they're going to get better.

Then we had our palms read together by this nice, older man. Our hands were almost identical in shape and in some lines- weird. He also confirmed that our ideas about future employment were in line with what our palms said.

We know you generally get out of those things what you want to. But to have complete strangers give you pretty good news, even if it's as simple as you're going to live a long life with decent health, is always nice.

Team America and Our day of Volunteering for Lance

Go and see "Team America, World Police", I cannot recommend it more than Beth already had, and you've got to go and see it with somewhat of a open mind, it would help a lot! One comment for mediocre law student, Toby Keith is a singer, not an actor, and even if no one else has picked on him for his political views, at least the Dixie Chicks has already told him to f*ck himself!
We went to the "Ride for the Roses", this charity event for the Lance Armstrong foundation, but we didn't see anyone ride, instead, we volunteered to get tee shirts to the riders already registered for the event. I like tossing tee-shirts, reminded me of my days as a supply clerk!
I've never seen so many fit people, all in spandex! They might as well ride naked, I mean, today has been a pretty warm and sunny day! I am sure that, nude bike rides for charity has already been suggested at one of the college campuses near you, so, so much for that!

Team America

OMG - we loved this movie! In a world where everyone takes themselves way too seriously, this movie was the perfect antidote. I loved that they blew up the tourist attractions in Paris, that they had the balls to have puppet sex, puppet vomit, and a hilarious blow job. I love that they had the balls to totally redicule actors who think their political opinions are somehow worth something. And of course, I loved that they made Michael Moore a suicide bomber - he should take the hint!

Yes, it's juvenile. Yes, is crude and vulgar and gross. Yes, it's hysterical!

Go see it, and if you're not laughing, well... lighten up.

I'm home now!

After almost 3 weeks of worth of out-processing from active duty, and road-trippin', I've finally made it home to Austin! Thankfully, the weather is just perfect, with a touch of cold-front. Aside from all the great places to eat at, I've also got a bad case of seasonal allergy, and the reality of "OMG, now I've got to get a job and get back to work-itis"!
If anyone needs a good Chinese translator, or knows someone who does, please drop me a e-mail and I will respond promptly! Basically, from now, until the end of the year, I'm looking at getting some unemployment insurance, a job here and there, until sometimes next year, thinking about getting back to school, and learn something aside from basketweaving.
Beth has been especially patient with me, I don't think I've quite gotten all of me back from Iraq yet, if you know what I mean. Lately, I am still finding a hard time believing that two of my Iraqi friends have passed. My thoughts have been sort of scattered, partially thinking about the time spent back in Iraq, the future of having a kid or two, wanting to goto school, as well as just wanting not to do anything job-related anymore.
On top of all that, I've got to straighten out a few issues with the army, like, my back pay issue, and also making sure that I'll get out when I am supposed to.
Nevertheless, I am glad to be back, snuggling with the missus, walking the dog, and not having to dodge any more mortars!

Evil Question

Watching the local news in Dallas, I heard that a 12 year old girl had shot and killed her mother, allegedly for grounding her.

A couple of days later while on the road home, I asked Nerdstar:

If you raise a child who at the age of 12 will shoot you for grounding them - do you deserve to be shot?

(See, wouldn't talking about sex be more fun?)

What's The Frequency, Kenneth

No, I'm not that far behind in my news blogging, I thought up the title and post while on the road about two weeks ago, and decided to go with it now.

Yes, I'm going to talk about sex, or rather, I'm going to ask my "old married couple readers" to.

Nerdstar asked how often I like to have sex while we were driving around somewhere and we talked about the factors for both of us that go into whether we have sex or not on any particular night. (I'm not much of a morning sex person - too funky.) It's far too often that we fall into bed at the end of the day and are just too tired. It doesn't always help that Nerdstar can fall asleep within two minutes of her head hitting the pillow. While we both love snuggling, it shouldn't be a substitute for sex.

I have to admit our sex life had gotten routine before she was called up to active duty. So far, since her return, we're not so boring, even if long days on the road weren't very conducive to being in the mood.

As for preferred frequency, hmmm. For me every three or four nights works. I think it'd get routine if it was every night. Nerdstar says every other day would be preferable. Of course, not every night is an hour long love fest, sometimes a good quickie hits the spot.

So... do you have sex as often as you'd like? If not, what contributes to it not happening? Do you have sex as often as you did the first year you were together?

Home Sweet Home

We made the old, familiar drive from Dallas to Austin this evening. After two days of rain in Dallas, we ended our road trip with a day like most days we've been on the road - nice and dry. In fact, the only time I hit any sort of bad weather in 25 days and over 7000 miles was a brief thunderstorm that actually had pea sized hail in it back in Kansas.

We had a nice little dinner at Nerdstar's favorite Taiwanese restaurant and are getting things put away. Little Man is so happy to see us it's almost scary. Silly is still out and around somewhere and probably pissed as hell I left her for so long. Ramen is relieved to be back home and not in the car or in a hotel room (although he likes hotel beds since those are the only ones he ever gets a chance to get on).

It's good to be home. It's even better to have my Nerdstar home with me!

It was a great trip. We had fun, saw some beautiful country, and I think we both agree things are better than ever. I know I've laughed more on our trip together than I did the entire time she was gone!

Tragic

We're in Amarillo this morning, got in about midnight last night. This hotel has the most comfortable bed we've slept in this whole trip. We'll be at my parent's house this evening. We're both excited to see Zach and to eat some home cooking.

Nerdstar got a very sad email the other night. One of the contractors back in Iraq let someone in her unit know that the Iraqi translator she worked with and was friends with, and his brother, were murdered. It's just so sad. I think the Iraqi's who risk their lives to work with our military are truly unsung heros. Too many of them are murdered by insurgents. His brother had just stopped working with the soldiers and he was about to quit. Word is now there are very few, if any, Iraqi's willing to translate for the military. I don't blame them. Unfortunately, the military hasn't been able to train many new Arabic linguists and the ones already in service have done their time in Iraq. Just another reason we really have to get the Iraqi National Guard up and running.

Update from the road

We're in Flagstaff, AZ this morning. We decided to check out the Grand Canyon yesterday and got there about an hour before sunset. It was beautiful. Nerdstar had never seen it, for that matter had never driven thru Arizona.

To back up... we had a nice time in Sacramento staying with Wendy. It was good to chill out and not sleep in a hotel bed for a couple of nights. It was a needed break from the road.

The drive from Olympia, WA to Sacramento was cool. It goes thru beautiful mountains and trees until you hit Redding, CA, then you hit the CA Valley and it's just as flat as Kansas. Then the drive from Sacramento to Vegas was mostly flat and boring.

We had a good time in Vegas. We got to meet Alicia and Angel and the kid, unfortunately only for a short time, but was cool! We didn't win big like we wanted, but that's ok, we had fun. We went to see Cirque de Soliel's new show Zumanity - it was very sexy and fun! We gambled, we ate a lot, we walked a lot - that's Vegas. But we both feel like we're ready for a new vacation spot.

The drive from Vegas to the Grand Canyon is beautiful, in a dry kind of way.

We're taking pics along the way, hopefully they'll turn out. I lost most, if not all, of a roll of 12 pics because the film got stuck in the camera and the guy I had try to get it out fucked it up royally.

Not sure where we'll sleep tonight. Somewhere between here and Dallas. Then we'll spend the weekend with my family and finally hit Austin probably Monday night. I think we're both ready to be home. I worry about the cats and am anxious to see how they're doing.

Vegas

We made it to Vegas Sunday evening. We're having fun, not winning $ like we'd like to, eating well, and don't have really great internet access.

Looks like we'll start driving thru the desert starting Wednesday afternoon. We just have to make it to Dallas to visit with my family by Saturday morning.

More updates soon!

New Ad

Nerdstar caught a new commercial for the Army Reserves this morning. It made me think of a different one for them:

Picture: Some lackey in a cubicle maze hell
Voiceover: Ever have one of those days you just want to kill someone at work? Join the Army and you can!
Picture: Tough Army guys firing big guns.
Voiceover: United States Army - it's not just a job - it's a stress reliever.

Ramen

The other day I told Nerdstar about how when I pet Ramen he does this thing where he licks his mouth and it’s creepy. So when she was waking up this morning and petting him I pointed out he was doing it. We both just laughed at him.

This led to…

Ramen – The E! True Hollywood Story

(As told by Ramen)

Yes, it’s true, I’m a former dog porn star. It’s not a pretty story, but it’s my story. It’s the story of how I ended up a stray, wandering the streets of Austin, then at the shelter where this lovely lesbian couple adopted me and took me home with them.

Let me begin by saying that I apparently come from a long line of dog porn stars – that’s why even vets can’t determine what breed of dog I am, it’s all too mixed up. It also explains why I hate to have my picture taken.

It all began innocently enough, it always does. I have these masochistic tendencies, as long as you’re paying attention to me, I don’t care if you yell at me and call me a bad dog. It’s a little fuzzy in my memory, but somehow I ended up on the streets, wandering around, not getting petted, not being loved. And as is so often the case, I fell in with the wrong crowd. Oh sure, she was a cute little poodle, but she was pure evil under those poodle charms. She introduced me to all the other strays she was hanging with. At first it was all fun and games, a little chase, then a nip here and there. It wasn’t long before it just got out of hand. Next thing I knew they were giving me cheese and french fries to be their cute little bottom – for both boys and girls. Soon, I had no shame.

It’s not a time in my life I talk about much. It was even a relief when someone found me and took me to the shelter. At least there I had my own cage, alone to regain some dignity.

I can’t ever express how grateful I am to the lovely lesbians. They have been so good to me and so understanding of my idiosyncrasies. There are times I have flashbacks, which confuses my owners, but I’m so glad I’ll never have to go back to that lifestyle.

(This was a collaborative effort by Nerdstar and I.)

Bumps in the Road

First of all, thanks to those who have taken up the relationship question - more please! I'll post another entry about relationships in a day or two.

The trip had been going swimmingly until Wed. night, then it hit a couple of bumps. I ate something icky and my stomach protested, no big deal really. Then the bubble bath leaked all over the case holding all of our bathroom stuff (you really don't want to know how much stuff I packed!) Then the roll of film became jammed in the camera. I'm still hopefull that when I take it to a camera shop they can work some miracle and save the pics. All minor things, but all in a couple of hours was no fun.

We got back on the road at 10 a.m. yesterday looking foward to 10 hours on the I-5 thru Washington, Oregon, and Cali. We stopped for gas in some very small town in southern Oregon (where they don't let you pump your own gas), went to start the car and it just wouldn't. I knew it was either the battery or the alternator so wasn't too panicked. So while it took about two hours and a mile walk to and back from the auto store, we replaced the battery and were on our way again. The two men working at the gas station were really nice and helpful - even after I was a dumbass and bought the wrong kind of battery the first time. (My car requires side posts.)

So we finally pulled into my friend's place close to midnight. Today we're eating and sleeping and then will hit the road to Vegas tomorrow!