Happy Campers

With Austin in our rear-view mirror - Ryan and I drove by this cutie. He said it all:

We were happy campers. In fact, we were so happy, one water tower could just not convey the enormity of our happiness well enough - it had a cousin:

They sort of reminded us of something ...

But, legoheads just don't convey our happiness - pretty much they just look ambivalent ...

Yesterday, at the end of our Apartment Hunting: Day 1 - we were conflicted and frustrated. First - they guy who was supposed to take us around was a no show. I had CALLED HIM THE NIGHT BEFORE - everything was fine he said he would see us then. We get in at the appointed hour and he is not there. A nice lady (the manager, I believe) called him and told us that he was 'not coming in today'. No 'he is ill', no 'his grandmother died', no 'his dog ate his homework' - nothing - no excuse. WHAT? WHY? I have no idea why he did that to us - if there had been a reason, I am assuming the lady would have told us the reason. Without a reason, well ... I am bitch, there is that ... but can you figure that out over the phone over the course of four conversations? OK, yeah ... BUT I WAS NICE TO HIM. I swear. The Jerk.

I was livid. Told her that we had driven there specifically for the appointment we had set up for that date, so she sat down and put together some places we could go look at. Wonderful woman. Problem was - if they were affordable - they were a distance from the campus and not in an ideal area of town. The one we saw close to campus was just a few ticks above 'dive' and expensive. So we were having trouble trying to decide what was most important to us.

Went out with a woman this morning who HAD HER ACT TOGETHER. She had mapped out all the apartments she was going to show us - all in the area that students generally had apartments (nice areas of town) and was ready to go.

We visited a large area of town and multiple apartment complexes.

So in the two days, we saw all areas of town, all ranges of quality of apartments and varying degrees of closeness to the campus. Thing is - parking on campus, we have heard, is difficult to obtain and expensive. So I don't even know if on August 10th, when passes for the garages go on sale if we would even get one. Who knows? NOT US that is for sure and never got a straight answer from anybody - just 'parking on campus is a nightmare' over and over again. So we started forming the dream apartment: something close to campus (walkable distance), something livable, something that didn't cost an arm and a leg. A girl can dream, right?

And what do you know? The third apartment we visited today fit all three criteria!!! Went through the motions for the rest of the apartments - due diligence and all that - but knew we had FOUND OUR APARTMENT!!!

Went back, filled out the forms and we officially have an apartment a few blocks from UT Austin guaranteed.

HUGE relief!!

Might even get some sleep tonight!

Time With My Son ...

I have just spent about 24 hours with Ryan - give or take.

He's a nice kid and all ... but he is not mine.

NOT.

MINE.

My theory? (Oh, and he has given me permission to post this - in fact, when I told him I don't make fun of him or really talk about him on my blog - don't even know how ... and he INSISTED that I do just that - go figure ... the kids weird).

My theory: Aliens. Aliens took my baby and replaced him with one of their cuter models. Not that my baby was ugly or anything ... I just don't know since I never saw him.

So - why the sudden revelation? I will admit, there have been clues along the way -

- Like the year and a half that he ate only waffles and pop tarts ... and that was in High School - lets not go into his eating habits when he was younger.

- Or the time that he took 10 minutes - TEN MINUTES - to hike away from the road for some potty privacy and as we are waiting - we look up and there is the kid peeing - for all the world to see (NOT while he was in High School ...)

- What about the time we gave him a 20 pound note in London because he wanted some Krispy Kreme doughnuts and bought 4 DOZEN. Yes FOUR DOZEN. His reasoning - we gave him a 20 pound note - thus we wanted as many doughnuts as that would buy - never ONCE wondering if this seemed at all ... well, weird / excessive / odd and that maybe that was the lowest denomination of cash Gary had at the time. (Just think what he could have done with a 50 pound note!)



And then there is this morning - he heads to Orientation at UT Austin where he registers. He has decided to go into Psychology.

Blink.


OK.


Blink.


He meets with his advisor to decide on classes and to register for them. He tells me he starts off by telling his advisor that both of his parents are rocket scientists ... his theory is that if you are a scientist and you worked for a company that built rockets - you are a rocket scientist ... I gotta admit - there is some roundabout logic there ...

This is supposed to explain the reason we look at his askance when he tells us he wants to go into Psychology. His advisor tells him that both his parents were doctors - so they shared a special bonding moment ... sigh ... parents that just don't understand ...

He brings home his list of classes:

BioPsychology
Philosophy of Human Nature
Cognitive Psychology
Chemistry II
Communication Disorders

Seriously ... WHO TAKES CLASSES LIKE THIS? WHO?

My first reaction when he told me he was thinking of psychology was to throw myself on my bed and wail "Every psychologist goes into psychology because they want to know why their moms are crazy" - Ryan calmly asked me why I said that and I told him I read it somewhere.

So - Classes have been set up.

He come home with what he said in a text was 'free stuff!!!'

LIBERAL ARTS? Oh, come on ... (not that there is anything wrong with Liberal Arts - but we were thinking Psychology was, well - in something else ...).

Even the Liberal Arts people can make fun of themselves - with a "Lets Make a Deal" theme. I'm not really sure what it is supposed to mean, but then again ... I don't think I have the Liberal Arts gene. History is listed between Urban Studies and Islamic Studies. For the life of me I cannot come up with a job in any of these areas that exist - other than Professor - maybe.

Then Gary calls from PNG. Tell him the classes and he is extremely calm. He wanted him to keep some of his science classes to keep some doors open if he changed his major, but ... whatever.

Gary calmly makes suggestions. I throw myself on the bed and wonder what planet my son is from ... very different parenting skills ...

Both of us cannot understand how we could make a kid that didn't want to be an engineer - aliens, man - I'm tellin' ya ...


Not that the kid isn't the sweetest thing on the planet. He took me for a drive through Austin so that I could take some photos after dinner:

Didn't blink twice at me shooting shots into the sky - he's now getting that a girl has to take texture (and overlay) photos everywhere:

He took me to his girlfriends college - St. Edwards - a private Catholic college ... but we had a good time discussing the benefits of them changing their dress code to require robes and wands ...

A lovely shot of the skyline from St. Edwards - but a bit too far for my little camera and I had not taken my large camera - thus - played around with them trying to bring out the details of my favorite building ... didn't work all that well:

Have I mentioned his fascination for all things retro? He doesn't save the stuff - he just wants it now - so, for reasons known only to Ryan and a few people from his planet - he just ordered a calculator watch - AND WEARS IT!

Beautiful Skagen watch from Denmark / Calculator Watch / Skagen / Calculator .... which to choose which to choose ...

He discovered that there was a store that sells old game systems by our hotel and nearly hyperventilated and fell off the bed last night. He has absconded with our old laptop and computer because, as he calls them, they are 'quaint'. Soon - he is going to have a room FILLED with junk ...

We stopped on the way home and I knew he was getting something in particular but didn't know what. Somehow, my vow to never play a video game - which is still in effect - makes discussing them difficult. Now that I haven't watched TV for 6 years - discussions of TV shows are about the same - never heard of them, thus not a very good conversationalist in that department.

He came out beaming. Tells me he is 'reliving the childhood that he never had' which is apparently true because this puppy:

It has a 'made in 1985' tag on the bottom. Gary and I were in California - Gary at CalTech and me at The Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Both doing scientist stuff ... The Berlin Wall still existed. No kids in sight.

Ryan was probably in some pod on his planet ...

Fun aside - I cannot complete this post without saying that it is all in jest - I don't understand why he isn't completely fascinated with all things science and likes the touchy feely degrees. I don't understand why he stays up until 3:00 in the morning then complains that he is tired when he gets up. I don't understand how he can navigate through his bedroom without an inch of carpet showing. Maybe the aliens can explain it to me!

Just gotta say - he is the best son a mother could have. He is wonderful - kind, smart, witty, compassionate, and a very deep thinker. I love him to pieces ... who wouldn't? I am so glad he is my son and my friend - and I wouldn't want anybody else - the aliens can keep the engineer ...

Thief

So ... here I am stealing photos off of Facebook! They are on Marcus Luttrells page and I wanted to share. I also photoshopped them - they were dismally washed out and hazy ... I think these are all cell phone photos ...

CELL. PHONE. PHOTOS. UGH!

I can see why they have Marcus sitting in this photo now (scroll down a few):

It is the helicopter that rescued Marcus - I doubt this is set up with the full set of guns, etc that it had that night (don't know what that missile launcher looking thingy is on the front ...). If Jeff flies 'armed' he has to wear his side arm ... I seriously doubt he came to Houston 'packin' heat':

Yeah - what is Marcus here - a foot taller than my brother? And Jeff seems tall (OK tall'ish) to me!

Was happy Jeff got to do this. Sounds like a busy day / night for him (his wife also flew in on a commercial flight). I hope they had fun - I think there was a lot of activities set up. It was nice to hear that there was a memorial for all those that lost their lives in this situation: the four other Seals and the entire crew of the Chinook helicopter that went in initially to pull them out which was hit by a RPG.

Jeff text'ed me while I was on my way to Austin yesterday and ... I forget the reason - not security - I think safety something ... happened and they had to unexpectedly land in Austin - I hope it got resolved quickly and he was able to get back home to Tucson!

Math Class is Over

Ryan suggested that I not blog in "Emo" and I think that I agree - the calculator has been put away.

Ran into beautiful weather on the way to Austin - snapped this photo through a bug stained, dirty window (if you look close enough - you see the reflection of our sodas). No clue what was up with the car ('up'! Hah! Pun! .. never mind ...):

As we arrived into Austin, Ryan decided to take me on the grand tour - having spend a lot of time last year here (his girlfriend goes to school here). Fell in love with one particular building:

Very funky! Very cool! Could only photograph the top from the front window, maybe there will be a better vantage point tomorrow:

Then we drove past the capitol - was impressed with the photos through the window and randomly shot backwards - so they made the 'blog cut'. Also impressed that there were wires strung across the road and the edit / fill / content aware did a wonderful job getting rid of them (those that I was motivated enough to do ...):

UT's infamous UT Tower:

And now we have retreated to our respective corners to 'play':

Um, what I really meant to say was that I have been in bed resting while Ryan surfed ....

Anybody have a calculator?

Note: Alternative Title: "Lori the Whiner"


I've settled into a routine of sorts.

Flat in bed X number of days, in and out of bed for Y numbers of days trying to catch up on everything I avoided, delayed, diverted, swept under the carpet on the X days ...

THEN, well, usually I had Z number of days that I would call "Lori" Days. Not fantastic days. From the outside looking in you would see a level of incompetence that is deplorable, barely rating in the 'functioning' range. When, in reality, that level of incompetence is not so much incompetence on my part, per se, but rather me pacing myself ... Z's are good days! They vertical days - and we do like our vertical days!

Over this past year and a half I have noticed a disturbing trend: my numbers have slowly been changing. More X's, more Y's and not enough Z's. Not near enough Z's.


Not to fear! Eventually this break-neck pace of living on two continents will end and I will slowly begin to recharge (dang old battery ...) and one day will be back to ... well, whatever I was before. Content and happy with more Z's than X's (since I really don't have a choice) in all their blazing glorious incompetent dysfunctionality ...


But ...



I've left out a MAJOR part of my equation!



MAJOR.



HUGE!



GINORMOUS:



Variable "C".



I seemed to, somehow, have forgotten the "CRAZY".


HOW COULD I FORGET THE CRAZY?!?

Well, for one thing - Gary has been 'accessible'. Even though he is in Australia - I can call and talk to him - he can 'talk me down' and other such talents he has built up in his bag of tricks. A conversation with Gary is like a deep muscle massage (if I didn't have that fibromylagia thingy and massages didn't hurt so bad ....). It has been a long time since we have been in a 'radio silence' type of situation. So ... sort of easy to forget - to stash it in the back of some dark closet somewhere ... and forget all about the fallout.

And here I was annoyed - just a teny, tiny bit, because Gary was spending the night in Morro - the last place he could call me from for two weeks. (Update: while taking 1/2 the freaking day to type this, Gary called and said his chopper is fogged in so he might be spending tomorrow in Morrow ...)


It occurs to me that we are now in radio silence for I think for 2 weeks more or less ...

Trouble ahead - and me out of days to deal with it. That it snuck up on me without my thinking it through is not a good sign. Just arrived in Austin to go apartment hunting with Ryan. Three to four days in a hotel with Ryan, no clue what I should be looking for, where I should be looking - and feeling like I am smack dab in the middle of Y's squared or some such nonsense.

We will see how it goes.




A confession: Crazy is just code. Crazy = Pain (with a little genuine crazy thrown in on top). Crazy is the grumpy from being in pain. Crazy is the panic that sets in for no apparent reason because things are getting too painful and my brain at that moment in time has lost all ability to control the pain - spiralling down and down - a wicked cycle that is very hard to pull up and out of ...

On X, Y or Z days things are somewhat OK - manageable is the word that comes to mind. I have been doing this for 18 years - I have a routine ... sort of ... if combining 'flying by the seat of your pants' and 'whatever works' is a routine - but it has, until recently set me on a path of nothing but Z days ahead.

Mix C into any of my days: X, Y or Z and what falls out is generally not pretty - like an old chemistry experiment gone bad ... just some worse than others.

Best I know what to do with these is hunker down and ride them out (and never let that morphine bottle get too far away ...). The trick is - how to ride them out and not say, do or threaten do do something incredibly stupid. As near as I can tell it is an impossibility.

So be forewarned ... acid rain clouds are predicted in the near future ... with a 90% chance for stupidity by sunrise ...

And the award for the Most Supportive Sister goes to ...

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So ... about a month ago I get a call on my Blackberry that I don't recognize.



"Hey stupid freak!"


I smile and ask my brother what he wants.


He starts to tell me that he is going to be flying the helicopter that he flew rescuing Marcus Luttrell in a very impressive tale that if you are interested and have not read - is here and landing it in Minute Maid park for some sort of event.

"Very Cool! When?" I ask. He says June 26th, that his other line is ringing in a flash ... he is gone.
I try to get info - not an easy task when I was tending to remember things like this at three in the morning - thus using Marcus Luttrells facebook page which was giving up few details. Remembered to ask my mom about it at the family reunion (Jeff was family reunioning with his wifes family this year). She mentiond that they were not going to let him land in Minute Maid park anymore - safety or some such nonsense - thus in the parking lot.


Hmmm - not sounding all that fun - but what the heck - it was at 7:00 on a Saturday evening - had nothing else scheduled ...

Friday evening get a text message: "Am flying over Richmond right now!"

Wha? Who? OH! Jeff .... in a helicopter - ran outside and stood still.


Texted him back "I CAN HEAR YOU!!! Call me later with details"


Later he calls and says I should get there by 2:00 if I was coming at all and that it might be a bit underwhelming ... landing in a parking lot and all. I told him two was a bit of a problem since I had Jessie. He told me no biggie and he would send me photos (the stuff posted I just stole). He said he probably wouldn't be able to get me anywhere to be able to see him ...

So - got on my Facebook this evening and find my bro and Marcus:

Even a YouTube video of the landing - which, is a bit underwhelming: (although ... is Marcus getting dust in his eyes or is he getting emotional?)

So - didn't go. (bad, bad Lori) Hope he has a good time!

Compulsory Blogging

Not a lot of things on my list of "Things To Do Today" ....


it's been that way for a while now. Same old, same old - do too much, land in bed trying to recover so I can make my next 'event' where my list of "Things To Do Today" consists of more than 'breathe'.

But today - I had a mandatory, HAVE TO DO item. What is so important that it comes (almost) before breathing?


Blogging.

I MUST post today ....


Why? Gary is getting antsy, people are asking, Mom's probably worrying - 'cause when I don't feel well I don't blog. Too bad the inverse is not true ...

Ahhh, yes the magical post - wouldn't it be nice - the post that cures all ills ...


Anyhoo ...


Next problem - what to post ABOUT?


Hmmm, let me see ... OH! Got it:

A LIST:

Things I learned on my Family Vacation (in no order whatsoever)

- Someone will always have a cooler camera than you (not that mine is crap ... I'm just sayin ...)

- It is a $5000.00 fine for feeding the wildlife at Yosemite

- In Oregon - you are not allowed to pump your own gas. How weird is that? The first time we filled up, we just thought that the gas attendant was super duper friendly (although Ryan did admit that he thought we were being car jacked by a guy in a Shell shirt for a moment ...). The second time the guy came tearing out of the store yelling at us that we could not do it ... sort of cleared things right up for us.

- The Oregon Coast is really, really, really green ... and where it is not really, really, really green - it is really, really, really blue ...

- It is physically impossible for me to observe sunlight shining on water and not snap a photo

- I have a genetic mutation that FORCES me to snap a photo of EVERY single flower that I come across

- My family:

isn't so bad ...

To The Father of My Children ...

To the best father I know.

I still remember heading in for my 'shift' at the intensive care unit at Primary Childrens Hospital and seeing a photo of you bathing Jessie taped to her crib/unit thingy. Asking the nurses about it, they said they had never ... NEVER ... seen a father in intensive care bathe their child - ever ... so they snapped a photo - because it was so unique and wonderful.

Unique and Wonderful. Two words that describe you as a father - they fit so well.

I watch you with Jessie - the patience, the fun, the love and time you give her and I feel that I come up short - something I need to work on.

I watch you with Ryan - teaching him the things your father taught you, being his friend, being an example of what a father, a husband, a man should be. The unconditional love - and how he respects you - and again feel I come up short.

You have taught me so many things about parenting that I couldn't list them all. I flounder, flail, yell, freak out ... and you? You are rock steady, calm, funny, righteous, firm, unwaivering and fun. Never forget fun!

Thank you for being such a good father to our children. Doing the things that needed to be done when you didn't have the time, but did them anyway. Doing my job when I was too sick or incompetent to do so.

You have built memories that will last with Ryan and Jessie forever. A rare gift. Better than anything that comes out of a box.

You are my rock, my therapist, my friend, my teacher, my example. I couldn't have wished for a better husband ... but more than that - there is no one on the planet that is a better father than you are. For that I am eternally grateful. How did I get so lucky?

Love you ...