61 posts tagged “qotd”
What soon-to-be-published book are you excited to read?
What question do you hate being asked?
It's really a set of two questions that go together: "How long are you going to be here, and where are you going next?"
The answer to each is a great big "I don't know!" While we might have our guesses and probablies and maybes, the all-consuming Needs of the Navy are no constant thing to be depended upon and planned around far in advance. I am slowly--and not always gracefully--getting used to dealing with the big ("Where will we be living after this assignment?") and little ("Will we find out about tomorrow's schedule at five o'clock tonight, or will it be delayed?") uncertainties, but I know it can seem bizarre and unstable to some of my civilian friends and family.
For instance, we just bought our first house. We did so not knowing whether M will be stationed in the area for four years, as will be the case if he gets assigned to an East Coast squadron for his first sea tour, or if we'll be sent to California or Japan after just a year here. Here's the kicker: we will not find out whether we're staying or going until just before we would have to leave--we'll have a few weeks' notice if we're lucky. Thus, while we are hoping to stay put, we still have to plan as if we will be packing up and moving out next summer.
A dear friend of mine from high school was understandably boggled as to why we would choose to buy a place when we have maybe a fifty-fifty shot of living there longer than a year. Why not just rent, sign the year lease, and wait and see about buying once we knew where we'd be for the next three years? There are a lot of reasons we wanted to buy instead of continuing to rent, many of those likely familiar anyone looking to become a homeowner, but even discounting those, our timing made sense to us. Waiting to buy would certainly eliminate one worry, but it would also guarantee that we'd have to move in a year even if we stayed on this coast. I'd rather take the chance that we might be able to avoid a move for four whole years. The mere possibility that we could have that kind of geographical stability after moving three times in our first year and a half of marriage is extremely appealing.
Also, we have always planned to use our house as a rental property when the Navy inevitably sends us to another duty station. If we waited until we had a guaranteed stable location for multiple years, we'd be locking ourselves out of homeownership for the next twenty years. Even if we have to move earlier than we'd prefer, it doesn't upset our plans, it only moves up the timetable a bit. Sure, there are complications that wouldn't exist if we had more control over where we lived and for how long, but I'm stoked about how we're handling them. We're thrilled to be living in a home that belongs to us; it feels great to know we have that degree of control as well as the additional responsibilities. All we have to do while we spend this year enjoying our awesome house is do some research and make sure we're as prepared to look for tenants in one year as we would be in four.
Getting back to the QotD, while I may get tired of hearing questions about where we're going and how long we're going to be there, it's only because I wish I could give my family and friends a more satisfying answer. It must be frustrating to hear me say, "I don't know, and I don't know when I will know, either," like a broken record. I'm not actually offended by the questions, because believe me, I have the same ones for the Navy!
The Navy ain't talking, though, so I guess we'll all wait and see together. Semper Gumby, right?
What are your first thoughts upon waking?
Submitted by Cher Cabula.
This morning, my first groggy thought was something along the lines of, "Mmph, I'm cold." The second thought was about how magnificent that chill felt, considering that it was still about 85° F in the room when I went to sleep. The A/C guy had indeed come yesterday evening and (temporarily) fixed my folks' air conditioning system, but it took the night to bring the temperature in the house back down. It's hot again today, but that's a lot easier to deal with when one can escape inside--or to one's grandparents' house, which is what my brother and I did yesterday afternoon. Mom came over to cool off for a bit, but she had to go back and wait in an oppressively warm house for the guy to come take a look at the system. Let's hope it stays working until a more permanent fix can be implemented.
How many houses have you lived in? How is where you live now different from where you grew up?
If we're not counting college residence halls, the number currently stands at four. I'm about to make it five when M and I move into our very first real, owned-by-us house towards the end of this month. Closing is in about two and a half weeks, and we have the movers scheduled to deliver all our household goods, which have been in storage since we fled Texas at the end of April, the next day. This is by far the most attenuated move we've yet experienced, and we are very much looking forward to having a place to call our own again--and this time, it really will be our own!
We'll be living in a different part of the same state in which M and I were raised, so it's a lot closer than Texas was in both feel and distance to where I grew up. The flora and fauna feel right, and the neighborhoods had an instantly familiar vibe. I'm really looking forward to getting established in our new place, and I do hope that the Navy sees fit to keep us on the East Coast for M's first sea tour. If not, we could find ourselves headed to California or Japan after this first year. We'd deal, but it would be positively blissful if we could take a break from PCSing until this decade is out.
On a side note, I'm itching to whip up some change-of-address cards, but I'm superstitious enough to hold off until after closing when all the paperwork is signed and the keys are in my hand. Of course, then I'll be too busy getting the house put into some semblance of livable order to do it, but that's neither here nor there.
What's your favorite type of cheese? Or, if you don't like cheese, why not?
Submitted by Draegon Scribe.
I love chèvre, a soft, creamy goat's milk cheese. I'm allergic to cow's milk products, so I have learned to love alternative dairy products. Soft goat cheese is quite versatile, I've found; I make a fantastic macaroni and goat cheese casserole, if I do say myself.
Are you planning on doing any spring cleaning this year? If so, please share a cleaning tip you swear by.
Cleaning up is for sissies, so we're just going to move. I mean, we've lived here for almost three months, and that is just way too long to be rooted to one spot. Finally having the area figured out and the house semi-organized is such a drag.
If you are especially perceptive, you may have sensed the barest tinge of sarcasm above. As much of a PITA as a PCS move is, though, we are looking forward to heading back East sometime in the next month or so. Could be as soon as a few weeks, but the Navy will take its sweet time in telling us, as ever. I just got back home from a lovely and productive trip out to where we'll be stationed to start getting the lay of the land and do some house-hunting. I couldn't have done it without my mom, who offered her experience and input throughout what is, to me, the highly mysterious process of looking at houses and neighborhoods. She also served as moral support when we thought we were going to die of the real estate agent's terrifying driving practices. Oh, and she was witness to the car that pulled up next to us with a dead deer head, antlers and all, in the passenger seat. Redneck Godfather for the win.
Anyway, I'm back home now, with all my luggage. That wasn't a sure thing right at first, since my suitcase was apparently put on a different flight than the one I was on. M and I stuck (grumpily) around the the airport until the flight with my suitcase arrived, but that was way better than filing a claim and hoping it would get delivered as promised. If I'd known we'd end up waiting around for the later flight anyway, I would have just taken that one to begin with and not run myself ragged trying to make the tighter connection in Houston. IAH may be the most obnoxious airport I've ever had the displeasure to try to navigate. Oh well.
What's the front page story in your local paper today? What do you think the front page story SHOULD be?
I don't have a copy of it in front of me, but the story on the front page of the base paper the other day that jumped out at me was about security for going on base. The article was essentially a heads-up that starting "soon," the gate security guards will have to physically handle each military ID before letting its owner aboard. Up 'til now, all we had to do was flash it without removing it from the clear plastic ID window in the wallet. The article claims that forgeries are up, so extra care must be taken to ensure that each person trying to come aboard is really authorized to do so. I guess that includes looking at the back of the ID as well as the smiling face (ha!) on the front.
I know we're going to be doubly glad that we live on base when the new policy takes effect and everyone trying to get to work in the morning has to stop and fumble with cards and wallets and purses and all that with a line of waiting cars ribboning out behind.
I'm not sure I have a better idea for a front-page story for a base newspaper, but one correction I would make is to the "Worship Services" box right next to the chaplain's column. Apparently no one has informed them that the name of the local synagogue changed when the city's two congregations merged a couple years ago. Also, the paper lists only the Friday night service (and promises "dinner to follow," which is probably too optimistic a description of the cookies and coffee at the oneg) when there is also a Saturday morning Shabbat service. That's the one that M and I attend more often, as the format tends to be more traditional, and it would be nice if more people showed up. It's nice when we actually manage to have a minyan!
Hmm. Maybe I'll write to the chaplain and/or the paper instead of just whining ineffectually about it here.
What's on your to-do list for today?
- Grocery shopping: Check! We made a major stock-up run to the commissary, and were for once highly successful. They even had goat brie! Bonus dose of surreality of the day: the bagger was smiling, laughing, and carrying on about how the only thing anyone has to worry about is the devil.
- Washing machine and dryer installation: All the DIY sites I've consulted on the subject assure me that this is an easy task that anyone with the mechanical skill of a monkey can accomplish. I have some hope, therefore, that we two reasonably technically-minded individuals can do this without flooding or burning down the house.
- Laundry: This one is dependent upon the successful completion of #2 above. I think we (more likely I; though M is extremely helpful about jumping in on the laundry duties, the fact is that I'll be the one home more) have a solid week's worth of loads to plow through.
CooingCooking (thanks, Uncle S) a tasty dinner: With our newly replenished larder, we have so many options!
To close, a random thought from M: "You are a Voxin' Vixen; you know that, right?"
Well, now I do. Hee.
How far from your last home do you live? Why did you move and are you glad you did?
Submitted by Matthew 25.
The answer to this one is going to change when the Navy moves us in a few days, so I'll get it in now while the number is more impressive. Right after getting married, I moved 1,419 miles (as the crow flies) from my folks' home to the South Texas town where M was doing one of the phases of flight school. As of early next week, we'll be living in another South Texas town--about fifty miles from where we are now--while M does another phase of flight school. Like I said in response to a similar QotD a while back, we do (and will) live where we live because that's where the Navy told us to live.
As for whether I am glad I moved, of course I am. I can't imagine choosing to be separated when we know we're going to have to deal with that quite often enough over the years; after a good half-decade of long-distance dating, the notion of doing the geobachelor thing as newlyweds was singularly unappealing. This particular part of Texas may not have much to recommend it, but it has situated us such that we've been able to spend time with my mom's side of the family, an opportunity I've cherished.
How are you spending Christmas Day?
One of the things we're doing is celebrating my husband's birthday. Happy quarter-century, "Ralphie." :-)
