The First Dose

Well, this is my first attempt at blogging, so anybody reading this is now my lab rat. (And you don't even get a piece of cheese for completing the maze. Sorry about that.)

I'm not going to start out with descriptions of me; if anybody is that interested, they can ask me what they'd like to know.

Right now, however, I AM going to get a little bit of bitching off my chest, and tell you why today is not a good day to be Mel.

First, I guess I lied. I'm gonna give away one little secret about myself. I'm a challenge junkie. I don't know why, because I curse and wanna throw things in the midst of them, but they're my adrenaline rush. My sky-diving. So, let me start by laying some foundation.

My husband and I recently moved to Alabama (like 2 weeks ago), from Oregon, so that he could attend Warrant Officer School, and then Flight School to become a Chinook pilot for the National Guard. A dream of my husband's pretty much his whole life, and awesome news. With me so far? Ok.

Now back to the point. When the problem of packing up our whole household, loading it onto a moving truck, and driving it and our trailered Pacifica cross-country with us and two dogs in the cab, and doing it all in only 8 days, came along, I was ecstatic. Crazy-stressed, but happy. Then, once we got here, I had four and a half days to find us a house, and move into it before I had to return the truck. Now, you should know that my husband helped me out with the last part as much as he could, but he was busy dealing with all of the crap that comes with attending a military school, and all of the other crap that comes with doing it on a short-fall, so I was pretty much on my own. Another thing you should know is that a guy from Oregon named Sam was already down here attending Flight School, and he took his sparse off-time, and gave it to us, and bullied three guys who had never even met us into helping us unload that truck, which we did in less than half an hour. (And all I had to do was buy the beer.) This guy was a God-send. A really good guy.

So we get here, and the very first house we look at is perfect. That alone is crazy. Then we get the house the next evening, and move into it the evening after that. Even crazier. If you don't know why that's crazy, then go ask another military family, and they'll tell you why. If you don't know any military families, then write me and ask me.

Ok, now that you know I'm a little bit of a challenge whore, fast forward a week and a half. You know what you find? A bored-out-of-her-mind, lonely, frustrated, and HOT Mel. Why am I bored? Because I've unpacked the house, cleaned everything, set up all of the utilities, un-clustered our bank accounts, and mowed the lawn. Because I'm done. Done, dammit. I HATE being bored. But what's more, I DETEST being hot.

So... that brings me to today. Ah, yes. Today. The day that it is not good to be Mel. Wanna know why? Because in southern Alabama, in August, MY FREAKING AIR CONDITIONING FREAKING FRIED!!!! Because now I sit here, in my underwear, watching my dogs lose weight while I don't and I'm trying very, very hard not to get angry. And I am actually starting to believe in that Murphy's Law bullshit, because of course this couldn't have happened during the week. NOOOO....it had to happen on a Saturday. So, of COURSE, they aren't going to be able to get the part it needs until Monday, and I'm basically just s.o.l. until then. Did I mention that I hate being hot? I think I'm going to take out some stock in a fan company and get some of my money back.

Now, I'm trying not to be angry or frustrated because I realize that I was BEYOND lucky in all of this craziness that was my life for the past couple of weeks, and it feels more than a little selfish to get angry at one little hiccup. But, it's also very hard NOT to feel selfish when you're sitting in a 90 degree house, where you can't even scramble two eggs without needing to go take a shower to wash off all of the sweat. And you can't even bring yourself to go take that shower, because you know you'll never dry off, being as the humidity factor is over 90%, even in your house, because YOU HAVE NO AIR CONDITIONING!

By now, you're probably wondering why you just wasted 15 minutes of your life listening to the heat-induced ravings of some crazy woman in Alabama, so I'm gonna tell you why. Because you are one of my new friends, and we use our friends to vent our frustrations so we'll feel better, right? Well, you just did that for me. Made me feel better. See what a good friend you are already? :)

So....thanks for letting me bitch. I promise that not all of my postings will be negative, though I'm sure I'll lean on you again a time or two. Now, since I'm feeling so much better, I think I'm going to go get dressed, and go sit in our little internet cafe, and get re-acquainted with the feel of air-conditioning. :)