Getting my Master's...

...would it be a waste of time and money?

I'm debating whether I should go get my Master's in History or not. Part of me wants to continue my education and get that degree, but also part of me thinks it would be a waste of time. I don't think I want a career in History. There's not much I can do except teach... then again, if I did want to get a job in History I have a much better chance if I have a Master's.

In the future I really just want to be a writer. That's my goal. I want to write books and sell them. I want to stay at home with my kids, when I have them. Basically a stay-at-home mom with a writing career on the side!

So is it worth it to go back to school for 2 more years and get my Master's? Or is it better for me to stick with the Bachelor's and concentrate on my writing? I do have plenty of time to go back to school - I am young still! The problem I might face is it would be harder when we do have children. Lots to think about!

Decisions, decisions!

Goals

October Goals:

- Read 3 of my writing books
- Look into Freelance Writing
- Look into substitute teaching
- WRITE!!
- Train Dexter
- Start scuba diving
- Get my lawn green
- Maybe find a job?
- Make some friends

November Goals:

- Start, do and finish NaNoWriMo (see note below)
- Read the rest of my writing books
- Watch some shows and movies that Brandon hates, because he'll be gone for the better part of the month
- Figure out what the heck we'll be doing for Thanksgiving
- Make some more friends
- Keep trying to find a job, if one hasn't arrived yet
- Get into a scuba diving club by this month!
- Sign up for Advanced Scuba certification class

(Note: NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. You can find it at www.nanowrimo.org. It's basically a writing month, in November, and kind of a competition to write 50,000 words. I've tried it before, failed because I wasn't ready, but I'm determined to do it this year! I'll probably post about this later on in detail.)

Where am I?

Where am I?

Sometimes I'm in Colorado. I step outside my front door and look onto the green mountains, rising high above the houses. Teenagers play on a skate park in the sun and women walk by with their babies. The houses across the street shine - yellow, blue, green. The air smells clean when the wind blows by. The sky is an immeasurable blue, so brilliant that you can't take your eyes off of it. When the clouds pass, they are bright white, placed carefully against the blue background. This place is quiet, serene, comforting like home.

Sometimes I'm in England. When the rain falls the clouds aren't even that dark. The rain doesn't come down hard, but it comes down fast and steady, blanketing the streets, sidewalks and grass with it's cool liquid.

Sometimes I'm in a third world country. You drive down the city streets and see houses of all different shapes and colors. You see businesses tucked in the oddest spaces. There are no parking spots in the cities, you must fend for yourself or park on someone's property. Homeless men and women ride their bikes up and down the hills, carrying bags full of soda cans on their backs. The street names make no sense, and the directions to a person's house could be easily confused because their home has the same address as another's, but is hidden behind the first house. The tall condo skyscrapers and hotels that tower in the city are reminiscent of those you see in the movies filmed in Africa. It is cluttered, messy, and confusing.

Sometimes I'm right at home. Home is where I make my place, home is where I stay. It is comforting having this home for myself, a place where I can go to, that I know will be there, not matter if I'm in a different state or country. It is home and that's where I am.

I've been busy

I've been busy! Our household goods arrived yesterday, completely unexpected, so we've been unpacking like crazy. They called on Wednesday evening telling us our stuff was in Hawaii, even though the guy before said not to expect anything until October 6. They were supposed to arrive anytime between 8 and 5 on Thursday and they arrived at 7:58am. We were totally unprepared! We had to move things around, so now it's even worse of a mess in here.

I've unpacked the kitchen, the bathroom stuff, the bedroom, most of the living room... and none of the office. Hopefully Brandon helps me with that this weekend!

We got a kitten last Friday for Brandon. His name is Winston, he's 8 and a half weeks old now, and he orange and white striped. Very cute. He has some litter training problems that we're working on. He also likes to chew on us... which isn't a problem, he's just playing, but can be annoying when you're trying to do something else! Brandon loves him a lot though. I'm glad he does!

This afternoon I'm going to get my puppy! I can't believe it, I've been waiting for so long to have a dog of my own. He's 8 and a half weeks old, born 1 day before Winston, and he's a border collie. I can't wait to train him and walk him and take care of him! I'm also nervous... it's like going on a first date! Haha.

So far, I've been applying for jobs, running errands, and getting the house ready. Hanging out with Brandon a lot too. We've been watching stuff online - Lost, The Office season 5, etc. Stuff to keep us entertained. We're getting satellite TV installed on Monday, with HD channels and DVR! I can't wait!

Happy Birthday Brando!!

It's Brandon's birthday today! He turned 24. This is his fourth birthday we've spent together, and here's to many more! We already opened his presents - a Hawaiian t-shirt, a couple cat toys, and a diving knife. Tonight, we're going to get his kitten. It's a good day!

Moving Day!

We moved in today! We don't have any furniture, we're sleeping on a blow up mattress, and we have no food... but it's still nice to have our house!

In other news, we got a kitten, sorta. We're picking him up on Saturday. He's so cute. 7 weeks old, born July 29, orange and white tabby, short hair. He was the biggest out of the litter. His fur is lighter compared to the others, but I love it. Brandon wants to call him Winston. :)

We're looking for a puppy for me. It's incredibly hard here. The only dogs that they seem to have an abundance of are pit bulls. I don't want one of those, and can't have it anyway! Ugh. I want a dachshund or border collie. That's what we've been looking at. Hopefully soon...

I'm sitting at the library, as we don't have internet until Thursday. Tomorrow they're delivering our first batch of household goods. That's good at least!

Ok, I'm tired and really need to be job searching...

Hello Hawaii

This will be the last of the series of blogs following our trip. This one will be short, just saying what we've been doing and dealing with since we got here!

September 2-7

Brandon signed in off leave, but luckily we didn't have to start inprocessing right away, because we arrived on Tuesday night and they start the inprocessing on Tuesday. We had another week off! They put us up at the airport hotel (ick, but it's somewhere to sleep).

We spent the week hanging out. We went to Bellows Beach (amazing view!), snorkeling at Hanauma Bay and Electric Beach, swimming at the North Shore, looking at waves, playing in waves, window shopping in Waikiki, relaxing in the hotel room, touring Schofield Barracks, seeing the USS Arizona and Pearl Harbor memorial, eating different foods, and doing Sudoku and Crosswords. We had a very good week!

Our housing situation... well, we got so lucky. We went in to ask for a house and they had one for us right away. Today, we get to go see it and sign the lease, and Tuesday the 15th we're moving in. I couldn't believe it!

Anyway, I think I'm done with this series. I'm happy to be here. I was shocked for a moment, realizing that I was actually here, that this place wasn't somewhere I was going, it was a place I was in. It was a little jarring because I suppose it was never really reality, and now it is. But I like it!

Lovely Los Angeles

I've been procrastinating! We get to look at our house today. :)

August 30-September 1

On Sunday, after we slept in a good amount and rested, we all got ready and headed out. Our hosts brought us to Hollywood and the Star Walk, the Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre. We drove down Sunset Blvd and saw different sites there. Then they took us down to the coast to Malibu. It was so pretty there! We found a parking spot and stopped at the beach and stepped in the water. It was freezing! When we got home, we made some barbecue chicken and salad. It was yummy. :)

The next day our hosts had to work, so Brandon and I were on our own. We went to the carwash to get my car ready to be shipped, and then we had lunch at In-N-Out burger. Yum! Then Brandon brought me to Universal Studios. That was fun! They had different shows and rides, we were busy all afternoon the time flew. It was a great time. My favourite part was the Studio Tour, where we got to see where they filmed shows and movies. It was really cool! That night we ate pizza, stayed up too late, and had to get up early the next morning.

We left at 7am to drop off my car at port. It didn't take too long, thank goodness the traffic wasn't bad. But then we had 5 hours to kill at the airport when we got there. It wasn't too bad though. We watched things on my computer, read, slept, and ate some really expensive food. Our time to board came, and we had another 5 and a half hours flying to Hawaii. We were tired! I didn't sleep at all on the plane. I ate some expensive food there (they didn't supply a meal for free, how dumb) and watched the movie they provided. It was a good flight, actually.

We saw Hawaii finally. It looked so pretty! We landed and we were there. How weird?

Last Leg

This is a quick one!

August 29

We left Las Vegas in the early afternoon, on our way to Los Angeles, our last stop on the mainland. It was a very hot trip, so thank goodness we have air conditioning. It was a long drive for being so short. We could taste the end of driving. The scenery consisted of dirt, sand, cactus, and some small hills. It was a desert, it is a desert. There were glimmers of hope in the casinos we saw through Nevada, and the small towns we encountered on our way through Los Angeles. It didn't even feel like we hit Los Angeles when we did. As we turned towards my friends house where we were staying, we saw the fire burning on our right, to the east. The world was on fire. I even saw flames at one point. The smoke clouds were a constant reminder during our stay in L.A. of the fire to the east.

We arrived at our friends house by dinner time, and they took us to an Italian restaurant, where we met some of their friends, who also happened to be Canadian. They were very nice! We saw Sean Astin there, the guy who plays Samwise in LOTR. Needless to say, I was ecstatic at the fact of seeing a famous person. We had desert at a yogurt shop before crashing for the night.

It was a good trip through the United States. From Georgia we went through Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee (if only for a moment), Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado (for a long moment), Utah, Arizona (also for a brief glimpse), Nevada, and California. I don't know the exact mileage, even though we calculated it, but it was over 3000 miles after it was all said and done!

Next blog will be about our time in L.A. Right now, it's job searching time.

Viva Las Vegas

August 27-29

We had two and a half days in Las Vegas. We slept in on Thursday and had an easy morning. We decided to hit up the aquarium at Mandalay Bay first, so that's where we headed. Then we walked through the casino, since Brandon had never been to one. He had such fun! After Mandalay Bay we went to Excalibur, where we gambled some more, and got sucked into a timeshare presentation. And we ended up buying one!

Huh?

The timeshare actually had a great deal. I won't mention the price, but it was unbelievable. On top of that, we don't even ever have to go to the one in Las Vegas, which was beautiful in its own right. The way this works, we now have access to over 4200 timeshares, hotels and resorts all over the world. We can stay at any of those hotels for one 189 for the whole week. That's for a whole villa-type thing! 1, 2, 3, 4 bedrooms, with a kitchen, and bathrooms! It's great. We can stay at any of the hotels owned by the company for 139 a week, too. We plan on using it all the time and going all kinds of places. Right now - all over Hawaii and maybe even New Zealand and Australia.

Anyway, back on track. That took all afternoon! We got very cheap tickets to The Tournament of Kings though. It was a great show! We had fun! We were tired, so we went to bed.

The next day we went to see Hoover Dam. We really enjoyed that! We took a tour down into the dam to see the generators, and the inner workings. Brandon really enjoyed it. Then wee went on a hike through Las Vegas, gambling and checking out hotels. We had lunch on the strip. We saw free shows that they have. We took pictures. We gambled. We laughed. It was a good day overall. We saw the show at Fremont Street at the end.

Saturday we were heading to Los Angeles, but since it was less than 5 hours away, we had some time to see Las Vegas. We went to see Caesar's Palace and the shopping area around there. Very cool! Then we were off to L.A. :)

Relaxing Road-Trip

August 26

Much to my step-mother's surprise, we got up at 5:15 am and left their house at 6 am. We woke Dad and Kat up to say our goodbyes before we left. She didn't really believe us when we said we were leaving at 6! It was a quick goodbye, and we were on the road.

We had gotten gas and ice the night before, so all we had to do was head out. Brandon started the driving, since I don't like driving through the mountains. It was beautiful. I'll miss Colorado just for it's beauty and splendor. Poems about the mountains coursed through my mind! I was also tired from not sleeping very well that night on Dad's spare bed. The drive through Colorado was fast, and we stopped in Grand Junction for some gas. I started driving from there.

On our way through Utah we decided to take a little detour to Moab. It was so beautiful! We took this back road through the canyons and along this river. I couldn't believe how wonderful it was. I was so glad that we decided to take that route. We stopped in pretty Moab for lunch at a local restaurant. Then we were off again through the Utah desert!

Utah was fairly boring. We switched drivers once we switched highways. Brandon drove the rest of the way to Las Vegas. It got prettier for a moment in the corner of Arizona. There were tall canyons there as well. Then another desert on the way to Las Vegas. We got to Vegas as the sun was setting, pulling into Nellis AFB, where we were staying for the night.

We had dinner at the Officer's Club. It was cook-your-own-steak night, and so we did! Then we decided to drive down the strip at night. It was really cool. We were dead tired, though, so we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Colorful Colorado, Part Dos

I'm sitting at the Schofield Barracks library right now being lazy. I should be applying for jobs, but I spent the last hour surfing the web! I wanted to update my blog, though, so here I am! I'll job search when I'm done. I got time. ;) (Oh, I forgot to say on the 19th we had dinner at my mom's!)

August 20-25

That Thursday the in-law's and I went on a hike up near Garden of the Gods, past Glen Eyrie castle. It was beautiful! That was a waterfall and then we stopped at the end where the Punch Bowls are. I had so much fun. I missed hiking. Dad used to bring us all the time, but I haven't really gone much since high school. (Mostly because ROTC consists of it's own type of hiking and I hated it, haha). Anyway, the hike was beautiful. We spent the morning until lunch-time doing that. Afterwards we had to go downtown. Then we had dinner at this brew pub. It was yummy. :)

I can't even remember what we did Friday... Oh, I do now! We went to the zoo! That's when we lost our camera. :( It sucks. Brandon had it and put it down somewhere, and I forgot to check too, and it was gone. Someone probably stole it. We ended up buying the same exact one a couple days afterwards, and that one broke just a couple days ago. Ugh. At least we have a warranty!

Saturday we spent the day at the Pueblo Reservoir. It was fun. We took Brandon's grandfather's jetski and played on the lake. I freaked out because of the waves several times, and couldn't go swimming because I started packing. I'm not ready for water sports yet!

Sunday Brandon brought me up to the top of Pikes Peak. What a view! We could see the mountains to the west and everything else to the east. It was beautiful. We then went to my mom's for dinner that Sunday. That was eventful in its own ways, but I won't elaborate. :) We said goodbye to my family that night.

Monday was a day of just getting stuff done. We packed up our stuff that day. I'm sure we did stuff with Brandon's family but I can't remember! This is payment for not blogging soon enough, huh? Anyway, we had dinner with them that night as a sort of send-off.

Tuesday was our last day in Colorado Springs. We went shooting in the morning at a neighbors house (he has 40 acres) and then had to run some errands. We said goodbye to Brandon's family in the Wal-Mart parking lot. We then went to my dad's house, where we had some pizza with dad, Kat, Jenny, Shannon, the boys, and some of my dad's friends. It was a nice final night to our Colorado journey.

The time went by fast there and it was nice to visit, but it was time for us to move on to our next adventure.

Colorful Colorado, Part Uno

So we were in Colorado for awhile, so I'll split this one up a bit!

August 15-19

So we arrived to Colorado towards dinner time at my dad's house. Jennifer was hosting her 30th birthday party, so everyone was there! My whole family was excited to see me. Jennifer had hired one of her teacher's to be a photographer of us sisters, so we had a little photo session after the cake was cut. That was fun! Brandon spent a lot of the time playing horseshoes with the boys. We swam a bit when we first got there, it was so nice. Overall, a good time with my family.

We were so tired that night after driving a lot and not sleeping much the previous night! We set up our air mattress in my dad's living room and crashed fairly early. I couldn't sleep though, because I was still energized from seeing everyone, and I heard Jenny and Shannon chatting with my dad on the patio. I decided to join them. We had a very nice chat altogether and I was glad I stayed up! I finally got to bed and slept well.

The next morning we woke up and started making breakfast with everyone: Dad, Kat, Jenny, Shannon, Grant and Terry, Kat's brother. It was a good breakfast. I really wanted to swim, so after sitting around for a bit we hopped in the pool and played around a bit. Luckily his pool is heated! I was cold nearly the whole time in Colorado for some reason!

That night there was a surprise party for Brandon’s grandpa. He turned 80 on August 17. So after dad’s we drove down to Colorado Springs for the party and spent the evening with his side of the family. It was a nice party and it was nice to catch up with people. That night we set up shop in Brandon’s parents house, where we stayed for most of our trip.

Monday, I had planned to see Jessica off before she headed to Utah, but she left way early. Instead, I went up to my mom’s house to visit and see my nephews, Blake and Grant. Then Shannon, Jenny, the boys, and I went downtown to this cool park there. It was a nice and easy day! I joined Brandon back home at his parents house by dinnertime.

Tuesday was sort of boring. We basically spent the day out with Brandon’s family driving around doing errands. For 8 hours! But that’s ok, we saw sights we wanted to see.

Wednesday was my haircut day. I was so excited! I spent over nearly 3 hours at the hairdressers getting my hair dyed and cut. It’s so pretty. It’s a shorter cut, but not the shortest I usually get. I dyed it copper-red with some copper-brown in it. It looks really red in the sunlight! The rest of the day… wow, I can’t even remember what we did… how funny is that? Well, I’m sure it was fun anyway!

Ok, break time. ☺

Raging Road-Trip

Since I type a lot, I need to break down my segments even further. This one will probably be shorter, since it covers only two days, and not much happened!

August 14-15

We couldn't hit the road early because we had to get our flight itinerary from the travel office, who messed it up previously. So we drove the opposite direction to Fort Benning and waited at the office. Finally they got everything sorted out and we could get out on the road! It was after 8am by now. We started to follow our trusty GPS when Brandon's mom called, asking if we could stop by a store where she saw some good chicken feeders that she wanted to get (when she visited us). So we said sure.

After stopping at the store, we finally go on the road. It was 9:15-9:30. Ok, that was fine, we were making ok time. We left Georgia fairly quickly and got into Alabama, which looked a lot like Georgia! Drove up to Birmingham, where we stopped for some lunch at Subway and switched drivers to me. I drove through Alabama and Mississippi, our next state, into Tennessee (very shortly to get through Memphis) and right in Arkansas! We switched again shortly after crossing the state border. It was nearing dinner time by then.

We stopped somewhere in Arkansas, I think, to grab some fast food. Then we continued on to Oklahoma. We weren't sure if we wanted to stop in Tulsa or to continue on. Once we reached Tulsa, though, we saw that we had enough energy to continue, so we did! We went straight to Wichita, Kansas, and arrived at 11:30 Central Time... so like 12:30 Eastern, making us very extremely tired.

It's ok though, we rested that night, got up kind of early, and hit the road through Kansas! It was a long drive through Kansas, and we switched towards the end so I could drive the rest of the way. We hit Colorado, which looked a lot like Kansas until you hit the Front Ranger. It was nice to be home! That night we were going to my dad's for my older sister's party, so our trip ended there, in Longmont.

No incidents or accidents, except for Brandon running over an armadillo in Oklahoma... but that's a whole other story!

Goodbye Georgia

Ok, so since I haven't blogged in what feels like an eternity, I'm going to recap my past few weeks into 4 or 5 separate "segments" so as to make it easier on me. I'm starting with leaving Georgia, then our road-trip to Colorado, then Las Vegas and L.A., and ending it with our arrival in Hawaii! So welcome to the first part :)

August 10-13

It was a hectic week before we were planning on leaving. Monday, Brandon spent the morning trying to complete some more paperwork before we headed up to Atlanta to drop off his car. We drove separately, so I could drive him back. They inspected his car and got it checked in and we said goodbye to Burnie! It was a fairly easy day, except for the hour and a half there and the hour and a half back! Then we had the Brooks' over for dinner, since they had just arrived in Georgia.

Tuesday we got ready for some movers to come get our unaccompanied baggage. This is stuff, up to 900 lbs, that we can send before the rest of our things to get there early. Essentials mostly - linens, towels, kitchen things, etc. They came around lunchtime and packed everything fairly quickly, and hauled it off. Easy day!

Wednesday was when the movers were scheduled to come and pack the rest of our apartment. They came mid-morning and got going. It didn't take them that long at all to pack all our things up (they had 3 people). They were supposed to come pick up everything the next day, but the driver asked if we didn't mind them packing everything up in the crates that day. We said sure, why not! It would make our lives easier. They were there for a long time, until dinnertime almost, but our stuff got crated up and was ready to go. Our place was empty now. :( We spent that night with the Brooks' on their futon, thank goodness for them!

Thursday we cleaned our apartment before the carpet and apartment inspection. Brandon had to run to Benning to complete more paperwork, since we were leaving the next day. Everything went fairly well, except they booked us the wrong flight. We didn't get flight information until Friday before we left.

Anyway, Thursday night was at the Brooks house again. We were excited, nervous, happy, and everything in between, for our trip to Colorado!