My new show.
9.1.09
Verbal Orders--it's a book, you'll need a minute or two to read it.
Hmm. So, this is the beginning of the end of our stay in WA. Verbal orders. As the detailer told Himself, "it's not a guarantee but you can hang your hat on it"--side note: wonder where the man is from. Besides, it's so scary & ambiguous, it must be for sure. ROTC instructor at Ole Miss in Lafayette, Mississippi. Now, dear reader, if you do not know, Lafayette is not a city. It's a county & generally speaking, the Navy refers to the place that one is stationed at by the city. At first, I wondered if the man was confused. I thought he meant Lafayette, LA. But, no sirree, Lafayette, Mississippi.
Moreover, I'd forgotten that Charlie had listed any college in MS in his slate selection!!!!!! He had made his first choice here--because the housing market is so bad & we do have an established life here (I tend to put down roots & get very attached.) as an instructor on Bangor base. Then, there was 15 or 20 ROTC instructor jobs at a variety of colleges all over the states. Then, there was Italy--some call center type job--rotating shift work. & together we had ranked the ROTC jobs. I dare say, Ole Miss was near the bottom. I think we just put it on there because A) it was warm so I could breathe B) closer to family than say Maine or Connecticut C) the cost of living should be low enough to allow us to pay for homeschooling. Uh, sure, OK. We didn't even think it was a possibility because it was so far down the list so we didn't even GOOGLE the college!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (if you know me, I have become addicted to random googling, wiking, & imdb.coming constantly).
Okey-dokey, here is what we know. Ole Miss is in Oxford, MS--which is in Northern Mississippi. Roughly, 5-6 hours from both my brother & his wife in Gonzales, LA & 5-6 hours from Himself's folks in Missouri, 7-8 hours from my folks in Pensacola, 2 hours from my Leann (the only woman I have remained friends with for more than a decade--a saint. She calls me every couple of months & if I don't return the call in a timely fashion she starts calling constantly until she gets me. We have two lunch date already set up & a family trip to Tennessee planned for 2010 at their time share & something tells me the husbands are going fishing in August.).
The town has 19,000 people & the college itself has about 17,323 (that's the figure from the website). I'm still wondering if town population includes the students.
But, only 2 hours from my dad's folks. While, I do love my family, these people are a little nutty. Religiously bigoted & not too sane, some of my problems come from that side of the family. They do not believe in therapy--give your problems to God & spank your children into some semblance of normal behavior. A few generations back, they were the sort of people who would have spanked a left-handed child for being left-handed. Ugh--can you imagine? Nightmare. But they are also quirky as hell. I adore some of my aunts because the honestly try "to do the right thing" & while I am not a member of their church they still love me & show me that they love me--even though they quite clearly "don't get me". It's my grandfather & one of my uncles that I never want to deal with.
Ole Miss has a Classics department so I could potentially get my degree--I feel a little nervy but we will have to see. Also, many colleges have a faculty & faculty family discount. That would be nice. But more than likely, I will be still be homeschooling the children. While going to school full time & volunteering for Scouts. I need a nap just thinking about it. Can you imagine, me & the kids with our laptops in between classes? Nat would have to babysit Rowan while I go to class. But something tells me we would probably be dressed every day by a reasonable hour if we had to go to campus with Charlie so we weren't wasting gas. & it would make research papers a breeze for the kiddos.
Hmm, & it's the South so it's conservative. But, it's a college town so it's liberal for the South. I know it's going to be a weird varying dichotomy. Hmm, how to explain. . . when we attend Mizzou there student groups & resources there--the LGBT Resource Center, for example. At Ole Miss, they have the Gay Straight Alliance. Uh, what happened to the lesbians, bisexuals & transgenders? Wow. Not very current or sympathetic with a name like that. There are only about 5 UU congretions in Mississippi but there is one in Oxford. So, I have hope. I would like to be around people with a live & let live kind of spirit.
The also have optional recycling pickup in town & recycling drop off in town. But, no glass. WAHHHHHHHHHH!, & only #1 & #2 of plastic. WAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, I'll be fine. Where my folks live, there is no recycling pick up at all. But the town did recently get a reward for the recycling efforts & the town has sustainability links on the official town website. So, they are doing there best & trying to be better. The town even has a tree planting plan, so that's good & there are volunteering opportunities at the recylce center & for tree planting so Nat & I will probably be doing that while we are there.
There is Boy Scouting & Girl Scouting there so hopefully we will find a new troop for each of the kids. The Boy Scout district executive has already responded to my email with information & I know where the Boy Scout shop is--Tupelo, MS & that there is 1 coed Venture Troop in case we can't find a Girl Scout troop. Nat could Juliette & volunteer with a younger troop but have the coed Venture Troop for social purposes. We already know about youth sports as well. Rowan knows that there are building a 75 acre youth sports complex that he will more than likely being playing soccer at the last year we are going to be there.
My family is such a pain. My sister-in-law, whom I adore hope that one day we live next door to each other & share some goats, chickens & ducks together, was the one who pointed out how close my dad's folks are--which freaks me out. My mother-in-law informed me that when she goes gambling in Tunica we are expected to drop everything & come as well. My mom & mother-in-law have already mapped out all the normal family events that we are expected to attend over the year & my mother-in-law mentioned making sure they wait a couple of baby showers & such for me until July or August.
My mother pointed out that Mississippi is predominately black & was worried how my children would adjust. Shoot me, shoot me now. I told her "Mother, do not point it out to them, they won't notice until someone tells them." & I made her promise not to say anything. She went on for a bit so I had to trot out my favorite anti-racist Natalie story. Nat was at a birthday party where she was the only white child & I was the only white adult. Neither one of us noticed until the aunt of the little boy siddled up to me & asked me if I was uncomfortable with us being "the only white folk at the party". I had to stop carrying on with the mother of the birthday boy (who was my friend) to tell her I didn't notice & maybe we should get a picture & send it to my grandfather in Mississippi. And maybe we should get one or two of Natalie hugging Jared & all his cousins. The mom & I were howling while the sister ranted that we weren't taking this serious enough. Whatever. Race should only matter while buying hair care or skin care products or for medical reasons.
I do admit to some worries about the kids adjusting but only because they stand out as a little freaky here for some of their hippie notions or because Nat rags on people for being "ist" be it racist or bigoted against gay people. Nat won't use animal tested-products & picks up litter like nobody' s business. Neither kids are completely in standard gender rolls. Rowan enjoys soccer but isn't gung ho about sports like a lot of boys we know. He tried to watch foot ball & Nascar & got bored because there was a lot of standing around or just driving in circles. & he gets all gushy over puppies & adores the big-eyed animal pix. Nat does not do the girly-girly thing. Ever. & is disdainful of makeup or girls who rave about makeup. We're working on the disdainful thing. She needs to learn to live & let live but I think it's a knee jerk reaction to being hounded by her friends about being more normal.
I don't think any of the above is a problem but I know I've had to defend the kiddos to other parents & argue about traditional gender roles over the past 5 years or so. I had an arguement 2 days ago with my friend about what calendar I bought the kids. Nat got a Halo calendar & I was looking at a puppy calendar for Rowan. I could have bought them both Halo calendars but I like to buy them different ones so they can look at each other's pictures. And my friend was trying to direct me away from the big eyed animal calendar because "it's not very masculine, is it?" I didn't go with it because it had moral issues (one of the month's captions said that the best way to keep a secret is lie through your teeth--Rowan is 10 & not morally evolved enough to make good slipperly slope, morally ambiguous decisions) but I almost bought it & returned it to make a point to her about it not being masculine or feminine.
Plans:
Try & sell the house. Stop laughing, damnit. It's not funny. If not, try to set it up with a rental company to rent it out. On the market in 3 weeks. Joy. Which means, when I've gotten through Traci's 40th birthday party tonight that I have been working on for weeks now, starting work tomorrow to declutter & dejunk the house. Joy. We'll be calling the realtor next week to set up dates for pictures & what not. Then, try to keep the house clean for showings for 5 months.
The house needs to be painted but it's WA & we can't paint it for months. It's 3 colors. Really. And not in a good way. But, I didn't even notice when I bought it. It still doesn't bug me. But, it bugs other people. Charlie would do it himself by waiting for a sunny day & renting the machine but, again, he's going to be at sea.
Did I mention that he should be at sea for most of the preparing to move process? Again. But not the actual pack out & trip across country, at least.
Try & sell Charlie's car which is dying & won't make it across the country. We have to pay to fix it before we can sell it, because the breaks are bad & it's not driveable for any length of time.
Think I'll go take a nap. I'm tired just thinking about this. & Charlie woke me up by giving bad directions to his friend who was coming to pick him up at oh, dark hundred & couldn't sleep after that. Today is going to be long.
Moreover, I'd forgotten that Charlie had listed any college in MS in his slate selection!!!!!! He had made his first choice here--because the housing market is so bad & we do have an established life here (I tend to put down roots & get very attached.) as an instructor on Bangor base. Then, there was 15 or 20 ROTC instructor jobs at a variety of colleges all over the states. Then, there was Italy--some call center type job--rotating shift work. & together we had ranked the ROTC jobs. I dare say, Ole Miss was near the bottom. I think we just put it on there because A) it was warm so I could breathe B) closer to family than say Maine or Connecticut C) the cost of living should be low enough to allow us to pay for homeschooling. Uh, sure, OK. We didn't even think it was a possibility because it was so far down the list so we didn't even GOOGLE the college!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (if you know me, I have become addicted to random googling, wiking, & imdb.coming constantly).
Okey-dokey, here is what we know. Ole Miss is in Oxford, MS--which is in Northern Mississippi. Roughly, 5-6 hours from both my brother & his wife in Gonzales, LA & 5-6 hours from Himself's folks in Missouri, 7-8 hours from my folks in Pensacola, 2 hours from my Leann (the only woman I have remained friends with for more than a decade--a saint. She calls me every couple of months & if I don't return the call in a timely fashion she starts calling constantly until she gets me. We have two lunch date already set up & a family trip to Tennessee planned for 2010 at their time share & something tells me the husbands are going fishing in August.).
The town has 19,000 people & the college itself has about 17,323 (that's the figure from the website). I'm still wondering if town population includes the students.
But, only 2 hours from my dad's folks. While, I do love my family, these people are a little nutty. Religiously bigoted & not too sane, some of my problems come from that side of the family. They do not believe in therapy--give your problems to God & spank your children into some semblance of normal behavior. A few generations back, they were the sort of people who would have spanked a left-handed child for being left-handed. Ugh--can you imagine? Nightmare. But they are also quirky as hell. I adore some of my aunts because the honestly try "to do the right thing" & while I am not a member of their church they still love me & show me that they love me--even though they quite clearly "don't get me". It's my grandfather & one of my uncles that I never want to deal with.
Ole Miss has a Classics department so I could potentially get my degree--I feel a little nervy but we will have to see. Also, many colleges have a faculty & faculty family discount. That would be nice. But more than likely, I will be still be homeschooling the children. While going to school full time & volunteering for Scouts. I need a nap just thinking about it. Can you imagine, me & the kids with our laptops in between classes? Nat would have to babysit Rowan while I go to class. But something tells me we would probably be dressed every day by a reasonable hour if we had to go to campus with Charlie so we weren't wasting gas. & it would make research papers a breeze for the kiddos.
Hmm, & it's the South so it's conservative. But, it's a college town so it's liberal for the South. I know it's going to be a weird varying dichotomy. Hmm, how to explain. . . when we attend Mizzou there student groups & resources there--the LGBT Resource Center, for example. At Ole Miss, they have the Gay Straight Alliance. Uh, what happened to the lesbians, bisexuals & transgenders? Wow. Not very current or sympathetic with a name like that. There are only about 5 UU congretions in Mississippi but there is one in Oxford. So, I have hope. I would like to be around people with a live & let live kind of spirit.
The also have optional recycling pickup in town & recycling drop off in town. But, no glass. WAHHHHHHHHHH!, & only #1 & #2 of plastic. WAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, I'll be fine. Where my folks live, there is no recycling pick up at all. But the town did recently get a reward for the recycling efforts & the town has sustainability links on the official town website. So, they are doing there best & trying to be better. The town even has a tree planting plan, so that's good & there are volunteering opportunities at the recylce center & for tree planting so Nat & I will probably be doing that while we are there.
There is Boy Scouting & Girl Scouting there so hopefully we will find a new troop for each of the kids. The Boy Scout district executive has already responded to my email with information & I know where the Boy Scout shop is--Tupelo, MS & that there is 1 coed Venture Troop in case we can't find a Girl Scout troop. Nat could Juliette & volunteer with a younger troop but have the coed Venture Troop for social purposes. We already know about youth sports as well. Rowan knows that there are building a 75 acre youth sports complex that he will more than likely being playing soccer at the last year we are going to be there.
My family is such a pain. My sister-in-law, whom I adore hope that one day we live next door to each other & share some goats, chickens & ducks together, was the one who pointed out how close my dad's folks are--which freaks me out. My mother-in-law informed me that when she goes gambling in Tunica we are expected to drop everything & come as well. My mom & mother-in-law have already mapped out all the normal family events that we are expected to attend over the year & my mother-in-law mentioned making sure they wait a couple of baby showers & such for me until July or August.
My mother pointed out that Mississippi is predominately black & was worried how my children would adjust. Shoot me, shoot me now. I told her "Mother, do not point it out to them, they won't notice until someone tells them." & I made her promise not to say anything. She went on for a bit so I had to trot out my favorite anti-racist Natalie story. Nat was at a birthday party where she was the only white child & I was the only white adult. Neither one of us noticed until the aunt of the little boy siddled up to me & asked me if I was uncomfortable with us being "the only white folk at the party". I had to stop carrying on with the mother of the birthday boy (who was my friend) to tell her I didn't notice & maybe we should get a picture & send it to my grandfather in Mississippi. And maybe we should get one or two of Natalie hugging Jared & all his cousins. The mom & I were howling while the sister ranted that we weren't taking this serious enough. Whatever. Race should only matter while buying hair care or skin care products or for medical reasons.
I do admit to some worries about the kids adjusting but only because they stand out as a little freaky here for some of their hippie notions or because Nat rags on people for being "ist" be it racist or bigoted against gay people. Nat won't use animal tested-products & picks up litter like nobody' s business. Neither kids are completely in standard gender rolls. Rowan enjoys soccer but isn't gung ho about sports like a lot of boys we know. He tried to watch foot ball & Nascar & got bored because there was a lot of standing around or just driving in circles. & he gets all gushy over puppies & adores the big-eyed animal pix. Nat does not do the girly-girly thing. Ever. & is disdainful of makeup or girls who rave about makeup. We're working on the disdainful thing. She needs to learn to live & let live but I think it's a knee jerk reaction to being hounded by her friends about being more normal.
I don't think any of the above is a problem but I know I've had to defend the kiddos to other parents & argue about traditional gender roles over the past 5 years or so. I had an arguement 2 days ago with my friend about what calendar I bought the kids. Nat got a Halo calendar & I was looking at a puppy calendar for Rowan. I could have bought them both Halo calendars but I like to buy them different ones so they can look at each other's pictures. And my friend was trying to direct me away from the big eyed animal calendar because "it's not very masculine, is it?" I didn't go with it because it had moral issues (one of the month's captions said that the best way to keep a secret is lie through your teeth--Rowan is 10 & not morally evolved enough to make good slipperly slope, morally ambiguous decisions) but I almost bought it & returned it to make a point to her about it not being masculine or feminine.
Plans:
Try & sell the house. Stop laughing, damnit. It's not funny. If not, try to set it up with a rental company to rent it out. On the market in 3 weeks. Joy. Which means, when I've gotten through Traci's 40th birthday party tonight that I have been working on for weeks now, starting work tomorrow to declutter & dejunk the house. Joy. We'll be calling the realtor next week to set up dates for pictures & what not. Then, try to keep the house clean for showings for 5 months.
The house needs to be painted but it's WA & we can't paint it for months. It's 3 colors. Really. And not in a good way. But, I didn't even notice when I bought it. It still doesn't bug me. But, it bugs other people. Charlie would do it himself by waiting for a sunny day & renting the machine but, again, he's going to be at sea.
Did I mention that he should be at sea for most of the preparing to move process? Again. But not the actual pack out & trip across country, at least.
Try & sell Charlie's car which is dying & won't make it across the country. We have to pay to fix it before we can sell it, because the breaks are bad & it's not driveable for any length of time.
Think I'll go take a nap. I'm tired just thinking about this. & Charlie woke me up by giving bad directions to his friend who was coming to pick him up at oh, dark hundred & couldn't sleep after that. Today is going to be long.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)