May I just point out that SBC lied to me? We informed them that we were moving and they let us know that we’d only be without internet for two days. A week later I have connection with the outside world again! As we don’t get any television channels the internet is my source for news, now instead of casually checking yahoo news during the day I’ve been harassing friends and family for news about Katrina. I’ve also been dreaming about internet shopping, which is, let me tell you, pretty funny since I don’t actually have any money left to spend. The good thing is that this lack of distraction has meant that my house is mostly put together.

After doing some crude math, I have figured out that in the past five years I have moved, on average, every nine months. You would think I was a fugitive or in some witness protection program because of my past ties to the Chinese Mafia. But, no. Simply a college student and a military wife.

The crazy thing is, even with all the upheaval, I have been ready to move on every single time. I used to hate change, now I find myself embracing it, craving it, even. Part of the issue is definitely tied to the fact that I spend so much of my life on the computer. I have been hooked and thankfully severed ties with several internet message boards, which, although interesting and insightful, were major time suckers that kept me from ever putting any effort into establishing relationships with tangible people who I could actually go out and do something with without flying to Madagascar or Maine. Although I do enjoy the people I have met online, (you are all very cool and fun to get to know) I have trouble making friends in real life. I certainly meet enough people between church and neighbors and things like that, but each place I go I feel like I make more and more “good acquaintances” and less really truly good friends who you really want to be around and would choose to seek out even if you weren’t already messed into the same social circle. And then, of course, being military, as soon as I do find someone who I feel like I am starting to really be friends with, they move or I move. Perhaps that I why I am rarely reticent about moving. I’m usually not leaving much behind.

Now, before you think I’m a heartless slob, I really do appreciate the good acquaintances I have made. They are wonderful, wonderful people, and we need each other. I believe we are in each other’s lives for that time and that season for a purpose. There are things to learn and things to be gained, and I value these experiences.

Wow. I feel like I’m rambling and a bit worried that I might offend anyone who reads this who knows me in real life. I don’t mean to. There is just a sort of emptiness inside me that feels like it almost gets filled and then you leave or I leave. It’s complicated and problematic. A bit depressing and definitely tired. The tired speaks the loudest I think. I’m tired of having to work so hard to create a new friendship and then part before ever having the opportunity to fall into the easy grace that long term friends know.

I’m sorry I’m so darned depressing today! I wasn’t before! I was actually brimming with wonderful and amusing thoughts about the past week. Moving is taxing, but the pictures are mostly hung (we are the kind of people who work until they run out of screws and then no pictures will be hung for the next eight months because we are too lazy to go pick up more). I can find my way around every room in my house except my room and the scrapbook/computer/laundry room, although even they are both functional as long as I don’t mind wading through a huge mess and remain content in wearing the same three outfits all week long. The bathroom is all but put together, unless I feel like shaving my wooly mammoth legs, because, people, I stowed my razor in SOME PLACE SAFE so the kids wouldn’t accidentally slit their wrists, and I’m hard pressed to find it.

The highlight of the past week absolutely has to be when I set my oven mitts on fire while making cookies and baked beans. I accidentally left the burner on low when I took the beans off of the stove and then laid my mitts on top of that burner. I was washing my hands when I smelled the nasty odor of singed synthetics, but looking around I didn’t see anything so I blamed the smell on the outdoor grill. It wasn’t until two minutes later when I saw foot high flames jumping from the stove that I realized my mistake and flung the ashen mitts into the sink. Of course, my mother in-law was visiting and saw the entire thing. The good thing is that she had done the exact same thing over Thanksgiving with a box of frozen mini quiches. I was sitting at the kitchen table scarfing crab dip when I saw them on fire and start screaming my head off, jumped up and threw them into the sink. So, instead of being painfully embarrassing, it was a true moment of sisterhood as my mother in-law announced, “We must be related,” further convincing me that my husband did, indeed, marry his mother.

Well, I just heard the liquid squish sound that tells me a diaper needs changing, so I’ll quit boring you guys and do my dirty work. Thanks for sticking around during my absence. Hopefully there will be more goodies to come.