Update

Okay, so looks like it's been nearly an eternity since I've blogged.

Oh well. Guess I ran out of things to say that seemed to fit the focus of my blog name, at least for a while. And I've been pretty busy.

I've been employed since August at a national chain pharmacy. This job is very stressful, and I'm not good at taking out the abuse customers or "patients" like to dish out. I understand that their situation can be stressful, but I don't like being the punching bag, you know?

Also, we've just moved. We were living in a 2-bedroom, 2 bath 1050 sq foot apt on the 2nd floor of a 3-story building. We were surrounded by neighbors on all sides, and it really sucked. Also, we were not fitting into the neighborhood anymore, for various reasons. We're now about 10 miles west of where we were previously - it is still a Minneapolis suburb, but it is smaller, and there are actual FARMS about 10 minutes' driving distance away. It's nice 'cause, though we do have a downstairs neighbor, we pretty much don't hear them. There isn't traffic in and out all the time (usually with some dude driving as slow as possible through the parking lot, hip hop cranked), and there aren't screaming, excited young children running frantically up and down the hallways. We have about 200 more sq feet of space, and a garage of our own. It's a much nicer place to host guests, and to live, really.

If this were a house, and it came down to where the owner decided to not re-rent to us 'cause he wanted to sell, I'd be interested in buying it. It was only built in 2004, and has trendy vaulted ceilings, colorful accent walls, good sun exposure on the deck for my plants, and a spacious kitchen (something I'd been missing for 3 years). However, it is in an HOA neighborhood, and I don't want to buy a home in one of those neighborhoods because (at least in this one) we don't really have a space of our own in the back yard that I could dig up and plant veggies. Every citizen should be allowed to attempt to grow their own food, or "growceries." Also, I would want a house to have a fenced yard so I could get a small dog (Boston Terrier FTW!).

Employment

My husband works in the field of computers. He's an "Associate Software Engineer" (his fancy title) who does consulting. Basically he is employed by a company, but goes and works for "clients" (customers) on "projects" or "roles." (Liberal use of quote marks for silly industry-specific categorizations). It's kinda like working for Express Personnel, but not. His employer isn't a temp agency, and he does get benefits and all that.

When he first took this job in early 2008, he was under the understanding that he would be working locally. His position was not one that was going to require travel. However, in 2009 the economy was bad enough that after he got done with a project on a long-term local role, he went "on the bench." On the bench is an inactive state of employment - you get your full wages and everything, but it doesn't look good to be on it too long. You're supposed to be looking for other "roles" to fill with your myriad of skills.

It got to the point where they told him the economy was bad, so they had no local roles. However, his skills were in demand in other cities. So late fall, he had to fly to Detroit for a couple of months, then work from home for that client for another month. Now, he's been having to fly to Boston for the last month, and it won't end until mid-June.

It really sucks, honestly.

First, we tend to stay up late. It's really hard for us to get to sleep early enough on Sunday nights that it doesn't affect him when I have to drop him off @ the airport 5 am on Monday. I can always go back to bed, but he's not able to sleep on the plane.

Second, I get lonely. I haven't really made any friends yet (is it just me, or is it harder to make actual friends as an adult?), and I have no family here except for my MIL and GMIL (who live about 40 min away). Even calling people back in WA is tricky because of the time zone difference. I spend a lot of time doing not much in particular - I could be cleaning the apt, but instead you'll find me randomly looking around on the internet. I'm glad we have a cat, or else I'd really go crazy.

Third, it's not like he gets to really explore the city he is in. He usually is put up at a hotel very close to the office, so he can walk or take a short cab ride. By the time he gets off work, he doesn't really have time to go anywhere or do anything. Also, it's kind of like my situation - who wants to DO anything by yourself when you don't have anyone to do it with?

His company gave him an unexpected 6% raise last week, which is awesome. They told him they looked at everyone and decided who deserved it, even with the economy (which was their excuse for not giving him a raise last year for merit). I told him he should be proud of himself, but he's a humble fellow.

Wages here are SO low compared to what I'm used to. I was making $12.50 an hour doing a random office job at a manufacturing plant. Minimum wage in WA is currently $8.55, which is the highest in the country. In MN, it's $7.25. I really think that if we moved to WA, he would be paid a lot more. He hasn't been out of college all that long, so I don't think he realizes that he should be getting paid more, considering he has a bachelor's degree (not even required to apply with this company). He's comfortable there, so I guess that's where he'll stay. Sometimes I think that his meekness will get in the way of him getting ahead career-wise, and that makes me sad.

Also consider that his company is international and that the clients want to use the cheapest labor possible. Yep, that means that the U.S. companies all want their software development stuff done in India or the Phillipines. They say it's too expensive to hire U.S. workers for their U.S. projects. Hmmm, can't see that going too well in the future, especially if that trend continues.

Tornadoes

So I've lived here nearly 2 years already, and have yet to encounter my first tornado. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that's something I'm EAGER to have happen; in fact, I told Bucky that if there ever IS a tornado situation where we have to go hide, I will be freaking out.

What brings this to mind is that my brother had a tornado near his city tonight. Their area was not affected, though they DID get golfball-sized hail, which his car didn't like getting pelted with. A few people were actually killed by this tornado, and others were hurt.

My brother has a tornado shelter buried in the floor of his garage. Here, Bucky and I live in a 3 story apartment building which is on top of a garage. The management tells me that if there were a tornado warning for this area, we should go down to the garage to wait it out. My car's parked down there - wonder if it would be a good idea to get inside the car also? Would be a nice little shelter for us two and the cat away from all the neighbors and screaming, terrified kids.

The tornado sirens go off here every Wednesday around noon. To me, they are spooky and sad-sounding. They scream, WARNING, WARNING, DEATH IS COMING! The first time I ever heard them was when I went to visit brother in his state in '05. I thought they sounded creepy then.

What concerns me is that I'm afraid I won't hear it if I'm sleeping. I have to sleep with earplugs (Bucky snores), but even without them, it's not that audible.

Though tornadoes do not happen as often here as they do in the middle mid-west or Texas/Oklahoma (is that still the midwest?), here is scary proof that they DO occur:

http://climate.umn.edu/doc/historical/tornadic.htm

Yeah, not looking forward to it!

THUNDERSTRUCK!

I have always been an avid fan of storms. Living in the Pacific Northwest, we didn't get them as often as I would have liked. Sure, we got the rain, but hardly ever the booming and flashing accompaniments.

One time I was at the beach at night when a storm came, and it was AWESOME. The waves were pounding the shore as the thunder was pounding the sky, and the lightning was showing off.

So I move to Minnesota and my first storm here was like "WHOAH!!!" I was quite impressed.

Storms happen more often here than in WA (along with tornadoes - EEEK!). Rain doesn't happen here anywhere near as much. It's strange to me that a lot of the storms here do not include rain.

There was one storm where my husband and I and his relatives were driving home from a trip out of town. This particular storm DID have rain to go along with the flashiness and noisiness of the sky. The windshield wipers could hardly keep up.

A few months ago, I awoke at about 4 am to what sounded like an infinite piece of sheet metal, being shook across the skies. This thunder was a near-constant rumbling, it was really cool and lasted for several hours. It was accompanied by freakishly bright flashes of lightning.

My cat runs and hides under the bed when she hears the thunder. :) Poor baby.

The winters

Yeah, so I've been slacking off quite a bit on posting. Got busy with coursework.

Where I'm from, the weather is mild and the air is moist, due to being near the sea. It rains a lot, which bothers some people who live there. It snows maybe twice during the winter and if it gets down to 15 degrees F, that's considered SO COLD.

Where I've moved to (the Great Frozen Northland of Minnesota), the air is bone-dry in winter. In summer, it is the opposite. This is due to the plethora of lakes present here. In winter, they're all frozen and a chill wind comes down from (blame) Canada. In summer, they're liquid and grow algae and let their moisture evaporate into the air, making it quite humid.

The winters, OH, the winters! It is not unusual to see -20, and that is WITHOUT the windchill factor. With windchill, -30 is possible. If you've never experienced this kind of cold, it's really hard to understand just how it feels. My first winter here was eye-opening (and bone chilling), and my second winter was still shocking.

One evening I was leaving my night class and the wind was freezing and blowing. I tromped across the snow-covered parking lot to my car, my eyes nearly shut against the cold. Particles of hard, frozen snow (the snow is lightweight here and blows around, not like WA where it stays on the ground) were pelting my face like BBs. I learned to not have my mouth open, or icy cold wind would blow straight down my throat, making my lungs tighten uncomfortably. I learned to jam an unflattering knit cap upon my head before stepping outside. I realized that unless I wanted my hands to look like an elephant's skin, I needed to start wearing gloves before venturing out. I bought a humidifier to counteract the horridly dry air that comes in through the heating system. These are things I never had to think about before moving here.

I'd rather have the rain.

My husband

My husband is a full 7 years younger than me (cue angry shouts of "COUGAR!") and at the time I had met him, he had never dated. This, in spite of the fact that he attended a 4-year school and lived in the dorms. I think a big part of it is that he is somewhat shy and withdrawn. Their loss, honestly, and I'm kind of glad that he wasn't a jaded douchebag (LOL... I don't usually use that term) when I met him. SO many guys his age are just... UGH. Immature, bitter, shallow, etc. He is intelligent, kind, loves animals, is patient, and is overall very mellow and easy to live with. He is the perfect foil to my often-sparking anger and impatience, loudmouthed opinions, and general bitchiness (I know, you're reading that and saying "Poor guy!," aren't you?). Sometimes nice guys end up with harpy hellbeasts, and I like to think I don't treat him like that. Since he had no experience prior to me, I would think he might not know if things weren't the way they SHOULD be in a relationship. It'll be 2 years in July, and I'm still not sick of him yet!

How I got here: an unexpected love story

For Christmas of 2006, my brother got me an MMO called City of Heroes. It was one that he and his wife enjoyed playing, and since I had recently upgraded to cable internet, he thought I should be having fun with it as well.

Initially, I didn't load the game. He called me and said, "Hey, why aren't you on yet? You get a free trial with it so you should at least check it out...." Ok fine, around the time of the Valentine's Day event I put it on and he helped me get set up. I had a bit of fun meandering over the city with my newly-created stone tanker, Brawlita. I died a lot and didn't team much with others, except for my bad-influence brother.

Eventually I teamed with a toon (character played by an actual person) named Nopalita. It was funny that our names both ended in lita - I'm curious now if that is why she picked me to play with. She was a small toon, mostly green, with the powers of spines and spikes protruding from her back (fighting class: scrapper). Spike + green = nopales, hence the name. I probably met her when I was around level 20 or so; she invited me to her super group, where I met others to play with. We also could team up with members of our coaliton, and it was here I met Forrest Tiger.

Why the two R's in his name? Even he doesn't know. He teamed with some other friends of ours in a large group of players called a coalition. I ended up teamed with him quite a bit, though usually with several other players.

One time he typed something in the chat box like, "BRB, need more music!" I sent him a 'tell' (private message), asking him what he was listening to. "Lacuna Coil," he typed back. OH REALLY.... considering they were a band I really liked a lot, I was interested to find out more. So we 'telled' back-and-forth a bit, at first about music and later about where we lived, etc.

I grew to really enjoy logging onto City of Heroes and seeing that he was on. We started teaming together quite a bit, sometimes just the 2 of us but usually still with friends. I grew to really like what I saw of his personality and sense of humor - never crude or mean-spirited, often silly. We shared a few personal details through chatting, such as his having had cancer and that neither of us were seeing anyone. We found out our age difference, exchanged Myspace details, and that we lived about 1,700 miles apart.

Ozzy Ozbourne is responsible for us finally meeting "in real life!" We would have met eventually, I'm sure, but it just so happens that Ozzfest was free in 2007, but we had a dilemma: Ozzfest was not coming to Minnesota, and while it was coming to WA, I had no one to go with me. I half-jokingly typed, "Hey, you should fly over and attend Ozzfest with me!" He types back, "Ok." I then thought, "ACK! What have I done?!" While I did kind of want to meet him, it meant that he, a person I'd not yet met in real life, would be coming to stay with me for a week. What if we didn't get a long? What if there was no chemistry? What if (like everyone's mom likes to say) he was a bad guy?

Well he came over in July of 2007, and after a few days of initial skittishness, we became a lot closer. By the time he had to go back to Minnesota, it was pretty well-established that we liked each other. He flew over to WA to see me about every 1.5 months - the times in between his visits were hard for both of us.

Eventually the realization came that one of us was going to have to move.

He thought I should move over there with him, but I wasn't willing to without a serious committment, as in marriage. I know that marriage is not a necessity for couples to be committed to each other, but IN MY OWN experience, that 'co-habitation' (hate that term) thing never worked out. I would be giving up my job of 7 years, the closeness of my friends and family, and the gorgeousness of Washington for the unknown. I wanted something in return from him in exchange for all that I was giving up.

So about 6 months after we met, he proposed. That was one of the few times in my life I'd been shocked speechless. It was incredible to me really; I had always been one of those who kind of scoffed at marriage, until I met THIS guy. I woke up the next morning and was like, "Whoah... did that really happen?!" Since it was a spur-of-the-moment act for him, he hadn't come prepared with a ring or anything.

I chose to move to MN to be with him rather than him coming to WA for a few reasons. One is that his job had a greater career potential, while mine was just a job. Secondly, an ex-bf of mine knew where I lived and had the annoying habit of showing up occasionally (in fact, he showed up the week before I got married; didn't talk to him much, as I was HORRIBLY ill with food poisoning from the MN airport food). I just didn't want any ties to former relationships nearby - I felt to truly make this work on my end, I needed a fresh start. Otherwise, if things started getting the slightest bit sticky, I could have bailed a lot more easily than I could now.

I don't regret doing it this way, but I sure do miss my friends and family back in WA.