Where Have You Been?

So, wow. It's been quite a while....not that I haven't had anything to say, but I just haven't had the motivation I guess. I'm ready to start making this a regular thing again, but it would seem weird to just leave out what's happened for the last few months, so here's a synopsis....

Gene got to come home from his deployment in Spain a few months early.  He was home in time for Thanksgiving, and even though I was sad that my plans to visit Spain to see him in November fell through, it's far better having him come home. 

We had our first "real" Christmas since....well, since we've been together.  There have always been some circumstances that made our Christmases weird (deployment, just moving to the UK and having no stuff, etc....), so it was nice to do the whole thing properly - decorated tree, stockings, nice dinner, etc.... We actually had a party on Christmas Eve, and it was (for lack of a better word) interesting. I enjoy it when people are here, but I don't think we will do another party ON Christmas Eve again.  It just got really stressful for me, but perhaps that is because I was the only completely sober person there.  NOTE TO SELF: when people are at your house, get hammered so you don't care about where they throw up/broken glasses/stains on the wall/etc......

Sometime around Thanksgiving, my dad went to see his ENT guy about a really bad sore throat, and long story short, he ended up having throat cancer. Shortly after the new year, he began 7 weeks of 5 days a week radiation treatment.  I flew home in February for the last two weeks of his treatment as a surprise, and to try to help lift his spirits, and I think being there for him (and for mom) did some good, and it also did a lot of good for me, since the guilt of being so far away from him while he was going through treatment was really weighing on me.  He is doing much better now (finally able to eat solid foods, and get off of his ensure-only diet), and just yesterday got a very positive check-up from his doctor.  I have a lot of easily stirred emotions about the diagnosis, the treatment, and what it will mean for the rest of his life (I think I will forever be holding my breath each time he walks in for a checkup, just praying that he gets the all clear again...).  I know that now he is all right, and I find great comfort in that, and while I could probably write a very long entry about it (and I've tried in my  head quite a few times), I don't find it to be necessary right now. When I can think about it without tears welling up in my eyes, maybe I'll lay it all out.....or maybe I never will.


In January, Gene and I took a pretty nice long weekend trip to Vienna.  If you haven't been there, and get a chance to go, definitely take it.  Honestly, we saw pretty much all there was to see in the first day, but truthfully, I enjoyed the food on that trip more than anything.  We stayed in one of the fabulous apartments at  Stanys Das Apartmenthotel, and it was not only cozy, but quite affordable, and a short walk to train stations and pretty close to lots of fabulous places to eat/see.  I was disappointed that we didn't get snow while we were there, but it was definitely COLD. I didn't mind the low temperatures at all, because it meant busting out my new, very cute snow boots, and the cool faux fur lined coat mom gave me last year. It was a beautiful city to just walk around in. Every building was gorgeous, and it seemed like there was something interesting to look at at every turn.  I was totally bummed when we had to come home, but definitely look forward to going back.


Work has been good. Nothing all that "eventful" going on lately - nothing that is my business to discuss anyway.  Still really love working there and the people I work with. I've been there for a year now, and I'm thankful for it every day.

We've been working out a lot more lately - we TRY to go 5 days a week, but it usually ends up being more like 4, and usually it's my fault.  We only got to go one day this week because I really sort of had a bad week - Monday, I was throwing up and then on Wednesday, I walked into the dental office on base with my only intention being to SCHEDULE a follow up appointment from my dental fiasco back in October (because I STILL couldn't chew), and ended up in the triage room for what was supposed to be a "20 or 30 minute appointment," but resulted in me ending up in the dental office for nearly 4 hours having an unexpected root canal done.  FUN. Dr. Model Guy didn't do it, and I was sort of relieved. He was so horrified at the idea of causing me pain that I didn't want him to think the position I was in was somehow HIS fault (although, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it kind of WAS his fault....I told him in October that I needed a root canal, but alas, he didn't listen).  Anyway, the last few days have sort of sucked because I'm dealing with the pain that obviously comes with a root canal, and the only thing they will give me for pain on base is MOTRIN.  All I can say is that I'm glade I live in England where codeine is sold over the counter.

We don't have any plans for the weekend really - I need to do some serious spring cleaning upstairs, and I'm looking forward to sleeping late, but that's about all that is on my agenda. 

so that's what's been going on for the last few months, in a nutshell.....I promise I'll be better about keeping up with this.....