Less Than a Year

      It dawned on my yesterday morning – in one of those moments where reality suddenly fills the room with a whooomp and knocks the breath out of you – that it is now less than a year until I expect to get out of the Marine Corps.

      Except the part where MacGyver today said, “Well, if X, Y, and Z, maybe you should stay in.”  Yeah, well, the Marine Corps doesn’t usually make garuntees, so I’m thinking I’ll probably still be getting out.  We’ll see.  The future, as always, remains flexible.

      But less than a year.  That’s big.  I STILL have not written my résumés, or started my packages to resign and enter the reserves.  I haven’t launched the mediation and new guardian ad litem programs in Legal Assistance, nor have I written the 5 or 6 new web pages I plan to have up before I transition to MOJO (Military Justice = prosecution).

     Oh, and did I mention that I’m supposed to be getting in touch with people about the position I was offered with the ABA a couple weeks ago?  Yeah, haven’t even had time to think about that. 

      I don’t think less than a year would feel like quite such a squeeze if the busy-ness factor didn’t continue to ramp up.  June – and I’m still thoroughly in denial that it IS June – is already jam pack scheduled.

      And so, even though it will make for a rather un-entertaining post, here is a chaotic and disorganized rundown of what’s going on and what’s coming up in my little Earthworm world:

      Last week was a short week because of the holiday, which made for a mad short week anyway, but that was exacerbated by the fact that I had to stand duty (a 33 hour shift with almost no sleep) during the week, too, and had to pick up Flintstone from daycare early one day because he had diareah.  (Don’t know what caused it, but he was fine, and happy to be out of school early).  And all hell broke lose with something I had been very excited about involving Punky and now I don’t know where that stands, but there won’t be any details here until everything’s final – whatever final happens to mean for this case.

      Friday came before I even realized Wednesday was over, and we were off to meet some friends for a Potluck.  That turned out to be a really wonderful and fun night.  We got into a conversation about religion and Kevin Smith (I LOVE KEVIN SMITH – LOVE), and ended up back at our place watching Dogma (one of my favorite movies of all time).  On VHS.  It was epic. 

       When I was 16, Dogma literally changed my life.  But that’s another post.

      Sadly, because we ended up being up so late Friday night (and because Flintstone slept in until almost 9 Saturday!!!!), we missed the highway cleanup we had been looking forward to helping with.  We needed to get some new clothes for the kids for summer and maybe some stuff for Flintstone’s new room, so we spent the rest of the day Saturday hitting up the thrift stores – not just cost effective, but better for the environment, too!  I was super excited when I disovered that one local thrift store we had wanted to visit for a long time but never made it to had an amazing book selection.  I only got 4 books that trip, but there WILL be more trips there soon!

      Sunday morning church was awesome as always, and inspired what I hope will be a post sometime in the near future.  Sunday afternoon was “relaxing,” meaning cleaning, cooking, gardening, etc.  It wasn’t all work, though, there was a good chunk of time devoted to some kiddie pool fun.

       And just when you think the weekend is over, a weekend function rears it’s head on a Monday night.  Last night (because I wrote this post yesterday), we went to a wonderful meet and greet function for a local organic farm.  The function was hosted by a wonderful organization here in town that attempts to bring together all the local, organic, sustainable producers.  It was a lovely and informative evening, and we’ll be attending another soon.

      This week, I’ve been knocking work down pretty fast and shrinking my insane pile of cases.  I even organized my office again (something I do about once a month to make up for the fact that I am not at all organized in between).  This morning I have court for a few hours, but I think I’ll have to deal the case out.  The judge, I’m told, is a total hammer.

      Friday afternoon, I have a work party at the beach.  Two hours after that, MacGyver, the kids, and I are heading over to spend the night with some homeless families for Family Promise again.  On Saturday, aside from trying to get stuff done around the house, we also have another local food lecture to attend.  Sunday morning, after church, we will be attending the river cleanup that we had planned to do Mother’s Day, but which was postponed due to rain.

      The weekend after that, I stand duty again – on a Saturday!  And I won’t get to sleep at all when I get home Sunday morning because the church service will be special for Father’s Day.  Then the Father’s Day festivities will begin.  Which I still have to plan!  AAAAH! (Real Monsters) 

      Oh, and my old boss should be leaving around that time and I should be getting a new boss.  So that will make work – different – for a while.

      Then I have the Gas Chamber – Marine training where – you guessed it – I get gased, ugh, coming up again. 

      And at the end of the month – finally! – we’re going on vacation.  Camping in Wisconsin with a few stops on the way up there.

      So yeah, June is looking pretty crazy.

      Oh, and did I mention that we also got an offer on the house?  And we decided to sell it, then we started to get everything together for that and changed our minds.  In case we move back to that area.  But that thought stresses me out even more because that house doesn’t have enough land for the farm I want.  But MacGyver thinks it does.  We’ll see.  It all depends on where I get a job.

      If I ever write my resume…

      Sorry for such a stress laden post!  If it makes you feel any better, I’m actually really, really happy.  I’m just very, very busy – but it’s all good stuff!  With the possible exceptions of standing duty and getting gassed.  The kids are happy.  Flinstone’s genius continues to develop – though we had a potty training setback because the potties at his school are autoflush.  Erg.  Otherwise, he’s smart, helpful, sweet, and happy as a clam.  Punky made honor roll again, though one of her grades dropped to a B, so she missed straight A’s by thismuch.  Still pretty darned awesome even though I know she was a little disappointed.  MacGyver’s energy and drive – especially on the pro bono community projects he’s working on right now – continue to amaze me.

      All the animals are happy and healthy, and soon we will be gifted three 9 year old koi fish.   So the other day, Flinstone and I spent a couple hours digging a big hole to put the pond in.

       Now, as it turned out, MacGyver had changed his mind about where he wanted the pond…  But Flintstone and I – and a couple of the chickens – still had fun digging the hole.  Plus, the new location for the pond is right outside the window of what is soon to be Flinstone’s new room.  He is SOOO excited.  He loves fish.  Loves.  Just like MacGyver.

      Ah, there is so much to tell, and no time at all.  I was supposed to leave for court 8 minutes ago.  I miss you all!  Visit you soon, I promise!