When P's Out On A Hitch

A compilation of  things to NOT say to an Oilfield Wife:

1. "Don't you miss him?" ... No shit, Sherlock. He's my husband and he's been gone for 3 weeks. Of course I miss him.

2. "So how is he doing?" I get to talk to him for about 3 minutes out of the day, if I'm lucky. All I know is where he's at and that he's alive. I wish I knew more, but I don't... so maybe quit asking.

3. "Isn't that dangerous?" Yes, it is. I worry for his safety every second of every day, but thanks for bringing it to the front of my mind, that's very thoughtful of you.

4. "Will he be home for Christmas/Valentines/your Anniversary?" The schedule is 3 weeks on, 1 week off. That's it. If it falls within that schedule, then he'll be home. If it doesn't, then he I'll be on my own.

5. "You're lucky you get to have the house all to yourself and have some alone time!" I don't know what kind of sad, crappy relationship you have with your guy, but I'll never be glad our home is half empty, and I'll never be glad to be away from my hubby. I miss him every second of every day. I married him because I love and want to be close to him, not because I want to use him as an ATM.

6. "Isn't oil like... bad?" First off, if you're telling me that, get the hell out of Texas. Secondly, no, oil isn't "bad". It's what keeps our family afloat and living comfortably. Actually, it's what keeps entire cities afloat. And it's a necessity for the lifestyle we have in the US of A, and basically everywhere else in the world. We can't get rid of it, so don't get all "go green" on me because I happen to hold a Bachelors degree in Environmental Science and I actually know wth I'm talking about.

7. "So what do you do when he's gone?" Distractions. Lots of distractions. I do whatever I have to do to keep my mind off the fact that I won't see him until next month. I pay the bills, binge watch crappy Netflix, clean maniacally, re-arrange furniture, go to school, study, work 2 jobs, exercise the dog, pick up new hobbies, spend hours at Barnes and Nobel, keep myself fed... But really, most of what I do is constantly glance at my phone to see how long I have until the possible 3-minute phone call of the day. And maybe find funny pics to send to my hubby to try and brighten his day.

8. "Oh, you'll get used to the schedule. And he'll be home before you know it." Try this: Go an entire 3 weeks without using your right hand. Just drag it around limply and pretend it's not there. You can still survive, right? And you can still live your life normally. And after 3 weeks you'll be able to use your hand for 1 whole week! You can make up for lost time then.
... same principle. It's a life we have chosen, but it's not always easy, so stop undermining our feelings.

So...disclaimer. Life isn't quite as miserable as I make it sound, I'm pretty dramatic in writing, lol. P and I have been separated due to work before and this time around isn't even half as bad as that was. I blame this sassy blog post full of sarcasm on the "writing bug" that hit me at midnight tonight because I took a 4 hour Sunday nap, haha. I love my hubby and I can't wait to have him home again, 17 more days! 

Empty Nesting

Is this what empty nesting feels like? Because if it is, then I'm about 25 years too early. Philip left this morning for a job in Newark, NJ and our little apartment has never felt bigger. He's been out in the GoM working at an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana for the past 2-ish weeks, and now he's gone again! He was only in Corpus Christi for about 16 hours, and 8 of those I was at work, 4 were spent sleeping, 2 were spent stuck in traffic, and 2 were spent packing. It kinda sucked, but at least I got to see him.
I dropped him off at the airport this morning; he will be working in Newark, NJ for the next 3.5 weeks! Ugh, being an adult isn't fun sometimes.
BUT, on the other hand... here are the things I get to do in his absence:

1. drive his truck. seriously, I don't think he is ever getting this truck back. finders keepers. 
2. cook foods i love, but he doesn't. like spaghetti and all kinds of soup!
3. decorate like crazy and move furniture around
4. plan for super fun holiday trips like Christmas in New York :)
5. read more books! (I read 3 during the 2 weeks he was out at sea, it was great)
6. spend more time at Barnes and Nobel and less time at Lowe's
7. visit more people everywhere; the Valley, San Antonio, and I might even get wild and show up in Houston, Loni! 
8. give the TV/Xbox a much-needed rest
9. not feel guilty about takeout on the nights when i'm just not hungry enough to make dinner
10. have a fantastic week every month of having my hubby home with no other obligations <3

Ok, coming up with 10 good things about being lonely was more difficult than I thought it would be, but I think this schedule is something I could really get used to. I have tons of things to do while he's away, and I will always have something to look forward to. 

On a related subject, look at these pictures of him working out in the middle of the ocean! 

the basket that lifted them onto the platform

hardly working

and working hard

an almost-sunset 

Seven Lists of Seven Things

I'm bored and I feel like typing. Plus the typing keeps my fingers occupied and away from those pickles and Takis, so I've decided to pick a random number out of my "Prompts for the Future" list and write about that. This is an easy one:

Seven Lists of Seven Things:

1. 7 Things I Like To Eat
1. little mexican bistec tacos
2. baby carrots out of the bag
3. baby back ribs from Rudy's
4. grapefruit in every way possible
5. all kinds of soup
6. lemon pepper wings
7. cream cheese wontons
2. 7 Things I Don't Like To Eat
1. celery
2. mint chocolate
3. avocado
4. pineapple on my pizza
5. milk
6. cherry tomatoes
7. papaya
3. 7 Things I Like To Talk About
1. pets
2. books or movies
3. religion
4. baby names
5. bucket lists
6. consumer electronics
7. psychology
4. 7 Things I Don't Like To Talk about
1. how was work?
2. politics
3. LGBT issues
4. sports
5. what to do after college
6. "best way" to raise kids
7. clothes/fashion
5. 7 Things I Hoard
1. notebooks
2. books
3. Burt's Bees Lip Balm
4. laundry detergent
5. coupons
6. scrapbook paper
7. handwritten letters
6. 7 Movies I Like Quoting
1. Pitch Perfect
2. Nacho Libre
3. Harry Potter 1-8
4. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 
5. The Hangover
6. The Princess Bride
7. Napoleon Dynamite 
7. 7 Songs That Played on Pandora While Writing This
1. Really Don't Care, Demi Lovato
2. Let It Go, Tim McGraw
3. Bailando, Enrique Iglesias
4. Waka Waka, Shakira
5. Bartender, Lady Antebellum
6. Rewind, Rascal Flats
7. Wasted, Tiesto

GERD in 3..2..1 *blagh*

Today I came into my office and discovered a huge treat! Dale's famous home-made pickles! That's like a half-gallon of them, and they're for ME! Ever since I tried one of his pickles about a year ago, I have never purchased regular store-bought ones because they're just not the same thing. Once in a while Dale will share his pack lunch of pickles with me and I always savor the moment. I'm so crazy excited for this huge jar of pickles just for me! Plus... I kinda stopped by the gas station on my way into work and snagged a bag of Takis. Not the best combination for a healthy, heartburn-less esophagus, but oh well, I'll deal with the consequences later. 

As for now.... *munch, munch munch*

2014 07 22 Sleep Talking

What happens after 5 Tylenol PMs and Philip falls asleep on the couch:

Me: (whispering) Hey babe, wake up, come to bed
Phil: (yelling) I'm awake! I'm awake! I'll go right now.... (and then stops moving)
Me: You're not really awake, you're yelling at me
Phil: I'm trying to find out if I have to pay for water!!!
Me: Yeah, you're asleep
Phil: I'M AWAKE! (eyes are closed)
....

I finally got him off the couch and into a semi-comatose state on the bed. This morning he said he remembers talking to me about the kitchen sink last night.... (didn't happen).

Actually, I Can

Why hello there, sad and lonely blog! Sorry I've neglected you for so long, let me dust the cobwebs off you. 

that's a programming joke... in case you don't get it

A couple of hours ago I took my final exam for my C++ class. Wheew, what a load that's taken off my mind! I'm glad its over, and I'm also glad it happened. Summer classes can be a little daunting sometimes because there is so much material to cover in such a short span of time, and this one was no exception. Actually... it kind of sort of was a little different; this class was 8 weeks long instead of the usual 4, so we had more time to cover the material, but it still felt like a race against time. It was a HUGE learning curve... my Post-Bacc Certificate is in GIS, and that C++ has really nothing to do with it, but it was required anyway. The great majority of the class were computer science majors that already knew the language, but it was completely new to me.
Most of the time I always felt like the slowest student in there (I wasn't). We had 15 scheduled lectures, 12 labs, and 3 exams. I love writing notes, and I'm an extremely visual learner, which means I learn material best by writing it in my own handwriting and then seeing it in my mind's eye later. I managed to fill up a 3-subject notebook in 8 short weeks, all color-coded and with exam reviews included. That took a lot of my time.
I also managed to stumble my way through the labs and I surprised myself at the end of each one. It's something that I've given a lot of thought to over the last couple of weeks...

You see, the material covered in the lecture was all well-defined and theoretical... but it was the kind of stuff you don't understand until you actually apply it. At the start of each of those 10 labs, soon after reading the assignment, I thought about giving up. Everything seemed so impossible! There was absolutely NO WAY I could figure this program out and complete it in the next 24 hours!
Soon after every moment of panic, I would painstakingly open Notepad ++ and start with the only thing I knew how to do... the bare basics. Name, lab name, class number, date...
Then I would move on to writing out the Purpose of the program... what it was meant to do. That cleared things up A LOT. Sentence by sentence, it all started making sense. Now I knew what to do, just not quite how to do it, although the end result seemed clear.

So I took it one line at a time. I typed out what I knew was right... I asked the professor A LOT of questions about what I was unsure of, I read and re-read the directions, I tested and changed the program more times than I care to remember... and I still came up short. Each one of those labs had a tiny section of it that nobody could do without our teacher's help. The kind of help where she literally did it all for us and told us step-by-step which keys on the keyboard to press so it comes out right. I could not have done it without her.
Some programs were easy... some were hard. The easiest one I wrote was only 150 lines of code, took me about 45 minutes, and just all made sense. I later came to find out it was the shortest anyone wrote... some people's were over 2,000 lines long!
The hardest one was the time I sat in that chair for 6 hours. Everyone else (teacher included) had already finished and left, and I was left alone to fix my own mistake and I worked sooo hard to get my program to compile and run... only to get an 86 on it for all that work. (I never got anything below a 93 besides this one).
So lesson learned... I was surprisingly good at some things, and I was surprisingly mediocre at others. Still, it all balanced out to give me the grade I wanted and felt I deserved in the end :)

Hardly Working after Working Hard

So here's the thing: 5 years ago I got a summer job at this amazing, awesome, fun, crazy place called Schlitterbahn. Amazing, awesome, fun, crazy places tend to require a lot of energy out of you, and that's how my summer routine of exhaustion all began. I worked in the Admissions department for two years, and the third year I moved to Corpus, so that tradition didn't last too long. Well... it so happens that the mother of all Schlitterbahns is currently being built here in my beloved Corpus Christi!

I have no idea what made me do it... maybe it was nostalgia, maybe it was the lure of working at a water park, maybe it was the desire to be more active, maybe it was the promise of more money added to my bank account, or maybe it was a combination of all 4, but I applied. Not only was I hired 2 minutes after meeting with my manager, but I was promoted to my old position of Admissions Lead about 20 minutes into my first day there. That was 8 days ago. And since then, I've become a bit of a nut due to a combination of 5 factors:

1. I have a full time job that I am committed to (Great Sage)

2. I have a full time job that I am committed to (Schlitterbahn) 

3. I have a full time job that I am not so committed to, but am responsible for anyway (housewife)

4. I am a full time student and I've become very anal about grades dropping below a 95. 

5. I have just been called as 1st Counselor in the Young Women's Organization 

Looks like I've bitten off a bit more than I can chew, huh? I think so, too. Today I am extremely grateful about the fact that for some unknown reason my subconscious has refused to let me sleep in past 7AM every day for months now, so even when I'm exhausted and I try to go back to bed, I cannot fall asleep. This used to be annoying, but now it's great news! It means that I'll have no option but to get out of bed and go do the things I'm responsible for. 

Yesterday night as we sat in an office doing Admission-y things, my manager broke the silence and said "Dang girl, did you know you've worked 60 hours??" I said "yeah... I know..." and finished my act with a sincere yawn. 

If you think those 60 hours have been over the course of 2 weeks, you are WRONG, my friend. Those 60 hours have occurred during 8 days. Two of those days I was Off. Two of those days I only worked from 6PM to 10PM. You do the math. Want me to do it for you? I worked 40 hours in one weekend, and that's only because I asked for Sunday morning off so that I could go to church. 

Of course, that's only counting one job. I have not yet taken into account how I've also worked 30-some hours at my year-round job, or how I've sat for eternities in classrooms at school. 

Isn't that crazy? I worked about 93 hours in ONE WEEK!!! 

Student loans: Beware. My paychecks and I are ready to make battle! 

So what was the point of this whole blog post?? A few minutes ago I was thinking about how great it would be to lay my head down on my desk and close my eyes just for two seconds. Then, I was rudely awoken by a knock on my office door while I was dreaming about "how I really shouldn't leave my head down for longer than 2 seconds". I bet I was asleep for 10 minutes haha. 

This is how terrible I look like today. My hair is untamed and untamable. My eyes have forgotten what mascara feels like, and the hot, heavy, humid July weather has attacked my facial skin like only summer in Corpus Christi can. After years of a clean face, I have now sprouted 4 pimples and a lavishly decorative collection of freckles all over the place. 

You see them? They're all in a line under my nose. Wonder what's up with THAT. Haha. Whatever. 

Drawbacks to my current life: 

1. Sun damage to skin

2. Tired all the times

3. Hair is forever unruly

Benefits of my current life:

1. Never have trouble sleeping!

2. I wouldn't be surprised if I've lost 5 lbs in a week.

3. Extra money = death to credit card debt 

So my point is: I'm tired. But I'd also like to mention how great I feel. This morning I woke up thinking about how you never really know how much you can do until you're pushed past the limit. It feels awesome to feel tired after a long weekend and know that I did the best I could in every aspect. And so that's my story for today. =)