Two weeks. Yikes.
The last four weeks has flown by in a blur. Every day a new item is added to the moving to-do list while another item is crossed off. We're making progress, but there's always something else that we discover needs to be done. Mix that with my sine wave-like emotional state and it's been exhausting. I never seem to have the time I need to complete tasks but then I find myself occasionally paralyzed, trying to figure out why I have nothing to do in that moment. So forgive the disjointed ramblings. My brain is scattered.
Here are some things that have happened in the last four weeks.
--We sold the truck. When we moved out to Hawaii the Navy would only ship over one vehicle. Zac owns a F150 pickup (the true love of his life - which I'm ok with) and we also owned a Ford Escape hybrid. We decided that the Escape was the better choice for getting around the island. Of course we had been on the island for only a few months when both of us realized that we were going crazy only having one car. Me? I hated being stuck at home while Zac drove to and from work. True, I work from home so I didn't really need to leave but the idea that I couldn't go places whenever I wanted to irritated me. And Zac? He missed his truck. He went from driving a big, bad beast of a vehicle to a SUV that turns off while you drive around parking lots. He was a man without a country, er, truck. So he went out and bought another F150, which he promptly drove very little because he had gotten used to the fabulous gas mileage that the Escape gets. (Although we did drive the truck a lot when we went diving - it was nice to toss all that salty, sandy gear into the bed instead of inside the Escape.)
Like coming to Oahu, the Navy will only ship one vehicle leaving Oahu as well. It took a while and a couple of price drops, but we finally sold the truck about a month ago. We've been very lucky that a few of our friends have been off island for the last three weeks and have let us use/watch their cars so we've been able to maintain a two-car status for awhile. When we leave Oahu we'll ship our car to San Diego. Our moving travels will take us from Honolulu to Minneapolis to Nebraska where we'll pick up Zac's beloved truck and drive her back to San Diego. By that point, hopefully, the Escape will have arrived and we'll both be able to come and go as we need to.
--We've continued looking for a house but haven't put in any offers. We've resigned ourselves to the fact that we really want to see the neighborhoods and houses in person before we start making any decisions. To ensure that we weren't homeless upon our arrival in San Diego we signed up for military housing. We've been assigned a house already so we'll be able to move in as soon as we get there. Added bonus: there is no penalty for terminating the lease early if we buy a house. SD is a large, urban area and there seem to be houses popping up all the time that are in our price range and desired locations. The trick is trying to get to them quickly. It seems that a lot of houses are only on the market for a few days or a couple of weeks and they're gone. We're going to have to be fairly aggressive when we get there to purchase something.
--The movers came today to pack out our first shipment of goods. The Navy provides two shipments - a small shipment of about 600 lbs and a larger shipment of everything else. (Up to a certain weight limit based on rank and the number of dependents.) The idea is that the small shipment gets packed out first and is delivered "quickly" to your next duty station so you're not living in a vacant apartment/house for any length of time. You're supposed to send things like some pots and pans, dishes, linens and clothing in that first shipment. The larger household goods (HHG) shipment follows and sometimes takes a little longer to transit to the new duty station.
The Navy will allow one delivery of each type of shipment and will hold your goods for you for about 90 days before they start charging you for storage. For us that means that we will have our smaller shipment delivered when we get to our military housing assignment, but we're going to wait to have our larger HHG delivered when we buy a house. (Otherwise we'd be responsible for moving that smaller shipment and the larger shipment into the new house on our time and our dime. I don't want to un-pack and re-pack everything we own within a couple of months and frankly, with Zac being on sea duty, who knows if he'd be around to help.) The end result is Zac and I will have to live up to three months on the stuff we shipped out today. It's really quite amazing how much 600lbs is, but I'm sure it won't look like much when we move into military housing. I'm guessing that's going to be a pretty empty house while we're there.
--Zac re-enlisted in the Navy for three more years. I was excited that I was able to be there for it. Zac has re-enlisted once while we've been together, but that was while he was in El Salvador so I wasn't able to be there for it. Usually when a sailor re-enlists he picks where he wants the ceremony to take place. Sometimes sailors can be pretty creative. A lot of sailors out here re-enlist on the USS Missouri, which is always cool. Zac was debating where he wanted to do his and he finally settled on doing it out in Pearl Harbor, on a rigid hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) in front of the sunken USS Utah memorial. (On the opposite side of Ford Island from the USS Arizona memorial.)
When Zac first mentioned it to me I thought, "That's awesome! What a cool place to do it!" But then it dawned on me that I probably wouldn't be able to go out with him on the RHIB due to safety issues or Navy regulations or some sort of protocol that would prohibit civilians such as myself from going with them. Luckily for me, Zac's Commanding Officer was more than generous and let me accompany them on the RHIB for the ceremony. I even got a certificate thanking me for being a supportive wife. That was really neat. I'm really grateful for the chance to be there. It's a short ceremony. Zac leaves the Navy, he's awarded a letter thanking him for his service, a couple of seconds pass and then they swear him back in. Lots of photos and handshakes. Once of Zac's favorite parts of his job is tooling around out there on the RHIBs, so it was only fitting that that's what chose for his location. And doing it in front of the USS Utah just added to the day.
--I resigned as Zac's command ombudsman earlier this week. While I was relieved to be taking that task off my plate, as I handed over the information and passwords to the newly appointed ombudsman I found myself sad to no longer be involved in Zac's command. I know some spouses like to be involved and some don't - everyone needs to do what's right for them and their family - but I enjoyed helping out. I like knowing what's going on and sharing that information with others. I understand that at Zac's command here in Hawaii that the ombudsman wasn't called upon to do much but I felt like I tried to be available to people so I'm chalking it up as a successful experience. Maybe I'll do it again someday.
--I also tried to volunteer with COMPASS in August and September. I say "tried" because while the volunteers showed for the class none of the participants did (save one lovely woman who showed up for the September session). The August session fell victim to some internet registration technical glitches and the September session was just a bust. I wish I could come up with another way of putting it, but it really was just a bust. We had something like nine people sign up and on the first day of class only one person showed, despite reminders the day before. Two people had people in their family fall ill so they couldn't attend, some people had other things come up, a few we couldn't get a hold of and two of them just plumb forgot. It was really frustrating for a number of us volunteers that had tried two months in a row to get the classes together only to have them fall apart the day of. I'll hopefully be able to volunteer with COMPASS in San Diego so I'll have other opportunities to contribute and meet people, but I really like the people I volunteered with out here and I was really quite sad that I didn't get do the class one more time with them.
I've been pretty good so far at keeping my stress level in check, but I think it's going to be increasingly difficult as more and more things become the "last" time I do things out here. The last time I drive over to the North Shore, the last time I go to the beach, the last time I go to our favorite Thai restaurant, the last time I see my friends. Only two weeks left. Eek.
I'm
looking at the calendar for the remainder of September and October.
Pretty soon every single day is going to have something scheduled on
it. Time seems to be moving more quickly as we approach the move.
Today the moving company sent someone over to do a walk-though of our
house so he could get an idea of how much stuff we had. The scheduling
system originally had us scheduled for two days of packing at a third
day for the pick up. I had guessed that our stripped-down existence
would only warrant one day of packing, and it turns out I was right. So
now it looks like we'll be packing on a Monday and vacating the house
on a Tuesday and flying off the island very early Thursday morning. Now
that we know when we're moving, we also have to go over to the housing
office and give them our notice. After we give them notice, they'll
schedule a walk-through as well and let us know what we'll need to do to
get the house ready for the final check-out inspection.
We're still house-hunting in San Diego. We're working with a realtor and we've been pre-approved on a loan. We spend at least a couple hours per day looking online at houses. We just sent a list of houses we like to the realtor so she can get a better understanding of what we're looking for. Zac purchased a house in Oklahoma so he has some familiarity with the process. It's all new to me, however, and it's a bit overwhelming. I think it would be less stressful if we were there and do more of the research in person. We have a few good friends in San Diego that are willing to go out with our realtor and take a look at the houses we like. We trust them to ask the right questions (they're homeowners) and give us their honest opinion about the places. I'm nervous about putting in an offer on a house when I haven't seen it in person, but I like the idea of getting the paperwork moving so we have a place to live sooner, rather than later.
A note to all of my Minnesota peeps - we're only going to be in MN for about 54 hours this time around. We probably won't catch most people, aside from family. I'm hoping for a return visit to MN, hopefully in the winter, when we can spend some more time socializing.
On the job front, I applied for a job in San Diego a couple of weeks ago. What was odd about this position is that they didn't accept any electronic submissions. No e-mailing or faxing your resume/application. They specifically stated paper only submissions. Wha??? Paper? What is this, 1987? Plus, the job was only posted for about a week (encompassing Labor Day weekend) so they suggested you use FedEx to make sure it got there on time. So I coughed up $30 to FedEx to get five pieces of paper out to the hiring manager out in Washington DC. Great. Now I'm paying for (probable) employment rejections. Terrific. At least I'm providing jobs to FedEx employees.
We've got the 2011 Khaki Ball on Saturday. This will be our fourth one here in Hawaii. I've got the dress, but still no shoes. I'm not really that excited for it, to be honest. None of the couples from our social group are going. Zac and I invited a friend of ours whose husband is currently stationed overseas, however, so Zac will be the man with two hot dates that night. It really doesn't seem like that long ago that we went to our first Khaki Ball here and I was meeting people, having a hard time keeping names straight. And now some of those people have become my closest Navy friends and have moved on to new duty stations. What a strange last three years.
It's not all doom and gloom around here. Zac and I have been taking a digital photography class for a couple of weeks. It's been well worth it. There's really no point in having a DSLR if you don't know how to use all the bells and whistles. You're paying for those features, you should use them. I'm going to try to take some time on a couple of days to go take photos around island before we leave. Actually, speaking of photos, Zac and I booked a portrait session in a couple of weeks. They take photos at the beach at sunset. I've been wanting a Hawaiian photo of Zac and I like that since we've got here. I'm excited that we found the time (and will) to finally schedule one. It will be a nice way to wrap up our time here, on the North Shore with the setting sun. How very Hawaiian.
The last four weeks has flown by in a blur. Every day a new item is added to the moving to-do list while another item is crossed off. We're making progress, but there's always something else that we discover needs to be done. Mix that with my sine wave-like emotional state and it's been exhausting. I never seem to have the time I need to complete tasks but then I find myself occasionally paralyzed, trying to figure out why I have nothing to do in that moment. So forgive the disjointed ramblings. My brain is scattered.
Here are some things that have happened in the last four weeks.
--We sold the truck. When we moved out to Hawaii the Navy would only ship over one vehicle. Zac owns a F150 pickup (the true love of his life - which I'm ok with) and we also owned a Ford Escape hybrid. We decided that the Escape was the better choice for getting around the island. Of course we had been on the island for only a few months when both of us realized that we were going crazy only having one car. Me? I hated being stuck at home while Zac drove to and from work. True, I work from home so I didn't really need to leave but the idea that I couldn't go places whenever I wanted to irritated me. And Zac? He missed his truck. He went from driving a big, bad beast of a vehicle to a SUV that turns off while you drive around parking lots. He was a man without a country, er, truck. So he went out and bought another F150, which he promptly drove very little because he had gotten used to the fabulous gas mileage that the Escape gets. (Although we did drive the truck a lot when we went diving - it was nice to toss all that salty, sandy gear into the bed instead of inside the Escape.)
Like coming to Oahu, the Navy will only ship one vehicle leaving Oahu as well. It took a while and a couple of price drops, but we finally sold the truck about a month ago. We've been very lucky that a few of our friends have been off island for the last three weeks and have let us use/watch their cars so we've been able to maintain a two-car status for awhile. When we leave Oahu we'll ship our car to San Diego. Our moving travels will take us from Honolulu to Minneapolis to Nebraska where we'll pick up Zac's beloved truck and drive her back to San Diego. By that point, hopefully, the Escape will have arrived and we'll both be able to come and go as we need to.
--We've continued looking for a house but haven't put in any offers. We've resigned ourselves to the fact that we really want to see the neighborhoods and houses in person before we start making any decisions. To ensure that we weren't homeless upon our arrival in San Diego we signed up for military housing. We've been assigned a house already so we'll be able to move in as soon as we get there. Added bonus: there is no penalty for terminating the lease early if we buy a house. SD is a large, urban area and there seem to be houses popping up all the time that are in our price range and desired locations. The trick is trying to get to them quickly. It seems that a lot of houses are only on the market for a few days or a couple of weeks and they're gone. We're going to have to be fairly aggressive when we get there to purchase something.
--The movers came today to pack out our first shipment of goods. The Navy provides two shipments - a small shipment of about 600 lbs and a larger shipment of everything else. (Up to a certain weight limit based on rank and the number of dependents.) The idea is that the small shipment gets packed out first and is delivered "quickly" to your next duty station so you're not living in a vacant apartment/house for any length of time. You're supposed to send things like some pots and pans, dishes, linens and clothing in that first shipment. The larger household goods (HHG) shipment follows and sometimes takes a little longer to transit to the new duty station.
The Navy will allow one delivery of each type of shipment and will hold your goods for you for about 90 days before they start charging you for storage. For us that means that we will have our smaller shipment delivered when we get to our military housing assignment, but we're going to wait to have our larger HHG delivered when we buy a house. (Otherwise we'd be responsible for moving that smaller shipment and the larger shipment into the new house on our time and our dime. I don't want to un-pack and re-pack everything we own within a couple of months and frankly, with Zac being on sea duty, who knows if he'd be around to help.) The end result is Zac and I will have to live up to three months on the stuff we shipped out today. It's really quite amazing how much 600lbs is, but I'm sure it won't look like much when we move into military housing. I'm guessing that's going to be a pretty empty house while we're there.
--Zac re-enlisted in the Navy for three more years. I was excited that I was able to be there for it. Zac has re-enlisted once while we've been together, but that was while he was in El Salvador so I wasn't able to be there for it. Usually when a sailor re-enlists he picks where he wants the ceremony to take place. Sometimes sailors can be pretty creative. A lot of sailors out here re-enlist on the USS Missouri, which is always cool. Zac was debating where he wanted to do his and he finally settled on doing it out in Pearl Harbor, on a rigid hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) in front of the sunken USS Utah memorial. (On the opposite side of Ford Island from the USS Arizona memorial.)
When Zac first mentioned it to me I thought, "That's awesome! What a cool place to do it!" But then it dawned on me that I probably wouldn't be able to go out with him on the RHIB due to safety issues or Navy regulations or some sort of protocol that would prohibit civilians such as myself from going with them. Luckily for me, Zac's Commanding Officer was more than generous and let me accompany them on the RHIB for the ceremony. I even got a certificate thanking me for being a supportive wife. That was really neat. I'm really grateful for the chance to be there. It's a short ceremony. Zac leaves the Navy, he's awarded a letter thanking him for his service, a couple of seconds pass and then they swear him back in. Lots of photos and handshakes. Once of Zac's favorite parts of his job is tooling around out there on the RHIBs, so it was only fitting that that's what chose for his location. And doing it in front of the USS Utah just added to the day.
--I resigned as Zac's command ombudsman earlier this week. While I was relieved to be taking that task off my plate, as I handed over the information and passwords to the newly appointed ombudsman I found myself sad to no longer be involved in Zac's command. I know some spouses like to be involved and some don't - everyone needs to do what's right for them and their family - but I enjoyed helping out. I like knowing what's going on and sharing that information with others. I understand that at Zac's command here in Hawaii that the ombudsman wasn't called upon to do much but I felt like I tried to be available to people so I'm chalking it up as a successful experience. Maybe I'll do it again someday.
--I also tried to volunteer with COMPASS in August and September. I say "tried" because while the volunteers showed for the class none of the participants did (save one lovely woman who showed up for the September session). The August session fell victim to some internet registration technical glitches and the September session was just a bust. I wish I could come up with another way of putting it, but it really was just a bust. We had something like nine people sign up and on the first day of class only one person showed, despite reminders the day before. Two people had people in their family fall ill so they couldn't attend, some people had other things come up, a few we couldn't get a hold of and two of them just plumb forgot. It was really frustrating for a number of us volunteers that had tried two months in a row to get the classes together only to have them fall apart the day of. I'll hopefully be able to volunteer with COMPASS in San Diego so I'll have other opportunities to contribute and meet people, but I really like the people I volunteered with out here and I was really quite sad that I didn't get do the class one more time with them.
I've been pretty good so far at keeping my stress level in check, but I think it's going to be increasingly difficult as more and more things become the "last" time I do things out here. The last time I drive over to the North Shore, the last time I go to the beach, the last time I go to our favorite Thai restaurant, the last time I see my friends. Only two weeks left. Eek.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
The calendar is filling up fast
We're still house-hunting in San Diego. We're working with a realtor and we've been pre-approved on a loan. We spend at least a couple hours per day looking online at houses. We just sent a list of houses we like to the realtor so she can get a better understanding of what we're looking for. Zac purchased a house in Oklahoma so he has some familiarity with the process. It's all new to me, however, and it's a bit overwhelming. I think it would be less stressful if we were there and do more of the research in person. We have a few good friends in San Diego that are willing to go out with our realtor and take a look at the houses we like. We trust them to ask the right questions (they're homeowners) and give us their honest opinion about the places. I'm nervous about putting in an offer on a house when I haven't seen it in person, but I like the idea of getting the paperwork moving so we have a place to live sooner, rather than later.
A note to all of my Minnesota peeps - we're only going to be in MN for about 54 hours this time around. We probably won't catch most people, aside from family. I'm hoping for a return visit to MN, hopefully in the winter, when we can spend some more time socializing.
On the job front, I applied for a job in San Diego a couple of weeks ago. What was odd about this position is that they didn't accept any electronic submissions. No e-mailing or faxing your resume/application. They specifically stated paper only submissions. Wha??? Paper? What is this, 1987? Plus, the job was only posted for about a week (encompassing Labor Day weekend) so they suggested you use FedEx to make sure it got there on time. So I coughed up $30 to FedEx to get five pieces of paper out to the hiring manager out in Washington DC. Great. Now I'm paying for (probable) employment rejections. Terrific. At least I'm providing jobs to FedEx employees.
We've got the 2011 Khaki Ball on Saturday. This will be our fourth one here in Hawaii. I've got the dress, but still no shoes. I'm not really that excited for it, to be honest. None of the couples from our social group are going. Zac and I invited a friend of ours whose husband is currently stationed overseas, however, so Zac will be the man with two hot dates that night. It really doesn't seem like that long ago that we went to our first Khaki Ball here and I was meeting people, having a hard time keeping names straight. And now some of those people have become my closest Navy friends and have moved on to new duty stations. What a strange last three years.
It's not all doom and gloom around here. Zac and I have been taking a digital photography class for a couple of weeks. It's been well worth it. There's really no point in having a DSLR if you don't know how to use all the bells and whistles. You're paying for those features, you should use them. I'm going to try to take some time on a couple of days to go take photos around island before we leave. Actually, speaking of photos, Zac and I booked a portrait session in a couple of weeks. They take photos at the beach at sunset. I've been wanting a Hawaiian photo of Zac and I like that since we've got here. I'm excited that we found the time (and will) to finally schedule one. It will be a nice way to wrap up our time here, on the North Shore with the setting sun. How very Hawaiian.
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