Month: August 2010

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #10

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What secret indulgence do you act on while your spouse is away? (from Devil Dog Darling)

I will quite cheerfully pour myself a glass of wine and settle in for an evening of reading bad fanfiction.

Man, that’s embarrassing.  I should have made up something saucier.

If you were a spice, what would you be? (from New Girl On Post)

I don’t have a good answer for this one.  The question asks which spice I would be, but I think I’d rather choose an herb.  However, I am not having much success wrangling my pedantic tendencies into submission this morning, so I find myself unable to tell you what kind of leaf I am when I ought to be choosing which bark, seed, root, or fruit I am.

Where do you go for support when your significant other is deployed? (from Texas Meets Washington)

My undergarments remain supportive whether my husband is here or not.

Family and Twitter work wonders when I’m not making lame lingerie jokes.

What is the oldest thing you own? (from A Troop’s Girl)

I am not sure.  The oldest T-shirt I own (and regularly wear) is bright red and from the theatre at which my parents were working when they met.  Mom was an actress, Dad was a techie.  It was a match made in heaven, if heaven is a place where patrons are encouraged to boo, hiss, and throw popcorn at the villains.

How did you envision your future pre-military? (from Daddy’s Duty)

How far pre-military do we want to go?  If you asked four-year-old Nth, you would hear about a fascinating projected career as a paleontologist.  From about first grade onward, you would be regaled with plans for becoming a marine biologist specializing in cetaceans, particularly in orca communication.  Post-freshman year of high school, during which I had a phenomenally lousy biology teacher, my interest in computer science began to solidify alongside an interest in the Russian language.  I thought I might wind up working for the State Department or some other federal government agency (a career aspiration not uncommon when growing up in the DC-Metro area.

I had an inkling that my future might involve the military when I started dating my now-husband during my junior year of high school, as he had already gotten an appointment to the United States Naval Academy.  As we continued dating and eventually came to the conclusion that we were probably going to wind up married, it became clear that my career would not be as simple as staying in DC to seek a government job.  I still struggle with that a little bit, as I have not yet made the leap into wholehearted pursuit of alternate career ideas.

Are you a military spouse/fiancée/fiancé/girlfriend/boyfriend? Hie thee to ENS Wifey’s blog, snag the questions, and add yourself to the Mr. Linky for this week’s MilSpouse Friday Fill-In!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #9

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If you could be a fugitive from the law for whatever reason, what would your crime be? (from It’s a Hooah Life)

Sneaking into the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and/or the Udvar-Hazy Center after hours to climb in all the cockpits and make airplane noises.  I suspect my husband would be right there with me.

How long do you think you will be a military family? (from Julie the Army Wife)

At least fifteen more years.  The length of my husband’s post-winging aviation commitment is such that by the time we would even have the option to consider leaving the Navy, he might as well stay in for the full twenty.

Even after he retires, I suspect we will still consider ourselves “a military family,” if one in a slightly different part of the community.

What’s your favorite recipe? (from Keep Calm and Soldier On)

Aaaaugh, tough one!  I have so many I like to prepare at different times of the year, for different holidays, for different moods.  We’ll just reach into the hat and pull out a single specimen: my decadent macaroni and goat cheese.  That deserves a post of its own; someday, it will get one.

What would you want your last five words to be when you leave this life? (from My Goal is Simple)

This question would be much easier to answer if it were about what I do not want my parting words to be.  I have a ton of those:

  • “Look what I can do!”
  • “Hey, what’s coming this way?”
  • “You sure it’s this button?”
  • “I have it under control.”
  • “Ground’s coming up awful quick…”

As for what I would not mind claiming as my last words… something akin to, “Family, I love you all,” wouldn’t be such an awful legacy.

Where do you hope to retire? (from Pennies from Heaven)

We are Virginians, born and raised, so we have always envisioned ourselves returning to the Old Dominion once our place of residence was subject to our own whim rather than the Navy’s.  An air park — it would be terribly convenient if our property had sufficient hangar space for the construction of our kit plane — somewhere in Virginia would be just about ideal.  Ooh, or a house on the water where we could tie up a seaplane.  We get a great deal of pleasure from imagining our dream home for “someday, after the Navy.”

Are you a military spouse/fiancée/fiancé/girlfriend/boyfriend? Hie thee to ENS Wifey’s blog, snag the questions, and add yourself to the Mr. Linky for this week’s MilSpouse Friday Fill-In!

Flying, Not Enough Flying, and Not Being a Teenager

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How on earth did it get to be mid-August?  The wall-to-wall flight and duty schedule my husband’s been on might have something to do with it.  At least he’s not hurting for flight hours this month.  We would, no doubt, both be a little more sanguine about the whole thing if fewer of those hours ate up our weekends, but such is life when there are aircraft carriers at sea who demand their COD hits with the clamorous fervor of a infant seeking a pacifier.  “Want it now!  Want it RIGHT NOW!”

My current level of flight time leaves much to be desired, although attempts were made to rectify my sad ground-bound state last week.  Alas, Mother Nature foiled my first bid for a Mission Observer proficiency hop with a grumbling sky and a worrisome number of lightning strikes in the vicinity.  The weather at the airport was such that we probably could have taken off safely, but returning at the end of our flight would have been iffy.  Our Mission Pilot decided that he didn’t fancy explaining to our superiors precisely why we thought it was a good idea to take off only to divert for weather and get ourselves stranded at another airport, so we stayed firmly planted on the ground.

No problem, we just rescheduled for a couple days hence… only to be stymied by another group signing the plane out from under us.  Here’s hoping for better luck this week.  I would dearly love to take advantage of the funding CAP always seems to have available for flying as the end of the fiscal year draws closer, especially consider how long it has been since I stretched my MO muscles.  Those skills are perishable; I hope I haven’t completely forgotten my G1000 tricks.

I have not made much progress in transitioning from the right seat to the left (translation: I have not yet begun working towards my private pilot certificate).  A while back, though, my husband and I visited a few local flight schools to get a feel for the various operations and instructors.  At one of the schools, we were chatting with an older gentleman about the process, how many hours would be needed, the rates for aircraft rental and instruction, and so on and so forth.  When he reached the part of the spiel about solo flight, though, he looked at me kind of funny.

“You know, you have to be at least sixteen years old to solo.”

I was a little taken aback — after all, I was there with my husband, wedding rings clearly visible.  Boy, I thought, this guy must think my husband is one hell of a cradle robber! I assured the gentleman that I was, in fact, a full decade safely past that particular minimum.

I’ve often been told I look young for my age, but to have someone wonder if maybe — just maybe — I might be fifteen? Everyone says I’ll appreciate it later, but I’m not quite convinced that I have reached the point at which it is flattering to have one’s age underestimated by ten or more years.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #8

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Missed out on #7, shame on me.  Here’s to getting back on the wagon with #8, though.

What is ONE thing you’d like civilians to understand about being a military family?

Just because military folks dress a lot alike and have awfully similar haircuts doesn’t mean they all think the same way.  The military is far from monolithic; please do not mistake the uniform for a signifier of uniform thought and lockstep personalities.

What is your favorite mistake?

The mistake that turned out best in my recent memory wasn’t anything life-altering or deep.  We were in an unfamiliar town looking for a place to snag lunch, and we displayed poor enough judgment to trust our GPS to take us to something random in the “food” category.  The place whose name had sounded so intriguing when we selected it from the list turned out to be in such a sketchtastic area that we didn’t even get out of the car for a closer look.  Our efforts to get back on the highway from there led us to a much nicer shopping center containing — lo and behold — a Red Robin.  We hadn’t been to one in years.

Any mistake that leads to heavenly onion rings has to be a good one, right?

What indulgence could you give up for a year?

I could live without our occasional afternoon respites at a local coffee shop — I make pretty tasty caffeinated beverages right here at home — but I’d be sad about it.

If you could be a winged animal, what would you be?

Have I mentioned that I’m a bit of a dragon freak?  You should see all the draconically-themed novels on my recently erected bookshelves.

A green dragon basking in the sun

I drew this green Pernese dragon basking in the sun when I was in high school.

What is one question you’d like to see asked in a future MFF?

“What is the silliest get-up you have ever worn outside of a Halloween party?”

Are you a military spouse/fiancée/fiancé/girlfriend/boyfriend? Hie thee to ENS Wifey’s blog, snag the questions, and add yourself to the Mr. Linky for this week’s MilSpouse Friday Fill-In!