Anybody out there?

I’m trying to type with acrylic nails on one hand and natural nails with almost no length on the other… It feels odd. This isn’t standard behavior, by the way - I was inspired to take my yearly run at the guitar (this will last approximately three days) so it was off the left-hand nails.

On the subject of music: while I doubt I’ll ever reach Jemi Hendrix levels on the guitar, I really do want to learn to play the fiddle/violin. I discovered Miri Ben-Ari today, and while I’m normally not a hip-hop fan, I find the hip-hop violin to be awesome.

Anyhoo, I’m attempting to FreeCycle-acquire a violin, and if that fails, I’ll probably get the family violin from down in CA and have it re-strung and whatnot. My current plan is to teach myself (yay, teh intarwebs!) like I have every other time I’ve learned an instrument… but if I really take to this one, who knows - I may actually pursue instruction.

Wedding planning is plodding along. I’ll be headed up to the wedding location next weekend to scope out the florist, tux rentals, actual ceremony location, etc. Still need to work out the officiant… I am seriously considering asking a friend to get ordained and do it. (Yay, teh intarwebs yet again!) I just have a major hang-up against asking an actual religious officiant to do it, when I’m not intimately familiar with that individual’s theology. I would certainly hate to pick a name out of the phone book and unknowingly choose a Doug Wilson or worse. You’d be surprised what kind of folks call themselves Christians… especially in northern Idaho. Frankly, I think a beloved friend asking for God’s blessing on our union is going to garner more favor upstairs than inadvertently having someone waving the banner of Christianity - but preaching all the wrong things - having any part of my wedding. We’ll see how it goes.

I can’t recall if I covered this or not… but I’m 99.9% sure I’ve found the major I’ll be graduating with: journalism. I’ll also have a minor in history. The good news is… I have a major! The bad news is I’m not sure if I will be able to graduate spring ‘08 as scheduled… I think I will have to at LEAST get some credits summer ‘08 (either via class or an internship) and I may just have to graduate fall ‘08. My problem at this point is I’m taking the reporting pre-requisite this fall, and I’m also waitlisted on two of the advance classes I need. I think my media writing instructor will vouch for me and help me get into them, but that’s not a guarantee, and even if I do I will be pushing the envelope with like 18 credits per semester.

Oh yeah - those nine summer credits I was taking simultaneously? A’s in all of them. That’s the first 4.0 I’ve pulled in college. :) I really kicked ass in my media writing class (with the aforementioned supportive instructor), and that’s what led me to believe I’ve found my calling in journalism. Of course, lots of y’all who have known me for any length of time called that one long ago, but… what can I say? I’m stubborn.

Speaking of stubborn, I’ve finally decided to get off my lazy ass, eat right, and work out. (Warning: I’m about to defy every law of being female.) Exactly one week ago, I weighed 141.2 lbs. That’s not like, “Zomg lardass!” or anything, but I’m 5′6″ and it was approaching pretty not-hot proportions. So I cut the soda. And potato chips. And the everything-I-see-after-8-p.m.-I-must-eat. All the experts say you shouldn’t lose more than 2 lbs. per week, but uh… sorry guys. I just stopped eating crap and promptly dropped like… 10. Well, between 10 and 15. I’m kind of bouncing between 126.4 and 128.6 right now; at this very moment I’m on the high end thanks to kind of going off the wagon for the weekend. Thing is, I feel gross when I eat bad food now. I don’t really want to, I just need to find more healthy options because I get bored fast.

Mike and I also took up tennis, I’m doing some cardio at the gym, and he’s supposed to start instructing me on proper Olympic lifting techniques. (*Cough, cough* - that’s your cue, honey!) I’m finally convinced that I can lift heavy and not look like a female bodybuilder unless I try… I’m learning more about cutting and bulking and competition prep, and I understand now that looking like what women are always afraid of looking like (i.e. men) requires an actual intention to look that way. And like, 4% body fat. And usually some pretty intense dehydration. Eww.

Anyway, Jelena Abbou is my new role model. She’s my height, which makes me think hey - I can look like that if I want to actually try! I’ve seen some competition pics of her that are of the “Oh… no. No, not good.” variety, but when she’s in the off-season and actually has a healthy level of body fat… well:

Anybody gonna complain if my next round of gun pics involves a stomach like that? Anybody? No? Didn’t think so.

It’s apparently time to hit the hay… Work tomorrow, le sigh. I look forward to becoming independently wealthy. Now I just have to figure out how to go about that…

For the last six years or so, I’ve been seeing friends off to war. I thought it would get easier, or more distant, or - silly me - might be over completely by now. Instead, I find myself bidding fare-the-wells to better and better friends (Mike obviously being at the top of that heap) and seeing them off for second and third times. This war keeps coming home to me, time and time again, and I’m so sick of the crushing sadness that accompanies it. Something needs to change, and I wish I had all the answers so I knew what it was.

Mike and I spent the weekend in Spokane, sending the Papa Battery Marines off for the second time. Many of the men he went with last time are now out of the unit. Three of his former squad are going again, and all three are like family to us. They will be stateside for the next few months, and off to Iraq in the fall.

One of them is left behind his young, pregnant wife. She’s due in August. Hopefully he’ll get to see his first son on leave before they go.

Another was supposed to get out in two weeks - instead, he’ll return from Iraq just before his Individual Ready Reserve time is up.

At least the third wants to go… But that doesn’t mean I’ll worry about him any less.

I thank the good Lord above Mike is sitting next to me now rather than across the country or around the world. I know it’s hard for him to reconcile not going along, but when I saw a young woman at the hotel this morning, dog tags around her neck, eyes tired, entering an elevator alone - I sadly, selfishly breathed a sigh of relief. I was her once. I never want to be her, ever again, and I wish nobody had to be her… at least until we have a better reason.

I’m getting married two months from today.

Weird.

I guess this means I have to actually buckle down and find things like an officiant, and flowers… I’m still lobbying for an internet-ordained Sgt. V doing it, but Mike thought that was weird. Sgt. V would probably find it pretty strange too.

My dress showed up, and I managed to try it on with only a bit of help - it’s gorgeous and poofy and hot. Like, pouring-sweat kind of hot. I really hope it’s not five billion degrees on the 4th. The only real downside to the dress is the fact it fits me really, really well right now, which does not bode well for any in-shape-getting or weight-lossing I was planning in the next two months. I think I will be okay since it is primarily held up by being very tight in the ribs/torso, and there isn’t a whole lot to lose there, but I was hoping it would be a wee bit small so I’d have more motivation. I actually look great in it as=is - it’s how I look not in it that makes me raise the ol’ eyebrows.

My dear friend Morgan helped me put together our invitations on Saturday, so those are at least ready to go out - well, I have to spend an arm and a leg on stamps first, and then address them, and then send them… but they’re assembled. It’s a start.

Anyway, I best be off to my next class, and I think my Mission of the Day after that will be to make an honest-to-goodness to-do list for the rest of my wedding stuff… and start checking some shizzle off.

Some of you may remember when, a couple months ago, I was photographed by my extremely talented cousin, Kelly Bennett. Kelly is now starting a program where she’ll be photographing deploying military members and their families free of her standard sitting fees (which, if you’ve ever worked with a good professional photographer, you should know are spendy!) and wants to provide them with professional canvas prints, called a “hero canvas,” that will look roughly like this:

(Canvas is a Limited edition Jessica Dittmer Design)

The canvas will be 12×12″ with a 5×7″ photo integrated into the center, as indicated. (The “faded” part on the outside is just indicating full bleed/wrap size and won’t look like that in print.) The text reads:

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives.
I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.

The canvasses usually cost $70 just to print, but Kelly hopes to offer them to military families, along with her services, free of charge. She is asking for donations to help support this project, both the immediate shoots she has lined up (three in the next week alone) and in the long-term. She will be setting up a fund specifically for this project, so you can be assured your money will go directly to the cost of a hero canvas. Also, let me reiterate: Her services are being offered free of charge. You are not paying her, you’re helping defray the cost of the canvas print itself.

As an added bonus, the company Kelly contracts with for printing will donate 5% of the cost of each canvas to the USO care package program, which means your donation benefits the troops twice.

Regardless of your position on the Iraq or Afghanistan wars, the current or future administrations, candidates, politics, or anything else, I think we can agree on one thing: It’s hard for military families to spend so much time apart. I remember when Mike deployed how touched I was when people offered up acts of kindness like this, like when the good folks at Dave Smith Motors detailed his truck for free right before he came home. If you can donate even a little bit toward this cause, you’re helping fund a piece of artwork that will surely have a place of honor in a military home, both during the deployment and in the years to come.

If you’d like to give a donation of any amount, you can send funds via PayPal to Kelly Bennett at cagrownutbound@yahoo.com. Please put “hero canvas project” in the header message. You can also mail donations to:

If you have any questions, you can contact Kelly or ask me and I’ll pass information along. Thanks!