Dear Darla Diaries

our corner of germany

It would figure. My sinuses are screaming and I am enjoying a down day from work by being sicker than a dog. Typical. No matter where you move too the bug can still get you. In my sore snotty pajama-y glasses states I somehow felt motivated to update you all on our little corner of Germany! Click on the photo below to see the new house or page through into Flickr and see the photos of my 'new' hoopity car, German food and Siegelbach, the new village we will be moving into shortly.

New Home photos!
This is the view of standing in our entry way looking back at the front door. From this point you can go down the stairs into the 3-room basement, including laundry room; upstairs to the 2nd-floor landing: 2 bedroom, one bath, patio access (the MIL floor suite) and continue on to the 3rd floor landing: 2 bedroom, one bath, skylights (our suite). The main floor has a bathroom, kitchen, dining room, great room and backyard including built-in fridge, dishwasher and stove. Due to the tiny natures of this house a full size American fridge is in the basement (courtesy of the military) and for once I will need to get some sort of butler for the extra dishes. All in all she's close to 1.6k square feet and easily twice the size of the majority of our previous hoomes. Somehow I did manage to miss getting a front of the front walk. Ah well, need to have something to do once our stuff moves in. Perhaps than I'll try and tackle a video bit.

(These first photos are from my iPhone. Even in my delusional state I wasn't feeling motivated enough to download the many dozen photos from my camera that encompasses a lot more of Siegelbach, our road trip to get to Germany, our beautiful friends and family at going away parties in the states and the rest of the shenanigans. There is always Eventually, my favorite village just outside of Denial. The often thought of red-headed step-sister of Reality.)
 

loving k.s. does not a twilighter make

I must make a confession: I am not obsessed with Twlight. I have read all the Twilight books. I have seen both movies, including New Moon opening night with a gaggle of girls. I will also probably watch Eclipse with some local wives as well, when it comes to the base theater. This does not, however, make me a Twilight junky. I am only Team Jacob because I liked ripped ninja boys over pale scraggly urchins. Seriously. The movies are the only time it's legal to drool on minors.

The books aren't terrible. Let me explain that I did not start reading the books because I had heard they were the holy grail of the vampire-werewolf-love-triangle genre. I read the books at the suggestion of a friend due to my love of sci fi/fantasy. I have read far worse and I have also enjoyed far better written material. (We'll start with R. Hobbs, JRR Tolkien, R. Feist, P. Briggs, R.A. Salvatore, D. Monk and K. Harrison to name a few.) As much as I think that the first and last books in the Twi-series were the most intriguing ...  I do have to stand firm by my opinion that books two and three were extensively overly written and wordy and should've been combined into one. But, as often happens, sometimes authors feel the need to stretch a story out a bit to long and a trilogy turns into a 4-book-series or some cases (i.e. Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind) a debacle of a never-ending mess. (Kind of like my horrible run-on sentences this post. Too bad my sinuses weren't burning a hole through my face and I cared to edit this one more time.)

That being explained I will also admit that not only did I see each movie once, I have watched them numerous times always with multiple friends in support of the herd and a good night out. They were cute and, in Kristen Stewart's reoccuring screaming and moaning in NM, a bit painful. I think some of the special effects were nifty. Yes nifty. The effects in the LOTR trilogy, HP set, Avatar and Star Trek are just the beginning of very successful and mindblowing fantasy epics. HBO's True Blood, although practically vampire porn, would be more the equivalent of well done vampire special effects ... if Twlight characters were adults instead of tweenyboppers on the cusp. When you compare the two, the epics and the Twilights, it is like apples and acai berries. There is fruit than there is carefully crafted Super Foods. Both are equally delicious but there is a reason one costs just a tad more.

One of the reasons I had to make the first confession is that I have another ... I think Kristen Stewart is deliciously cute. If I wasn't completely into boys I'd want to gobble her up. I found this whole listing of very fun, funky and hip photos that quite amused me. The reason I was looking is that I remember loving her shorn look when she was shooting the Joan Jhett movie. I love her shaggy short do:

and ... even though I don't think he's the cutest I love this couple shot of her and RP ...

Just because I'm not the super fan doesn't mean I should be a full hater ... after all celebrities are real people too. I may not have paparrazi stalk me while I look my worst, have horrible bad eye circles, matted bed head or need a smoke ... but we do have some amazing things in common:

1. Their poop stinks. Literally. Fecal matter will always be fecal matter no matter the cost of the potpourri used to dissolve the scent.

2. They have wear clothes. Doesn't matter if they want to dress like Lady GaGa or Ashley Olson but they do have to don their pants, underwear or shoes one leg at a time.

3. They have to ride in some form of transporation. Be it scooter, skateboard, taxi, limo, bus or subway they cannot materialize from point A to B.

4. Their pets misbehave. You can have a nanny for your child or a mistress for your spouse but no magical powers can prevent your pet from pissing on the carpet or yowling at the moon.

not a whole lot out of the ordinary

Sometimes there isn't much to say.

Sometimes one doesn't want to use words to fill up the dull spots in between the moments that are neither exciting nor mentionable just liveable.

Sometimes it's just another day at the office or, in my case, base gas station.

Sometimes the days on the calendar seem much further apart than they actually are.

Sometimes a government provided closet-size hotel can feel like a prison.

Sometimes spouses push each other's buttons for no other reason than the fact it's convenient.

Sometimes sex is just sex and the squabbling will still commence.

Sometimes a non-airconditioned rattling box of a vehicle is the perfect mode of transportation in a foreign country.

Sometimes I ramble too much.

not quite a retail sensation

I'm not sure if 'wow' appropriately describes my first day at work. In theory I have all the book smarts to be a manager at this gas station I started work at today. In reality I haven't physically done it before. I felt like a puppy and inquisitive five-year-old wrapped into one. I followed the acting facility manager and his assistant from point a-to-b again and again and again. They glossed over the general theory of HOW to be an effective manager but I didn't really get my hands dirty, at all. The one would do things and explain HOW I would do it in the future but he didn't delegate or point out HOW it was to be done WHILE he was doing it, thus I ended up awkwardly with my hands in my pocket or tried to imitate him, monkey-see monkey-do. I like the concept of physically taking a few days in each roll in the facility so I get my head firmly entrenched in how each position is done. In the end I walked out of a nine-hour shift, with a smallish break at the six-hour mark, feeling slightly dazed and confused like I firmly had expected. It's like toeing into the edge of a puddle knowing that six-months from this point you'll be able to swim the English channel butt naked and at the middle to front of the pack. It's just remembering that we all start with a dog paddle. Paddle. Paddle. Paddle. And a fifty hour-a-week, swing shift/day shift split schedule to boot.

room for a hobbits

We checked out our new pad. I noticed a slight issue with the master bath shower. Anyone else see it? Yep, his legs have to go.

a side of basil and a slice of ham

Today's reading list: the good, bad and beautiful ... because I like sharing my randomness with others and I'm fidgeting and speedtalking in my head and my walls are a little squishy today ... and I can.

Karie sums up a bad day with the best of intentions and all the reason in the world to feel this way:

What the HELL was that?!?!?!?! Why did this happen??? What the hell was this sequence of events and what the hell was the point!? I'm sick of the whole "life throws you a curve ball" thing. NO! Life hits you in the face with the ball, then takes the bat to you, then kicks you a couple of times and repeats it over and over again to MAKE SURE you are terrified to move for the rest of your life. THANKS LIFFFFFE. Does anyone ever get over death? I don't think so. People find bandaids for the hole left. {click here for full post}

The formerly known Simple Sparrow can you show you bits of the beautiful country I currently live in. {click here} I love the girl with the bandanna look as well as the castles and rivers. The forests are truly as lush as they seem.

Last but certainly not least is the good. Karen rounds out my random tryst with her handy 7-step cleaning trick to tackling the fridge over at her CraftLeftover site. {I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but I LOVE that site.}

into the forest she wandered

 
 I escaped into the nearby wooded thicket like Alice through the Lookingglass. I emerged at the other side to find it a shortcut to the west gate of the base.

who turned on the heat

Things I will love to reaquaint myself with when we get a home again:

• sun tea
• fresh cut melons - all varieties
• raw veggies - all varieties
• cool homemade hummus
• my magic bullet
• the geo.rge for.man grillmaster
• mrd's BBQ Korean ribs
• fresh squeezed lemonade
• Italian marinated grilled chicken
• trail jogging
• crossfit workouts
• a hooking nest
• the king size pillow top mattress
• a working refrigerator
• privacy
• a bathtub
• medium rare steak grilled with mrd's secret BBQ beer marinade
• have I mentioned a working frig?
• a functioning microwave
• flatware and cutlery
• floorspace
• green grass and a backyard weed filled soil to get my fingers dirty in
• a voip with unlimited stateside calling access
• a job to fill the empty hours
• a jungle gym for my cat
• unlimited tap water
• ice cubes - all varieties
• a tv larger than a US hospital room size
• more than one English speaking television channel
• neighbors
• the expanded ability to torture my dear friends and family including Alfie & Co, Buckwheat, Shandipants & Co, MaggieMoo & Co, Mel & Co, Moggie & Co

Is that really too much to ask? 

note to self

Why does the Vogel.weh Com.misary ladies toilette smell like syrup with a hint of fresh kitty litter? She wondered. I better not ask it could just be lost in translation.

sacrifices taken

My heart broke today. I was doing a random catch up of my old blogs when I stumbled back into Karie at Being The Wife Of A Wounded Marine. Last I had read she was dealing with the travesty of having to let her husband deal with his demons on his own. That stage where you have to step away from them and let them walk on their on two feet or fall flat on their faces without catching them. That stage where enough was enough and although you love them with every piece of your being ... sometimes it isn't enough. I had innocently abandoned her in her hour of need. In the blink of eye he was gone. I read a few posts into her blog to see "It's been one month since the worst day of my life." He was gone ... in the blink of an eye. One hour she had been texting him and the next no reponse. The following morning without rhyme or reason she had been given the news. Her life shattered ... it wasn't the pretty and glorious P.S. I Love You like we wish it could be. Though I have not met this girl and wouldn't know her from Adam my soul was all squished like she were my own.

Here's to you Karie ... may you find peace and solace and the unrelenting madness ease a bit. If you want to support your troops ... and the aftermath of the war you can donate to the funeral expenses on her page by clicking on the paypall donation button. Link: Being The Wife Of A Wounded Marine. You can also donate to the Wounded Warrior Project or Wounded Semper Fi Fund under his name "Cpl. Jimmy "Cleve" Kinsey II".

My adjusting to Germany seems like a whiny excuse in comparison to Karie. What do I REALLY have to whine about? Not my temporary lodging courtesy of the government or definitely not the fact that my healthy and whole husband is snoring gently next to me while I blog.