First You Take a Bowling Ball….

… Then you roll it down the hall. Hit your dad, make him mad. I have an old camp song stuck in my head called "Aggravation," which is sung to the tune of "Alouette." A jaunty and particularly catchy tune, somehow made all the more so when you’re singing the wrong words.

I am not ovulating. I find this interesting because I am on Day 13 of my cycle. I’ve been tracking my Basal Body Temperature every day and I know that I haven’t ovulated yet. I also went to the store and bought an ovulation predictor kit and I am not experiencing a surge of luteinizing hormone, which means I do not ovulate on halfway through my cycle. Annoying, but very good to know, since we are trying to get pregnant. The fact that I apparently ovulate later in my cycle explains why we haven’t gotten pregnant yet. I’m hoping that having this testing kit and tracking my BBT will help us get pregnant.

In the meantime, I’m thinking about getting a job. I need something to do with my time, other than just cleaning the house and writing and drawing. Even working part-time will probably help. At the moment, I’m leaning towards someplace like Borders or Barnes & Noble or Petco. Petco is actually winning, simply because it’s closer that either of the other two and I could walk. That would eliminate the complication of the car, since it seems like a waste of gas for Alan to drive home after PT, then have me drive him back to Ft. Carson, drive to work, then pick him up. I’d pretty much be working for gas money at that point.

Of course, there’s always the chance that we’ll be moving to Alaska. ::rolls eyes:: Apparently there is a unit in Fairbanks that’s getting ready to deploy and is short on personnel, so 40 people from 3-61 Cavalry will be PCS’ing to Fairbanks. Sgt. Schulz told both Alan and Pez that they weren’t likely to be chosen since the Army just spent a butt-load of money moving them here and it would probably be people who had been here more than a year. Still, it worries me. I feel like I’m just starting to settle in here and I’m just starting to make friends really. Having to move again would seriously suck. Especially having to move to Alaska. In January. And have Alan deploy immediately, leaving me alone. In Alaska. IN JANUARY! So my fingers and toes are all tightly crossed that we get to stay here for another couple years. I don’t love Colorado, but it’s better than Alaska. In January.

In literary news, I’ve decided to just take the plunge and send my manuscript and illustrations to a publisher. Now I just have to decide which one. Or ones, if they accept multiple submissions. I’m also thinking about submitting some pieces to magazines, sort of trying to get my foot in the door. I have a version of the Falling Rock story that I did a while ago that I’m really very pleased with and only needs a little editing. I also had an idea this morning to write a story based on Alan’s grandfather. He recently fell and broke his hip and things are looking a little rough for the two of them just now. He’s always stuck me as a sad, lonely person, and I think I could write something almost poetic that might do justice to what he’s gone through and what he’s going through. Right now it’s just an idea. Back in Milford I would bundle up and go for a walk around the pond, letting the ideas simmer in my head for a while until I had a scene. For now I still don’t have a place like that out here, and I’m really missing it. Even the earth here is different and it’s a hard adjustment. Colorado is a great place to connect with Nature and all… provided you don’t mind sharing nature with everyone else.

~Liz