Early December

Seven in the morning and I’m up. Alan asked me to drive him to work today. I though it was with the goal of me going to the DMV and registering the car, but apparently he has tomorrow off so we can do it then. The actual reason was that the last of the stuff is getting in from Louisiana and Alan doesn’t want to have to pick up everyone else’s stuff, which is what would happen if he had the car. He’s also not feeling very generous towards anyone in his office just now, especially Faulk. Apparently his moral reasoning is stuck in the conventional stage, the law and order stage. He doesn’t question or flout rules, but he’s perfectly fine with doing things that aren’t illegal, despite them being morally questionable and it’s upsetting Alan. For example, once the "secret internet" is installed in their office, they’ll have to lock up their cell phones outside the office. It’s a security issue. Well, the internet isn’t up, but the lock box with a sign telling everyone to lock up their phones is already there. So Faulk is on everyone’s ass to lock up their phones. But since the logic behind the box is security, without the secret internet, there’s no need to do it yet. But because it’s a rule, Faulk is enforcing it. On the other hand, Sgt. Norbeck left a bunch of pairs of his unworn boots in the office for whoever needs new boots. They don’t fit anyone who currently works in their office, but the boots are there if anyone needs them. Faulk tried to take them and wanted to sell them online. Now, that clearly wasn’t the point. The point was the give them to whoever needed them… Not to give them to whoever wanted to profit off them. Sgt. Norbeck could have done that himself and since they’re his boots, he’s the only one that has the right to do it. Likewise, Faulk dropped his iPhone in Louisiana and cracked the screen. As it happened, someone found an iPhone while they were out there and it was never claimed. Hearing that Faulk’s was broken, he gave the found one to him so that he could replace the cracked screen with the one from the other phone. Seems logical. But no. Faulk sold the iPhone and still has the one with the cracked screen. That’s just… trashy.

So all told, I’m rather glad to be rid of them. Aside from the fact that I have very little interest in dealing with Kelby’s growing alcohol problem. Or the fact that a couple times when I drove by their house while the guys were gone, I saw John’s truck parked in their assigned parking space. I’m sure that’s a can of worms I want to stay well away from.

December is blowing in with some truly wintery weather. It’s a bit unnerving when the snow isn’t falling but blowing horizontally across otherwise completely black roads. The roads out by Gate 6 are just not well lit at all and when I’m trying to get out, hundreds of people are trying to get in, which means I’m driving into headlights. I hate that. I did, however, have the very odd and slightly surreal experience of having to stop to let a convoy of tanks cross the road. Two soldiers bundled up in camo from head to toe except for their reflective vests just standing in the middle of the road. They may have been gesturing, but it’s really hard to distinguish that sort of thing when everything is the same shade of olive drab. The snow was blowing across and the tanks just kept coming. What was really odd was the heat that was coming off them. The snow seemed to disappear in a halo of heat about a foot and a half all around the tanks. There were even heat shimmers around them like you get over the pavement on a hot summer day. Very odd.

Poor Alan had a bit of suffering this morning. Aladdin threw up on the rug in the kitchen where the cats’ bowls are. My plan was to rinse off the bowls and throw the rug in the washing machine, because it was very runny. Only I couldn’t get any closer than the entrance to the kitchen without gagging. Badly. My stomach is still unhappy and it’s been almost three hours. So Alan had to do it. Poor guy. He has a pretty hair trigger gag reflex and dealing with kids for so long, I’ve generally developed a cast iron stomach. Guess I’ve lost it, though hopefully only temporarily.

I did have a bit of personal trauma about the middle of last week. I found not one, but TWO white hairs. Not ashy blonde, not gray. WHITE. Where they came from I have no idea, but it’s fucking upsetting. I’m 28! Realistically, I know that some people get patches of gray hair very early and that 28 is almost 30. I think my idea of what’s average is skewed by beauty magazines and celebrities, since obviously they never go gray. You have no way of knowing if any of them have a few gray hairs here and there. And so many women dye their hair now that it’s impossible to tell. I did work with one woman at Lifetouch who didn’t dye her hair and she had a few grays at 30. So it’s not that bad, I suppose. Especially since she didn’t have pregnancy hormones messing her up. I have noticed that overall my hair is growing in darker than it used to. The lighter blonde roots are now much more confined to the frame of my face than they used to be. Considering the fact that I dye my hair brown, it’s really kind of an advantage. And since I dye my hair, the white ones won’t exactly be noticeable. Still, highly worrying.

Incidentally, there are a lot of misconceptions about hair color, dye, and aging. Someone actually suggested that hair dye damaged hair’s ability to produce pigment so that repeated dying would make you go gray earlier. Seriously? Unless your hair dye is radioactive, it’s only capable of affecting the hair that’s already grown. It can’t alter DNA.

Now that Alan is home, I’m cooking a lot more. Yesterday I made a Chocolate Bottomed Pumpkin Tart. It’s frickin’ delicious. I just don’t know what I’m going to do because Alan doesn’t like pumpkin. I guess that means it’s all mine. I also used the last of the canned pumpkin to make pumpkin juice. Also delicious and yet another recipe done from the Harry Potter cookbook. I’m making Shepherd’s Pie tonight. Alan doesn’t always like my culinary experiments, but he agreed that it’s hard to go wrong with meat and potatoes. Dork. Unfortunately, I’m getting into the desserts more now. I’m sure Alan will enjoy that, but at the same time, it’s harder to find reasons to make a complicated dessert than a complicated dinner. I also don’t have an ice cream maker and there are a lot of ice cream recipes. I’m also not sure I have the resources for some of the candy, but I’ll give it a try.

Christmas is coming up. But since we’re going to Connecticut we’ve decided not to get a real tree this year. We just don’t be around to keep the cats from getting into it. It’s not really an issue normally, but sometimes Karma needs to be reminded that she can’t play with the water. The needles aren’t poisonous, but the water that mixes with the sap can be. So we’re going to get a little baby artificial tree and just use a few of the less breakable ornaments to decorate. That way we still have the spirit of the season, without the worry when we’re not home.

The ball is coming up too. I’m pretty excited because I haven’t had a good excuse to get so dressed up in a long time. How often does anyone, really? And this will be the last time we can have a late night without having to worry about child care. So I’m going to take advantage.

There’s so much to do before Pippagets here and before Alan leaves. I need to make a list of all the housework I do and how often I do it. I have to find out how to get my mom a temporary pass so she can drive on post without me with her. Power of attorney so I can register Pippa in DEERS. ::sigh:: So much to do. Of course, the immediate task will be Christmas cards. I thought I was on top of things, but we got one from Cassie on Monday. AND it’s handmade. I guess I know how she kept herself busy while the guys were gone.

~Liz