Goodbye 2010!

Before I talk about how elated I am to be done with this shitter of a year and how close it is to Shane being home, I have a few updates since I did not post for a little while there. I swear I am trying to post more frequently, but I just make myself too busy sometimes.

-I had a lovely time home from the 24th-29th. Lovely minus the blizzard that is. The stupid amount of snow kept me from seeing my grandma which bummed me out, but Shane and I will be going home to visit everyone in February anyway.

-I am basically done getting my apartment in order. I still have the whole curtain thing to start and finish again though. Hopefully my friends will be able to assist me this weekend, since I would never attempt such a project on my own again.

-This coming Valentine's Day will be the fourth that me and Shane will have been together for. However, it will be the first that we will actually be together-together so I am looking forward to the stupid holiday for once. In honor of actually being in the same state and country this time around, we are going to go to New York City, since V Day falls when we will be on the East Coast visiting. We have also never been to the city together, so to say I am excited would be an understatement.

Okay, so moving on...Happy New Year everyone! 2010 has been the worst year of my life, but a lot of positive things have come from it as well. I have made amazing friends this year who I can't thank enough, I have learned a hell of a lot about myself and how I function under stressful situations, and my marriage has only grown stronger.

Shane's window for his arrival to Fort Hood is January 14-18 now. He will basically be on his way home in 2 weeks, so at last, the final home stretch is here. I will still be on edge until the day he leaves, because he will be doing missions until then, but knowing I can almost count the days left on two hands is a relief.

I am welcoming 2011 with open arms because I will have a husband to welcome home very soon. I am pleased to say that after almost a year of waiting, we are almost there and I couldn't be happier.

Time to ring in the new year with friends! And champagne! Cheers all around!

The Curtain Disaster

(This is the email I wrote to Shane last night. I am more calm now, so I can actually see the humor in it today. I thought it was worth sharing...)

Dear Shane,

Part of me thinks you will find the following hilarious. But another part thinks you could be mad. Well, here is what I have to say.

After buying curtains and returning curtains and buying curtains again yesterday, I wanted to get this crap over and done with tonight. I didn’t think it would be that hard, seems pretty self explanatory.

But alas, my attempt to put up curtains has been a huge disaster and I am crying.

I mapped it out. I measured. I put in one wall anchor and then the other. I put on the brackets and then attempted to screw them into the anchors. Either our walls or shitty or I’m retarded, but the brackets wouldn’t hold. Like the one nightstand, I decided shoe goo would solve everything. Negative. I try redoing the anchors and screws and brackets. It doesn’t work. I use more shoe goo. It holds long enough for me to put up the rod, which immediately comes down, taking the brackets with it and leaving cute little dime-sized holes in our wall. I freaked out, I got in my car, I drove to Lowe’s. Normally I respond “No” when someone asks me if I need help, but I told the unsuspecting Lowe’s man “Yes, lots of it” when he asked. I got spackle, I got new wall anchors. I came home, I patched up the holes. I can’t tell how good of a job I did because it’s pink but will dry white. I’m sure it will look awful because everything I’ve tried tonight has been a complete fail. I made new measurements, I tried putting up another bracket. Another hole, another fail. I fucking give up and want to die a little.

Now, I know you’re going to tell me to calm down and relax, because they’re just curtains. But the issue here is more than just curtains. And possibly never getting back our security deposit.

This disaster comes at the tail end of a year where I’ve had to do everything on my own. Most things are easy enough to handle, like grocery shopping, paying bills, getting my oil changed, etc. But getting our new place in order is proving to be more than I can handle on my own.

Your one request for our new home was a couch. I got two couches, a dresser and two nightstands, and plenty of things to make our house a home. I have wanted to go all out and jazz up our place to give you something nice to come home to. And my attempt at that has resulted in holes in the wall, curtains still on the floor, and a crying wife who feels like she sucks at life. I guess I thought after building the dresser and nightstands, I was a handy little lady, but I guess I’m just a dumb girl.

I have informed Cathy of the curtain disaster. When her boy gets back into town after the holidays, they will help me to put these bad boys up and hopefully cover my traces of idiocy.

I honestly am so upset over everything and wish I could hide under a rock for another 4 weeks.

I love you and I’m sorry that I am already ruining our new home. I just want to make it perfect in every way for you because I want to impress you. Uhhhh I am so upset.

Love,

Your wife

The Aftermath- I talked to Shane this morning. Of course he thinks I'm ridiculous and that this is not a big deal. My spackling job went okay. It is looking good...from a distance. For now my curtains are strewn across my couch and the rod is patiently waiting on the floor. I'll address the curtain project in another couple of weeks. To be continued.

The Final Month

Hi, I’m back after a week and a half hiatus of getting our new apartment in order. I’ve got all my furniture moved in and there are only little things left to do. I’ll post pictures when I’m totally done, I promise. So far, I am extremely proud and excited that I actually live here (in this apartment, not this town), and that I will have a husband to share it with in less than a month.

So, I received an email from Shane’s battalion a few days ago informing me that the window of time his unit will return to Fort Hood is between January 15-19. So, no more than a month to go. There are plenty of rumors flying around about what day they leave Kandahar and when they will return to Hood, but I’m just going by the 19th for now.

I figure time will go by fast until January actually hits. I am going home to Jersey on Friday, after debating whether or not I should go or stay for Christmas. The flight was insanely pricey, but I really need a dose of Mom and Dad. After awhile, I become numb to the fact that I live far away from all of my family, but every now and then the homesick feeling comes along and it hurts like a bitch. I had one of those moments and decided I needed to be home for Christmas. I’m okay about missing Thanksgiving, but the holiday time always makes me want to be home. And if I can’t have Shane, at least I can have our home state.

I guess I should acknowledge the fact that I turned 24 today. I celebrated over dinner with friends last night, so today has felt like an ordinary day. I went shopping, I ran errands, and I started putting up curtains in the living room. Pretty thrilling, I know. My day did begin with a Skype session with Shane though, after not being able to video chat with him in roughly 2 months since his computer crashed. So, that was a lovely start to my day. It obviously hasn’t been the happiest of birthdays, but I’m grateful to my friends and family for all of the extra support.

Because I can’t say the tentative date Shane leaves Afghanistan, I will say that it is more or less 25 days away. 25! I feel like I was just writing the post about it being 100! So, 3 weeks and change until my heart and mind can finally chill out. Woohoo!

A Dozen Moves in Five Years

On my drive home from my latest carload drop-off at the new place, I went through all of the times I have moved in the past few years and realized- it's been a whole freakin' lot.

Let's start with August 2005. Melanie goes to college. I live in Clothier Hall until May 2006 and then move home to East Windsor. In August 2006, I move into Hardenberg Hall until May 2007. Again, I am forced to move home because I had ACL reconstruction that summer. As soon as I can walk again that July, I'm out again and into a house on Senior Street. In May 2008, I move out and into a room that might as well have been a closet in the girls' rugby house. I lived out of a suitcase and had a twin mattress on the floor. Two months later, I packed as much as I could fit into two suitcases and went to Australia for five months. This was the part of my life where I needed to get away from everything and everyone and go as far away as possible. So I did. I came home from Australia in December 2008. I moved back into the girls' rugby house, living on a couch for the first month. In January 2009 I moved back into the same closet of a room. In May I moved to Hale Street with a couple of friends. Two months later I decided I was packing up everything I could fit into my car and to drive 1500 miles to Texas in the name of love. I lived in an apartment in Killeen with Shane and his friend Nick, until Nick got booted from the Army that November. Shane got his deployment orders, I decided I'd stay in Texas, and I moved to another apartment in Killeen with a friend in January 2010 right before Shane left for Afghanistan. On top of all that, two years ago my family moved from my childhood home to weirdo Pennsylvania.

Which brings me to now. Moving once again. If I counted correctly, that makes this the 12th move I have made in the past five years. I think that is more than average for your everyday twenty-something year old. This time though, I am moving for two to a place I will be for the next year- the longest I will have been anywhere in the past half a decade. I am more than ready and beyond excited for Shane to get back and for us to live out our cute little life in our cute little apartment.

I have everything almost done. In the past four days, I've taken care of moving everything but my bed (happening Saturday!), setting up a delivery date for my living room (Sunday!), taking care of switching over my cable, getting electric, renter's insurance, and buying lots of stuff we need. This is the part where I wish I was a married lady who actually had a bridal registry, because quite frankly, this shit's expensive. Oh, which brings me to my final point. This 12th and final move for at least the next year has been done without the financial help of anyone- we Gardiners are strongly and proudly standing on our own two (four?) feet and that makes me happy.

Oy vey. Must. Get. Sleep.

Updates Updates Updates

Hello! Sorry I have let an entire week slip by!

I officially got the key to my new apartment yesterday, so I have been on a packing/cleaning/organizing frenzy the past few days. There is still so much to do, but I expect to be all moved in by the weekend's end! My roommate (aka "Wife") has asked her brother to help me out with moving my bed on Saturday, so that's the last big thing. Now just waiting on my living room furniture to arrive. I also just ordered bedroom furniture today. Everything is coming together and alas, it finally feels close until Shane comes home! 37 days until he leaves Afghanistan (tentatively), up to another week for him to make it home, but shit- that is nothing! I'll be pretty preoccupied with putting our place together the next month anyway. As of right now, there are just piles of crap everywhere and I have lots to accomplish. Moving updates to come. Pictures too!

So, remember a couple of weeks ago when I went to that Social D show and mentioned my love for that English acoustic folk-punk guy Frank Turner? Well, I got to interview him today for Define The Meaning. I hadn't been that nervous for an interview in a very long time. I escaped from work for 20 minutes to call Frank from my car to do the interview...seriously. Not the first time I conducted an interview in my car. I think it was July that I talked to Dave Lombardo of Slayer in my banana car too. Oh man, interviewing rock stars in my ridiculous yellow car keeps life interesting for sure. Ah but yes, Frank's eloquent English accent had me dying a little. The story will be up tomorrow, so I will provide a link!

So, moving the rest of the week and getting it all together over the next month is going to consume me but I wouldn't have it any other way! Shane will be home soon! I'm sorry in advance to family and friends for being MIA for some time. I even missed my usual phone date with my grandma today I've been so crazy :-( Sorry Mommom!

In totally awesome news, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is in town here in Central Texas, building a home for a soldier named Patrick Ziegler wounded in the Nov. 5th shooting last year. I have been following the blog of the soldier's fiance, Jessica Hansen, for the past few months, and found out they were selected by the show yesterday. You can check out Jessica's blog under my profile. It's the one called "Turning Tragedy Into a Love Story." I am so excited for this soldier and his fiance. The couple is returning to see their new home on Sunday afternoon, and I plan on making the 15 minute drive down to check it out! And undoubtedly cry like a baby. That show has always made me cry. But, being able to see it in person, and the fact that it's for a soldier impacted by the Fort Hood shooting is going to make me need a whole box of tissues. Ah! So happy about this, it's awesome.

Okay must get sleep! I am running on empty and have to be up extra early tomorrow to drop off more things at my new place before work!

15 minutes until it's 36 days :-)