Kate's Quests

Drowning

Kate — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:25:10 +0000

I dreamt last night that I drove my car into a river. I was with my sister and her friend and we were sitting in the car and watching the water rise around us. I kept looking at the window and getting more and more anxious the higher the water got. I kept arguing with my sister that we needed to get out of the car. She didn’t want to because she was afraid that we would get in trouble for reckless driving. I remember turning my head to the car door and watching the water get close to spilling over the sill. I kept feeling like I needed to escape. We heard a helicopter overhead and I decided to get out of the car and leave her if I had to. I just remember climbing out of the window with her still arguing with me. The water was grey, angry and fast. And I was on the verge of being overwhelmed by the river when I woke up. Every day feels like this.

Cold and rainy day

Kate — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:15:50 +0000

It was cold and rainy today, which made it harder to find things to be grateful for. It’s especially hard since I only got six hours or so of sleep. I’m an eight hour a night kind of girl so when I’m averaging five or six hours….it does a number on me. But here goes:

I’m grateful for the way the cold gray fog settled over the trees today on my drive back to work. Looked very beautiful.
Students who do what they are supposed to in a session. Those who come prepared and ready to work.
Good TV (finished season 2 of Downton Abbey) in which love doesn’t fix everything, but makes life a little more bearable.

Expand on a good thing that happened today:

I enjoy walking around campus and today I did a lot of that. I do every day now, but it was cold and rainy and I managed to stay dry for most of the day. I ended up getting wet, but luckily it was toward the end of the day so it wasn’t for too long. I dried pretty quickly. The air was cold, but refreshing and I got to wear the new gloves that I bought on clearance at Target for .60 cents.

Grateful

Kate — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 04:36:08 +0000

What I am grateful for today:

Mom and Dad sending me money to get my computer fixed.
A friend having me over for coffee and sending me away with dinner.
My boss finding projects for me to do at work in order to get hours.

Expand on a good thing that happened today:

This morning, after I discovered that my computer had died ($300 to $500) repair bill coming, I got lost in a couple of episodes of Downton Abbey. I had set up a meeting with a friend of mine on Friday for today and she was supposed to text me when her guest left and she could get together. I left my phone upstairs and didn’t remember that it was up there until 5pm. I had to work at 6pm. So when I got upstairs and found my phone, I saw that she had texted at 1pm. I immediately called and apologized. I’m pretty sure she was a bit upset, but she went with it and still invited me over for a quick coffee together. She served coffee and scones that she’d made and then sent me to work with two slices of pizza, some macaroni and cheese, pasta and cookies. I’m so grateful for her friendship and how giving she is. I can only hope I can be as good to her when she eventually needs it and as good of a friend to others.

Gratitude and Happiness

Kate — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 04:12:29 +0000

I am going through a lot right now. I’m going through a divorce, working three part time jobs and still not quite covering my bills each month, not getting enough sleep, searching and applying for full time work, trying to be as good of a friend as mine are to me, trying to build a new social community, network and home for myself here in North Carolina, and still trying to remain positive and upbeat.

I watched a TED talk today about happiness and he basically said that our society gets it wrong. We expect happiness to follow success when, in fact, it’s the reverse that holds true. So I’m going to try to follow his recommendations for happiness.

1. List 3 things I am grateful for daily.

2. Journal about one good thing that happened daily.

3. Exercise.

4. Meditation (10 minutes per day).

5. Random acts of kindness.

I hope to document my success here.

Students

Kate — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:46:37 +0000

I’m working with students again, although this time they are a bit older and American. I’m also helping them with a variety of subjects and my group today is taking their first exam of the year. I think they’re a bit nervous, but the first test of the class is always more difficult since you don’t yet know how the professor tests. Last semester was the first time I’d worked with some of these students and they took a lot of getting used to. It’s much more difficult for me to keep the attention of these guys than the small Japanese children. You’re trying to go over geology or english and they’re watching You Tube videos or talking about sports. Um…guys? You can’t just break into song and get all of their attention. Well…I suppose I could….but that might be more awkward. For the both of us.

In other news, I do enjoy walking and biking to work. Since I only live 2 miles from campus, I get 4 to 8 miles a day. Last semester I worked from 1-2pm and 6-9pm so it was a constant back and forth. This year is similar although I’ve been riding in in the morning and driving in in the afternoon because by 1pm the weather is so hot and miserable, I’d be crazy to walk or ride. Once fall is here and it cools down a bit…I’ll be able to get both sessions in again. It’s also nice that there are plenty of restaurants and bars on the way so when DJ and I go out to eat (and drink) we can just walk. No worries about drinking and driving here!

LASIK soon

Kate — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:09:02 +0000

I’m getting it. I’m stuck wearing my glasses until then which has been torture since my glasses are a prescription behind. So all day I spend my time squinting and straining to see things. I’ve had a headache since taking my contacts out, but it’ll all be worth it this 4th of July weekend! I can’t even imagine being able to see. I can’t imagine rolling over in the middle of the night and being able to see the alarm clock. Of course, that would mean that it would have to be turned toward me and we don’t like that since it’s TOO.BRIGHT! I don’t like light shining on me when I’m trying to sleep. It’s bad enough that we have a streetlight shining into our bedroom and that we can’t put the shade down all the way because the cats would destroy it trying to get onto the windowsill.

But, anyway, I’m in my glasses (instead of the RGP contacts I’ve worn since I was 13) so that my eyes can go back to their normal shape. Occording to the doc. RGP’s work by changing the shape of the cornea so that I can see. And after 13 years…they’re a very different shape. My eyes shouldn’t chang after surgery since then what would be the point? Just once in the chair for me, thank you. But, until then…glasses it is. Yuck.

Hotels that allow pets

Kate — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:31:30 +0000

Thank god for hotels that allow them, really. When we arrived in Japan we had to kennel the boys together for three weeks and it was horrible. They were in a tiny box and got hardly any exercise. I pretty much cried every day that we were seperated. But here we get to keep them in the room with us. I really really enjoy that, but it is somwhat like a giant kennel, just with DJ and I inside as well. No real exercise and the type of place that allows us to keep pets…is a little less than a three star place. But I’m not complaining! So what if the sheets give us rug burn? So what if our kitchenette is less than sterile? I get to be with my family and I’m happy.

Moved!

Kate — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:05:38 +0000

Sorry my posting has been so spotty lately. We’ve just moved overseas! We are now back stateside in North Carolina and are looking for a place to live. Living in a hotel definitely has it’s drawbacks, but I should be used to it by now. I’ll try to keep this updated as I settle in. I will say though….hello reverse culture shock! You always think that culture shock will be bad, but I always find reverse culture shock to be much worse. Welcome home!

Maggot bomb

Kate — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 02:49:24 +0000

I’m taking care of a friends house while she’s deployed. I had been over to the house right after she left and all was well. About three weeks later I stopped by again to see how every thing was and I noticed that the power was out. It was the dead of summer so I suppose it was more than just “noticed.” It was more like, OMG. IT.IS.FREAKING.HOT.IN.HERE. So, after much searching I found both circuit breakers. One is in the bathroom above the door (hard to find!) and the other is outside on the garage. Flipping them got the desired result and the power (and more importantly – the AC) came humming back on. I hadn’t thought much about it because she had been so proud of cleaning out the refrigerator (since the last deployment she hadn’t and everything went bad). But, then I remembered. The FREEZER!

First I drove back to my house and prepared myself with bags and gloves and then headed back to face it. I thought about stopping at a convenience store and picking up a face mask and why I didn’t, I don’t know. It was horrible. It literally looked like a maggot bomb had exploded inside. Chicken, fish, fruit, vegetables and unidentified organic matter was everywhere. The smell was…that bad. I actually had to unscrew and take out the panel at the back of the freezer to get all of the maggots. It took me five hours of cleaning to get it done. Holy God.

So, if you ever leave your house for more than two months, don’t leave anything in the fridge/freezer. AT ALL. Please.

Pergatory

Kate — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:21:33 +0000

This house should be in the middle of another stressful international move. Instead we are waiting around for the military to get its act together. Here’s the deal….there are three actors playing a part in this, (we’re the fourth and powerless actor) my husband’s current job (in Japan), the future job (in NC) and Bupers (basically the HR department). We have orders to go to North Carolina in November, however, the current job says that we cannot go until Bupers has someone to relieve us. And Bupers has known about our impending move for two years. Someone dropped the ball and we’re stuck. The people in North Carolina say that if we don’t get there by December we can’t come at all…the current job says we’re not leaving until we have a replacement and Bupers thinks they might have someone to relieve us in February. Oh great. We’re doing as much as we can to try to speed up the process, but who knows. Everything is up in the air. Don’t you just love bureacracies?