philippines

. . I just got back from the Philippines and am as refreshed as ever! It was wonderful and I'll probably add to this posting over the next few days as I download pictures and flesh out what I want to say.

. . Some sandy beaches, lots of rocky beaches, lots of shore and boat dives, deep and drift dives, soft and hard coral reefs, tons of fish, and usually at least one sea turtle ;-) details to come...

yippee skippie

Well I'm running again for fun and it so happens that I had to push up my PT test (though I haven't been off my profile but 2 weeks vice 42 days) so I can do a retirement the date of my origional PT test and still accomplish it before my midtour (yes, I'll have about a month here after I get back but its the first time I'll be taking LEAVE on WORK days!). It had been beautiful the days previous but decided to rain so we were stuck inside - not my best run since I had to slow down for all the corners and its 17.2 laps to get the 1.5 miles, but I ran well enough to get an excellent on my PT test! Pretty awesome since the week previous my 17min 1.5mile would have only gotten me an 80 - and it felt good to run! Maybe when I get back I'll retest if I think I can get a 100, but only IF I can run outside and get the 100 *chuckles* I'm pretty excited about how I feel (healthy, non-injured) now. If I ever finish my EPRs and Decs I think I'll go enjoy a park and hike some this extended weekend :-)

distance

I was just reminded of the distance I've placed between myself and myfamily when I was talking to my parents and grandmother yesterday. Gramma had just arrived in Missouri so even though my niece was a whopping 2 and a half weeks old, it felt new to me and I asked her how she was doing as a Great Gramma. It broke my heart when she said, "well Katie, you know I'm nowa Great Gramma four times." I had completely forgotten that 3 of my cousins have had babies in the last few years. I've seen pictures and if you ask me I can think really hard and get their husbands and kids names, but as the oldest is coming up on 3 years, I've only met themthrough pictures... and its obviously not enough. I still remember us as we were back in high school, 4 girl cousins within 2 years, and more around not too much older. The last time I saw a large piece of my mom's side of the family was a wedding about 3 years ago, for 2days and I remember being in a hotel room between activities. I've seen even less of my dad's side of the family, lots of in-and-outs. I've put in to go to Europe so I can be closer to some of my family, but I didn't visit those who were in the US with me unless there was some event scheduled, and even then I think we didn't want to burden or interrupt each other. Anyway, some things are the way they are (like me talking to my parents twice a month instead of daily, or my inability to write thank you notes within a year of receiving the gift), but its something I'm thinking more about and I know I need to find the time to spend more physical time with my family, not just peek in on them via email/phone chats every once in a while. I want to know my niece and sister-in-law and brother and parents from more than just pictures and old old memories!

oh what a beautiful morning

.. Actually that was a week ago. It was very nice fo 5 days in a row, but I didn't want to jinx it all by writing such a lovely post complimenting mother nature's crafty ways. Then the fog rolled in off the sea and we've been sitting in a cloud for a day and a half... you'd have thought it'd burn off in the sun from the days previous, but alas, no such luck. On a good note, even with the gray and 100% wet, oh I mean humid, days, I think I'm going to take a hike tomorow. Its time - its literally been months.

. . I can't believe I finally got my snow video up and now its spring already. My how time flies! Its funny the things you notice. Trees standing by themselves bloom in full all at once - the ones by buildings bloom in diagonal layers. I walked into 3 spider webs in less than a minute one evening, and now I see and hear birds and chipmunks everwhere. I smell the sea. I smell potatoes even though this is a country of rice and kimchee. I felt comfortable, wonderful even, running outside despite the fact that I've been avoiding running at all costs for the last few months... and now after 4 days and 3 long hard uns, its still just a "good hurt!" (yes, I was working out, just not that kind of running). The wild cats are back and fighting with each other as of about a day after the birds and spider's return. People are more pleasant on the phone. I remember that when I got here in July that they had the BIGGEST SPIDERS I'd ever seen outside of a zoo or museum.

baby zadie jane niblock

I'm an auntie!!!!

Jon made it (back from Iraq and all the way to the hospital) a few hours after Baby Zadie arrived so now I have a safe and healthy brother, siste-in-law, and neice - what more could a girl want?

its a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Its snowing again - and its lovely. I always love the first few days of a snow because the plows are concentrating on the runway and they haven't poured out the gravel and ruined its purity yet :-) Nice and thick and fluffy too :-) I'm still busy as always, my latest being tasked to read/grade 12 annual Comm&Info awards packages in 2 days (well, more notice, but it took them that long to send the link and login information). It was pretty neat to see, but on the other hand, soooo very time consuming, and also to judge so many bullets and give them points on my reading. Also, I've been selected as our group Air Force Assistance Fund rep, which I've only done at the sq level in the past and loved it! Good times all around. Have a great day!

i need to write, i need to plan

. . I can't believe I haven't written since October, but on the other hand, I think that makes a good point at where I am in my stay here in Korea. Things are ramping up - work is getting harder and longer and the leadership knows just how to get you. I am happy and busy, but I'm also letting my quality of life slip and little things bother me that shouldn't. When did I stop running again? And when did I find meetings and excuses to skip PT? I had been doing so well yet I allow this to disappear, don't even notice it even.
. . I had previously decided not to join the praise and worship choir at the church here, though I knew all the songs and love to sing, because there were other things that I had planned at the times of the practices and even the performances. I had goals. I wanted to teach little 3rd through 5th grade Korean children English every other Saturday and spent the off weekends exploring Korea. I wanted to learn Korean so I dedicated 3 hours every Monday and Wednesday night to classes, and many hours in between to homework and studies. These events ended in Oct and November, but for the life of me, I've let my priorities slip until I'm at the office from 0700-2300, running in for an hour or two on the weekends when I'm not sleeping straight through. Yes, I can always sing later. I can always attend another church service. But doing it now is so valuable as a time I can schedule to be away from the office. It is something that I love doing and being able to sing now certainly won't inhibit me from singing later. It also helps me be more productive at work. When I know that I can stay late I am not efficient. I may spend an entire day visiting my different shops and putting out fires, putting my actual job on hold until after hours, then working my full day from there... when I can really work that time into smaller productive segments with my troops and still get my job done during the day.
. . I'm starting to feel as if I'm running from my job all day long, which is disheartening. I love my job and I love working things for and with my troops, but tiny little incidents, little pieces of my job that are all situational/personal, are starting to poison it. I hear a name and I cringe - to catch them walking towards me makes me dread the next self-centered, unnecessary, possibly illegal demand they are going to propose. I am malpracticing them before they even open their mouth - yet, in that I'm not disappointed.
. . I need to change my focus. I refuse to give one person the power to ruin My day! (for the rest of today at least) I need to focus less on the impossible and more on what I can do, regardless of if its just redirection instead of the straight and narrow "approved progress." While I can't change the demands, I can accept them for the challenges they are to think outside the box - both in answering the demand and in not letting it affect me. I can refuse the repeating ideas and arguments that I would make if I could make them... and maybe get a few more hours of sleep each night. I can stay positive and have goals again, however small. I can achieve those goals.
. . I need to lay out my plans and execute! ... or watch them slip by and become overcome by events, because they will. I need to make time for SOS. If not now, when? I made the same mistake by not accomplishing my masters earlier, and while I found the perfect program for me, it would have been a lot easier to have started years earlier and even finished at the same time. I have a limited amount of time because I started officially back in August, but its not that. I could probably wait until the last quarter and crank it out in a new place where I don't have any friends yet. I have no excuse not to do my studies. I'm just tired of pushing, always working the overtime at work and still trying to get the extra credit at home too.
. . I thought I just needed a break from overloading classes, but I've had a month off and I'm not feeling excited to start this program at all. Its almost having the reverse effect such that I feel it will almost have been too long again, so long that I worry I'll forget how to study and write again (since it was actually very difficult in that for me coming back to start my masters after taking almost 4 years off). I can do the work - yet my mind is just refusing to budge because I haven't been able to work myself around the issues previously mentioned... yet I know having this focus will help me overcome and rise to the challenges of said issues. I have plans... unrealized. I plan to write more - because though it also takes time, it helps me orgnaize my thoughts, such as they are, and allows me to not rehash them. In a few weeks you'll know if I'm reaching for the sky again (you'll read it here), or if I've lazily let the world fly by.

*Pictures and notes pending from my amazing Thanksgiving trip to China. I'll probably post date them to be found on the side bar, but if I'm feeling energetic I'll link them from here too ;-)