I’ve wished and I’ve dreamed and then one day my husband threw papers at me…

Honestly the paper should have been 24K gold…

4 rounds of picking orders. Yes you heard me right. Not the normal 3. Some how a mistake got us another round. And of course the last choice was given to us.

Overseas screening even though… okay honestly. I’ll say now.

We will be going to Fallon, Nevada

I’ve joked if I needed a passport due to the overseas screening. But it’s an isolated duty station.

After my husband threw, no joke, the orders I scrolled through. Passing ZEN looking for the DET. Pausing and saying “Lemoore, CA?” My husband flipped the page and my nightmare ended.

You know the nightmare. The you get soft orders but when the hard orders come it isn’t where the soft orders said. I’ve been saying since April we’d be going to Guam just to stay off this bad karma.

But finally hard orders. Which means we PCS soon!!

I found this and I died laughing

Okay recently I got a new car. A 1986 VW Cabriolet convertible. My swoon dream car.

The original radio was in it and didn’t work. So off to Best Buy I go to get a radio.

I’m not sure about you but any time I go to Best Buy I can never find anyone to help me. So I went to the front desk and asked for help.

Someone came. But guess what. They asked someone else if they needed help… So I went back to the front desk and said how upset I was.

Finally someone comes. I say “I want a radio with Bluetooth so I can do handfree calling”.

A radio was pointed to me. And so I ask… “does it come with a mic”.

Now this is very important for handfree calling. Yes? Can we agree on it.

The employee takes the radio and walks away. He comes back in a few. Says the radio has a mic. So I purchase said radio and go home.

I open it and pull out the instructions. I notice there isn’t a mic. So I read the instructions. Then good old Google tells me that the radio doesn’t have Bluetooth.

Wait! I asked for a radio with Bluetooth and a mic for handsfree calling.

I go back to Best Buy and I want to return it. I paid cash. I get a hard time about the return. Now this is maybe and hour after I purchased. Because he said my car had to have Bluetooth to work, or buy a mic separate.  I just look at the guy and said “I paid cash give me cash”.

Finally go to look at the radios. I don’t ask for help this time. It didn’t do me a lot of good the first time…

I find a radio with Bluetooth. I open the box, look a mic…
I fiddle with the radio. Meh.

So I go find another one that says Bluetooth. I look in that box. Look a mic again, idk Best Buy I might be onto something…

I fiddle with this radio and meh not bad. So I go to purchase it.

“Hey do you price match?”

Because at this point I’m irritated and I found out Amazon had this radio cheaper.

“We can’t price match that,” says the cashier.

“Look lady I’m fine with buying it at Amazon. I have prime and the shipping is free. And this is my second time here cause the first time I was sold a radio and was told it had features it didn’t have.”

A manager finally makes their way over and I get it for the Amazon price. When I really should have just bought it from Amazon because they have better customer service than Best Buy.

I’ve come to the conclusion that no one works at Best Buy unless there is a counter. No one walks around to check on the customer. And apparently doesn’t know what they are talking about because I got fed lies.

I don’t go to Best Buy often because no one truly works there. Hard to find people to ask questions.

But I shop often on Amazon.

I crumbled after I was sexual assaulted.

I felt as though I was broken in pieces. That I fell and just shattered.

But what I did I soon learn?
I didn’t have to be the only one picking up the pieces.

I fell down, but people reached their hands to pull me back up.

When I was first healing from the trauma of the attack my husband was around to stand behind me. Since I wasn’t stable walking and could fall he was there to catch me.

One day I was so scared and my husband had to work. A friend whom was off came over with his gun and sat on my couch and said he’d protect me…

That is what I needed. I needed to feel safe.

I needed the comfort of friends. Not to understand what I’ve been there. But as I was sobbing from flashbacks I needed to hear them taking my mind off of things. Trying to pull me out.

You see I fell… and I didn’t want to get back up. I want to sit there and pause for a moment. But my husband said no. My friends said no. And they pulled me back up.

I was told I was strong. I needed so much to hear that. Not to just “hurry up and get better” but also “you’re so strong, you can do this.” Because in the darkness I forgot I was strong.

When you fall down you’re not alone. You can ask for help. Don’t be alone. Get help.

I have been thinking about this post all weekend. Thinking of how to write it. But honest it boils down to one thing.

If marijuana  is legal should it be allowed in base housing?

You see my husband and I live in base housing. It isn’t truly base housing. The Navy has a contract with an apartment to give military housing. So civilians can live here. And our next door neighbor likes to smoke pot in the garage with the garage door open.

This exposes so many people unwillingly…

We have noticed this for a while. And have made comments to the neighbor that my husband is active duty military and cannot be around marijuana.

We are an anti-marijuana household. We understand it’s legal in Washington state. And good for them. But we won’t use the drug. I don’t even care if you say it will cure my PTSD. We have an anti illegal drugs stance and marijuana is illegal to us.

I have come to call this pot smell, skunk. It smells so bad. And honestly sets off my PTSD.

I understand the neighbor has the right to smoke pot. It is legal in the state of Washington. But should it be allowed in base housing?

The official rules is no illegal drugs. But you see in the state it’s legal. But yet it’s illegal in the Navy.

If during a drug screen you pop positive you are dealt with harshly.

My husband and I are being unwillingly exposed to pot due to this neighbor lighting up in the garage with the door open.

I suppose part of me can understand not smoking it in the house. But in the garage with the door open. With children playing in the streets. The smell drifting. You are unwillingly exposing it to people.

We don’t want to be exposed to the marijuana. But even saying something to the neighbors doesn’t help. And this is the only neighbor who does this on our street. I suppose others could in the privacy of their homes. But not in their garage exposing other people.

We had chosen to live in base housing. We didn’t get house hunting leave and weren’t left with much of a decision. So went with base housing.

We would like to move but have soft orders. So to move and then get hard orders would be an ordeal.

But why is marijuana legal in base housing if it isn’t legal in the military?

Why is it okay for people in base housing to expose military members to marijuana?

What will happen if someone pops positive on a drug screen BUT it isn’t their own choice?

I realize our neighbor probably doesn’t realize the implications of their pot smoking and a military career. But they do know we don’t want to smell it.

I didn’t realize, we didn’t realize, even though we would be moving to a state that legalize marijuana that we would be unwillingly exposed to it.

It was actually almost a year living here before we passed a marijuana store. We hadn’t seen one. We knew they were out there… driving from the mountains we drove by one and I noticed the sign.

I’m unsure if the military took into account of the legalization of marijuana. I mean did they stop to think of base housing and someone not in the military smoking pot in an open garage. Probably not.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

We can’t use our garage when the neighbors are lighting up without being exposed. So we stop.

I have been trying to clean up the garage. I mean we have soft orders. So I’m tossing stuff out. Getting out plastic containers and packing up stuff. Getting ready because we know we are moving some time in the future.

But in the meantime I hope the exposure to pot will stop.

Not just for me. But for service members and children.

No one wants to be unwillingly exposed.

Burb Traffic or Suburban Traffic

What I call Burb Traffic is the traffic outside of Seattle.
For me there are three types of traffic areas in the area I live: Seattle Traffic, Burb Traffic, and Peaceful Traffic.

Seattle Traffic encompasses the greater Seattle area. Including outer areas of Seattle which are suburban areas of Seattle.

Burb Traffic encompasses the area outside of Seattle and it’s suburban areas. I call it Burb Traffic because it’s in the areas where people move to, to get away from Seattle and its suburban areas but still work in Seattle.

Peaceful Traffic encompasses the areas where you don’t mind to be in traffic due to the view.

I live in an area outside of Seattle. It can take me any where from 30 minutes to forever to get down to Seattle. If I want to go to Pike Place Market it’s like 40 minutes on a good day truly should have said the film store but everyone should know Pike Place Market.

I tend to go to Seattle often. Often as in maybe once or every other week. And I do not enjoy Seattle traffic.
It’s a weird traffic.

I never knew I could get so angry at traffic even though I was going the speed limit. I’ve found myself in the car thinking “why is this traffic so bad” look at my speed and BAM going the speed limit. Not under, but exactly the speed limit. And then questions WHY am I so mad at the traffic. It’s moving.

But then you arrive in the Seattle Traffic and you are thinking “is this the fourth or fifth time the light has turn green and I haven’t been able to go yet”. For no apparent reason you sit at a light. Then after you give up and put it in park you can go…

After I’ve managed to get everything done, or hope I did, in Seattle. I’m glad to get on I-5. I can move at a steady pace.

Then you enter the Burb Traffic. The going the speed limit but so much traffic. Like everyone decided to go that way at the same time. Only it doesn’t matter which direction you are going the traffic is the same.

You want to pass the person in front of you. You’ve been behind them for so long you’re tired of it. But you can’t pass them. Not because you don’t want to but to get into another lane would be like time traveling aka it will happen eventually but not now.

Then there is this magical line. It’s some where North after the HOV lane ends.

Magically people disappear they get off at exits and you are left with Peaceful Traffic.

There is magical line. Like some magnitude line. Something that shouts “you shall not go farther” and poof the traffic cuts in half.

It’s the line I’ve labeled ‘past here is too far to live and commute to Seattle every day’.

A line I noticed after living here a while. Because of it’s magical power to diminish the traffic.

I-5 and I-405 can be a nightmare. I’ve spoke about the traffic on FB and have confused friends thinking I’m in LA. Nope, Seattle.

There are times I’m driving down a country road I live in the country and I’m glad there is no traffic.

But I do love going towards Seattle cause it has the things I love. It has the Ikea and Lego Store. More than the Target down the road.

Oh Burb Traffic I hate thee.