The Gold Nugget Rides Again

Hello, Beautiful!

Back in March, right before we left Germany, we said goodbye to our car (The Gold Nugget). It was stressssful, probably one of the most stressful parts of our PCS. We had an appointment to turn our car in on a Thursday, just a few days before we were flying out of the country. If our car hadn’t passed inspection, there would have been no time to fix whatever needed fixing and turn it in before we left. We would have had to have gotten a friend to turn it in for us, which would have required power of attorney. I’m not sure how we would have done that during Easter weekend. Bonus stress: we heard that there were no more appointments available for the entire month of April. Gulp.

By the grace of God and the skin of our teeth, our car passed inspection and they took it away! (You can read more about the car turn-in process here in a post I wrote for Germany Ja.)

What, you might ask, happens after we turn in our car? How does the Nugget get from Grafenwoehr to El Paso?

When you turn in your car, you are given a date that you can expect to receive it back. Cars are moved on a priority basis in terms of their due date. The Nugget and its comrades with similar due dates were loaded onto a truck and driven to an ocean carrier. The cars on the ship are all covered and protected. This stage takes a long time and there is the potential for mold and other bad things to happen, so the shippers take a lot of precautions. (This is also part of the reason they are so picky when you turn your car in.)

The journey goes a little something like this, but I really only have a vague idea of the specific locations my car traveled to and through.

The ocean carrier makes a sloooooow voyage from grand ol Europe to coastal Georgia. The shipping and receiving area in Brunswick, Georgia is huge. Thousands of cars are going in and out on a regular basis. Again, cars are moved based on the priority of their due date, so it’s possible for your car to hang out there a while. The Nugget, thankfully, did not. He was loaded up on another truck and driven to the Dallas Vehicle Processing Center. We got really lucky that there was a vehicle pick-up place in Dallas (our home town) as there are only 18 in the country total. (Some people have to travel much farther than we did to get their cars.) Bonus bonus: the car arrived right before Great Strides weekend. Bazinga! I flew out early since the VPC isn’t open on the weekends (seriously?) and I picked up our coche the Friday before Great Strides.

I inspected the Nugget before getting the keys. I thought everything was honkey dorey. Imagine my surprise when a few miles down the road, I realized that the mirror part of the driver’s side mirror was nowhere to be found. (Actually, I thought the mirror was there and just really dirty. Turns out I was looking at the stuff that is under the mirror.) I knew the pick-up process was too easy.

The side mirror does not belong in my hand; it belongs on my car.

Le sigh. That means a few million rounds of paperwork to file a claim and get reimbursed. I’m one part really annoyed that there was damage, one part really annoyed at myself for not realizing it until after I left the lot, and one part really thankful it was something so minor.

Following Great Strides, Stephen and I drove the nugget from Dallas to El Paso. (If you are tracking, that’s our fifth time to make the 9 hour drive.) Not far outside Abilene, our other side mirror popped off. (Don’t worry, we got temporary side mirrors from Auto Zone so we aren’t driving blind or anything dangerous.) Again I felt annoyed, but I kept reminding myself that it’s no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

I’ve since then I have gotten the nugget inspected and we are working on getting it registered. (Luckily registration is a tad easier since we are already Texas residents.) Once we wrap that up and take care of our claim, all this car craziness will be dunzo. Thank goodness too because I get exhausted just thinking about all of it!

Housewife No More

I can no longer carry the title of “Lady of Leisure” because I got a job! That’s right, I’ve given up sleeping in, eating bon-bons, being at my husband’s every beck and call (that’s what housewives do, right?) so I can work at….

A gym! (I actually started work the same day Stephen left for the field. Oh, the timing of the Army.) It’s not something really cool like being a trainer or teaching zumba (though that certainly would be interesting). Instead, I’m just a general employee aka “recreation aid,” and I could not be more excited about it. This is the kind of job I wanted.

I love teaching. It’s my passion and five years in the classroom really isn’t enough, but where I’m at in my life right now, this is right up my alley. I wanted a position that wasn’t emotionally demanding (and oh boy is teaching ever emotionally demanding!), I wanted something that I wouldn’t have to take home at night, I wanted to work on post, I wanted to be around people my own age (no offense to 12 and 13 year-olds, but there is something to be said for adult conversation) and the gym fits all these perfectly!

I’m not sure what this means for my career. Maybe it’ll be harder to get hired as a teacher in the future, or maybe I’ll decide that I never want to teach again. (Although I do feel a touch of sadness every time I say “I used to be a teacher.”) I just know that this is my speed right now.

I worked at a gym once before during my junior year of college, so in a weird way, working at the gym makes me feel young again. Then again, the physical aspects (cleaning, bending, reaching, lifting) remind me that I’m not that young. Ha!

My university gym. I know it looks unimpressive here, but the inside is the shizz. Since I graduated way back when, they have continued to improve it. Two words for you: leisure pool.

So there you have it. I went from being a badass teacher to a badass housewife to a badass gym employee. Or something like that.

Anyone else step away from their “career” to work “just a job?”

Great Strides 2013

Great Strides Dallas 2013 took place yesterday.

Our 2013 team. Bigger and Badder than ever!

For Team Bermudez, it was a huge success! We raised more money than ever before and almost double what we raised last year- over $5,500! More people were on our team than ever before. I never got an official total count, but there were a lot of us.

Some of our team members were gung-ho and sped through the walk while others of us took our time enjoying a leisurely stroll. It was hot and humid, but I figure that’s better than rainy or cold. The sun was certainly shining.

Me and my mom.

My mother-in-law hosted a get together at her house afterwards. There was no short supply of delicious treats. She probably had way too much food, but nobody was complaining.

I personally ate about half of this.

Emotionally, the day was bittersweet. It was hard not to think of last year when Ben was still with us, smile plastered to his face, celebrating one year since his lung transplant. At the same time, no one knows the highs and lows of Cystic Fibrosis like the other people present at Fair Park yesterday. (One team present was even there in support of a team member who had lost their battle with CF earlier this month.) It felt comforting to be surrounded by so many other people dedicated to finding a cure to CF. Doing something positive in the wake of something negative and painful was therapeutic. Plus, it always feels nice to spend time with family.

Stephen (on the right) with his mom and brother Josh.

During the walk I thought about Ben and how much I love him. I thought of each person who donated to our fundraiser. I thought about how lucky I am to have my health, to have never had a day where I couldn’t walk or run or play when I wanted to. I thought about the possibility of a time when CF is easily treatable if not erased completely.

In The Field

If you’ve got a military man or woman in your family, chances are you’re familiar with the phrase “in the field.” It means that your soldier is out somewhere (in the desert, in the woods, in a swamp) doing soldiery stuff (running scenarios, practicing maneuvers, marching, missioning, etc.).

Stephen has never gone in the field before. When he joined his unit in Germany, they were so close to deployment, that they had finished all their field exercises. When he returned from deployment, the unit was deactivating – so no field time. But 10 days ago, Stephen and his comrades left for the field. It’s been 10 days of sleeping outside, not showering, eating MRE’s, having zero contact with loved ones, doing whatever it is soldiers do in the field.

The worst part for me is the fact that we aren’t in contact whatsoever. I can’t text him a quick question, ask for his opinion on how to handle our upcoming trip home for Great Strides, tell him about what’s going on with me, ask him how he’s doing. Not to mention, he left two days after our household goods arrived, so it was a mad dash to unpack and then get him re-packed. After dropping him off at his company in the wee early morning hours, I returned home to a house half un-packed and full to the brim of boxes and packing paper. The good news: he comes home today!

A visual capturing how Army life sometimes makes me feel.

I’ve come to realize that being a military family means accepting that your life is constantly in flux. Between deployments, PCSes, field time, TDY (temporary duty), any number of schools or trainings (remember WLC?), and whatever else they mandate that you do, it feels like we find ourselves adjusting to a new normal on a regular basis. Just when I get used to something (being on my own during Basic Training, living in Germany, reintegration), things change again.

I can’t help but chortle when people say, “You knew what you were getting into when you signed up for this.” I’m two and a half years into this whole Army thing, and I never know what to expect! There’s no telling how often my husband will go into the field (or for how long or with what kind of notice – this time around we knew less than a week in advance), deployment schedules are unpredictable, PCSes are supposed to be at certain intervals but then something crazy happens (cough deactivation cough) and things change.

I used to feel like life was a car ride. I imagined myself in the driver’s seat steering the way, navigating, making the stops I wanted- I was in control. Now I see it more as a roller coaster. Someone else is at the controls and all we can do is make sure our safety harnesses are in place, throw our hands in the air, and scream.

Maybe that doesn’t sound appealing, but the more I think about it, the more I see it as a good thing. The pressure is off of me to make the right decisions or do things perfectly. Instead, I’m just here to make the best of things, laugh when I can, and enjoy the ride.

Today my husband comes home. You can bet I’m going to enjoy that!

Hardcore

One of the first places Stephen and I explored after arriving in El Paso was the gym at Fort Bliss. Bliss actually has something like 8 gyms (!) but the one closest to us is the biggest and the newest. How can you argue with a 10,000 square foot weight room, a cardio room with over 200 machines, a steam room, two basketball courts, a snack bar, an indoor track, group exercise classes at all times during the day, and it’s free! (Well, you gotta pay for your own snacks, but everything else is free free free!)

The gym. Oooh. Ahhh.

I was most intrigued by the group fitness classes. The one and only time I ever did a group fitness thing was the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school: The Athlete’s Course (TAC). While TAC was awesome, it was also really hard. I think it’s probably comparable to boot camp nowadays. We did sprints across the football field, weight lifted, did resistance and agility training. It was mostly attended by football players with a small spattering of us female athletes. And the guy who was in charge yelled at us. A lot. I got in awesome shape after doing that two hours each morning week after week, but I have no desire to repeat it, thank you very much.

Thankfully casual drop-in class at the gym are not quite that scary. I got my first taste with a 30 minute class called Hardcore. As the name implies, it’s about ab work. I was talking to the trainer before class started and she was so sweet. I expressed to her that I was nervous that I couldn’t keep up, but she encouraged me to just give it a try.

Class began with us leaving the fitness room (huh?!) and going downstairs to the TRX straps.

TRX straps – also known as the torture chamber for your abs.

Whosawhatsits? I like to think I’m informed when it comes to exercise trends (I do read healthy living blogs after all), but TRX straps were new to me. TRX straps use suspension training and your body weight to incorporate balance, flexibility, strength, and core work into one.

There are a million ways you can use the straps, but for the most part, we put our feet into them and then assumed plank positions, did crunches, did push-ups. The grand finale was a plank/push-up/crunch combination.

This is exactly what I did! Only my form didn’t look quite like this.

Every time the trainer would demo or explain a new move, I would say, “holy shhht” or something equivalent. The other people in the class (thankfully there were only five of them to witness my struggles) seemed to just go with it. They were strong-abed workout drones. I was the first person to take a break when we’d do planks, I had to do modified push-ups, I’m certain I was red-faced the entire time. No abs of steel for me.

For the next week few days, I felt my abs with every little movement I did. Taking dishes out of the dishwasher? I felt it in my abs. Rolling over in bed? Hello abdominals! Petting Geronimo? Bring the abs along with you! My muscles were making themselves known. I was sore sore sore. But I loved it. I don’t like struggling in class, but I like knowing that my body got a killer workout. Would you believe it, I even went back on another day to use the TRX straps by myself.

I already told the trainer that I’ll be back in her class. I foresee it taking me many moons to actually get a hard core, but I’m not giving up!

Have you ever done TRX workouts? What’d you think? Any group fitness fans? I’m not much of a joiner but considering how good this workout was, I’m contemplating attending some of the other classes.

Less than a Week

In less than a week, I’ll by heading to Dallas for my third annual Great Strides walk. Great Strides is a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The idea is to raise awareness and money. Last year, over $40 million was raised, but there is still no cure to CF, and there are still too many people dying too young from this disease.

I can’t help but think back to my participation in previous years. Great Strides 2011 serendipitously fell the day after Ben’s (my brother-in-law) double lung transplant.

Our 2011 Great Strides team.

He obviously couldn’t participate in the walk (he was still doped up and hooked up to a million machines deep in the throws of post-surgery recovery), but my mother-in-law, nephew, my other brother-in-law and I did. I remember feeling giddy from the happiness over Ben’s surgery. There was a bounce in my step. How could there not be? The day we thought would never come had suddenly befallen us, and we got to celebrate by walking with other CF families.

Great Strides 2012 was even better.

Our 2012 Great Strides Team.

Ben was able to attend and our team grew considerably in size. We even made matching t-shirts. The loop around Fair Park felt triumphant. We were rallying around Ben and his huge gains in health, basking the glow of someone kicking CF’s ass. I think all of us smiled the entire time. Afterwards, we pigged out as part of a lung-a-versary celebration.

I predict that this year will be much more somber. Ben died back in February (it’ll be exactly three and a half months on the day of the walk). His friends have really banded together to raise as much money as possible this year. They held bake sales, got Dallas nightclubs to donate a percentage of their proceeds on certain nights, and have worked their tails off to reach our team fundraising goal of $10,000.

Oh, how I wish Ben could be here with us to enjoy the walk one more time. Since he can’t, I feel a sense of duty to try to give all the other families who love someone with CF what we lost – more time together. If you feel compelled to do so, please consider donating to our Great Strides team. (Just click the link here.) I know a few of you have already donated, and you are amazingly generous for having done so. It means a lot to me and to those living with CF. Any amount makes a difference. You can rest assured that the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is a worthy charity. (It has a rating of A- from the American Institute of Philanthropy.)

Next week I will recap the 2013 Great Strides walk and let y’all know how much our team was able to raise! Stay tuned!

Podcast Favorites

Now that I’m watching decidedly less TV, I have started to listen to podcasts on a daily basis. Podcasts are pre-recorded shows that you can listen to via your computer or smart phone after downloading them for free. I’ve started to listen to them while I am doing boring tasks like laundry, unpacking, driving to work (I don’t like the radio stations here), cooking, and washing the dishes. Podcasts are more convenient than watching TV because I can listen anywhere that I set my phone down unlike my television, which is stationary.

So which podcasts are my most favoritiest?

• Stuff You Missed in History Class

This podcast, produced by How Stuff Works, gives you 30 minute shows about different historical topics, sometimes obscure but not always. Some of the best shows I’ve listened to so far include The Life of Johnny Appleseed, Loving v. Virginia, Historical Hoaxes, Nikola Tesla and the War of the Currents, and The Hindenburg Disaster. The shows are always comprised of two woman (they have a few different commentators, but it’s always a combination of two women) discussing the ins and outs of each topic. Stephen thinks the women sound like the Schweddy Balls skit from SNL years ago, and he’s kind of right. They talk so softly and sweetly, but I kind of like that about them. It’s easy on the ears when I listen to the podcast first thing in the morning.

• Freakonomics Radio

Have you seen the Freakonomics movie? So good! The podcast is simply the radio version. Economists and writers Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt tackle topics from an economic point of view – so they’ve done the research, run the numbers, put together interesting interviews, and give you the skinny on things like spite, the effectiveness of cash for grades,  what would be the most effective form of gun control (that one was so interesting!), how to fight obesity, jerks, parking, the value of a college degree, and more. The podcasts are usually topical (like the gun control podcast in the wake of all the gun control discussion, a tax-related podcast in April). I have found that the podcasts provide a unique perspective and are highly entertaining. Freakonomics is Stephen’s favorite podcast. The guys are funny and there is variety within and between the podcasts.

• This American Life

This American Life podcasts are longer but less frequently produced than the others, however, I have found them to be the most interesting. This one is a little harder to describe. One particular show was called “Dr. Gilmer and Mr. Hyde” about a doctor who murdered his father. The clinic where he used to work hired a new doctor with the same name. The podcasts explored the first Dr. Gilmer’s motives behind the murder and the second Dr. Gilmer’s reaction when he found out and eventually befriended and helped the first Dr. Gilmer. Another podcast explored a town where the majority of the residents were on disability, the trend of people getting disability in the country as a whole, and its economic impact. I was cracking up on the way to work listening to “Music Lessons” which included a comedic reading by David Sedaris. So I guess it is what it sounds like – a look at life in America from every different angle.

• Great Speeches in History

This one is definitely the least sexy of the bunch. It’s straight up recordings and readings of famous speeches in history. I’m familiar with some famous lines from big speeches but there is something really powerful about hearing a speech in its entirety, especially the ones that we have recordings of. (Washington’s farewell address, for example, is obviously not a recording – it’s a reading.) I’ve discovered that we have had some really smart people in our midst who are also incredibly talented with words. I’ve loved re-visiting some of the big speeches and discovering others that I’d never heard before (Eisenhower’s farewell address, Reagan’s Inaugural Address, the eulogy for Robert Kennedy). I’ve already thought of tons of ways I could use this in my class if I was still teaching. Since I’m not, I just listen for enjoyment instead.

Other notable favorite podcasts include The Moth, Nerdist, and Ted Talks. All worth a listen!

Are you listening to podcasts? Which ones? Share!