So last night as I was teaching my class, my husband popped up on messenger. I usually have the internet on in class so that I have easy access to a dictionary. My German is good but sometimes they ask for things I just don't know.
Hubby wasn't happy. He'd been told at 5pm to pack and that he was being sent to another base the following morning at 5am. We'd known a range trip was coming up but it had been put out for next week.
Not for hubby, he's one of the 'lucky' people assigned to guarding ammunition until the rest of the unit gets there. So I came home from work at about 9pm last night and it was a mad rush for us getting everything ready, rearranging jobs and organising things like shopping (not an easy feat as I can't drive). We have all our ducks in a row now so emergency over but Army? Come on...really? You couldn't tell him before?
Even better, the ammo they're supposed to be guarding doesn't get there until Friday, so why the rush to get down there today?
Yeah yeah, I know...'hurry up and wait' and lots of other pithy platitudes fired at people that dare to complain about the Army sucking.
While I would prefer to have him home, it's really not a big deal though. 9 days is a walk in the park after the large chunks of time we've spent apart.
The thing that bugs me though is we have this nice new bed, with nice new mattresses and it's soooo fucking comfy and my goddamn cuddle monkey is guarding some crappy pile of ammo over in Graf!!!
Still, it could be worse...all the people on profile (the fatties and the injured) have been put on a 14 day detail to go dress up as Arab insurgents and get shot at with fake bullets by another company.
Sounds cruel but I can't help but laugh my ass off at the sound of that.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Not happy
I'm so not looking forward to this next week at work. It's depressing me quite a bit just thinking about it actually. I have a weird relationship with my job. On the one hand, I sometimes quite like it but nowadays I've progressed from mostly disliking it to mostly outright hating it. The recent thing?
Well other than having to commute for about 6 hours tomorrow and teach a 4 hour class, on Tuesday I get to go and work an evening class that's continuing on from an evening class that I was teaching before. Why is this bad? Well aside from finishing late in Erlangen and then having to be up again at 6 the next morning for an early class in Erlangen, the class I'm going to have slated me in the reviews.
Well no, that's not exactly right, that would be understandable. I was slated and requested for the next class in equal measure. What pisses me off about the slating is that it wasn't my fault but I'm going to suffer in amount of work because of that. Most of the comments written said that the course didn't follow on very well and wasn't very coherent. What the hell do they expect when there were four different teachers filling in for me because I was sick with Lyme disease?! These students knew that too and apparently were upset that I wasn't coming back for the end of the course (not that it stopped them from being a bunch of bitches).
Excuse me for being really fucking sick.
This class also demanded so fucking much of me too - I changed everything twice for them because they requested it and also helped them out with stuff in my breaks and after work.
So in short, I'm not just sick of my job, I'm at the point now where I'm really close to telling my boss I want to leave and just finding a job in the commissary.
Except I can't because I don't want to be some kind of failure and I really can't see what else I've got going for me career-wise in life. I *was* going to re-train using the MyCAA grants but that's no longer an option now. I have a job I hate, not many options because I'm in Germany and feeling pressured to keep the job because I don't want my husband to be disappointed in me and I want to have my own money and sense of independence.
I think he kind of likes it that he's got a wife that works on the economy.
Also in the shit stakes, I got a bill for 131 euros from a laboratory that did all the tests for Lyme and stuff at the Internist that Tricare referred me to and told me would be free. Looks like I have a Tricare drama coming up.
Update: To add to the Tuesday class weirdness, I just got an email informing me that 6 more students have signed up at short notice for the class with me and I won't have enough books for them.
Still think this is a pile of shite.
Well other than having to commute for about 6 hours tomorrow and teach a 4 hour class, on Tuesday I get to go and work an evening class that's continuing on from an evening class that I was teaching before. Why is this bad? Well aside from finishing late in Erlangen and then having to be up again at 6 the next morning for an early class in Erlangen, the class I'm going to have slated me in the reviews.
Well no, that's not exactly right, that would be understandable. I was slated and requested for the next class in equal measure. What pisses me off about the slating is that it wasn't my fault but I'm going to suffer in amount of work because of that. Most of the comments written said that the course didn't follow on very well and wasn't very coherent. What the hell do they expect when there were four different teachers filling in for me because I was sick with Lyme disease?! These students knew that too and apparently were upset that I wasn't coming back for the end of the course (not that it stopped them from being a bunch of bitches).
Excuse me for being really fucking sick.
This class also demanded so fucking much of me too - I changed everything twice for them because they requested it and also helped them out with stuff in my breaks and after work.
So in short, I'm not just sick of my job, I'm at the point now where I'm really close to telling my boss I want to leave and just finding a job in the commissary.
Except I can't because I don't want to be some kind of failure and I really can't see what else I've got going for me career-wise in life. I *was* going to re-train using the MyCAA grants but that's no longer an option now. I have a job I hate, not many options because I'm in Germany and feeling pressured to keep the job because I don't want my husband to be disappointed in me and I want to have my own money and sense of independence.
I think he kind of likes it that he's got a wife that works on the economy.
Also in the shit stakes, I got a bill for 131 euros from a laboratory that did all the tests for Lyme and stuff at the Internist that Tricare referred me to and told me would be free. Looks like I have a Tricare drama coming up.
Update: To add to the Tuesday class weirdness, I just got an email informing me that 6 more students have signed up at short notice for the class with me and I won't have enough books for them.
Still think this is a pile of shite.
Friday, March 12, 2010
NCOs and Hanging Out with Army People
Does anyone else ever get the urge to go 'sort out' their husband's NCO?
You know the kind of asshole NCOs...the ones who are just sadistic with the kind of crap they pull and send your hubby home in a foul mood at the end of every day.
Anyone recognise that type?
Well my hubby has one of those right now and I really really want to go find him, shout at him (probably unintelligibly because after all, I am English), kick him in the balls, march off and probably get picked up by the MPs on my way out of there.
And really I know I shouldn't be thinking like that and making comments like that because men tend to take that the wrong way, like you think they need to be protected or something. But it's really not that. I grew up in the kind of area where if someone messed with a loved one, then it was your job as a friend/family member/spouse to go smash their head into the sidewalk/pavement, repeatedly.
It's kind of like some kind of instinct now, you know, like having a pee...ok well not quite.
Go go gadget irate English girl. Kitty English - pocket ninja.
Thankfully this jackass is PCSing soon(ish). Well, allegedly - it's kind of like a big secret when he's actually going but much like the funeral of Oliver Cromwell, I think it will be a cause for celebration. He is not particularly well liked.
But nevermind, it's the weekend and then we get to do it all again!! *Big cheesy grin*
My second topic for today is about hanging out with other Army people. Some guy in my husband's section has invited us bowling tonight and because we're trying to be more sociable instead of staying home and watching Sci-Fi all night or RPGing, we said yes. But you know, it's an odd situation. Firstly, the bowling.
I've only been once, bowling didn't really get big in my area of England and I can't even think of a bowling alley near my hometown. The one time I went bowling, I found it boring and so when this guy invited my husband and I to go bowling, the hubby had a bit of a quandary and explained to the other guy that I didn't really care for it.
'Oh' says the other guy, 'Well there's a bar there too!'
Hubby had no more reservations about this social outing. 'Bar' is like a magic word to me. It's not that I'm an alcoholic but the main form of socialisation where I'm from centres around pub culture and you know, goddamnit, it's Friday - BEER! I do wonder though about how quick this guy mentioned the bar in connection with me, kind of make me wonder what gossip's going round about me. Maybe my three or four beers when working on the FRG stall on the 4th of July gained me a rep? Or the amount of times I've been spotted in the pub knocking back pints...but whatever, not important.
The second reason why this situation is kind of odd is that this guy is going to be bringing his wife and I can just see it now, we're just going to get stuck with each other. We don't know each other but because our husbands are friends, we're kind of under pressure to get along.
Hell I hope this woman drinks or it's going to be downright uncomfortable!
You know the kind of asshole NCOs...the ones who are just sadistic with the kind of crap they pull and send your hubby home in a foul mood at the end of every day.
Anyone recognise that type?
Well my hubby has one of those right now and I really really want to go find him, shout at him (probably unintelligibly because after all, I am English), kick him in the balls, march off and probably get picked up by the MPs on my way out of there.
And really I know I shouldn't be thinking like that and making comments like that because men tend to take that the wrong way, like you think they need to be protected or something. But it's really not that. I grew up in the kind of area where if someone messed with a loved one, then it was your job as a friend/family member/spouse to go smash their head into the sidewalk/pavement, repeatedly.
It's kind of like some kind of instinct now, you know, like having a pee...ok well not quite.
Go go gadget irate English girl. Kitty English - pocket ninja.
Thankfully this jackass is PCSing soon(ish). Well, allegedly - it's kind of like a big secret when he's actually going but much like the funeral of Oliver Cromwell, I think it will be a cause for celebration. He is not particularly well liked.
But nevermind, it's the weekend and then we get to do it all again!! *Big cheesy grin*
My second topic for today is about hanging out with other Army people. Some guy in my husband's section has invited us bowling tonight and because we're trying to be more sociable instead of staying home and watching Sci-Fi all night or RPGing, we said yes. But you know, it's an odd situation. Firstly, the bowling.
I've only been once, bowling didn't really get big in my area of England and I can't even think of a bowling alley near my hometown. The one time I went bowling, I found it boring and so when this guy invited my husband and I to go bowling, the hubby had a bit of a quandary and explained to the other guy that I didn't really care for it.
'Oh' says the other guy, 'Well there's a bar there too!'
Hubby had no more reservations about this social outing. 'Bar' is like a magic word to me. It's not that I'm an alcoholic but the main form of socialisation where I'm from centres around pub culture and you know, goddamnit, it's Friday - BEER! I do wonder though about how quick this guy mentioned the bar in connection with me, kind of make me wonder what gossip's going round about me. Maybe my three or four beers when working on the FRG stall on the 4th of July gained me a rep? Or the amount of times I've been spotted in the pub knocking back pints...but whatever, not important.
The second reason why this situation is kind of odd is that this guy is going to be bringing his wife and I can just see it now, we're just going to get stuck with each other. We don't know each other but because our husbands are friends, we're kind of under pressure to get along.
Hell I hope this woman drinks or it's going to be downright uncomfortable!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
And my first rant
is about Amazon.com. Where the hell do these dickheads get off telling us that we can't download mp3s from them because we're outside of the States?! I live on a goddamn US army base in Germany - that's technically US soil!!! I have an APO address, an American bank account and was trying to pay in dollars!!!
What the hell?!
This isn't our first brush with the feckbags at amazon.com either!
A few weeks ago, hubby and I got the idea to do our own podcast and so off we toddled to the Power Zone (the electronics store on post) and found a mic.
'Oh great!' we both thought. But no.
We got it home and it wasn't even assembled when we got it out of the box. We had to assemble it ourselves, I mean come on...really? 60 bucks and you have to assemble your own mic? Then came the doozy, it didn't work. Not on my husband's giant 'going-to-take-over-the-world' computer, or my laptop or his laptop (yes, we're geeks).
So we took it back and were dealt with by the one employee in the Power Zone that makes me want to smack them in the face as soon as I see them. It's something about the face, that smirking, smarmy face and constantly masticating mouth - like they're chewing cud (notice I'm playing the pronoun game? That's in the interests of anonymity).
We then decided to look online for a mic, because we *really* want to inflict ourselves onto the world. Because of my accent, I'm near enough unintelligible to Americans when I'm excited and my husband sounds like a radio broadcaster so it would be like 'The Broadcaster and the Monkey'. It would rock.
We found a mic for about 35 dollars on amazon.com that had been reduced from about 80. 'Good deal!' we think and try to purchase said mic only to have some crappy notice from amazon saying that they don't ship electronic equipment outside of the US, not even to APOs!!!
So my conclusion is this Amazon, you suck.
What the hell?!
This isn't our first brush with the feckbags at amazon.com either!
A few weeks ago, hubby and I got the idea to do our own podcast and so off we toddled to the Power Zone (the electronics store on post) and found a mic.
'Oh great!' we both thought. But no.
We got it home and it wasn't even assembled when we got it out of the box. We had to assemble it ourselves, I mean come on...really? 60 bucks and you have to assemble your own mic? Then came the doozy, it didn't work. Not on my husband's giant 'going-to-take-over-the-world' computer, or my laptop or his laptop (yes, we're geeks).
So we took it back and were dealt with by the one employee in the Power Zone that makes me want to smack them in the face as soon as I see them. It's something about the face, that smirking, smarmy face and constantly masticating mouth - like they're chewing cud (notice I'm playing the pronoun game? That's in the interests of anonymity).
We then decided to look online for a mic, because we *really* want to inflict ourselves onto the world. Because of my accent, I'm near enough unintelligible to Americans when I'm excited and my husband sounds like a radio broadcaster so it would be like 'The Broadcaster and the Monkey'. It would rock.
We found a mic for about 35 dollars on amazon.com that had been reduced from about 80. 'Good deal!' we think and try to purchase said mic only to have some crappy notice from amazon saying that they don't ship electronic equipment outside of the US, not even to APOs!!!
So my conclusion is this Amazon, you suck.
Just another Milspouse blog
Well hello there and welcome to my blog!
My name's Kitty English and I'm your tour guide during your trip through the crazy-assed world of Army Wifery - well my corner of it anyway. Please sit back, keep your hands inside the car and don't try to exit until the ride has stopped.
I'm an English girl that ended up marrying a US soldier that she met in Korea when she was out there teaching. I run into trouble like you wouldn't believe, have crazy things happen to me all the time and all my friends think I should be writing memoirs instead of this blog.
So there you go, a blog by a non-American wife of a US soldier living and working in Germany.
Let the craziness commence!
My name's Kitty English and I'm your tour guide during your trip through the crazy-assed world of Army Wifery - well my corner of it anyway. Please sit back, keep your hands inside the car and don't try to exit until the ride has stopped.
I'm an English girl that ended up marrying a US soldier that she met in Korea when she was out there teaching. I run into trouble like you wouldn't believe, have crazy things happen to me all the time and all my friends think I should be writing memoirs instead of this blog.
So there you go, a blog by a non-American wife of a US soldier living and working in Germany.
Let the craziness commence!
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