A Walk with Sadie

Soon after we moved into the new (to us) house, Justin & I took the new pup for a walk down our new (-ish) street. We wandered down towards the reservoir and reveled in the August evening. I never had time to create the post I was hoping for about our walk, but maybe my notes do an ok job on their own . . .

• bugs, birds and noises everywhere
• green trees & verdant summer life
• cold beer in coffee travel cups (sneaky!)
• calm water on the reservoir & evening sunset hue
• walks along the road with sadie now & our kids eventually
• our place now

911!

Yikes. That's how many posts I've written since I started blogging nearly 5 years ago. For nerds like me, it breaks down as follows: 29 posts on Enigmatic Snippets (no link, as it was lost in the wilds of cyberspace), 113 posts on Wer Ond Wif, 128 on Museophilia, and 641 here on Hodoeporicon. It's pretty funny that I have almost as many posts on the wedding-specific blog as I do on the work-related one I've had for a year longer! Although, I am getting better at posting regularly on Museophilia, particularly with the photo series I'm doing right now.

In thinking about blogging tonight, I also wanted to draw your attention to this great post from Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman. She highlights ten important things she's learned about blogging and I think some of her tips are great motivators for the days you just can't come up with anything to say.

And in other blog news, yours truly will be attending the fourth annual Boston Blogtoberfest this coming Thursday! I haven't been since the very first one in 2006 (the germ of the idea of which I actually helped create, though Jenny ably executed the whole thing). Now that I'm a repatriated Boston blogger, I'm excited to meet up with old friends from the city and meet new bloggers in the area.

Also - this has nothing to do with anything, but has anyone else been listening to The Suburbs compusively? Soooo good.

Birthday Musings

At 8:37pm, 29 years ago, I was born. A small ginger child with two loving parents and a big sister who would come to love me, but initially wanted me to live in the garden shed. ;)

At 8:37pm tonight, I turned 29 years old. I was on a walk with the dog, having just gotten back from dinner with said sister, her husband, and her two sons. I wandered up the street, nursing an Old Foghorn barleywine and missing my husband. We walked up the street a ways, then turned into the conservation area near us, which I refer to as "the field" in my head. I pulled the pup up a small rise, then plopped down to drink my beer and gape at the field and the stars for awhile.

At first, I just felt bad for myself. "I'm 29," I thought, "and it's my birthday. But my husband is far away. I miss him." But eventually, the night got to me and I came around. "It's a lovely night, I have a lovely dog, and I'm going to spend the weekend at the lake house with my parents, my nephews, and two lovely dogs. How much have I really to complain about?"

So that's the final word. :) Happy birthday to me.

That Time of Year Again, Soon

Actually, I think we're just a little past it. Go read this at Sweet & Salty and understand what I'm talking about. This bit rings true with me now - "I want stews and porridge and mittens and woodsmoke and bats."

Photo Cheat

The last two weeks have been crazy busy - this past Sunday was my first day off since my honey flew away on the 14th! 11 straight working days does not a good blogger make. However, I've been able to keep up with the other blogs better, since their content involves more photos. So, in that vein, I decided to pop a photo up here and call it a blog post.

I was recently going through our wedding photos (for posts on Wer ond Wif, of course). I picked out both black & white ones that I liked and ones that made me go "bwahahahahahaha." This photo covers both bases. It was taken during Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," a song with which half of the wedding party has a special relationship (see here and here for more illumination). I believe this is the part that goes, "No, we will not let you go!" My husband does it very convincingly. :)

Absence

Well, Justin left on Tuesday morning for a couple of months training stateside, followed by a ten-month deployment overseas. Le sigh. The house feels empty - even with a dog and a fish and five houseplants and many boxes yet to be unpacked.

I've known about this deployment for as long as we've been dating, as his battery received notice of the possibility two years ago. Our two-year dating anniversary is on the 24th. So I've always known he might go. And it sucked, but I got used to it being a vague thing, somewhere in the future.

Then, the planned deployment date forced us to change our wedding date and that sucked. But, we got over and through that hiccup and the deployment still seemed like just a thing, over there somewhere, not HERE.

But now he's gone. It's weird. I know I'll get more used to it as we go, but it's startling right now. He's not here to greet me when I get home from work. He's not here to pour coffee into my travel mug in the morning and send me out the door with a kiss. He's not here to help manage the crazy dog. ;)

I've always been fairly independent and I lived alone for many years. I'm sure I'll be able to handle the alone-ness of it all better than some, but I keep thinking that this is more temporary than it is. He's been away for a week or more before with army stuff - he'll be home soon, I can't help thinking. Of course, he won't be, but my body/brain/heart keeps expecting him there to fill the empty space on the couch, in the car, at the table, in the bed. It's weird.