A surprisingly good weekend

How do I even begin to describe a weekend that went surprisingly well? Ok, so maybe the whole weekend didn't go well, because Saturday just plain wasn't pretty.

I've finally lost it. While trying to make icing roses and bake a cake for my mother-in-law, the walls finally closed in on me. It took just over two weeks. I had no counter space, was knocking stuff around everywhere, and had a screaming attack of claustrophobia in the kitchen. My poor husband, while not being the target of my rage, got to listen to more curse words than I think he even hears out in the field.

I was actually grateful to leave the house on Sunday and head to my mother-in-law's. Even t hough we have a great history of being nice to each other's faces, she said some rather cruel things about me to Jere and his sister back when we first got married. Part of me wasn't quite ready to let that go, but dammit, my defenses were down. Every single one of my friends knows that I'm not a lovely, forgiving person. Not because they've incurred my wrath, but because they've heard me bitch about other people. I will take a grudge to the grave.

But with Jere's deployment coming up, I think my mother-in-law and I very calmly decided a truce was in order. We need each other. We all spent hours talking, and I told her about why I don't want to go back to Michigan and why I chose to move to Staunton. Not to mention she knew that just being in a house for a weekend where I wasn't cramped and crowded in was a relief. And she was a Navy wife, and is an Army mom. She knows what kind of crazy goes on at the Pentagon when it comes to officers and staffing, and up until now has dealt with Jere's finances and packing for past deployments.

So I had a wonderful time. She didn't say anything about my crazy diet, though cracked up when I gave in and ate all the nuts out of Jere's ice cream. I'm still as conversationally awkward as ever, but I think she's beginning to understand that. On top of it all, it was nice to just sit back, relax, and watch the birds out the sliding glass window. Because here all I can see is the telephone pole.

Yesterday, we went and looked at the new apartment building. I love it. I can't wait to live there with the pretty view of the mountains! I liked the two girls who work in the office. And I love how much room there is! I'm ready to move now, but my little ticker says I have 69 more days here. Bummer.

Coming home yesterday made me grumpy. I hadn't slept very well, and walking into the tiny hotel room made me sad. So Jere took me shopping, told me that I could go buy really expensive shoes at DSW. I spent an hour there, and found nothing that I really wanted. Sadness. So I wandered to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and became even more sad because I wanted to buy things for the new place and had nowhere to store it. Jere did find me the DVD I wanted at Circuit City, but seeing I was getting depressed, he took me to Macy's. Where once again, I found absolutely nothing. Their petite jeans were either way too big or way too small. And their selection of cute dresses, well, sucked. So another trip to Penney's, where I bought a cute pink dress. Still didn't cheer me up, so we came home, I ate healthy dinner, and slept. I feel better today, but I still feel like I can't escape this room's itty bitty-ness.

However, I will hardly be home to notice the cramped space. Jere and I leave for our cruise in 11 days. Karalyn and I will be in Mexico the first week of April. And in between I'm going to Ireland for a week. I'll be plenty busy. And my travel agency loves me. :-) I was going to go to Ireland while Jere was away, but I found such a great deal I decided to go now and leave the tiny place.
And now I'm off to find airfare and cute shoes online.

Today's lesson: Some people really can change. What's most surprising is realizing that you've changed.