So...

A lot has been happening lately, in life, in love, in friends, in family. I have moved to my own place, we took a trip to D.C., my first Mother's Day, school...

   So earlier this month I made the move to my own place. This has been the best decision I've made since John left for Basic. In the three years we've been married, we've never truly had a place to call our own. Our first place as a married couple was in another family's house. We watched their kids while they were away (they drove semi's for a living). After that, we moved into my in-law's house. This was a slight improvement, but still sucked. We lived in John's old room down in the basement and his little brotherstayed upstairs. John's parent didn't live there, thankfully. There was a lot of strife in that situation and I was pretty miserable for the duration of it. Last year, we moved into my dad's old house, the house I was, for the most part, raised in. While we were by ourselves and were left alone to do whatever, it really didn't feel like mine. Memories of mom and dad, while they were still mom and dad, haunted me throughout the house. Visions of the way things used to be met me around every corner. Was it any wonder I wanted out? In January, I moved in with two other girls to help them get out of a living situation they had found harmful. It was advantageous for the first few months, but after that I knew I didn't belong there. A married woman with a child should not live with two unmarried girls. It's strange to finally have my own place after all of this time. I can hang my pictures where I want. If I don't feel like doing dishes, I don't have to. I don't have to pick Balian's toys off of the floor if I don't want to. I am in control, and I'm not having to worry about two other people living with me. I can't even begin to describe how much stress is gone and how much relief I have just with this simple move. Now, if only I can get my force powers strong enough to move the rest of my stuff from there to here...

  This past Friday, I drove an amazing friend of mine to Washington D.C. A three hour car ride, and seven or eight hours spent wandering around the Mall, the Art Gallery, trying to find a CVS, and then trying to find food. It was FANTASTIC and EXACTLY what I needed. I've not been on a trip like that with a friend in a very long time. Being married has a tendency to segregate you. You lose what few friends you had to begin with, and, at least in my case, you find it very hard to make new ones. I've become socially awkward. Sad, but true. D.C. held the same charms it had the first time John and I went. After dropping Cassandra off at the airport, I went to Arlington National Cemetery. It's humbling being there, realizing, as you look past the thousands of graves, what our soldiers have given up to protect us, to protect their home. It's also saddening to see the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier and know that, while we are grateful for his service, we'll never be able to tell his family of his sacrifice.

   My first Mother's Day was, well, just another day almost. I wrote an incredibly sad poem, cried while I rocked Balian to sleep, more out of the fact that he's turning one next month than anything else, went to Nana's to visit with family and, as with everything else, took lots and lots of pictures. School starts back in August. I'm taking 12 credit hours, four classes: Religious Issues in Dramatic Literature, Literary Criticism, Religion and Politics, and a seminar over Charles Dickens. It'll be an interesting semester, although a hard one.