Still Coughing, But Life Has Perks

We are now in October which is a month entirely after my heart! The weather has finally taking a turn toward fall. The chill in the morning and evening air has been great and I'm loving making extra coffee to start the day. The first few leaves are turning, the squirrels are darting around gathering their wares, and the sun still streams strong in the afternoons. We're turning off the air and opening the window at night, bundling under covers, and the hub's in full football season swing.

The last 2-3 weeks have honestly left me wallowing--ready to be back home, surrounded by family, friends, and more like-minded support. As much as I love fall, it always makes me a bit more introspective and desiring to be a part of a pack. Some days in Louisiana are lonelier than others, but a good tearful call with my father on Sunday left me battening down the hatches again for the coming 5 months.

After 3.5 weeks of continuously coughing, I made two medical appointments. First one, my preferred choice of course, was an hour long Swedish massage with the masseuse electing to use natural oils to stimulate my lungs. The massage was amazing--pretty much perfect in every way--and the location only uses organic and/or natural lotions, oils, etc. The second appointment was with a Physician Assistant on post here to appease my coworkers who are all tired of hearing me hack at work. Two prescriptions later just to dull symptoms, I'm still hacking, especially after our evening to the rodeo in the cool night air last night...

Yes, folks, that's right. The rodeo's in town! And I hadn't been to a rodeo in years! Small town fun at its finest, but it was pretty enjoyable, especially when the rodeo clown and "friends" did their own rendition of the old favorite song: YMCA!....However the hacking could also be the fact that I'm getting tired of not having the ambition/energy to work out, so I've been running anyway this week....at least I'll hopefully be able to fit back into my jeans again if I can get back to my pre-cold mileage. I'm pretty sure this virus is here to stay for a bit, so it's going to just be working/living through it.

In other news (in no particular order):

--The hub and I had the most amazing up close observation of an armadillo last night. Even after a year here, we're both still fascinated by the creatures and there was one poking away in the grass near our trash can last night. We sat and watched him, trying to catch it on camera, for about five minutes before he finally startled and scuttled across the street.

--My gal back home is getting married next summer---woot! I'm so excited for the two of them and am so in support of their fabulous union. She's asked me to be her matron of honor and really I am so, well, honored! I haven't been in a wedding in a really long time, but am so appreciative and looking forward to the opportunity to help in any way I can. The two of them are a phenomenal couple together and its such a blessing to be a part of their life.

--I have a job lead and really its an amazing opportunity.....the catch is, its part-time and requires me to fly back home to interview sometime in the next few months probably. If you know me, then you know that part-time is perfecto, but not always perfecto for the bank account, especially when the first six months back I'm to be the primary breadwinner. So right now, I'm continuing to explore more options and am just trusting that everything will fall into place as it should....even with how difficult that is at times. But it's an AWESOME foot in an amazing door and definitely is in line with where I hope to be professionally during the next 30 years. Here's keeping my fingers crossed that I can tag-team this opportunity with something else.......although we're being smart budget wise so there may be the option that it would all work out financially anyway...

---And I guess the other big piece of news, while I usually don't report too much on the hub, is that he's talking/dreaming/beginning to plan to backpack the Pacific Northwest Trail from Montana to Washington for two months next summer with a few other veteran friends. We'll see how/if it pans out, but pretty exciting for him all the same.

Obviously I continue to ebb and flow with blogging, but I'm okay with that! The long weekend may include a new blog header though so we'll see about that! :)