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Blended Families
Illumine?
Has anyone heard from her lately??
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Re: Illumine?
I just went to DC for a conference. Got to have some good Thai and Middle Eastern Food. YUMMMMM
And now I am back to a messy house (I swear men are inately slobs).
How are you all doing?
Anniya - i love your pics. I love putting a face to names.
Welcome back, Illumine!
Back in the single days, Pentagon Row was my haunt for happy hour and Shirlington was my weekend hang out.
I miss the NoVA/DC area a whole lot. Outside of my family, there is just such a variety of things to do and see. You can get amazing theater and art to even more amazing local theater and art to experiencing every culture you could want.
DH on the other hand HATES DC (the traffic and the supposed political slant). SO....I get my quarterly conferences and vacations to stock up.
Honestly I never found the traffic bad there. But I always come in from I195 (or 295) and drove Massachusetts ave in. Those were the directions to my college, American University, and they just worked so well. And anywhere else I drove from AU was super easy too. Only problem was Dupont Circle, but that is my own stupidity.
Being in college, Adams Morgan was the hang out.
Of course, YOU are also too young to have gone to Auntie Mames. Ah Mames.
When I was a freshman at SUNY Postdam, I met my friend Marc, whose Dad was stationed at Drum and whose mom lived in Reston. That Christmas Break, we went down to my grandmothers (also in Reston).
Marc picked me up with his cousin Edward and Edward's friend Richard.
Preface - Marc, Edward and Richard are black
So they take me to a back-alley club in NorthEast DC. I walk down into the bar and its.....picture a cross between The Oyster Club (Police Academy) and Cage Aux Folles - hard core leather and drag.
AND everyone was either black or hispanic.
The first words out of my very white bread, sheltered mouth was "I didn't know black men could be gay?!?"
I was immediately rushed by the drag queens because I was fresh meat to play dress up. I learned all of my make up and clothes wearing tips. I would head up there whenever I was in town and Edward & Richard (who are now happily married and living in Toronto) would take me.
Fast forward 10 years. I went to a male strip club for my cousin's bachelorette party. Wouldnt' you know it, I run into a Drag Queen who remembered me.
God I miss that town.
He already has a few active duty families he is counseling back from the war, and a bereavement group of wives that are mixed, some whose home area is around here, and some who were stationed at Fort Drum when they died and the wives have stuck around.
I'm hoping around April when I plan on returning to work that I find something associated with the military/base.
Drumm is going to expand exponentially over the next few years. SO much so, the housing, educational and health care systems may not be able to keep up. Keep an eye on that.
DH want's to retire to Upstate. Personally, I like south of the mason/dixon. I keep pushing the southeast mountains of Tennessee......but that will be TOO far away from both families.
My parents are Oswego graduates, and my brother is getting his master's there. My mom's whole family is there. I didn't realize you were a "local."
I know about the base expansion, it's the largest military establishment without an on base medical center, everything is done through the Watertown Hospital (as DH always tells me). DH is working for a VA Clinic that opened about a year ago. They have higher confidentiality than the VA Hospital, records of active duty members cannot be released to the military, so they're getting more PTSD, etc. from the base who are afraid of losing their jobs if it was found out they were suffering from their deployment.
The housing market was/is horrible up there. The prices are higher than here in the Syracuse area (or Utica area where we hope to move one day) and we were looking at mostly old farm houses that needed tons of work. I love what we bought, but it does require some work, and is at the high end of the budget. We would've preferred to be at the high end with no work to do. As it is this time we're not putting anything down on the house so we can use the money for new windows and a few other updates. They're starting to build more up there, but definitely not keeping up with the expansion, and the new brigade isn't even here yet. So far they've been surviving by always having at least one brigade deployed. They run a shuttle from the AFB in Syracuse to Fort Drum that leaves at 5am so that some people can live down here. But it's 1 hour 20 minutes away.
We love Upstate, that's just who we are. I love the country, and all the family, and all the things I know to do around here. But I still hate winter.