Southern Anniversary

Tomorrow is a big day. It marks my puppy's birthday (YAY!) and the day that Matt and I rolled into Columbus, MS (not so yay).

While my puppy was sleeping, I just took a few minutes to read my blog posts from last year, the ones about my new house and town. BOY, WHAT A COMPLETE 180! I was trying to be positive about the move and new location, but man, I'm not nearly as positive as I used to be.

Here's why. When I first moved into the house, my words were "This house is gigantic!" Compared to our last apartment in Portland, it is gigantic. And this house is the perfect size for us right now, even with 3 pets. But since we have moved in, the house is showing it's age. I have also now been into the new housing on base, and realized that we were totally jipped. This house sucks. Granted, it's A LOT better than our old apartment, but that doesn't mean it doesn't now suck. I'm sick of the mold. I'm sick of the bathroom fan not working. I'm sick of the shower not draining. Granted, I have invested in some mold cleaner and some drain-o that have now fixed 2 out of the 3 of those problems, but I shouldn't have to spend my own money on something that my landlord won't fix. They came and fixed the shower, but that only worked for one day, then it completely clogged again. We told them countless times to clean the mold in the bathroom, and they didn't do that, NOR did they fix the fan, which we also told them about. I just know they are going to charge us for the water damage on the parquet flooring, but that was already there when we moved in, it just so happens the strips came out when we moved here. At least they have fixed the air conditioning. That's a relief.

This town also just sucks. I remember that I wrote how the locals here are really nice. Now that I actually work in town, I have decided that most of the people here are rude. Not all of them, mind you, but most of them. Downtown is still nice, but it's about 15 miles from base, so with my daily commute into town for work, I can't constantly be driving to town everyday. The grocery stores here don't have everything I need. With my work schedule, I can't even use the on base commissary, since they are open only during business hours and they're closed on Mondays (and also Tuesdays if there is a Monday holiday. WHAT GROCERY STORE IS CLOSED ON A MONDAY?). My local Kroger doesn't even have pita bread. Really? No pita bread?

I don't even go into the mall here because it's so lame. I won't even tell you my opinion on the fact that it doesn't open until 10:30. Really? A mall doesn't open until 10:30? The bookstore here is tiny and not nice at all. Both the KMart and the WalMart are disgusting and the check out lines are annoyingly slow. And there is still no Starbucks here for any frappucino craving I might get.

There is also nothing to do around here unless you want to drive long distances. There are a few hiking trails around here, but I can't find them anywhere on the internet. The River Walk is pretty, but again, that's 15 miles away and you can't even get to the river, much less would you even want to allow your dog to swim in it. There is no dog park to go to, and unless you want to go out to eat out or shop in the cute boutiques (there ARE cute boutiques in downtown), there is nothing to do. Not that I can even do that now, since it's so hot here. Ugh.

I try to be positive, I really do. But now with it being so hot, and hating my job, I think my mood is going to get worse. I hate being confined to my house, but I just can't handle standing outside for even 5 minutes before I start sweating buckets. I cannot wait for this duty station to be over. I wish I could start counting down the days I can move, but I can't even start that. Maybe I should just start a countdown for the day when we learn where we can go next.