keep on

ZIIIIIIIIPPP ZZZZOOOOOOM *phew* Life is moving fast and I barely have time to process it.

In seven short longest-of-my-life months, I will graduate nursing school and will hopefully be an RN shortly thereafter. That statement alone makes my eyes spin a little. It's hard to write a blog when your eyes are spinning, which may explain my absence. 

Life is a little bit CrAzY right now. While I'm busy memorizing things like electrolyte levels, John has been busy with work. With an impending promotion and the increased responsibilities of that, as well as an intense training schedule, John's eyes are spinning too. You should see us. We look like cartoons. 

We are at this awkward place in our life. Half of our friends are having babies and the other half are single and partying it up. We are somewhere in between. Some of our friends are young professionals and making good money with few obligations. We are close enough to that reality to dream about extra money someday soon, but we're still eating ramen noodles every now and then. You can't beat 25 cents worth of sodium and cardboard. We also have been married long enough that the delirium of honeymoon bliss is wearing off. I am happy to report that we still love each other, and most days we even like each other. It's just that this is the longest time we've spent in the same country and that comes with some new challenges. Once again, we are in an awkward place: the elated daze of the first few months of marriage is gone, yet we haven't quite found that secure niche that comes with several years of a solid marriage. The ever-changing dynamics of our relationship coupled with perpetual exhaustion leaves us wanting to go out dancing with our fun, single counterparts, but usually ends with us watching TV until our brains ooze out of our ears and we go to bed at 9 pm. I'm sorry I'm not sorry. 

It's a lot of work. All of it. Nursing school, Army life, marriage, finding laughter and spark in the mundane parts of life - it takes work. I wish I had some words of wisdom to offer, but I'm kind of up to my spinning eyeballs in the muck of it all. However, I've heard from those who've been-there-done-that that it's all worth it in the end. So I'll hang my hat on that and keep on keepin' on.