Just Imagine

Wee Small Hours... (and new haircut!)

You've Got a Friend

My first "request" to honor! Keep 'em coming! I love this song... James Taylor/Carol King... how can you go wrong? I hope I don't go wrong in my interpretation... enjoy!

Over the Rainbow

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JprsSGD6us

Indulge me... I know I'm not Judy Garland, but I love to sing and play this song! Be nice...

I'm Back!

Ok - it's been a crazy few months, and I'm sure that you thought I might be GOING crazy after my last post, but all is well!

In the latest incarnation of this blog, I'm going to pretty much just inundate you with video recordings of songs that I like to sing, and images of meals I'm cooking, hikes I'm taking, dives I'm doing, and other "fun" stuff! (It'll mainly be songs, but I just can't help myself from tossing out some of the other too!)

For now, I'm going to keep the blog "Open" but if it starts to feel creepy with too many people I don't know checking it out, I might change it to "Invitation Only." I'll keep you posted!

Looking forward to being back with you!

rmf

Just talking...

I haven't updated here in quite a while; I'm kind of hoping that no one is checking in anymore and that I'm just sending it out to the void... if you do run across this, I'm fine, just need to say some things!

I'm so tired of having to be "perfect" and having to present the "perfect" happy face, and "perfect" family, and be the "perfect" hostess... I just want to scream and I feel like even if I do no one will hear me. I'm treading water, but I'm sinking down and no is watching or even sees that I'm struggling. Yes, I know I'll be fine. Everyone knows I'll be fine... but in the meantime, I'm not fine and I need to be taken care of a little bit.

I am strong. "Rachel is the strong one..." yep, everybody knows this... so no worries. But I'm tired of being strong. When do I get to be weak?? Oh yeah, never. It is my job to hold it together so that everyone around me can bring me their trials and struggles... which I don't mind, but shouldn't it be a two way street?

I'm sure a lot of this rant stems from loneliness. I know that I have my family's support and care, but sometimes that message gets lost in translation as it travels halfway around the world. Because I work from home, I don't have colleagues with whom I can share my day and my thoughts... and as I've recently had pointed out to me, I am apparently a very negative, critical person and that explains why I don't have tons and tons of friends. Great. So here I am. Alone.

If you're reading this, I apologize for being such a downer. I just needed to say these things out loud. When I post again, I'll put up some recent pictures and adopt the peppy, happy, "everything's perfect" tone that you were probably expecting. Sorry for the rant. But if you made it this far, thanks for listening.

rmf

Burr's Boat

When Burr left for his boat trip waaay back in late September, I got to go with him for a Sunday afternoon "move-in day." It was kind of surreal; think of kids dropping their parents off at camp or college instead of the other way around! Anyway, we took some pictures of the boat, of his room, of the planes, and of us... Enjoy!

That's the boat in the background...





Looks like there's a stow-away!

"He's Just Not That Into You"

Just not that into you... that's how I've felt about ye olde blog for the last several weeks. I know that the three of you that actually follow this are waiting with bated breath on a daily basis to see what's new with the Fergusons, and I'm sorry to disappoint, but I just haven't been interested in writing new posts!

Things have remained busy, even with "Ragtime" over and Burr still gone. My daytimes are filled with teaching students and preparing for lessons. My evenings are ridiculously boring as I sit home alone and surf the internet, munch on 100 Calorie Packs (bless the person who thought of that one!), read, and/or watch TV. Gabe and I still run daily, and I am loving diving more than ever. I just completed my GUE-Fundamentals rec pass (I'll post a link to GUE so that you can get an idea of what I'm talking about), and I'm looking forward to advancing my skills this winter and spring.

Last week, I had a welcome reprieve from the monotony of Burr's absence. The boats pulled back into port for a 36 hour Liberty period and Burr got to come HOME!!! We spent a great day and a half together, but it was such a tease! I didn't want to send him away again. Boo. But, he should be back to stay for a couple of months soon... I can't wait.

Other than that, just gearing up for a weird Thanksgiving in Okinawa with no Burr. I figure it can't be any worse than our anniversary, my birthday, Christmas or New Year's without him... and I've made it through all of those!

Hope that you're all well, and I'll try to get back into the swing of things on posting more regularly!

best,
rmf

My Birthday

Thank you all so much for helping to make my birthday a special day! I so appreciated all of the cards and goodies that came my way. On September 26, I celebrated by going on a dive, then opening all of the cards and some of my gifts. Then, I had a delicious lunch with a new friend at a Thai Restaurant (tradition? I think I had Thai food on my birthday last year too!) and followed that up with a birthday cake from Baskin Robbins. At rehearsal that night, the cast suprised me with a birthday cake and a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday!" After that piece of cake, I was literally bouncing off the walls! All in all, a good day. Maybe next year Burr will get to celebrate with me??!!

Onna Dive

Waaaay back in early September Burr and I had the opportunity to get in a few dives together. The last one we did together was at Onna Point; incidentally, it is also the last dive I photographed. When I originally transferred the pics from the camera to computer I hit a snafu and thought that I had erased them. To my happy suprise when I did some picture transfers last week, I found them! So, here's a few pics of Burr and me at Onna Point, Okinawa, Japan.