Chattering Teeth and Anxiety Attacks!

This weekend went by in a blur! It seems like we were either so busy we didn't have a spare second or we were complete bums trying to figure out what to do in the meantime. No middle ground. Does that make sense?

Well, we decided to check out Iron Man 3 and World War Z on Friday night. We actually only watched Iron Man 3 and then decided to get some rest because we were helping with an event the next morning pretty early. I was expecting it to be not as great as the other two, just because movies sometimes spiral downward the more sequels they make. I was surprised though. It was really, really good. **Slight spoiler** I was wondering if it would make reference to the Avengers happening, and actually was expecting it to completely ignore that whole thing, but again was surprised because they did bring it up. So before I give away much more of the movie, I just want to say that it was really good and we will be adding it to our collection.

I will probably be adding World War Z to our collection as well. I had issues the night that we watched it, which weren't helped by Hubby chattering his teeth and screeching horribly. You will understand why when you watch the movie. I had just gotten done telling him we can't watch scary movies when we get in our new house because I get creeped out easily ... so what does he do? He starts making creepy noises from the film. Thoughtful one, that boy, lol. I survived the night though. I'm sure you are all happy to hear that! : )

Anywho, didn't really mean to talk about movies in this post, just wanted to share that they were both excellent in my former-horror-movie-lovin'-now-action-junkie self's opinion! : )

Ok, so Saturday morning there was an event. It was the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I mentioned before that Hubby and I are amateur radio operators. Our local ham radio club got together with the race committee and we volunteered to be the communications at the different stations to any and all that we could so things would run smoothly.

I've mentioned before that I am shy. And I also have a huge phobia of talking on phone type instruments. This includes radios. Which is why I have only ever done it a handful of times ... under pressure. So for this event I was going to be in a strange place, with strange people, in charge of communications for that area, and I would have to do it on one of the things I hate most. I had a bit of an anxiety attack the night before. There were a few tears and some deep breathing and pep talks ... to myself. I was too embarrassed to let Hubby know and I knew it would make him feel bad ... plus more attention just leads to more crying, lol. So I talked myself up and decided that I could do it.

All in all, I had to talk on the radio maybe 4 or 5 times for about 10 seconds each. So it ended up not being a big deal. And I knew it wouldn't, but the anticipation of the unknown is what gets to me. I need to work on that, but you know what they say you have to do to get over it? Do the thing that you fear over and over and over ... and over ... again until you no longer fear it. Or at least until you aren't held back by your fear. I have tried that, but honestly I don't really have much of a desire to conquer that fear. I make phone calls when I have to. It's not often. So I'm ok being a hermit, lol.

The race turned out to be a great success. Nobody got hurt except one man who had a bit of a diabetic episode, but his wife was totally on top of the situation and it worked out fine. We had a ton of participants in the race and I got some pretty awesome pictures including a guy that spray painted his leg hair and a ton of people (men, women, & kiddos) in pink tutus! And in the end I was proud of myself and happy that I could participate in such a wonderful event. 

Well, this post took a totally different direction than I was expecting, but there's a bit more about me that I'm sure you wanted to know.

1) I am afraid of zombies
2) I am afraid of the dark, especially while thinking about zombies
3) I am afraid of talking on the phone, even to most family
4) I suffer from voluntary hermitism : )

I definitely have many more fears that I could add to that list, but I will spare you. That is only half of our weekend, but I'll save the rest for another post. Until then, happy Tuesday! : )

I Am A Ham. A Ham. I Am.

At the radio club. We were taking pictures of all the birds.

I don't know if I mentioned this before or not, but Hubby and I are hams. Not the kind that you bake for Easter and not the kind that go "oink", but the kind that play with antennas and talk to people in other countries. Well, Hubby is that kind of ham. Amateur radio ham. I am more of a spectator. I could blog all day and share everything about my life and be fine. But I get shy and clam up when I have to talk to someone in person/via radio waves, lol. I actually hate talking on the phone too. 

So why did I become a ham? Good question. And it took me a while to decide that I did want to take that hammy leap. I've never had an interest in getting on a radio and transmitting to other countries. I don't really know how to make small talk, although I feel like I may be getting better as I get older. Most of the people that are on the radio are 40+ years old, usually 60+ years old. Most of them are men. And most of what they talk about are radios and the weather. I don't usually know what is going on with the weather unless I look outside and take a guess. And I know abso-tootly nuthin' about radios. 

But...

Hubby getting things ready for the Hamfest.

Hubby convinced me that it would be a good safety measure. We had a storm a couple of years ago that got pretty bad. We were expecting tornadoes and I didn't have time to get to the shelter at Hubby's work. So I went down to the first floor (half underground) of our apartment building. Our very old apartment building. I decided that I would rather take my chances on the bottom floor and possibly be crushed than to stay up top and go airborn if a tornado ripped off the roof. Those were my choices at the time, lol. So I had a weather radio with me to listen to the alerts and I had my cell phone. The only problem was that my phone was dying. Hubby had called me to make sure I was ok but my phone died in the middle of the conversation. He knew I was fine, but he is a supreme worrier at heart and knew that he would not have any way of contacting me for a while. 

Hubby at the end of the Hamfest.

The storm ended up just being a strong thunderstorm, no tornado, but it was kinda freaky. Not only did my phone die, but before it died, I was having a hard time getting a signal through the storm. He had a radio on him. I did not. If I would have had a radio, I still would have had the ability to communicate. Radio waves operate more on the atmosphere rather than the Verizon-sphere, lol. So I gave in, studied my little not-so-little booty off, and got my Technician license. I decided it wasn't that big of a deal to just go and get it and then I would have it in case I really did need to use it. Technically if it was an absolute emergency, I could get on and contact someone anyway, but this way I've just got a little experience and a license in case I need communication outside of an emergency and phone lines aren't an option. Better safe than sorry, right?

There are three licenses you can get with ham radio: Technician, General, and Extra. They get much harder as you go along. For some reason, a sense of competition kicked up in me and I ended up studying again and passed my General exam as well. I would have kept going, but the Extra just seemed intimidating and then I got busy and haven't gotten around to studying again. I do not know why I would need an Extra license (like Hubby) given that I don't talk on the radio at all now, lol, but my OCD-ness (pretty sure that's a word, maybe) has got me thinking about it from time to time. So I'm pretty sure it will happen eventually. 

 

Birthday celebration for our friend at the Fox Hunt! Ignore my horrible Photoshop abilities.

So there you have it. Now you know. I'm a ham. And I am a member of our local radio club. I can't say I've gone to many meetings, but I have gone to a couple of Christmas parties and I helped out with our local Hamfest. 

What's a Hamfest? Think big flea market but the only thing they sell is radio equipment. Ok, that's not true. I know I saw a few rubber chicken noise maker thingies being sold, but for the most part it is a bunch of old men getting together to trade or sell their antennas, tuners, meters, etc.

Out and about, hunting the "fox"! : )

The most recent event was a fox hunt. No, no. I didn't kill a fox. Or even chase one. And we did not have any kind of weaponry. A fox hunt, in the ham world, means one guy goes out with a radio and everyone else has to try to pinpoint his location based on the strength of the transmission signal. Think: game of hot or cold on an adult level. And you don't get a clear answer every time. You really have to pay attention to listen and see if the signal is stronger or weaker. It is actually kind of fun. Like I said, I'm competitive, even with myself, so I wanted to be the first group to find the "fox". And we did! : ) 

Maybe next time I will sign up to be the fox ... of course that would mean talking ... so maybe not, lol. 

Anyone ever heard of ham/amateur radio before or know any other hams? If you see an old man driving around with a huge antenna on his truck, he may just be a ham! : )

How I Kept Myself Busy On Vacation

This vacation was a different kind of vacation for us. We've always gone camping or taken biking trips or something in the past, but this year, with my job situation being so unpredictable, we felt it would be best to save as much money as possible. So we visited our families and stayed home and worked on projects we've been wanting to do for a while.

My husband is big into ham radio/amateur radio. So he was working on building a new platform for one of his antennas. We're in an apartment so we are limited on where he can set up antennas, but we do have a balcony so he's always looking for creative ways to get a better range. That has kept him pretty busy the last few days.

My project was a bit shorter. It did take me about 5 hours to complete, but that's just because I've never done anything like this before.

First of all, I should say that I like to take pictures. I don't know how to take great pictures, but I enjoy it. My husband got me a camera for a wedding gift and then this Christmas he ordered me a Groupon for a photography class through Flying Photo School. It's Digital 101 and it teaches me all about the buttons on the camera and how to manipulate them to get the best pictures possible. So far I've only done Week 1, but I've already learned quite a bit to improve my photo quality and I'm excited to see what the other 3 weeks will give me.

One thing that has always bugged me, however, was that when we go to family gatherings there are about 4 cameras lying around, all Canon, and it is somewhat confusing to me to find my own camera easily, lol. I said I liked taking pictures ... I did not say that I know anything about photography or cameras. But I'm learning. Anyway, my solution was to get a fun camera strap so I could identify my camera quickly. After searching around online and in a few photo stores, I didn't find anything I liked that was reasonably priced. So I decided I was going to make my own strap. I've put it off for quite a while, but I finally got around to getting some fabric and thread and got out the sewing machine that I have had for years but used maybe a handful of times, ever.

This was the very first time I've ever used the thing that I didn't feel like chucking it out of the window, haha! I finally figured out why it was getting snagged every other attempt at pushing the pedal. That helps so, so much. I still managed to prick myself with needles more than I care to admit and I realized some big mistakes in the project that were too late to fix, but I'm confident my next attempt will be easier.

So, here it is, my finished product. I love grey and yellow, so the fabric choice was pretty easy for me. And I included a pocket to hold my lens cap. The ends are the parts that I realized I had done wrong. I should have finished them before I sewed the strap together. But I'll work on that next time. I thought about just sewing the cover to the actual strap itself, but didn't want to have to throw the whole thing away or try to cut it out if I decided to change the pattern or if it got dirty. So I can now take it on and off easily and once I get a few more made, I'll have options on color and pattern depending on my mood. I'm excited and proud of my first finished sewing product in years! : )

I've included some of the pictures I took during Week 1 of my class, learning about White Balance and ISO. Hopefully my pictures will keep getting better. I finally figured out why they were all so grainy before. Apparently I had it set to night time shooting, lol. Oops. We'll see what I find out in Week 2! : )