Wide Open Spaces

Like anyone moving to a new place, when I left O.C. for Rosamond I had high hopes! I was all too excited to finally live with my boyfriend and do normal couple things, not to mention finally live in the same city, I mean town as him! I was going to find an awesome job, cook up some amazing meals, and we were finally going to be able to just relax together like normal couples and watch TV and cuddle at the end of the day. I was eager to finally not have to share my time with him between family and friends when he came down on the weekends.

After a few weeks we were completely unpacked and settled in and I was ready to find a job! I drove 25 miles (50 miles round trip) into Palmdale every day of the week, dressed in my business suit and prepared to make a lasting impression with resume in hand. I quickly landed a job doing the sales and marketing for a Chiropractic Clinic in Palmdale and was thrilled to tell Eric. That is, until they offered me my salary.

“Ten dollars an hour,” I said to Eric, appalled, “Don’t they know I have a degree? That’s not even going to cover the gas it takes to get there!”

“You’re worth more than that. Keep looking,” Eric said, encouragingly.

I found a headhunter in Palmdale and they were impressed with my qualifications. But, when they wanted to send me to Valencia (80 miles away from our home in Rosamond) I was discouraged. “Valencia? Why all the way in Valencia?” I asked.

“Because, with your qualifications that is the only place in the surrounding area that offers the type of jobs you want with the salary that you are looking for, Miss Oakes. Would you like us to see what Bakersfield has to offer?”

“Bakersfield? That’s the 100 miles in the opposite direction?! That’s no better.”

After months of looking and plenty of tears later I gave up on the job search and took on the role of homemaker in full force! Eventually, I became comfortable in my new “job” and Eric was just happy to see me smile again.

Since the outlook of ever finding a job that was worth my time and energy while we were stationed at Edwards Air Force Base was pretty much thrown out the window, we did not hesitate to move on base after we were married. You see, Rosamond is a VERY small and VERY poor town (thus the difficulty finding a job). It consists of one grocery store, 2 or 3 gas stations, a post office, a couple of bars, and the usual fast food places- McDonald’s, Jack-in-the-Box, Taco Bell, and (wait for it) Subway! Rosamond is located 15 miles west of base and 40 miles from Eric’s job site at the Rocket Lab (which is 25 miles past main base). Moving onto Edwards Air Force Base put us 15 miles closer to Eric’s work but, also 15 miles further from civilization. Living life on base meant that I was going to be 75 miles round trip from a Costco, 75 miles round trip from a Trader Joes, a mall, and the best sushi restaurant in a 100 mile radius. How’s that for culture shock for a little girl from Orange County?!?! And yet, moving on base has been the BEST decision we have made as a married couple! Living on base means I have a Commissary (or a grocery store on base), a BX (base version of Target), a gym, and friendly, awesome, amazing neighbors all within 1-2 miles of my front door! I feel safe, I feel like I belong here, and I feel happy! It’s not Orange County, but it is our home and Edwards AFB has welcomed us with open arms. Don’t tell anyone yet, but I’m kinda gonna miss this place.

Oh, the things we do for LOVE

A year a a half ago I left this:

For this:



 And went from this:

To this:

All for this:

In the name of this:

LOVE



Fate

I met my husband on a Tuesday night in October of 2007. I went to dinner with a girlfriend and then we popped into a local college bar for a drink and to continue the girl talk. What I expected was to walk into that bar and continue the conversation, have a few more laughs, and maybe run into a couple of familiar faces before calling it a night. What I did not expect, was that I was going to meet a tall, dark, smart, and handsome man that would one day be my husband! Sure, I struck up a conversation with him because he caught my eye. But, within a few minutes of talking to him my heart and mind were equally intrigued. I learned that he was in his Masters program at CSULB (I was still taking undergrad classes at the time) and that he held a job as an engineer working at Northrop Grumman (an aerospace company) in El Segundo, CA. Before the night was over he asked for my number and we spent the next couple of weeks getting to know each other.

In the months that followed I learned that Eric went to ROTC or Reserved Officers’ Training Corps every Friday and, more importantly, that he looked really great in the uniform!  As time went on I began to recognize that this wasn’t just an extra-curricular activity. It was a college-based program established to train commissioned officers of the United States armed forces. When Eric commissioned in the USAF (United States Air Force) we had been dating for a mere seven months and I was still naïve to what this whole commissioning thing meant. All I knew was he would be going to Alabama for the summer and that meant a vacation to Florida for me to visit my handsome boyfriend!

Eric and I rarely had serious conversations about what commissioning in the Air Force meant for us. Truthfully, I think he was just as much in the dark as I was.  We took it all in stride and never came across a situation that we couldn’t handle or that made our relationship seem too difficult. When he got orders to Edwards Air Force Base (just 100 miles north of where we met in Long Beach) I did not even realize how coincidental these orders were! For Eric to be stationed so close to me and where I lived must have been fate. He could have been sent anywhere in the world, and my love was going to be just a 2 hour car ride away. Now, looking back I thank my lucky stars that he was stationed so close! A long distance relationship flying back and forth to the east coast certainly would not have been so simple.

1 deployment, 5 years, and 10+ TDY’s (Temporary Duties aka business trips) later and we still have not come across circumstances that were too hard to handle. That’s not to say it isn’t tough, and there have been times where the distance seems unbearable, but we have taken it as it comes and I’m glad we have. Orange County, CA is not a “military town” to say the least. I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t felt the need to defend my choices, my marriage, and my lifestyle to friends who do not understand it. I married an Astronautical Engineer who just so happens to be an Air Force Officer… but really, I married the man, and that is the important part no matter what his career.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

The idea of starting a blog has been in the back of my mind since the day I loaded my Nissan Sentra with all of my belongings and drove away from everything I've ever known and loved in beautiful Orange County, CA. That was September 6th, 2010 (over a year and a half ago now!) and today I finally sat down and brought that idea to fruition.
So much has changed since then! (For one, the Nissan Sentra has been replaced with a Toyota FJ Cruiser!) Shortly after I made the move to Rosamond we got engaged! Most of the time that I spent as a Rosamond resident I was planning my wedding. So, while outside my front door there was a dry, dusty, lonely desert, inside it was fluffy dresses, flowers, linens, cakes, and all things wedding! It was more than enough to keep me busy.
After our June 24th, 2011 Wedding Day, I finally had a military ID and could not get into base housing fast enough! On September 6th, 2011 (exactly one year from when I moved to Rosamond) we were moving once again just 15 miles down the road into a community I was excited to be a part of. Living on base brought us instant community, safety, and peace of mind. The past seven months that we have spent living on Edwards AFB have been a breath of fresh air.
And now there are new adventures ahead for us. In late February, we found out we are moving on July 17th to Colorado Springs, Colorado!  It is my hope that this blog will be able to serve as a window into our lives in Colorado (or wherever!). You can peer into it from time to time, every day or every hour, and hopefully it will make the times that we do get to see each other feel less and less far apart.