One RIP, Two Clothing Racks

Episode № 97 shares some progress about our upcoming PCS (including some expectation management), plus a site update, and a peek into a few recent purchases.

Transcript

Episode № 97 One RIP, Two Clothing Racks

Welcome back!
Lady Jupiter Podcast is the audio accompaniment to LadyJupiter.com a lifestyle blog where I write about my family’s military life, our home life, and other tiny details that I just like to share. I’m happy that you’re here with me.

In this episode I’ll share an update on our life as affected by the U.S. military, then continue with a blog update, and wrap up with something domestic. 

Today in our military-affected lives I have nothing significant to update - but it’s close!

We are just minutes away from having our actual orders - we do have a RIP. That’s R-I-P. And you must excuse my inability to clarify that acronym, because I can’t find a straight answer anywhere. It seems to function as a receipt, as in “this office needs a copy of your orders -or- a copy of your RIP” so this piece of paper is something we can use and trust, it’s just not the actual orders.

I can clarify the acronym OCONUS for you. So, for or you non-military listeners, OCONUS is spelled O-C-O-N-U-S and it is short for “Outside Continental United States” so it just means anything East of the East Coast, and West of the West Coast.

This is relevant because I can let you know that we are finally moving overseas. I’ll be more specific later…maybe in June I will finally reveal our location? I love sharing what we’ve done in the past, but I am not keen on sharing upcoming plans. I’m just paranoid about people knowing specifically where I am (or not). So not-sharing publicly isn’t any military restriction, it’s just my personal preference.

I’m excited that we’re finally getting to exit the central time zone (that has captured Mister Jupiter since he was a wee butter bar). Granted, he has certainly traveled and deployed all over the world in his 20-odd year career, but his home (and later, our homes) have all been in the same swath of the United States - namely the middle…but paradoxically NOT the part near our families.

So for the past ten years we’ve been traveling to our family members, and once we get settled in our OCONUS location, they are just going to have to look back fondly on those trips because we will not be traveling frequently to the states from our next home. No offense to our wonderful families of course! International travel is just plain expensive and we aren’t made of money. Plus we’re excited to spend our free time traveling around our new address because that will be both unique and more affordable. Also, it’ll be temporary, so we are simply going to maximize our time overseas by staying there as long as we can - which is a very common line of action for OCONUS families.

We’re happy to host visitors of course! We don’t know exactly what housing we’ll get, but we have an idea. Nothing is happening until it’s happening - right? So if you are listening and wanting to visit us - I can give you a few immediate expectations. You’ll have a roof, and full access to our couch and air mattress. But I’m not sure if we’ll have a guest room, so don’t expect a ton of space or privacy. We are really hoping for two bathrooms. Expectation management is important, and I’m here to help you lower your expectations about the square footage of our next home. Hell, you might share a bunk bed with Kid Jupiter!

For the record, you don’t have to stay with us. We’re not moving to the moon; hotels and AirBnbs still exist. Our home will be comfortable and familiar for those of you who seek those qualities. Plus we will have details like American food in the kitchen, and no-fuss internet access.

For today’s LadyJupiter.com update…

I finally managed to upload an article that I’ve been wanting to post for months. It’s part of my ADHD Series - this one is how I managed my college assignments and passed with a high GPA without medication. Why without medication? Because I wasn’t diagnosed until recently, so medication wasn’t an option for…the first 37 years of my life - during which I went to school. Several schools. And even repeated some stuff because there’s no shame in proving that you really can do better.

It seems that the Adderall shortage isn’t getting any better, so there’s a fair chance that I’ll need to rely on my old skills again if the shortage affects my pharmacy so much that I really cannot get refills. I already had a close call recently, so I’m expecting to deal with this shortage as this year progresses.

That’ll be fun. Imagine getting glasses for the first time, but they get broken before you move - and also you’re moving to the moon, so you won’t be able to replace them again. It’s like that. But instead of visual improvements, I’ll be missing the ability to quiet my mind and relax.  I know that I can survive, because my survivorship bias shows me that I’ve done it before, but I don’t want my brain’s glasses to get broken. Ugh. That’s the last thing I need; to move across an ocean with a blurry brain - but that might be in my future.

I’ll add more to my ADHD Series when I can. It may surprise you to hear that I don’t have a calendar block each day to write or edit any new content. What works one week, crumbles the next week, and further attempts to do what worked that one time are laughable at best.
📌 ADHD Series, Managing College Assignments
📌 ADHD Series (link to the growing collection; a work in progress)

And lastly something domestic.

I’ve just been buying little things here and there in anticipation of our next move. I’ve said before that I do not expect to have a robust closet, so I’ve bought a few clothing racks. Just two - because I really don’t know what kind of space we’ll have. One rack has a bar in the middle - I imagine this rack to carry my leather jacket collection. The second rack does not have a bar, this one will be for my dresses, pants that I prefer to hang, and Mister Jupiter’s uniforms if he finds it convenient.

I’m slowly trying to get a good collection of shirt dresses before we move.
📌 Outfits of the Day Collection (most recent quarter is at the top of this page)

As usual I’ve been visiting my favorite online thrift store often and finding some real gems. Specifically several new-with-tags shirt dresses in my size under $10 each…so I’ve been getting back into my old habit of “one box in, one box out” to avoid overstuffing the closet that I am trying to reduce.

It’s nice donating stuff that I haven’t been wearing, and mildly entertaining to finally fit into something that I bought two years ago to discover that it’s too big or that I don’t like the style anymore.

And that’s it for today’s episode.

Show notes and transcript are available anytime; swing by LadyJupiter.com/podcast.
📌 Ladyjupiter.com/Podcast

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I will talk to you when I can record next. 

—Bye for now!