Archives for April 2007

Sorry about the “interruption in service” – I was playing with WordPress and forgot that an index.php takes precedence over an index.html. I’m moving my play ground over to www.lesliekirk.com and no – I do not have the domain name leslieallbert.com. So everything should be right in the world again.

30 years ago today – April 4, 1977 – I enlisted in the USAF and was on my way to Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas for the next 6 weeks. After Basic Training I would be off to Lowry AFB in Denver, Colorado for technical training to be a Precision Measurement Equipment Specialist.

If I would have stayed in for the full 30 – I would be retired today. But when it was time to re-enlisted I weighed the options, my now ex had 10 years in – he was half way to retirement after 20 years. I ran the risk of being station in one place, with my ex being stationed in another and neither of us being allowed to have our daughter with us. With that in mind I opted to not re-enlist. In hindsight – he still never was really anyplace I was at with the girls but at least the girls were always with me.

I also told myself that I could make more money on the outside as a government contractor – which I did wind up doing. If I stayed in I probably would have become a PMEL Superintendent for a lab that hadn’t been converted or perhaps gone back an taught at the tech school. I had been asked if I wanted to remain at Lowry as an instructor but I explained that I just didn’t I could teach a subject that I had no practical experience in – I needed bench time first.

That was then … this is now.

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I should have written this on April Fools Day since I am loving referred to as the April Fool’s joke that never went away. Ten years ago I started over, basically I lost everything. Jobs that I had were only $5 an hour and housing was either a hotel room or a travel trailer. I was forced into bankruptcy because I had an ex-husband that was true to form – said one thing and did another by signing a legal document agreeing to pay the joint debt and then didn’t.

But I was given the opportunity to expand upon what I was learning – web design and development. It wasn’t an easy road but I have had the constant support. Even to this day if I think I want to consider taking a job in a new location I have the full support of my husband – instead of being asked “why do you want to do that?”

Over the past ten years I have tried to get Megan to keep the lines of communication open with her father, calling and reminding her to just call him to call him, ask him if he wants to do something with him when he is in town and on and on. Quite the opposite of his attitude with her and the other two. Megan’s uncle has been more of a father to her than he has been in these past few years. She has gotten to the point that she feels uncomfortable calling him because she really doesn’t know him at all. She tells me stories of when she was little that she was almost afraid of being left with him because she didn’t know who he was.

If I had one thing to do over again, I probably would have let him drag me through the mud with whatever “evidence” he had against me. Granted, I probably would have been dragging his ass back to court for not paying child support. I never pushed the issue on child support when Megan was with us – my husband didn’t want his money. I never pushed this issue of his failure to provide health insurance for her. Yes, he did have her covered off and on – but it was more off then on.

Today I have a husband that feels that being home with family is more important than money, that hugs are better than buying things, and supports me in what I want to do in life.