This last month was a difficult one.

Nadia left for Afghanistan at the beginning of the month. While I’m thankful that I’ve been able to talk to her on a regular basis via email and over the phone, I still miss her very much. This place is too quiet without her. There are so many things, big and little, that I miss.

(If you are interested in sending anything her way, please let me know and I’ll give you her contact info).

Three days after she left I got laid off. I didn’t see it coming (I’m not sure anyone does). I’ve been on the job hunt since. Colorado Springs isn’t very friendly to PHP web developers, so the pickings are pretty slim. I’ve considered moving to the Denver/Boulder area (about 90 miles from the Springs) in hopes of landing a job there.

Unfortunately, the combination of these two events is causing me to throw a series of pity parties for myself. This jobless thing would be easier to deal with if Nadia were here. Having a job would help with being so lonely. The few friends I’ve made here have either moved away, deployed, or were at the old job. For lack of a better term: this situation sucks.

Luckily, all of June wasn’t bad.

My neighbors have been pretty awesome. They fed me the first few days after Nadia left (I think they think that I don’t know how to cook). I’ve also met with the Family Readiness Group (Army spouses) a couple of times. This little bit of face-to-face human contact is helpful.

I play on Xbox LIVE more than I used to. There I game with some of Nadia’s family and some friends. Doing something that I enjoy is certainly stress-relieving.

I built my first computer the day she left. A home theater PC, to be exact. I planned it this way thinking that keeping myself busy that day would absorb the blow of her departure (that plan didn’t work). However, in the month since I built it, it has kept me busy with the troubleshooting and new functionality and all. At least it keeps me occupied.

Of course, I’m looking for a job. I put together willdiaz.com as a single-page site to host my resume and offer ways for potential employers to contact me. I’ve redone my resume twice, gone on one interview, I have another one scheduled for next week and have spoken to many recruiters and potential clients for my fledgling freelance career.

I would like to take a moment and say something to all recruiters and hiring managers out there: if someone is not a good fit for your organization’s needs, please have the courtesy to tell that once-potential employee. It is incredibly unprofessional to suddenly cut off communication with them. Sadly, this has happened to me a few times, and it is crushing to my morale (and to anyone else’s, I’m sure).

I wrote my first amateur video game review! That was a neat experience, playing a game solely to critique it. The lucky game was Terminator Salvation, and you can read it over at buttonmashing.com.

Following Danny’s death, there was a gigantic legal mess surrounding his car, which I cosigned with him on a few years ago. It was an eight-month ordeal to sort out, but it is now done! Thanks to my dad for spending many long hours at the DMV on a few occasions to make this happen.

I think that’s about it.

In short, my month started off really rough, and I’m trying to fight all of those naturally-occurring negative feelings.

I’ve been following the auto industry news as of late and things are just really sad for Chrysler and GM. One of the local Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealerships got the notice last week that as of 8 June, they will no longer be selling those cars. Our dealership, Mike Shaw Pontiac, has avoided the first round of dealership cuts, but it is still possible for them to get the slip in a future cut. Bottom line - no one is safe.

So one of my RSS feeds stated that the Viper plant was up for sale - and very few was interested in buying it. At $10 million, purchasing the plant seems like a steal to me, but I’m in no position to buy it nor am I fully aware of what is expected of the company that does decide to buy it. Will they still build Vipers (my ultimate dream car by the way…) or would they desecrate the plant by building anything other than a Viper? I was especially scared for the plant when I read that a food company CEO was interested in purchasing it for considerably less…horrible, horrible thoughts came to mind.

The Viper is a car that you either love or hate…I happen to love this car to death. I had posters of this car on my wall (yes, when other chics had the latest Teen Beat heartthrob on theirs…) I save car magazines with photos of Vipers on the cover. Before I die, I hope to sit in one of these beautiful vehicular beasts so I can listen to its sweet V-10 rumble through my soul - IT’S THAT SERIOUS! Car mag reviewers will talk about its high maintenance costs, it’s lack of road manners, the fact that’s it not a good daily driver…it doesn’t matter because this car was never not meant for the masses - only serious car enthusiasts needed to apply! Those that wanted appliances like Camrys and Accords knew where to go (I have an alternate place for them, but anyway…). To think that this car may no longer be produced is sickening.

Hopefully a car enthusiast will purchase this plant and do right by this car. This is the hope of a car enthusiast - one who does not see any of her vehicles as appliances.

Today Danny would’ve been 26. My mom told me a week ago that she was going to have some of his favorite doughnuts (Entenmann’s) in his honor. I ripped off her idea, but then Nadia added to it: turn them into a cake.

The below video shows the creation of this “cake.”

The first layer is made up of four doughnuts covered in Betty Crocker whipped vanilla frosting. Two more layers are stacked on top, each one covered in frosting. The final product is pretty difficult to eat, even with a tall glass of milk, due to the rich nature of the chocolate and the thick, sweet frosting. I could only eat one, and Nadia could barely get through one.

At the end of the video, I get choked up singing “Happy Birthday,” so Nadia finished the song for me. Her original deployment date had her leaving yesterday; being here by myself would have made today much harder to get through. I’m happy her deployment was pushed back one week for that reason, and also because I get to keep her around for just a bit longer.

I love and miss you Danny. Where ever you are, I hope you enjoyed your birthday.