Tomorrow Is Another Day...

Countdowns!

As depressed as I am about the fact that when I leave for Japan I'll be saying goodbye to Colby for over four months, I'm trying to look on the bright side of these next few months.  I've made a lot of fun plans in an attempt to  keep myself entertained, and if nothing else, at least there will be less laundry to do!  Here are just a few of the things keeping my spirits up as our days together are dwindling.

1 day until... We get our master bedroom and bathroom painted!  I can't wait, it's going to be so beautiful.  I may never leave my bedroom again!

8 days until... We spend the day in Charleston, have dinner at a fancy restaurant, and stay the night in a charming, historic inn.  I'm looking forward to walking our city after dark and getting to feel like I really live there.

14 days until... I leave for 10 days in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara.  We've firmed up our itinerary, all of our prior bookings have been made, and we're totally ready to be completely Lost in Translation!

~6 weeks until... A long weekend with my long lost besties in Washington.  This one is a little harder to nail down exactly as I'm contemplating taking a Space A flight with the Air Force.  For the first time.  By myself.  Eep!

10 weeks until... I am FINALLY at LAST after more than two years of work DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!  For real this time.  After this, if I so much as hint at the fact that I want to further my education, please slap me.  But please remember to refer to me as "Master" while doing so.

3 months until... My theatrical sister and San Francisco-based frister (friend AND sister!) are planning a simultaneous trip to Charleston where we'll be uniting the West coast, Northeast, and the deep South.  I really, really hope it all works out according to plan!

3 months & 3 weeks until... I head to a quaint Vermont town for my dear friend's wedding.  She has had a trial of a year, and I can't wait for her to have a magical wedding weekend and to be there to watch it all unfold.  Plus, Vermont!  Maple syrup!  Or something...

4 months until... I head home for a week or so to spend time with family and attend my mother's annual Pretty in Pink party, benefiting breast cancer research.  I may be off on my calculations, but I believe that this year we will be celebrating 5 years since her victory over cancer, and I can't wait to be there and support her cause in person!

5 months until... Colby is back home and this whole deployment nonsense is behind us for another couple of years!!

Oh What A Week

Wel, last week was such a jam-packed crazy bunch of days, and now I find myself exactly back where I was last Saturday.  Colby finally got home from a three-week long trip last Saturday and on Sunday his parents came in town for a few days to see the Charleston sights and help us out with projects around the house.  We finally got around to installing a dog door on the porch, a microwave over the range, tore out some old ugly plants and put in some new lilies and dahlias, and generally ate our way around the city.

It's been a challenge teaching the dogs how to use the dog door.  Jack will go through it on his own about 50% of the time, but Ellie will only go through if she sees Jack do it first or if you lift the flap for her so that she can see through it.  I'm trying to step back and let them figure the door out on their own now that they've been in and out through it a number of times with assistance, but mostly they end up circling the porch unable to figure out how to get outside, or stuck out in the yard, staring at the screen door.  This is my entertainment.

I started the South Beach Diet a couple of weeks ago in an effort to improve my diet which had deteriorated to X-tra Cheddar Blast Goldfish for lunch and cereal for dinner and hopefully lose a couple of pounds of fat that are covering my super sweet Jillian Michaels muscles.  The diet went well for the first week and I lost about three pounds, all of which were returned to my butt as I totally fell off the wagon and ate every carb and high calorie item I came across while my inlaws were in town.

It was a fun week, but now things are back to "normal" as Colby is once more out of town on a trip, I'm restarting my diet, and instead of planning an itinerary of Charleston attractions, I'm working on a lesson plan about place value in math.

Hm, this post is so uninteresting, I just got distracted by the Weather Channel.  Here's hoping you're having a significantly more exciting weekend than I am!

New York. So... That Happened

I can feel myself slipping back into my old non-blogging ways--the lure of juicy season finales and the less thrilling pastime of homework have conspired to direct my attention far, far away from the blog world.  But I have vanquished those demons (or at least caught up on all of the most exciting episodes, oh my GOD, did you see The Vampire Diaries?!?  (Not that I watch that, because it's totally juvenile.)), and am back to tell you all about New York.

But first, an ever so slightly related aside--did you see the Betty White Saturday Night Live?  Because I did, and the part that made me laugh the hardest was when she was talking about Facebook and she mentioned how people use their profiles to share all of their vacation photos and in her day that was the highest form of punishment.  So, I don't know what you did wrong, but here in chronological order is six days worth of punishment.

I met my mom at LaGuardia on Tuesday and we headed to Chelsea to mooch off of the restaurant where my sister works while she finished her shift.  We gorged ourselves on various delicious Italian delights, drank far too much wine, and then headed back to our apartment in the Upper West Side to attempt to watch Lost.  I watched it again when I got home from my trip and it was literally like watching it for the first time.

The next day, Brittany had to work, but my mom and I mustered up all of our nerve and made our way to the train to attempt to figure it out on our own for the first time ever.  After a comedy of errors worthy of The Bard, we managed to make it uptown to The Cloisters, which was to become my all time favorite part of the trip (aside from hanging out with amazing loved ones, obvies!).  The Cloisters were built in the early 1900s, but they were cobbled together from bits of old European monasteries, cloisters, churches, palaces, etc ranging from around the 11th to the 15th centuries.  It was filled with priceless European art and statuary, and it truly felt like an oasis in the city (I would say even more so than Central Park) and like a little bit of European grandeur and history in America.  The architecture was breathtaking, and I was absolutely enamored with the Unicorn Tapestries.  I bought a mug depicting the tapestry pictured above and have dubbed my unicorn, The Right Most Honourable Sir Sparkles.

We eventually made our way to Brooklyn where we were treated to a heavenly four hour meal at The River Cafe, not to mention the dubious honor of being seated next to and accosted by the one and only Miss Liza Minnelli (the tiny blurry black-haired lady to the right of the flowers in the above photo).  We made good friends with our waiter which meant that on top of the delicious appetizer, entree and dessert that came with the prix fixe menu we also got a king's ransom worth of free cheese, dessert and drinks.  As to why Liza made a drunken attempt to scold us about some mysterious transgression, smacking my sister on the arm in the meantime, the world may never know.

Wednesday was a bit more relaxing as we spent a good portion of the day wandering through and camped out in various sections of Central Park.  The above statue is a memorial to the children of New York given in Frances Hodgson Burnett's name, but it's more famous in our family for being the statue that my sister copied from a magazine for an art contest when she was still in school.  She had no idea where the statue was until years later she saw it in a picture that a friend had taken while they were in New York and posted on Facebook.  Serendipity.  Or something.  The bottom is, of course, my adored Alice having a tea party with her Wonderland friends.  At first, I was irritated that I caught that little girl in my photo, but it's actually kind of charming, and she does bear rather a striking resemblance to Alice, doesn't she?  We also spent a couple of hours in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I swear, one day I will make it back there and do more than just the Egyptian section.

Friday we made our way back down to Chelsea where we visited the Chelsea Market (sorry, but the Pike Place Market beats its little butt) and High Line Park.  I can definitely see where the High Line has tons of potential for awesomeness.  It's an old elevated railroad track in Chelsea that has been converted to a park just within the past year or so.  But right now all of the plants are still saplings and young growth, and the views of the warehouse district and noisy streets just can't compete with Central Park.  I do look forward to going back over the years and seeing how it develops, though.  We finished our tour of Chelsea with a stop at Billy's Bakery, and I'd highly recommend the chocolate cheesecake over the cupcakes if you ever pop in!

Up until Saturday, the weather in the city was an absolutely ideal sunny upper 70s kind of perfection.  Of course, the day we had planned to go out on the harbor cruise and see the Statue of Liberty, the winds whipped into a frenzy and the temperatures plummeted into the 40s and 50s.  Instead of the cruise, we opted to photograph Lady Liberty from Battery Park, then headed toward the financial district to see Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange and did a quick tour of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.  After lunch, we went in search of cowboy boots to go with the Anthropologie dress I bought at the Chelsea Market to wear on Mother's Day.  Despite what Sex and the City would have you believe, New Yorkers appear to enjoy eating a hell of a lot more than shoe shopping as we canvassed block upon block without coming across a single shoe store.  We finally hit pay dirt on Broadway, and I found my dream pair at Steve Madden.  We had just enough energy to battle the wind and cold in order to make it to Sweet Revenge for yet another cupcake interlude (and oh my, they were HEAVENLY!), then headed back to the apartment for a marathon North & South viewing.

Eventually, our last full day in the city rolled around, and we started the day with a so-so brunch at Trestle on Tenth.  They'll feed you, but if you try to hang around until noon so you can order a bloody mary, you'll get the evil eye from the entire wait staff.  So, that was disappointing, but we just headed back to Brittany's restaurant and polished off a couple of bottles of wine and a cheese plate.  When I tell you that we ate everything in New York, it's really not hyperbole.  And I wish that I could tell you that I have a picture of the three of us together on Mother's Day, because we really did all look adorable and it really was a rare occurrence... alas... my photographer failed me.  But, despite the fact that there's no photographic record of the fact that any of us were there, we all greatly enjoyed Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta Jones in A Little Night Music.  It was a star-studded weekend.

Sadly, the next day mom and I departed after our morning ritual of Regis & Kelly and breakfast at The Muffin Cafe (inside joke here, but I totally tried to Google search that place with "Muffin Man New York", ha!).  It was a tearful goodbye all around, but I'm already making plans for my next trip to the Northeast later this year, and my lovely sissy will be taking Charleston by storm this summer.  I feel so lucky to have such an amazing family and to have the opportunity for such amazing travels.  It was a week in New York that I will always remember and treasure.

Home and Abroad

Thank you all so much for your supportive comments on my last post.  I know it was a whole lot of whining, but I felt loads better about the situation the second I hit the publish button.  I did eventually track down an actual human to speak to in the advising department, and she confirmed that I was enrolled in the correct class, but then she terrified me by bringing up yet another class requirement that would add another two months onto my graduating time line.  I questioned her on this and she said that she would get back to me by the end of the day, which... she did not.

However, I read my degree requirements for the one frillionth time, and the class she mentioned isn't listed anywhere in the degree change form that I signed and agreed to, so I will raise one hell of a fight if they try to push this on me.  And so, I refuse to get worked up about it right now, because in less than 24 hours I will be on VACATION!!

I spent the weekend being disgustingly responsible, finishing all of my homework for the weekend, getting the house in shape for my departure, and yes, I even began packing.  In fact, I started laying my clothes out on Saturday night, nearly 48 hours in advance of my usual packing schedule, which is typically around midnight on the night before I leave.  I'm even contemplating working ahead in my schoolwork for next week if I have any time left over after I run all of my errands and finish packing.

Today is ultrasound day, so I've been worrying all weekend about what one wears for an ultrasound.  And of course, I'm still incredibly worried about how I'm supposed to be able to drink 2 quarts of water 2 hours before my appointment and not have a very embarrassing bodily fluid related situation take place.  What I am not worried about is the outcome of the ultrasound.  You all did a fine job of making me feel so much better about my tipsy little lady organ, and quite frankly, I just don't have room in my head for more worrying.

Well, except for those commercials about HPV that start out of nice and optimistic talking about traveling and falling in love and then end in sadness and despair and chemo and infertility.  I am now I'm convinced that I have HPV and that is why I am going to be infertile.  This belief based on absolutely nothing, except for that really depressed girl in the commercial.  Thanks medical science, questionable marketing and unfounded paranoia!

But whatever, I just have to get through one more day of the bizarre monotony that is my life (who knew monotony could be bizarre?!) and then I'll be jetting off to the Big Apple to spend a week with my most wonderful momsie and sissy-bear.  I'll be back soon to regale you with stories of my time as a country mouse in the big city, and hopefully the air doesn't get too stale in here in the meantime.

So for now, my friends, as they say in New York City, bye, see you later!

Let's Make A Deal

If there's one thing I love, it's the heavenly combination of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, a brownie, sweet cream ice cream, and hot fudge.  But if there's another thing I love, it's shopping.  And then if there's one other thing I love, it's finding an amazing deal.

I didn't get the ice cream yesterday, but I got everything else.  I've been wanting to check out the Tanger outlets here, excited to finally have an outlet store less than two hours away from my house.  And let me tell you, I was crazy impressed.  I think it was the best outlet I've every been to.  There were tons of stores I actually wanted to shop at, and then once inside the stores, they had a great selection and some real screaming deals.  My favorite finds:

Coach Horse & Carriage Tote, Amazon Price $268 on sale for $200
Angela's Price $71

 

BCBG Max Azria Catilda, Endless Price $249 (no longer available)
Angela's Price $49

I also came away with a super cute khaki jacket and a summery smocked dress (apparently I'm four years old again) from Ann Taylor Loft, a pair of white shorts (living on the edge, there) from the Gap, and the one thing I'd actually gone in search of, some casual, every day wear jeans from Banana Republic.  Plus I got to spend time with a great friend and an adorable baby.  All in all, an excellent day!

Now, I'm less than a week away from my trip to New York.  I'm so excited to be seeing my mom and sister for six glorious days, and hopefully meeting up with some dear friends while I'm there.  The keys to the apartment we've reserved for our stay should be arriving today, and I've been spending the past couple of days trying to decide how on earth to pack for early May in New York without bringing everything from a parka to spaghetti straps.

Today I'm wrapping up my second to last class in my Masters program, and while I should be starting another one tomorrow, I'm currently enrolled in the wrong class and am having the worst time getting in touch with an adviser.  My usual academic adviser is on vacation, and the contact that she left in her out of office reply isn't responding to my messages.  So frustrating!  I will be immensely glad when this is all over--hopefully in just eight more weeks!

Kind of A Fun Few Days

Oh, blog, how I have missed you while I've been busy dashing hither, thither and yon with a variety of amazing people.  Over the past week and a half I've conducted a grand tour of the Southeast and have been quite impressed with what I've found.

Last weekend I headed west for a girlie weekend in Atlanta with my dear friend Melissa.  We visited the Olympic park, ate at a delicious Italian restaurant (Baraonda, if you ever find yourself starving on Peachtree street), then discovered a bar that was serving $5 hurricanes.  Being that the origin of Melissa and my friendship is in our days at LSU and many of those days were spent wandering the streets of New Orleans, we were suitably impressed by this discovery.  After staying up until 4 am chatting about God knows what, we let ourselves sleep in and then headed out to brunch, ever so slightly after noon, and spent the rest of the day wandering around downtown, napping, and then eating some more.  It was a wonderful weekend, that in retrospect included a vast amount of caloric intake, but I wouldn't change a thing!

I returned home Monday and immediately transitioned into hostess mode, whizzing through the house cleaning and organizing before my parents arrived that evening.  They spent the week with us and we managed  to cram more Charleston sightseeing into that week than I've done in two months of living here.  We took a boat trip out to Fort Sumter, did a walking tour of historic Charleston, bought sweetgrass baskets at the downtown market, visited the Angel Oak on John's Island, toured the Charleston Tea Plantation where we sampled Charleston Breakfast tea, drove down to Georgia for a beautiful day in Savannah, and ate at scads of amazing restaurants.  It was such fun, and I'm more in love with Charleston now than ever.

My parents left yesterday, and today I'm getting back to my current version of real life.  I'm starting my first of the only three classes I have remaining in my Master's program before I can start student teaching, and I have piles of laundry yet to get through.  It sure would be nice to be retired and living down in the heart of Savannah with a battalion of hired help right about now!

Endings & Beginnings

I feel like the events of the last post I wrote took place in another lifetime.  Since that day, we have packed up all of our belongings, moved out of our house so that tenants could move in, lived with a friend for a week, and are now about halfway through our trip from Washington to Louisiana.

Surprisingly, everything has gone off so far without a hitch (I say that now, and tomorrow we'll probably go 500 miles in the wrong direction or something equally ridiculous).  Our movers were friendly types who seemed to take pretty good care of our stuff as they spent two days packing and then loading up all of our worldly goods.  It's amazing what a pizza and some cranberry juice can do for the movers' morale.  Our tenants moved in just hours after we finished our cleaning, and we headed about 20 miles south to stay at a friend's house until it was time to start our drive.

It was sad to say goodbye to our house, but we didn't really have time to get too emotional.  I feel good about the people who have moved in, and as much as I'll miss my friends, I can't say that I'll miss Washington too much.  It was really nice to have that last week free to take care of last minute errands and scratch items off of our to-do list.  We closed on our South Carolina house on the 11th, so it's officially ours now--empty and just waiting for us to arrive.  We enjoyed quality time with our Washington friends, though it was sad not getting the chance to say goodbye to all of our friends in person.

The road trip started on the 12th, kicked off with a final goodbye drink at Starbucks, a stop-off in Salem, OR to visit a friend and an overnighter in charming Ashland, OR.  We made it down to San Francisco on the second day where we camped out for two nights, visiting friends in the city and playing tourists for the day.  The next night was spent in San Bernardino after a nightmarish two hours of Los Angeles traffic, and tonight we're in balmy Tucson, AZ where we've enjoyed a delicious dinner with my cousin and his wife and a hotel viewing of Speed.

We still have two more La Quinta nights ahead of us before we make it to Louisiana where we'll spend the week of Christmas with our families and then it's off to South Carolina to kick off our next Air Force assignment.  I'm going to make an effort to check in again more often between now and the actual move, but in case I'm not back in time, Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate and Happy Holidays to the rest!

The Palmetto State

So much has happened in the past few weeks, I hardly know where to begin. I know when a blogger that I read doesn’t update for a while, I sort of lose track of them and when they “come back to life” it’s always a little surprising that they were off living their life without my knowledge. And yet, life does go on away from the blogosphere, and mine has been a whirlwind of late.

It all started about two weeks ago when Colby came home and delivered the news that we had finally gotten our next assignment, and in less than six months we’ll be calling another part of the country home. In the words of Rhett Butler, “I’m going back to dignity and grace. I’m going back to Charleston, where I belong.”

We’re hoping to leave Washington in mid-December, head down south through Oregon and California, hit I-10 East, be home for Christmas and then continue on to our new home. It’s still a little surreal, and I’m unsure as to how this will go over with my company since I’m supposed to be starting back to work in September and now will need to be terminating employment in just a few more months…. but overall, I’m beyond thrilled to be moving to Charleston. It was our first choice, and I think I’ll feel much more comfortable and happy back in the land of crawfish, SEC football, and Spanish moss.

The next week was filled with touring as Colby’s parents came in town and we nearly killed ourselves driving to the far reaches of the region from the Oregon coast, to the Fremont/Ballard areas of Seattle, and Friday Harbor in the San Juan islands. We packed all of that and more into their five-day visit, and I also scrambled to finish three weeks worth of school in one so that I could go on vacation without making time for homework every night. My in-laws left on August 5th and we had that one day to run all of our errands, finish last minute chores, and throw some swimsuits into our suitcases before our 8:15 am flight out of Seattle on August 6th for HAWAII!!!

And that’s where I’m reporting to you from now. I’ve got tons of material to write about from our time in Kauai, but I think I will save that for a later post. Always leave ‘em wanting more, right?  We’re sitting at the airport and boarding for our flight to Oahu in about 10 minutes, so right now I need to put away my computer and start praying for the remnants of Tropical Depression Felicia to give us a break so that our beautiful 20 minute flight doesn’t turn into an Oceanic Flight 815 kind of experience…

Back From the Mountains

I'm finally back on the blogging train after a nice long trip to eastern Montana where my parents and I met up to visit my sister at the summer stock theater where she is working.  It was a really great trip, and I enjoyed spending some time in a part of the country that I had never really considered visiting.  Now I can't wait to go back and spend more time hiking in the stunning Glacier National Park.

It was really fun watching my sister perform and getting to appreciate how much she has grown as an actress and singer over the past couple of years.  She made an amazing Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz and Irene Malloy in Hello, Dolly!  The theater itself was beautiful and both of the shows were highly entertaining, though the best part of the trip was just squeezing in as much family time as we could with Brittany's insanely busy schedule.

The other highlight of the trip was the aforementioned Glacier National Park.  I'd really never heard of this park until moving out to this part of of the country, and I can now say with full authority that it is a true hidden gem of the United States.  The park has an amazing array of vistas, from sparkling lakes to craggy mountains, roaring waterfalls to bubbling brooks.  At one moment you feel like your in a near desert environment and the next you're surrounded by lush ferns and towering evergreens.  There are hikes for every level of fitness, and we had a fantastic time exploring without the mad crush of people that we've experienced at other parks.  There were just enough other tourists there to keep you from feeling completely alone, but you could also sit quietly at the edge of a lake and not see another person go by for ages.

We did have one highly dramatic moment as my dad nearly pitched headfirst into Virginia Falls due to a freak bifocal incident.  Sadly his brand new $3 Lewis and Clark baseball cap and my camera weren't so lucky as to avoid a watery grave, but fortunately aside from some extreme bruising and a rather frightening looking cut under the eye, my dad was okay and looked almost as good as new just a few days later.  And I've been wanting a new camera for a while anyway, so thanks for giving me an excuse to get one daddy!  We spent lots of time just driving along desolate highways and back roads and exploring tiny Montana towns, and all in all it was a wonderful and incredibly relaxing vacation.

After a painfully long day of flying which included five takeoffs and landings and two layovers, I got home late Tuesday night to an empty house since Colby was unexpectedly sent off on a long work trip on Sunday and the pups were dropped off at the vet for boarding.  Last night I went with a crew to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and oh my gracious, I laughed, I cried (buckets)!  Of course, the movies never hold a candle to the books, but I think they did a pretty great job capturing the tone of the books and did a decent job of hitting all the highlights.

So, I have the next couple of weeks off from anything pressing aside from school, then we'll be entertaining my in-laws for about a week and the day after they leave jetting off for ten amazing days in Hawaii.  I feel so blessed to be able to spend this summer in such a relaxing way, surrounded by friends and family, traveling and truly getting to enjoy life every day.  Oh summer, please don't ever end!

Little Miracles

Let me tell you.  I have not felt this happy about life since... last summer!  Actually, that's not even true, because last summer is when Colby left for four and a half months, so though I was not in the depths of despair the entire season, I don't think I was as happy as I've been lately.

Thing the First:

I don't think I have a black thumb!  I don't think I have a green thumb either, but I finally decided to throw caution to the wind and attempt this whole gardening thing I keep hearing about.  I was tired of admiring and coveting beautiful front lawns in our neighborhood and then coming back to our ratty little contractor planted garden, so last weekend we hit up the farmers market and Home Depot and came away with a bountiful crop of fleurs.  I want to show you just how beautiful they are before they all shrivel up and die, but alas, my camera is currently lacking any picture taking abilities and Colby is off gallivanting in some far flung corner or the world (also known as the East Coast) with our schmancy camera.  So, I will tell you them.  Thus far, I have managed to not kill the following:

• 3 rhododendrons of varying colors-- light pink, bright pink, and cream with pink "highlights"
• 1 fuschia
• 1 potted red dragon tree in its infancy
• 3 tiny terracotta pots of some such flowers that I got in the $1 bin at Target and am growing from seeds
• 2 toddler lilacs, henceforth known as Lila and Lacy
• 1 herb garden consisting of sweet basil, lemon basil, pesto basil, mint julep, chocolate mint, lemon thyme, and rosemary, and an ivy, which I realize is not an herb, but does look awfully pretty amidst the more edible plants
• 4 African daisies
• 3 Asiatic lilies

Of course, it's only been a week, so feel free to make a pool placing bets on what actually makes it through the season.  I'll work on pictures in the near future, because I don't feel that a flower post is nearly as enjoyable without them.

Thing the Second:

The weather here has been absolutely phenomenal for nearly two weeks now.  I am cautiously optimistic that this summer may prove itself to be one of those "gorgeous summers" I heard so much about before moving here and have yet to experience.  I think Washington is just being coy.  It has heard that we're leaving, so it's doing everything in its power to woo us into staying.  I will not be fooled by your coquettish behavior, Washington!  I know, come September, you'll be up to your old tricks again!  But seriously, look at this forecast:

That right there is a little something I like to refer to as "perfection".

Thing the Third:

Not only do I have less than three weeks of work-school left before I'm taking this job and shoving it for the summer, but next fall I will be going back to work at a school that is 10 minutes from my house as opposed to the ~30 minute drive that I now face.  And that adds up to not 40, but 80 minutes less spent commuting nearly every day as I make the drive four times because of my split shift.  Even better than the cut in commute time, but from what I have heard, the kids are saints compared to the ones I've worked with this year.  Hallelujah and AMEN!

Thing the Fourth:

And finally, I have a bunch of exciting countdowns going on right now.

• 20 days until my last day of work-school
• 1 month and 5 days until my week-long trip to Montana to visit my sister at her summer theater, see my parents, and go to Crater Lake
• 1 month and 16 days until Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
• ~2 months and 8 days until I'm lounging on a beach in Hawaii with my favorite husband

So, that's what has been getting me through my bipolar days recently.  What has you excited about life?

Home

Last week was a study in insanity as I raced around trying to finish three weeks of school work in one, meeting with students during the school day, working extra hours because my assistant was sick, trying to get the house in decent shape, and otherwise preparing for vacation.

On Saturday, I woke up at 3:30 in the morning to make a 7:10 am flight, spent the day sucking in dry, stale airplane oxygen, and arrived home to a delicious home made pizza and the X-Files movie on my parents' big screen, surround sound home theater.

Yesterday, I sat out in the back yard reading and working on a sunburn, playing with and hugging on my aging family dog, and eating yet another home cooked meal of spaghetti, baked pear and spinach salad, and brownies made from scratch.

It may not be where I live, but it sure is good to be home.

This Weekend I...

(A little housekeeping note:  I played around with my feed in an attempt to figure out why it hasn't been showing up in my reader until hours after I posted, and eventually determined that the best way to follow this site in a reader is by using the following feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/wickedlyscarlett/VQbD.  If that's what you're already using, awesome!  If not, maybe you'd like to update it.  That is all.)

... Experienced a combined five to seven hours of sunlight, which brought me to the simultaneously wonderful and horrifying realization that summer is coming, and soon I will no longer to be able to hide the results of holiday binging and late winter comfort eating under multiple layers of clothing.  On Friday night I went for a surprisingly successful run and Saturday I finally removed the shrink wrap from The 30 Day Shred and completed day one of Level 1.  Today, every single muscle in my body is crying out for mercy.

 

... Bought three pairs of Nine West shoes for $19.95 apiece and ordered the Charles David Pomade shoes for the wedding I'll be attending in two weeks.  It was an exciting weekend for my feet.

... Headed up to Seattle with some friends on Saturday where we stumbled upon a fantastic little Asian tea shop, Vital Tea Leaf, near the market.  We were served five or six tiny  cups of tea by an adorable Japanese girl who giggled and complemented and poured tea like a champ.  I added a little Asian flair to my formerly European tea collection with the addition of Jade Oolong and Jasmine teas, as well as a miniature clay tea pot that looks like it should belong to the little bear in the story of Goldilocks.  If it were set in Japan.

... Went to see The Complex: A Play About Apartment Living at the Market Theatre.  We went in expecting a comedy show, and were instead treated to a sort of dramedy based on the experiences of one of the performers as an apartment manager in Capitol Hill.  It was a fascinating look at how people's lives intertwine in ways you wouldn't expect and was at once hilarious and heartbreaking.  And I want Kevin Brady to marry my sister.  You know, if he's straight.  And single.  And reading this.

All in all, it was a great weekend to counteract a less than great week, and now I'm staring down a tunnel with a glorious light at the end only one week away when I fly to Baton Rouge for eight days of fun and relaxation and no contact with anyone under the age of twenty.  Between my masters class, work, and getting ready for this trip have a million frillion things to do this week, but still Saturday cannot come soon enough!

T.G.I.F.

Believe it or not, I have yet another story of anxiety and uncertainty to share with you all.  But today is not the day for dipping into the endless depths of my neuroses, today is the day for rejoicing in the sunshine and that fact that today is FRIDAY!

A confession that is either funny or embarrassing, probably a combination of the two:

Have I ever told you about that time when, early in my relationship with Colby, I was musing at length on how his R.A. could have possibly gotten her car from Alaska to her on campus apartment in Louisiana.  I eventually settled on the fact that she had probably taken a ferry, and was satisfied with my conclusion, when Colby kindly took my hand and explained to me that Alaska was not in fact an island unto itself as seemed to be the impression that I had formed over countless years of geography classes, and just maybe she had driven her car down to Louisiana from Alaska.

Well, last night we were watching an episode of Rick Steves where he was exploring the beautiful country of Greece.  As the television zoomed us in on a map of Europe, to highlight Greece, I made a dive for the remote and hit rewind and play again for another look at the unzoomed in map.  As it turns out, Greece is not, in fact an island, as I have thought for as long as I can remember.  I don't know where I got all of these misconceptions about how countries are connected or not connected to their neighboring countries, but I feel confident that it is somehow my 5th grade teacher's fault.  This is in sharp contrast to Colby, who actually spends his free time looking up random locations on Google Earth.

Things that are kind of adorable:

One of my little angel-faced 1st graders, who is obsessed with High School Musical, Indiana Jones, and efforts to combine those two interests, has taken to calling himself Hoops Man, and everytime I call him by his real name, he gives me a reproving glance and an enormous sigh.  I can't decide if his reaction to my faux pas is more precious than the nickname and his near idol worship of Zac Ephron, so I just sort of alternate between calling him Hoops Man and his real name.

Things that I am excited about:

1) The sun is shining, and it is downright WARM for Washington in March, at a pleasant 50 degrees.

2) The kids are generally easier to handle on a Friday afternoon, and oftentimes, downright enjoyable and entertaining.

3) I get to get dressed up for two separate events this weekend--a casino night birthday party for one of my friends tonight, and Colby's birthday dinner tomorrow night at the schmancy, well reviewed Seattle restaurant, Chez Shea.

4) I am leaving for Baton Rouge in exactly two weeks and one day, and I just found out that there is a very high degree of possibility that not only will I be seeing my family and friends while there, but my little sister will be making the seven hour drive down from her school in Missouri for the weekend!!  I haven't seen her since my wedding in November of 2007, and seeing as she is one of my top favorite people in the whole world, I am absolutely ecstatic that I might be seeing her very soon!

I hope that you are all going to be enjoying a fantabulous weekend, and if you have any good news of your own that you would like to share, I'm sure it would go a long way toward sustaining my suspiciously out of character and out of season good mood!

The World is A Little Bit Colder

In the first 24 hours of my separation from Facebook and Twitter, the clouds rolled in, the temperature dropped below freezing, and the snow began to fall.  I think this is a sign that God truly feels the pain of this sacrifice and even the angels are crying.

You know, I poke fun at myself for giving up these two social networking sites, but honestly I had no idea how hard this would be.  I know that probably only makes my situation even more ridiculous, but I also know that Lent is going to be Very Long.

I think what makes me so susceptible to, in particular with the Facebook addiction (which I miss a great deal more than Twitter), is that I really use it as a connection to friends and family that I rarely have the chance to see in person.  It's easy to say, "Well, Angela, just pick up the phone!", but on top of the fact that I just plain hate the phone, we all have very busy lives.  Not many people have the time to go through their address book, touching base with all of their friends and family every week.

The wonderful thing about Facebook is that when I'm particularly missing my sister, I can just log on, click over to her profile, read her About Me section, look at her pictures, write on her wall, and instantly feel closer to her.  And I can do that at midnight, or while she's stuck in rehearsal, or I'm watching the kids at school.  A huge and growing number of my family and friends who live hundreds or thousands of miles away are really only a click away because of Facebook, and I feel confident that it is a huge part of the reason that I'm still in touch with many of them after all of these years of moving so frequently and living so far apart.

Anyway, I know it's only a little over a month and a half away from Facebook, but in those 46 days, I do truly feel like I'm making a sacrifice.  Not just the sacrifice of a tool to fight the boredom while I'm in line at the grocery store, but the sacrifice of feeling that constant connection to my friends and family over the magic of the internet.

I'm definitely counting down the days until I can log back in to my profile, but who knows, maybe over the next few weeks I'll be compelled to make a few more phone calls and keep up with my email.  And that's definitely not a bad thing.

How I Spent My President's Day Vacation!

Friday and Monday were both no school days for my school district, but of course, being that we are a day care provider, I did have work on Friday because it's not technically part of the federal holiday.  It really wasn't a bad day of work though--I got in at 9:30 and was gone by 4:45, so it was a perfectly lovely schedule, and my few bad apples weren't there, so I actually had a lot of fun.

We kicked off our vacation weekend by trying out a new Mexican restaurant, Playa Azul.  We already have a favorite tiny little Mexican restaurant in the town a little to the south of us, but I'm thrilled to have another tasty option closer to home.  The prices were a smidge higher than our favorite hole in the wall, but I think we'll definitely be making a return visit.  After an amazingly fattening dinner, we headed off to the movie theater where Colby was kind enough to sit through Confessions of a Shopaholic with me. 

Now, this movie is more controversial than I thought it would be.  People who love the books seem to not be too impressed with the movie and people who hate the books hate the movie equally.  I don't know, maybe I'm just not that deep, but I loved it.  Sure, it deviates from the books (that, admittedly, I also love) but I actually felt that Isla Fischer's Becky Bloomwood was more likeable than the book version and Luke Brandon was dreamy.  My only two wishes were that they had kept the setting in London and cast a better actress for Becky's sidekick, Suze.  But alas, Luke retained his Britishness, and Suze made minimal appearances, so I couldn't get too upset.  The movie will definitely be added to my DVD library, and I'm sure it will enter the rotation of chick flicks to watch when Colby is deployed.

Saturday, I woke up to the smell of French toast wafting its way up the stairs, and when I woke up from an after breakfast nap there were a dozen beautiful roses and a heartfelt card, referencing one of our favorite couple jokes--the piguin.  I remained pretty firmly rooted to the couch most of the day, while Colby did some homework, and then I finally got myself all gussied up for our romantical Valentine's dinner at another favorite, nearby restaurant, DeCaterina's.  I made the near fatal mistake of wearing a fabulous corset top to dinner, not thinking about the fact that I was probably going to want to cram a lot of food into my stomach and that may be difficult when dealing with steel girders up my side.  Anyway, I pushed through the pain and managed to eat an amazing dinner and dessert.

Sunday, I had my turn to work on homework and that night we had some other couples over for a supremely enjoyable game night.  We had tons of food, wine, beer, and round after round of Cranium, which I am heartbroken to admit the girls lost two out of three times.  We still managed to have a great time, despite the losses, and Monday I spent on the couch once more, recovering from a hangover caused by red wine and defeat.  Now, it's back to real life as I'm working my way through a mountainous pile of dirty laundry and preparing to head back to work for my afternoon shift.  But the good news is that it's a short week and I've got tons of tasty leftovers to eat my way through. 

Yesterday, I also booked a flight back to Baton Rouge for March 28-April 5, so I've got another exciting vacation to start counting down to, and I can't wait to spend some relaxing time at home with my parents.  I haven't had a trip home just to hang out and visit since the March before I moved to Washington in 2007, so I am way overdue for a vist, and I can't wait to see all of the changes to Baton Rouge that I've been hearing so much about.

Finally, I want to thank you all for your comments on my last post.  I was amazed at how good it felt to get all of that out, and I was overwhelmed by the wisdom and kindess you shared with me.  Y'all seriously are the best, and we should totally eat ice cream and cupcakes together some time.

It's a Beautiful Day

This week has been a bit... rocky, to say the least.  Things all started off just wonderfully.  I spent a quiet Friday evening in, cuddling with my cute husband and Saturday we decorated our Christmas tree to the tune of John Denver and the Muppets A Christmas Together, a holiday tradition that goes back as far as I can remember.  Just as we were finishing up our decorating and moving on to cleaning the kitchen, the house phone rang.  Since I never answer the house phone (in my defense, it's ALWAYS telemarketers or wrong numbers), Colby made a mad dash to pick up the receiver.

It was my parents.  Just calling to catch up.

And to let us know that my dad had been to the doctor that day and they had discovered that the small growth on his lung was cancer.

Of course, I melted down.  My dad is superhuman.  Immortal.  Everlasting.  Silly things like cancer don't have any effect on people like my dad.

So, once I recovered from my crying spell, I tearfully asked Colby if we could go to Coldstone.  And of course he said yes.  Because on top of being cute, he is also incredibly kind.

We returned from Coldstone with three containers of ice cream, and I downed as much of it as I could before settling onto the couch with a bottle of red wine.

The week progressed fairly normally from there.  Sunday I wrote a paper, Monday I went to work, today I went to work, and on the way home, I called my parents to see how my dad's follow up appointment went.

And as it turns out, they were just kind of kidding about that whole cancer thing, sorry guys, Merry Christmas!  Rather than a small spot of lung cancer, what my father actually has is a carcinoid, a fairly rare, but non-malignant tumor that pops up on various organs from time to time.  He'll still have to have it removed, but at the moment it appears that this means no chemo and no radiation, which honestly, from what we experienced with my mother is the most nightmarish portion of a cancer diagnosis.

I can't help but be a little upset that my family and some of our friends had to spend three days thinking that my dad had lung cancer, but in the long run, this really is a phenomenal Christmas present.  Though it's kind of along the lines of someone telling you they're going to shoot you in the knee then instead kicking you in the stomach.  Yes, certainly miles better than a gunshot wound, but you're still getting a foot in the gut.  Maybe this is a new medical approach, diagnose everyone with a fatal disease, then bask in their gratefulness when you let them know you got it a bit wrong.

Now we wait, I suppose.  My dad still has to go through some tests and be poked and prodded a bit more, but for now, it seems as though we're in the clear.

Colby is in Alaska right now, doing some sort of Air Force business, but he should be back on Friday, just in time to commence the one week countdown to the celebration of my birth.  I'd gotten quite used to having him around this past month, so the quietness and lack of a cuddle partner has been hard to adjust to once more.  But thanks to those of you who have been sending me all kinds of prayers and positive thoughts over the internet and phone lines.  Clearly, you've worked some kind of Christmas miracle, and for that, you're all stars in my book.

Sometimes You Want To Go Where Everybody Knows Your Name

*Tap, Tap*

Is this thing on?

Can you hear me out there?

Ahem, so, how's it going?  Good?  Good, glad to hear it.  Me?  Oh, I'm doing alright, you know...  Boston was fantastic, thanks for asking!  I definitely left my camera at home though, so no pictures, sadly enough.  Actually, that's not true, two things in Boston warranted dragging out the crappy iPhone camera (leaps and bounds better than the Razr, but still, no flash and no zoom makes for limited photo ops).

That right there is the headstone that supposedly inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write one of the great classics of American literature, The Scarlet Letter.  Doesn't just looking at it make you want to go have a torrid affair with your town reverend?

And of course, I can't pass up a funny sign, particularly when it's dog related--this one was taken on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

It was really great to see my family--there were two uncles, one aunt, a mom, a dad, a great uncle, two cousins, as well as a cousin once removed (or possibly a second cousin--haven't really determined the difference), and the birthday girl, my 90 year old grandmother in attendance.  I certainly enjoyed her birthday party, celebrating with a lobster swimming in melted butter, New England clam chowder, a tasty salad, Jolly Rancher martini, and grape nut custard for dessert (as in the no grapes, no nuts cereal--surprisingly delicious in custard form!).  I swore I would never eat again, but promptly changed my mind when we had lunch in the North End of Boston at a little Italian restaurant, followed up by a Boston Cream Puff from the amazing Mike's Pastry (I love how out of date their website is...).  My uncle took us on a phenomenal tour of Boston's historical landmarks, my favorite stop being the Old North Church of "one if by land, two if by sea" fame.

I arrived home late Tuesday night and went back to work Wednesday morning, where I was informed that my hours are being drastically cut through the end of the year for budgetary reasons.  My multi-site director is working with me to find hours at other nearby elementary schools, and supposedly beginning on January 1st, I'll be back to my 25ish or so hours a week, but until then, grumble, grumble.  I pink puffy heart my job and my adorable kids, but if my hours don't go back up as of the 1st, I'll be seeking employment elsewhere.  Sigh.

This week marks the final week of my second Master's class, and I begin my next one on the following Monday with no break to catch my breath.  Maybe that'll be a good thing though, since I won't have time to lose my momentum and fall out of the school habit.  Last night I finally got around to remedying the horrifying roots situation going on with my hair and chopping off a couple of annoying inches, and today I went on a chocolate tour in Seattle with some of my good girlfriends.  Here is pictorial evidence of both of these events combined:

New hair displayed on left, world's most delicious drinking chocolate (aka "Adult Hot Chocolate") on right, at Fran's Chocolates

And all of us girls with our chocolate haul--and another version of a slightly less delicious, but still amazing drinking chocolate at The Chocolate Box.  I swear, some of the chocolate sampled on the tour WAS chewable!

So, anyway, it's been a good week, and the fun will continue tonight with a trip BACK into Seattle to see Spring Awakening and do a little window shopping.  Because, hey, those Christmas/Birthday/Anniversary wish lists are not going to make themselves!!

The Hills Just Ain't Happening This Week

I'm just going to be honest, blogging is not top priority this week.  I feel like I'm drowning at work--I've been there from 6:15 until 9:00 in the morning and then 2:45 until 6:30 at night the past two days.  Today I worked the same morning shift and I have to go back from 12:00 until 6:30 this afternoon.  Tomorrow the kids don't have school, so we're combining with another childcare site and my hours are 7:30 to 4:00 on Thursday and Friday.  I'm working so much more than usual because my site director has been out of town, so it's been just me and a herd of screaming, unruly children, and honestly, I am about this close to snapping their necks.  This morning alone I dealt with a bloody nose, twisted ankle, and bruised knee. 

Then, in my off time, I'm trying to get all of my homework for the week finished by tomorrow, because on Friday night I'm taking the red-eye to Boston, where I'll be hanging with a large portion of my fandamnily for my Memere's (that's "grandmother" for those of you who didn't take 5th grade French) 90th birthday.  And let's not even talk about all of the laundry that has yet to be done, the packing that I'll probably be frantically trying to finish 15 minutes before departure, and the fact that the dogs have to be dropped off at the kennel at some point which I have yet to determine.

All of this to say, I probably won't even have time to watch The Hills this week, let alone recap it, because my head is busy doing something like this:

Confessions

There are some couples that when I find out they are getting a divorce, I am very sad, but also not very surprised.

My opinion of how "fat" or "thin" I am completely depends on how well a pair of pants fit, not how I look in the mirror.

I still really, really want a boob job, but have put off thinking about it until post-babies.  Every time I try on a shirt or a dress, or put on another 34A bra that I can't completely fill out, I reconsider that decision.

Whenever I realize that a blogger is about to launch into a political post, I click away from the blog.  I get enough of that in "real life".

I'm pretty sure if Playboy offered me 2 million dollars to pose in their magazine, I'd do it.  I would, however, require a LOT of airbrushing.

Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever really feel ready to have kids.  I always thought that I'd have my first child at 26.  That happens in three months and I know it's not what I want right now.

That makes me feel guilty for thinking that traveling and new shoes are more important than bringing a new life into the world.

I have written seventy pages of a book that I feel has great potential, but I don't think that I have the talent to make it as good as it should be.  I haven't so much as looked at the file on my computer for seven months, but I think about it every night when I'm lying in bed.

I am terrified of dying, because I am not completely sold on the concept of Heaven.  I wish I could make myself believe that we don't just cease to exist upon death.

Whenever I meet someone new, I always rate my attractiveness against theirs.  Completely shallow, completely automatic.

I always say that I have no regrets.  That is a lie.  I have two of them.  One I can't do anything about now, but the other I can.  I know I probably never will.

It makes me sad that I haven't received birthday or Christmas presents from my last remaining grandmother for the past few years.  I understand her reasoning, but the twelve-year-old in me is disappointed each year.

I don't like The Notebook.

A Disease Close to Every Girl's Heart*

A long time ago, in a lifetime that seems far, far away, I received a phone call.  It wasn't a particularly long phone call.  It wasn't from anyone out of the ordinary, and I even remember being pleasantly surprised when I saw my father's name on the caller id.  However, that phone call changed my life and it changed my family forever.

In October of 2005, my mother became one of the over 200,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer that year.  That phone call from my father was just the start of what would become a lifetime of dealing with this disease and what it does to its victims.  I spent that Christmas at home with my family and had a wake up call of terrifying proportions.

At the time, I was living only seven hours away by car, however, because of Air Force leave policies, I had been unable to see my mom since Thanksgiving--before she had begun her treatment and when I was still able to pretend that everything was still completely normal.

That Christmas week, my sister and I spent visitor's hours at the hospital with my mom as she endured horrible reactions to her treatments.  We pasted smiles on our faces and expended great deals of energy trying to convince her that we were completely fine, and that this Christmas would be just as wonderful as every Christmas before and after it.  When my dad had to take my mom back to the hospital on Christmas Eve, my sister and I went to see the 10 o'clock showing of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe just so we wouldn't have to sit at home, waiting--for what, we didn't even know.  I watched that movie a few weeks ago when it came on television, and it was like seeing it for the first time.

One of the most beautiful things that came from that week at home with my family was seeing just how strong my parents' relationship was, and still is.  I think that as a child, it is very easy to observe your parents and just see two people that live together--to overlook the love and support and care that goes into the life they've built together.  Seeing my typically stoic and generally unflappable father treat my mother with such gentleness--sitting in her hospital room around the clock, catering to her every need, the worry and sadness emblazoned on his face for the world to see--was both heartbreaking and powerfully touching.  I can only hope and pray that if Colby and I ever have to weather a storm such as theirs, our relationship will be half as steadfast and loving.

Slowly, very slowly, over the months that followed, her prognosis became better, though there were multiple setbacks and continued awful reactions to the treatments.  She was already a slender person, but now, when I hugged her, I was truly worried that she would shatter beneath my touch.  She had a collection of hats and caps to cover her hair loss, but her skin was so sensitive from the shingles she had contracted as a side effect, that she couldn't bear to wear them most of the time.  She was always cold, and even when she was sleeping, she seemed to be in pain.  Still, the months continued to pass and slowly her hair grew back and her spirits and her strength began to return .  She had testing done, and we were all relieved to discover that the breast cancer she had suffered from was not genetic.  However, a shadow still hung over our heads, now that we knew how easily this silent killer could slip into our lives and change everything.

Now that almost three years have passed, our lives are still affected.  My mother still has her good days and her bad days.  I think we all still live in fear of those regular check-ups and what they may reveal.  Even simple things like watching movies or reading books aren't so simple anymore.  I remember watching The Family Stone with Colby one night, just expecting a light, romantic chick flick with a few laughs.  Instead, as the credits rolled, I sobbed into Colby's shoulder uncontrollably for half an hour as he stroked my back, no doubt bewildered by the unexpected turn of events.  Every fictional tragedy is a frightening reminder of what could have been.

Every day I try to remember to say a little thank you for how incredibly lucky we are to still have this woman in our lives.  This mother.  This wife.  This sister.  This daughter.  This aunt.  This grandmother.  This friend.  How quickly she could have been gone, leaving so many of us behind, without any idea of how to function in this world without her.

Now that my mother has her energy back, she devotes countless hours to organizations searching for a way to end the reign of terror that breast cancer has trapped us in for so long.  On the hunt for that magical solution that will rid the world of this disease that has robbed us of so many loved ones.  Whenever I see that pink ribbon, I just start throwing money at it, hoping and praying that someday I'll be able to tell my grandchildren about how frightening a diagnosis breast cancer used to be.

My sweet friend Katie recently sent me a link to a web page with the pink ribbon positioned prominently in the top left corner.  You see, that crazy, wonderful girl has gone and decided to walk SIXTY MILES in THREE DAYS to benefit the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and National Philanthropic Trust, with the money raised going toward breast cancer research, education, screening, and treatment.  Clearly, in this instance, I think I'm getting the better end of the deal by just handing over my credit card information as she trains to haul her body over SIXTY MILES of land.  I would ask you that if you are looking for a way to do a little good in the world, and even if you only have a couple of dollars to spare, please consider going here to donate and help her reach her goal of $2500 by September.

And even if you don't have a dollar to spare, you can still go here and click the pink button to give a woman a free mammogram.

So, breast cancer, all I can say is, you'd better watch your back, because we are going to find a way to not only beat you, but to destroy you.  And in the meantime, despite your best efforts, my mom is still going strong and now she's got a fabulous new hairstyle to show for it and a life full of people who now realize just how lucky we are to have her in our lives.

*From a quote by Leah Wood

Memorial Day Weekend Whirlwind

(First of all, thank you all SO much for your input and understanding comments on my last post.  Each and every one of them meant a lot to me, and a lot of the blogging pressure that I was putting on myself has been alleviated.  I really do have the most super-fantastic readers!!)

So, our Memorial Day Weekend was so much more fun than I was expecting, but also, so much more exhausting.  It started out Thursday morning with a 3:00 a.m. wakeup call so that we could get ready, load up the car, and make it to the airport by 6:45.  I had gotten about 2 hours of sleep after a late bedtime and then spending most of the night watching the minutes tick by on the clock, so I was already wiped out before the adventures had even really begun.

I managed to make it through security without my customary rubdown from a female TSA agent and then we both spent our two flights sound asleep.  I make it a point to never miss free airplane snacks, and I still slept through the complimentary pretzel packs, so I was seriously tired.  We landed in New Orleans and got our bags without any trouble and then met my parents outside of the airport so that we could drop them off in their city and then take their car down to the little Louisiana town where our friends were getting married on Friday.

At this point, it was a little after 5:00 pm, and we had 2 and a half hours to make it to our hotel, change into our rehearsal dinner attire and then make it to the rehearsal dinner location.  On paper, it all should have gone smoothly, but really, when do things ever go according to plan?  About halfway across the Atchafalaya Basin bridge, Colby noticed that the radiator gauge had spiked up to the very top of the meter, so we immediately called my parents and pulled off the bridge as soon as possible.  After some hemming and hawing, we decided to go ahead and switch cars with my parents, so they drove out to meet us and then we were on our way again.

We were about an hour and a half behind schedule when we got to the hotel and I made a quick change into my designated rehearsal dinner dress, the red Nicole Miller.  And hoo boy, what a confidence booster that dress turned out to be!  I'm glad I didn't wear it to the wedding, because it is a bit of an attention getter, and I didn't want to be "that girl" at the wedding, but let's just say that I got plenty of compliments from both the fairer and the not so fair sex.  Of course, we didn't get a single picture, so I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that I was looking pretty smoking.  And I NEVER think I look smoking!

The next day we met up with a bunch of friends and took a day tour to the Tabasco factory on Avery Island and then had lunch at Rip Van Winkle on Jefferson Island.  Interestingly enough, neither one of these towns are actually islands, but there was a good deal of water around since they were essentially built in the swamp, so we saw plenty of tiny little 2-3 foot alligators lounging around in the sun.
 
The wedding that night was a lovely Catholic mass, so my ass was numb by the end of the ceremony, but the married couple was glowing and Colby made a dashingly handsome groomsman.  The reception was a good time, and it was so great catching up with college friends that I've kept in touch with through Facebook, but in many cases, hadn't seen since graduation.  I was also the bigger person and graciously introduced myself to SJB's fiance and made friends with the wife of one of my friends who a couple of years ago called me in the middle of the night to accuse me of having an affair with her husband.  So, that was fun and luckily there was plenty of alcohol present to act as a helpful social lubricant!

We all showed our age as the wedding wound down around midnight and all decided that we were just to exhausted to head out for any kind of after partying.  The next morning we woke up early and headed back to my parents house for breakfast and then spent a few hours out in their gazebo surrounded by flora and fauna.  Then when we were good and relaxed we jumped back into the car and drove the 45 minutes to Colby's parents house where we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening.
 
That night we went over to one of his high school friend's house to play some Wii, which of course, has Colby researching Wii prices again.  So Colby rocked out to Guitar Hero and competed in the Wii Olympics, while I played with his friend's girlfriend's adorable broken jawed 8-month-old-puppy.

The next morning we went to breakfast with both of our families and then after some family photoshoots in front of his parent's house, we handed the keys to the car back over to my father and headed back to the airport to catch our plane back home.

Yesterday we woke up at a decent hour and Colby spent the morning working in the yard while I cleaned the house, and then some of our friends showed up at 2:30 for our Memorial Day barbecue and Scene-It competition.  Everyone had cleared out by about 8:00 pm, and we crashed on the couch, clutching the DVR remote and eventually moseyed upstairs where I slept more soundly than I have in weeks!

So, now I'm off to catch up on all of your Memorial Day Weekends and then attempting to make our office appear even marginally presentable.  At this point, I'd settle for the ability to walk from the door to the closet without fear of death or a mysterious Amelia Earheart type disappearance.

Quarter Century

Twenty five.

I think I can no longer argue the case that I'm not actually in my mid twenties, because "mid" implies "middle" and 24 is a whole solid YEAR before the middle of 20 and 30.  But now, I'm there.  I've hit the mid-twenties and gone up a whole check box on forms.  There's something comforting about still being able to check that 18-24 box with a black pen.  It's very definitely lumping you in there with college aged kids, young things that have just turned 21 and can legally drink, the mature ones who have a year of legalized drinking under their belt and are surprised to find it not nearly as fun as it was two years ago.  Now, I'm in the 25-35 check box.  Categorized amongst the women with high powered careers, women with a herd of beautiful, cherub cheeked children.  I suppose I could choose to view this in a positive light and say, well, at least I'm on the younger end of the spectrum again, but I see it differently.  I see it as leaving that carefree, 18 year old Angela further in the past and moving closer toward "future Angela"--whoever she may be.

It's not depressing, but it's certainly... daunting.

Yesterday was probably the most anti-climactic birthday I've ever had.  When I finally made it into work an hour and a half late, after the train broke down 20 minutes from my office, and I had to catch a bus that was going goodness knows where, and then take a wild guess as to where I should get off the bus, there was banana bread, cinnamon buns, and made to order omelets waiting for me, followed up by a 20 minute professional massage.  So, that was quite lovely. I got a birthday card filled with kind birthday wishes and an iTunes gift card from my coworkers, which is always incredibly nice.  And we had our company holiday party in the evening, complete with decent food, free drinks, and the gift of an iPod Touch for all of the employees.  That was also amazingly nice.

I think the problem lies in the fact is that I was hugely spoiled in my childhood when it came to birthdays.  My mom would always wake us up with a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday", then, when we emerged from our rooms, the den and the kitchen were covered in balloons, banners, and other excessive birthday decor.  Usually, there was some kind of special breakfast and then a gift to open before school, or if it was the holiday or a weekend, before we began the day's festivities.  When I was younger there was usually a big fun-filled kid-packed birthday party, and as I got older I opted for a dinner out at a favorite restaurant.  When we were done eating, there were always scads of presents to open, followed up by the presentation of a beautiful homemade cake of my request, ablaze with candles to be blown out while everyone sang "Happy Birthday" again.

In short, it was almost always a perfect day, centered entirely around the birthday girl or boy.

It's hard to compete with those kind of memories once you're an adult.  Someone, I think maybe it was wordnerd, made the brilliant comment that it's much easier to have fun when someone else is making the fun FOR you.  It's a little more difficult when creating the fun is up to you.  Colby did what he could--he did wake me up with a somewhat more subdued version of "Happy Birthday" than what I heard in my childhood, but still, the thought was there.  When we eventually dragged ourselves home from the Christmas party, he had a gift waiting for me, even though he'd already bought me this fabulous coat (in black) for my birthday a few months ago, so that I wouldn't freeze to death every morning wearing my Arkansas version of a winter coat.  So, I did get to open at least one gift on my birthday, and now we shall have raging Scrabble tournaments throughout the year, and I'll be able to teach him Extreme Scrabble, which my cousins taught me how to play when I was home for the wedding.

So, it's not that it was a hugely horrible, terrible birthday by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it was certainly my first "adult" birthday.  And in just a few days I'll be having my first "adult" Christmas.  It's so depressing to think about that it almost makes me want to start popping out babies so at least someone will have some fun.  (Kidding, Colby, kidding!)

But our stockings are hung by the chimney with care, we have fun plans for Christmas Eve with Lori and her crew, and if Colby's present would please, for the love of Pete, come in the mail sometime soon, maybe we'll actually have some presents under our tiny, but lovely, little table-top tree.

Today is my last day of work until January 2nd, and since I plan to spend the next 11 days sleeping and going to movies exclusively, my posting and commenting will probably be fairly light.  So, in case I don't get a chance to say it later, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmahannukwanzakah (or a Happy Winter, if none of the aforementioned apply!) and a Happy New Year!  Thanks for sticking it out with me through 2007, and I can't wait to see what 2008 brings for us all!

What's In a Name?

I knew that moving across the country and combining houses with my fiance would be a huge adjustment.  I knew that separating from the Air Force and finding a new job in a new place would be a challenge.  I knew that the stress of planning a wedding would probably get to me.

What I did not know is that giving up the name you've had for a quarter of a century and taking on a new one would be so incredibly difficult.

Not long ago Fraulein N asked me whether I would be changing my name or not.  Just a year ago, my answer would have been a resounding, "YES!"  Today my answer is still yes, but it's much more hesitant and conflicted in it's tone.

I've never doubted that when I got married I would do the traditional thing and take on the name of my husband.  There were a lot of reasons for this--my maiden name has caused me nothing but grief when it comes to filling out forms or doing anything else which requires me to give someone my last name, someday when we have children I want us to all have the same last name for our family unit, and then there's just the fact that it's traditional.  It's what's done.  And I am a fairly traditional girl through and through.

But I didn't realize how traumatic it would be to lose that silly little name that's been with me my whole life.  It makes me sad because after my generation is dead and gone, our family name will stop with us.  It makes me sad because all of the things that I've accomplished in my life have been as "Angela K".   Not to mention the fact that I've completely forgotten how cursive works and cannot for the life of me sign my new name without it looking like the work of a six year old on a sugar high.

I'm continuing to go by my maiden name until the week after Christmas, when I'll visit the social security office to have my name officially changed.  It's sort of like a mourning period I'm going through right now, giving myself a little more time with the name that has always caused me frustration before I bid it a fond adieu.  I've thought about keeping the "K" as a middle name, but I really love the middle name I was given at birth, and having four names to keep straight just seems like inviting complications.  I've tried using my new name socially, but until I get it legally changed, it just feels like I'm lying to people.

I did decide that for the story that should be published in the next few weeks and any possible future publications, I'm going to use the name "Angela K. B.".  I feel like I'm ready to let go of my name in all aspects except for that one.  The seven year old Angela K. dreamed of seeing her name in print someday, and I'm not willing to let her down.

So am I totally crazy and way over thinking this?  Is it really just a name, and I need to wind the heck down?  Or did other people out there go through this same adjustment period?  I'm so excited about being Colby's wife, and I'm so glad that we are a family now, but I don't want to ever forget that before anyone came along and swept me off my feet, I was my mother and father's daughter.

Adjusting

I am really having trouble finding something to read to pull me out of the Harry Potter finale slump.  For so many years I've finished a book about Harry's adventures and immediately started looking forward to the next installment, now what?  As much as I have problems with the sloppy editing (compared to the previous books in the series) in Deathly Hallows, I still enjoyed reading it so much and I'm so sad that there's no more Harry to look forward to.  In an attempt to pick myself up I've gone back to another one of my favorite books, The Historian, and I've heard from a couple of people that The Memory Keepers Daughter is a great read, so maybe with a little time, my heart will heal!

The time is also drawing near for Colby to return after a five week absence which follows a previous nearly two months of hardly seeing each other.  To add to that, my parents were here in most of the days he was home leading up to his departure, and now his parents will be here in the days following his return home.  I love hanging out with family, and it's fun to play hostess and spend time with our loved ones, but I'm just praying that he'll be home for at least the majority of August so that we can have some quality time together at long last.  Especially considering the fact that we have two weddings to attend, for which I have two fabulous dresses already set aside, and the amazingly wonderful Lori is putting together a little shower for us at the end of the month.

I knew that it wasn't going to be easy dealing with all of the time that Colby is gone, and luckily I'm a fairly independent person who very much enjoys the pleasure of my own company, but it does get wearying when weeks and weeks pass with only the phone calls.  Even the training provided by a four year long distance relationship doesn't make it any easier to not have him with me in the place that we can both finally call home. Honestly, I don't know how spouses do it when their wives or husbands are gone for 12-18 months or longer.  How do you maintain a relationship that way?  After four months apart it's strange and complicated enough to see each other again and fall back into a comfortable routine.

To make myself feel better I've tried to come up with a list of the positives about being by myself from time to time.  It doesn't make up for the fact that Colby isn't here, but it does make everything feel a little less negative.

1) I don't have to feel guilty about not cooking dinner, and can eat my prepackaged Nutrisystem meals whenever I darn well please!

2) There is a LOT less laundry, and I can do it less frequently since his humongous clothes don't have the hamper overflowing every few days.

3) He likes to untuck the flat sheet from the end of the mattress so his feet don't get flattened.  Understandable, I suppose, but I HATE not having my sheets perfectly tucked and in their place.  It's nice to only have to tug a little on the sheets to make the bed in the morning instead of having to completely remake it every day.

4) There's no worry that I'll be judged for all of the packages that arrive on our doorstep due to my late night online shopping adventures!

And, um, really that's about it.  It's not much, but it's just a few little things that keep my spirits up until he's back and we can get back to our usual routines, untucked sheets and endless laundry cycles included!

Rainy Days and Fridays

Well, the sister has departed the area, and life is back to normal around here in Chez Angela (I would include Colby in that name, but I'm not entirely convinced he actually lives here...).  Back to normal entails thinking about eating lots of yummy things and then not, going for a run except it's been raining almost non-stop since she left, and mostly just watching lots of tv.  Of course, there is also laundry to be done and carpets to be vacuumed, but that is terribly depressing to think about.

However, the visit was wunderbar, and we only have to get through August before we're once again back in each other's loving arms under the romantic bright lights of the Big Apple.  Canada was lovely, we visited the Vancouver Zoo, saw Grease at the Theater Under the Stars, and ate at The Elbow Room at the Becky's recommendation.   Traveling across the border was interesting--in fact the entire Canadian experience was a bit... well... Canadian--like bizarro America.  When I drove up with Colby about a year ago, passports weren't required yet and I think there was overall a much more relaxed feeling to the crossing.  I mean, not so much that we decided to follow through about not carrying anything across the border except for the cocaine in the trunk, but you know, not totally intimidating.  This time we were asked a number of bizarre questions which were then followed up by the guard waxing poetic on the Sky Train before he stopped himself abruptly and waved us through.  I think, for just a minute, he forgot what it was he was supposed to be doing.  But that did certainly explain the 40 minute wait we had.

Then there was the zoo--I have never been to a zoo where I have seen so few animals.  In America we're used to strolling past long rows of cages with a number of fairly miserable looking animals behind each set of bars and then leaving with a sense of accomplishment that we've seen our quotient of wild animals for the year.  In Vancouver the zoo was built much more for the comfort of the animals, and if you're lucky enough to actually see one good on you.  A perfect example was the 1.5 acre field for one of the bears.  I mean, the bear must be absolutely thrilled with her good fortune, but the only reason we caught a glimpse of her was because it just so happened to be feeding time when we got to her section of the zoo.  I think in our two hours of wandering we saw five or six animals and spent the rest of our time scanning seemingly empty habitats, eating at the concession stand, and trying to figure out what time it was in Canada.

Grease was really good, although when they tell you that you should pick-up your will call tickets at a tourism office downtown an hour before your eight o'clock show, it would be really great if the office didn't close at six.  I mean, it's just a teensy suggestion, but I think it makes sense.  Anyway, over-all the visit was good, but I think I've kind of had my fill of Vancouver, I think next time we head north we'll try checking out a different area of Beautiful British Columbia or Super Natural Canada (which, contrary to popular belief, does not mean that Canada is chock full of ghoulies and ghosties, they just really like Tevas and Priuses).

The highlight of the rest of her visit was seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 3-D at the IMAX in Seattle.  I'm not sure if I can ever go back to seeing a Harry Potter on a regular sized screen.  The 3-D in the end should have been incredible, and parts of it certainly were, but the images were a little blurry and I spent the 20 minutes of effects alternately closing one eye and then the other trying to figure out if I needed my vision checked.  I'm curious about what you other Harry Potter fans out there thought of the movie?  I actually really liked it, I thought the directing was really good, Luna was perfectly cast, and I think the kids are still trying to find themselves as actors, but really improving with each film.  I just wish they could have made the movie 10 minutes longer and included more of the ministry of magic scene and the final scene where Dumbledore finally explains everything to Harry.  I feel like the battle was so rushed, and they could have done so much more with the scene without making it too much longer.  And then of course, I can't imagine why they cut so much out of Dumbledore's talk with Harry--we don't find out that Snape is the one who told Voldemort about the prophecy, we don't hear about the fact that the subject of the prophecy just as easily could have been Neville, we don't find out that Trelawney is the one who made the prophecy which goes a long way to giving her some credibility as well as explaining why Dumbledore wants so much to protect her.  With all of that being said, I'm constantly amazed at how well they do manage to stick to the books and really try to provide a faithful representation of what J.K. Rowling has written.  I can't even imagine how amazing that must be to an author to see your world come to life in such an accurate way.

As for this weekend, I'll be spending the rest of the day terrified to turn on the television or surf the web lest I run across a Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows spoiler and tomorrow I'll be checking my mail obsessively waiting for the book that I ordered months ago to finally arrive.  As excited as I am to finally sit down and spend my entire Saturday devouring the book, there's a huge part of me that is so sad that the story will be coming to an end.  I've spent so many years theorizing and wondering and waiting, and in around 36 hours it will all be over.  Ah well, that's life isn't it?  Y'all have an awesome weekend and I promise not to spoil the book for you if you don't have it finished by Sunday like I most assuredly will!

I Vant To Be Alone Now

After a lovely week entertaining my parents with all that Seattle has to offer, I am once again back to finding ways to entertain myself.  I dropped them off at the airport this morning so that they could continue the adventures across the lovely north and southwest, and Colby left on Sunday for a month-long class, so I've prepared myself by collecting all of the Glamours, Luckys, and Vogues that have been piling up over the past couple of months, learning how to work our new Comcast DVR, and plumping up my Blockbuster Queue with all of the girly flicks I could possibly desire.

We had a really great time showing my parents the sights when they were here, and miraculously, almost every day was sunny and clear.  The only day it rained, we spent poking around a huge antique shop and laughing at the locals who were standing at the door, gazing outside in sheer awe of the thunder claps and lightning bolts that we so rarely see in these parts.  On the sunnier days we were able to visit Mt. Rainier (or "the mountain" as I've taken to calling it), we spent a full and exhausting day in Seattle, riding the Duck, wandering the Pike Place Market, and viewing the city from the Space Needle.  I hadn't really had a chance to do much touring since moving here and it was fun to get back to it.

The house finally looks moved into--all of our boxes are unpacked, the downstairs is painted and some of the pictures have even been hung.  I'm holding off on the "virtual tour" until we've had a chance to get the upstairs painted, hopefully in August or September, and have gotten a few more window coverings hung.  But today is the first time since we moved in that I haven't felt the weight of the millions of things left to do hanging over my head.  I'm winning the battle with this house, and soon I'll win the war!

Of course, then there's this...

I think it is safe to say that the Wednesday Wedding Weigh-In is a war that I have been losing, and oh, so happily.  Do you see that cake?  We massacred it.  And I did my part throughout the rest of the week to decrease the surplus population of cake and ice cream.  So, while the cake lost the battle, my waistline is losing the war.  Tomorrow I am getting back on track, but I'm not even going to depress myself by stepping on the scale again for another week.  Hopefully, after a week of good eating habits and running I'll be back where I left off and back on track.

And now I must dash, I'm having a security system installed right now and I feel that I've revealed myself to be enough of an antisocial dork, glued to my computer, so I should probably go do something unspeakably cool to redeem myself in the ADT guy's eyes.

Where Ever Did I Put My Fainting Couch?

After a little negotiation with the painter and a heavy dose of eyelash batting, I finally convinced Colby that hiring someone else to do the rest of our interior painting would be a GREAT idea.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all about DIY when the situation calls for it, but if you could see the office and guest bedroom (the two rooms we painted ourselves), you would probably completely back up our decision to let the pros handle things in this department.  I just can't bear to see our beautiful brand new house botched by our questionable edging skillz.

So, as much as I believe firmly in DIY, I believe just as firmly that there is a reason God gave some people talents and other people the ability to open the Yellow Pages and utilize the large quantity of skilled craftsmen out there in the world.  I now feel the same way about painting walls as I feel about arranging flowers, I mean, yes, I can do it, but why do that when someone else can do it so much better?

Besides, it's a husband and wife team and they have four pets to feed.  I feel as though I'm bettering someone else's life and that just make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Like a peach.  That just came out of the oven.

Meanwhile, the painters being downstairs, I have been forced upstairs, away from my beloved television and forced to do actual labor in preparation for the parental units' visit, which is a frightening 48 hours away.  Forty eight hours to finish decorating the guest room, put everything back in it's place downstairs after the painters leave, go grocery shopping since I figure we should probably feed our guests at some point, finish cleaning the office, and clear the rest of the "Where the hell should we put this?" debris off of the floor upstairs.  So, of course I decided that I would go online and surf blogs and check my email obsessively instead.  Would you really expect anything less from me?

Anyway, I'm suffering from that guilt complex I have about lolling about being fed grapes by strapping Roman slaves while my chores are being taken care of by the hired workers, so I'm going to go downstairs and offer them something to drink.  La dee da, I do so love being a lady of leisure.

Thank God for Family and Wine

It seems such a short time ago that I was cavalierly mentioning how little stress I'd encountered during the wedding planning process.  I've had a nasty encounter with the shop that I bought my dress and bridesmaid dresses from and one mostly exhaustion-fueled "discussion" (some might say "meltdown") about tablecloths at the reception site, but all in all, everything has fallen into place remarkably well thus far.  And actually, everything is still going swimmingly as far as wedding plans go--it's the extra-curricular activities that are starting to give me a headache the size of Texas.  Or Alaska.  Whichever one is bigger.

(Oh, that reminds me of the time Colby and I were walking around campus a when we first started dating and I noticed his RA's car with an Alaska license plate on it.  I wondered aloud how she had gotten her car to Louisiana and mused that it must have been by ferry.  Colby looked at me in horrorified silence for a moment, I presume he was praying that I was joking, and then replied, "Or maybe she drove it here?!"  Because apparently Alaska is actually connected to North America and not, in fact, an island as many maps would lead one to believe.  Who knew?  I am so glad his attraction to me is not based on my geography prowess.  But I digress.)

So, back to the whining at hand.  I'm reaching the end of my rope about the supposedly fun-filled bachelorette party that my blessed sister is trying to plan and am completely ready to throw in the towel and just put the money toward our honeymoon fund.  Colby and I decided months ago that we would have our parties in Las Vegas this summer as our friends are spread across the country, and some even across the pond.  We agreed that we didn't want to have the parties the night before the wedding and the day before that will be Thanksgiving, so we figured we'd do it a little early and pick a fun place as our base of operations.  I talked to some of my friends about it at the time and they were all, "Yay, Vegas, here we come!"  That was then...

Let me insert here that I absolutely hate that I'm complaining about this, because the last thing that I want is to sound like the self-centered bride who thinks the whole world revolves around her and her stupid bachelorette party.  I don't think that, I know that my friends have their own lives, and I respect that completely.  It's just... it's hard to watch Colby talk to his friends about the bachelor party and hear them say, "Definitely, just tell me when and where and I'll be there!" and then of the 14 girls I invite, the only definite is my sister.  I love my friends to bits, I really, really do... it's just kind of disappointing, I guess.

Enough of that.

So, to wrap up my post from a couple of days ago--because Lord knows this blog has enough plot holes as it is--I decided to go with dress #1.  I bought it yesterday, so I'll post a review when I've had a chance to try it on.  The smallest they had was a 6 and according to the size charts I should have gotten a 4, but it looks like it will be able to be altered a bit and at least I know it won't be too small, because seriously, the last time I wore a size 4... well, let's not talk about that anymore.

My reasoning went like this, the turquoise dress was beautiful, and if I were a much richer girl I would have bought it in 10 different colors.  However, like a few of you so kindly pointed out, it will look dated by this time next year and if I'm going to drop some cash on a dress it needs to be something I can wear for more than a season.  The second red dress was so incredibly hot, I still kind of covet it, but I liked how one of you put it--it looked a little too "I'm gonna steal your husband while you're tossing the bouquet" for a wedding.  So, it came down to the LBD and red dress #1, which had been my secret front-runner all along.  But then my decision was made for me when the smallest size of the LBD was an 8 and the red dress was marked down 50% and less than half of the black Vera.  Thank you so much for all of your awesome input--I could see every single point each of you made and it really helped in the decision making process.

Now I'm off to eat some truly phenomenal Trader Joe's cookies and drink some wine... you know, just to make sure I can fill out that dress.

You Take The Good, You Take The Bad...

It has been quite a week, hasn't it?  It seems like such a strange week--so many great things have happened, but there's so much sadness in the world right now.  Our house is finally starting to turn into a home, we've made lots of progress on our long list of house projects, Colby is home, the sun has been shining, I finally found my camera, Sanjaya finally got the boot on American Idol.  And yet every day there's nothing but bad news from the rest of the world.  I find myself changing the channel constantly because I just can't hear another story about one of the Virginian Tech victims, or another tale of a gun turning up in a kid's backpack, or one more break-in or DUI or hit and run.

I suppose it's a product of living near a big city.  There's a lot more opportunity for bad things to happen because there are just a lot more people.  I've always been afraid of having my home broken into--I don't know why for sure.  It's never happened to me, and I've never lived anywhere near a high crime neighborhood, but for some reason ever creak of the house settling sends me into spasms of terror.  Now I'm living in a neighborhood I don't know well, I have no campus police patrolling or gated community to give me that false sense of security, and I have dogs that go ballistic every time the neighbors leave their house.  I'm guessing with time I'll get used to things, but I tell ya, I really miss hearing any sort of good news on the television at night.

I am very much enjoying myself during the day, however, when I'm not afraid of homicidal maniacs.  Colby's 10 day deployment was cut short, and he was back home after only a week.  I had the great pleasure of going out to lunch with some friends that I'd known for years through the internet--and now I can finally consider them "real life" friends.  The books in the office have all been alphabetized, and I can see the light at the end of the filing tunnel.  Although there have been many glares of death from Colby when I admit to shredding his 10 year old bank statements, and growls of frustration from me when my attempts at organization are questioned, I'm really loving finally being with the boy.  And in a surreal moment of truth, I realized this morning that we are just days away from our one month anniversary of moving in together.  One month.  Gone, in the blink of an eye and a flurry of boxes and packing paper.

I'm trying very hard to hold on to each day and really enjoy it for what it is instead of longing for the day when we have grass in the backyard, all the rooms painted, and every box unpacked.  There's always going to be something that needs doing, and I'm learning that enjoying the process is just as important as the end result.  I think this is a lesson that I've been trying to learn for years now.  What can I say, I'm just a very goal oriented gal.

But anyway, as I said, the camera was at long last located--just yesterday mind you--under a pile of crap.  It was exactly where I thought it would be, but the trick was properly identifying the correct load of crap.  So, finally, for your viewing pleasure, some random photos from the past month.  Enjoy!

First a gratuitous adorable puppy photo.  Two dogs, brought together by fate, forced to like each other.


The most enjoyable part of wedding planning--CAKE TASTING!!  Oh my God, the cake is going to be fabulous.  We decided on the traditional white almond wedding cake with 3 layers--grand marnier and Bavarian cream, chocolate doberge, and Hummingbird (raspberry, cream cheese, and pecans)--with an ivory buttercream frosting.  My mouth, it is watering right now.

 

Show tune Karaoke:  Because a post with pictures would be incomplete without my big mouth behind a microphone.


Innocent Angela, sitting on campus with her fiance, never suspecting what was to come next  during the mysterious "Levee Walk: 2007"


BLING!  BLING!!  Okay, it was really windy, and neither one of us are terribly good photographers hence the bad hair and blurry picture.  But there's a slightly better shot to come.


At the engagement party held by Colby's side.  I felt like I was at a photo shoot toward the end with all of the obligatory family photos.  This is the parents' shot and one with my unfairly hot sister.  I think I'll make her wear a paper bag over her head on the day of the wedding...



Arriving at the Jack and Jill Shower held by close family friends on my side (oh my God, are those my hips or did the Great Wall of China sneak into my pants??) and hanging out with my maid of honor and two bridesmaids.  We go waaaaaaay back.  We're like sisters--except we all like each other.  (Well, and one of them actually IS my sister.)


The Magnificent Table of presents--I loved this party.  And on the right is the amazing collage handmade by one of the hostesses of the event.  It's amazing.


And finally it was moving day, and we had to fit the entire Magnificent Table of Presents into the car with us, along with all of the stuff I'd moved home with, and Colby's luggage.  For a minute there, I thought I might be riding in my rocking chair on the roof rack.


Here's how I spent most of the four driving days...


And here's my good natured chauffeur.  I don't know what it is, but put me in a car and I am completely useless--it's better than Ambien.


One of the amazing sunsets we witnessed... when there was still a sun to be setting.


And here is what I discovered when I was carried across the threshold--chocolate and a mess of absolutely indescribable proportions.  Note:  This is BEFORE my stuff was even delivered yet.  Sigh.


But we rolled up our sleeves, got to work, and got to painting... To Be Continued!

That's as up to date as I can get you for pictures right now, but since I've located the camera, as we get rooms finished I'll start working on a virtual tour for those of you who are as nosy as I am about other people's houses.  This weekend we're heading out to a pig roast (!?) and Sunday we're doing engagement photos and then going the see A Light In The Piazza in Seattle.  And I am so hungry right now that I just typed "pizza" instead of "piazza".  I think it's time for a little of the snack that smiles back.  Later dudes! 

Just Two Crazy Kids Trying To Make It Work

Well!  Hello there strangers!

There have apparently been lots of changes in the blogging world since I dropped off the face of the earth for an extended and unscheduled hiatus.  I'm trying to catch up on everyone's sites, so forgive me if I don't have the time to comment yet, I've got tons of reading to do and soon I should be back to normal commenting conditions.

As for me, wow, what an amazing two weeks it has been.  The week that Colby spent in Louisiana flew by at an unbelievable pace.  We got so much wedding planning taken care of, and now the majority of my list consists of confirmations and final details that have to wait until closer to the date.  Aside from wedding planning we had a great time getting him reaquainted with the old homestead and spending tons of time with family and friends.  The Friday and Saturday night following our whirlwind week our family friends threw us two big bashes to celebrate our engagement.

Oh, because did I tell you?  We're officially engaged now!  After an afternoon of burritos, ice cream, and college campus wanderings, Colby brought me down to the levee by the Mississippi River, got down on one knee and popped the question for real.  And then he dropped the ring and had a minor heart attack.  But it all ended well with the ring on the correct finger and that night we had a lovely formal engagement celebration in his hometown followed by a more relaxed Jack and Jill shower on Saturday back in Baton Rouge.

With about 4 or 5 hours of sleep each we got on the road early Sunday morning with the car literally packed to the roof and then some.  After four loooooong days of traveling, most days not ending until eleven or midnight, we made it into Washington and I finally laid eyes on our new yellow house.  When we got to the door Colby grabbed me and carried me--romantically, albeit not very gracefully--over the threshold.

He had warned me that the place was a bit of a mess, but I really don't think that "mess" was the proper term to use.  Over a week later and the upstairs still looks as though some kind of paperwork/laundry bomb exploded.  We're still waiting for all of my things to arrive this Friday, so hopefully once we have all of our furniture in the house we can start putting things in their place and it may just begin to look like an actual home that people live in and not a deserted crackhouse.

As far as pictures go, I have plenty to share with you, and I promise that as soon as I can locate my camera cord I'll get those downloaded and posted.  Of course, I've got about 4,000 pounds of crap coming my way on Friday, so it may be a while before I can find a tiny 2 foot long cable.  Talk about needle in a haystack.  But hey, maybe if you just wish hard enough and clap your hands a miracle could occur.

Now I'm off to track down the Veteran's Affairs department in Washington so that I can get a frustrating unemployment debacle straightened out, and hopefully get some money into my account some time in the next few weeks.  Being jobless sure is relaxing, but it isn't very financially secure, and those bills just keep rolling on in.  Oh, and memo to the sun:  It sure was great having you around for the past two days, please come back again some time soon... please.