Sleepless?

This has been something that has been happening to me a lot lately, especially when Ryan is not here. I know having him far away is part of that, but it seems so silly to be sleepless because I am by myself. Especially when he is perfectly safe, just far away.

A lot of nights I am up super late. Ok having a long phone call with someone three hours behind you does that easily, but even after we hang up I still toss and turn for ages. I usually call Ryan when I get into bed, but last night I stayed up reading until almost midnight before even calling him! I just seem to be in this weird zone when it is just me in the apartment at night. One more tv show, one more cigarette... even if I am exhausted from obviously not sleeping the night before.

And then there are nightmares. I am twenty four years old and I am having nightmares! Sometimes it is just a weird, crazy dream, like my parents and brother and Ryan were flying Delta to Paris for Thanksgiving and at the airport I couldn't work the escalator and I got in trouble at security for having something I wasn't supposed to. I feel ridiculous with the nightmares though. I have seen one episode of the Walking Dead from when my commercial aired, and even for msot of that I hid. Yet I will see the zombie the lady stabbed with a screwdriver in my mind as I try and fall asleep. Or that new movie preview about the people who go to Moscow to party and get invaded by aliens who want to steal our electricity and make people disintigrate? Basically had a dream where I lived it!

Like I said, I feel silly.

But my sleep is heavily thrown. I am up late and out of bed early for work. I down a Sugar Free Red Bull and a Diet Coke or two to get through work. Then I get my second wind at home and I don't want to go to sleep again.

I know this is all because I miss Ryan, but I feel foolish all the same.

Thanksgiving

Our plans for Thanksgiving changed multiple times in the time leading up to the holiday, but in the end we had a terrific time together with lots of food, family and friends.

Unfortunately Ryan could not get out of 29 Palms until after class on Wednesday, which basically meant a whole lot of Marines were flying through Palm Springs, Phoenix and even with him in Charlotte! My husband was on a 10pm (his time) flight and did not land in DC until 10am my time. Plus two change overs along the way. That is love.

I got him at the airport and we started the four hour drive to my grandparents' house. And by we started I mean I drove and he slept! Traffic wasn't too bad for Thanksgiving, there was a car break down in the Fort McHenry tunnel, which really sucks considering it is only two lanes, and there was some back up on the NJ Turnpike, but we made it just before 3pm.

Food. Oh man was there food!



Turkey, cornbread, stuffing, cranberry horseradish, stuffed mushrooms, rutebega, gravy, brussel sprouts macaroni and cheese... and that isn't even counting dessert!



My Dad's plum wine, my apple pie (the flower looking one in the picture), two other apple pies, ricotta pie, pumpkin pie, grapes, more wine... it just went on and on!



I look more jetlagged than he does :P



Better!

It was great to see my mom and dad and my brother, even my dog, again. Babci and Poppy as well as one set of Aunt/Uncle/Cousins. Football was watched, champagne was opened and it was a terrific time.



Totem pole? I have no idea what we were doing!



Three generations. My cousin Jill and her mom Joan (one of my mom's sisters), Babci, Mom and Me



Me and Dippy. As my mom said we now have the same colored hair!



LOVE this picture. Babci and Poppy with Ryan and I.

The next day we slept in and spent some more time with Babci and Poppy before getting on the road back to the part of Jersey I was originally from. We stopped by our dear friends Fran and Rob (and Chris and Nicole and Cocoa) for a delicious lunch/dinner that made me so glad I am from Jersey! Sausage and Pepper sandwiches! Also baked macaroni, nachoes, cucumbers and lots of left over Halloween candy. Stuffed.

Then we got back in the car and drove home... Ryan helped this time!

When we got home that night our neighbor Adam got revenge. If you read our Mischief Night story it makes more sense!



Balloons. All taped and netted to our door! It took me forever to pop them all and clean up!

Saturday we slept in, grabbed lunch at ihop, and went and saw the Muppets movie. Hysterical! It was also supremely gorgeous all weekend so we went to the park and watched the sunset. Being by the river and it nearly 70 explains how I have mosquito bites on my ankles. In November.







You may remember we watched the Gamecocks Rivalry game against Clemsucksson and kicked butt! After that we enjoyed many reruns of Storage Wars on Netflix before crawling into bed quite late.

Which made us almost oversleep Sunday. Ryan had to be at the airport for a flight at 2pm, and we barely got out of bed by noon! By the time we showered, got his stuff together and to the airport it was almost 1! Of course I had to cry saying goodbye to him, it never gets any easier, and I spent the rest of the day grocery shopping, making Christmas cards via Shutterfly, and watching Chick Flicks.

Man I miss him already! Three more weeks until Christmas!

Go Gamecocks!!!

Husband + Sweaters + Wings + Beer + Neighbors = GO COCKS!!!

Clemson you are going DOWN.

Gotta love rivalries (:

Happy Thanksgiving

I am so thankful to have my husband home and to be here in New Jersey with family. I hope you all had a terrific holiday and remember our troops away from home today. God Bless!

236th Birthday Ball

Ok this is looooong overdue!! Sorry for the delay. I have been slightly jetlagged (shocked me, I didn't think I was there long enough!) and not sleeping and just trying to get through insanely busy work days. My poor blog has fallen by the wayside. So last week I packed like crazy the night before I was due to leave (surprised? not really) and could barely sit still at work until I could leave to go to the airport! I finally get to the airport, check in, battle security and get on my way. To Cleveland.


I think Nick at Nite lied to me, there was no Betty White and it was not hot.

Sorry, dorkiness over.

I did find a nice little bar where I got an overstuffed sandwich to tide me over. It was bacon, egg, lettuce, tomato, coleslaw and french fries on thick bread. $7. I think my beer was double that!

Anytime I fly I tend to get the wing. No matter what I do, I look and try and choose my flight and I am always in range. So on my grasshopper flight to Cleveland I was in seat 5. I was convinced I was golden. This was my view. I think I lost fillings from the darn vibrations for that two hour flight!



Ryan picked me up in LA, only after he got a little lost, and we made our way on the three hour drive to 29 Palms. In the middle of a dark desert road he stopped the car and made me get out. I was quite confused until I looked up. I had never seen a sky like that before. Stars like you would not believe... I could even see the band of the milky way, clear as day! It was gorgeous. But we finally got to the motel six near base and settled in. Ryan got up early for work the next day and I waited for him to come back. It ended up being 70 and gorgeous. I could not get over how big the sky is. In any direction it is just a giant, unobstructed dome. As warm as we were there was snow on the mountains!


We got some Sonic and made our way on the hour drive or so to the resort where the ball was held. It was at this place called La Qinta and it was stunning! Orange and grapefruit trees everywhere, fresh citrus beverage upon check in, pools and cacti and palm trees nestled in the mountain ring.... wow. We were in a little 'hacienda' with twenty foot ceilings and a fireplace! No time to marvel, we had to get ready. I think for doing my own hair and make up I did ok! But of course I stabbed myself with my eyeliner pencil and my eye turned BRIGHT red. I looked half stoned. Luckily by the time we took pictures it cleared up!

One of my favorites! We didn't know anyone at our table but it was neat to meet Ryan's classmates and chain of command. It was a student ball for MCCES and man did I feel old. Most of these guys were just out of bootcamp, which means six months ago a lot just out of highschool. The youngest Marine was born in 1993! I remember 1993 vividly!

Our favor was a coin that doubled as a bottle opener. Appropriate! The guest of honor was a retired Navy Chaplain and his speech was good, but the entire ceremony felt a little shorter than normal. The video of course had me in tears. Seeing 9/11 footage always gets me really riled and shaken, I remember it so well. And the thing that got me, most of the people in the room were only seven or eight years old when it happened. I am sure they remember it, but remembering something as a kid is very different from experiencing it as a teenager or an adult. I am not saying I was old and knowing at the time, but I know I was one of the minority in the room who not only lived nearby where the attacks were but was old enough to really understand (mostly) what was going on. Does that make sense? I hope it does. I was grateful to my husband allowing me to grip his hand in an iron grasp, he knows me so well. He was smart and watched it ahead of time and was much more prepared than I was.

And the POW MIA table always makes me sniffle a bit. Our cake was gorgeous, here is a side view...


And the front view. Actually this years cake was more impressive than 8th and I's last year. Shhh...

I did not realize until photos were taken that my dress was a teensy bit big in the arm holes. Lukily my bra was black but I am quite mad at myself for not noticing that the many times I tried it on!

Also, my posture still needs a LOT of work! Post surgery my back is 150% better but old habits die hard.
Ryan and some of his buddies from BEC.

And his entire new class. My hubby is the front row far right. Damn I am so proud of him!

This may be my favorite full length of us. It got a little chillier as the sun set so my shawl came in handy, but it also made me feel better about my fashion faux pas! After dancing and enjoying ourselves we hung out in the next hacienda with some of Ryan's friends and one other guy's date. After awhile we journeyed back to our room and lit the fire. In our sweats we curled up on the bed and... passed out. You know you are getting old when!! The next day we slept in and it was once again BEAUTIFUL outside! This was basically the view anywhere you looked.

We ate lunch at the bistro where all the food was farm to table. It was grown either at the resort or local and it was so delicious. I had fresh apple cider and we split a huge cobb salad and then a turkey club and roast beef au jus. Bliss.

Then we sat in the sun and basically digested. Man were we full.

The afternoon was spent idly wandering and taking pictures of the resort....

Gorgeous views

Our room/hacienda. Ryan ate a little too much so we went and laid down for a bit and watched NCIS before venturing back out to the outdoor restaurant. We had a margharita, a quesadilla and live music to keep us entertained. Then we splurged on a bottle of champagne and made our way to the hot tubs and spent the next few hours drinking and smoking and talking to some of his classmates. Awesome time.

Big damn cactus

Sunday morning we had to be up early to get back to LA in time for my flight but we took some more pictures before we left. Especially by our orange tree. We also got some Carls Jr to sustain us on the never ending car ride!


Our fireplace.

Ok, some iphone photos.... you may have seen these on facebook!!!


Ball

Orange Tree


Windmills/Turbines. These things were amazing. I drove to the resort part way through them and it was so windy my car was moving! I had to fight to keep it straight!


Ryan took this from my iphone as I drove... not bad for a camera phone! The rest were on our drive to the airport... and my regular camera again.








At the airport it was POURING rain. We wanted to go to the beach so Ryan could get his first ever view of the Pacific ocean... seriously. But the weather was so awful we scrapped it for my next visit, probably his graduation in April. I told him he should go anytime, but he wants me there for it (: I won't get our airline lady in trouble, but she was AWESOME and gave Ryan a gate pass to come through security with me!!! I loved having that extra hour or two and lunch with him. The only thing that kept me mostly composed saying goodbye (yea I cried a bit anyway) was knowing he'd be home for Thanksgiving. I am a lucky lucky lady.


I love to look out the window when I fly... I always take a window seat. It calms me and I just love the ever changing view. And I loved our weekend together. (:

Weekend Wanderings

First off I need to brag... I slept a full 10.5 uninterrupted hours on Friday night. It was absolutely glorious! Finally I got to go to sleep and wake up because my body was ready, no alarm, no phone call... just me. Bliss.

Sorry, I warned you about the brag!

Saturday I met up with my friend Jess from college for a needed catch up day. We wandered around King Street, grabbed lunch and got up to speed on each others' lives. After she left I went to the mall to go to Bubbles and fix my hair. I got a bonus at work last month for something I did and most of the $1,000 I was awarded went to plane tickets. But I took a small chunk just for me!

See, after dying my hair red (which I loved and still miss!) I used Color Oops to get it back to blonde. It got most of the red out, but I was stuck in a sort of strawberry blondeish middle color. Not red, not blonde. So I went and got highlights! I hope it pushed me more back to how I used to be.



Before picture. I sent all these to the hubby so he could see and compare as well.



During. Luckily Kyndra was with me for company and to take pictures of me looking like an extra terrestrial baked potato.



And after. Not bad!

I must say the mall having its Christmas Tree up made me cringe! TOO soon!!!

Kyndra and I had some cuisine de food court before heading back to her place where her husband and his friend were engrossed in Modern Warfare. Can I just say I am so glad Ryan is not into those games? Don't get me wrong, I love video games. We have a Wii, and Mario of any degree rocks my socks off, but these run around control your vision and shooting and exploding games make me a little nauseous! I think the viewpoint gives me some motion sickness. I like going in a straight 2D line when I play video games! Old School much?

Sunday I had another mini college reunion with my friend (and bridesmaid) Cat. We went around Eastern Market, did some major major catching up, drank apple cider, at amazing El Salvadorian food at Cafe Tortilla, and hid in the used bookstore. Bliss.



My to die for empanadas from Cafe Tortilla, featured on Diners Drive Ins and Dives!



And my favorite used book store! (:

Of course work today is billing. Sigh. And there is a mix up with our rent at home the leasing office has been emailing me all day about. And I kind of want to just hide under my desk.

But I leave for California in two days! I CANNOT wait! I am excited to see Ryan and to meet all the guys he has been in school with and to go to a ball once more!



Bragging once again, here is Ryan's class graduation picture from his first school... where he graduated with honors and the second highest GPA in the school. And earned another NAM (Navy Achievement Medal) for his leadership. I may be bursting with pride. Just a smidge.



And of course I made a wish. Or four. Did you?