Community

Well, I'm back on the grid. Last week I drove off to my next home to find appropriate living quarters, visit law school for the first time, and have a wonderful time with a friend who lives there. In between seeing houses and waiting for my lease application to get approved, I was fortunate to have a wonderful time being social with my friend, her husband, and a couple of other military friends of theirs (some stationed at the same place, one who was also visiting from out of town).

I found myself reflecting multiple times on how wonderful these military connections are - both in general and the ones resulting from the school that my husband, my friend's husband, and a lot of other people we know attended. Until this past week, I'd spent little in person time with my friend (we've mostly bonded online, but met a few times over the past years), even less with her husband, and had never met their friends before. Yet, from the moment I came into contact with them all, the atmosphere was warm, inviting, and friendly. We chilled out, played games (okay, mostly one very odd but fun card game), and did things in the local area. It was a temporary and very recently assembled little group, but it felt so comfortable. After living by myself the past 7 months, I've noticed that I especially appreciate the chance to be social face-to-face, as opposed to on the computer. It does a person good. (Not that I've been a total loner... I've just spent a good portion of time alone here at the apartment.)

Anyway, I wish I could say this more eloquently, but I find myself feeling so grateful for the sense of community we have in this military lifestyle. This past week I was embraced simply due to the military connection, with very few questions asked, in a place I'd never visited before. I had a place to stay for free, and people to hang out with when I wasn't house-hunting. I thought a few times about how boring it would have been had I not had this community this week. The answer, in case you're wondering, is pretty darn boring!

We may never get a chance to let our roots grow very deep in this lifestyle, but the flipside of that is that social circles are never hardened to the point of exclusivity.They are constantly in motion, shifting shape through deployments, changes in station, and other factors. Everyone has been the new person at some point, and we all know another connection can't hurt. Say what you will about the moving lifestyle, but I sure do love having connections in so many locations, and knowing that quite often, I'll have an air mattress open to me wherever I may need to go, and people to hang out with to boot. In that way, I am blessed.

A New Toy

Well, I held out valiantly for awhile, but I too have succumbed to the lure of the smart phone. Last week I ordered my brand new Droid (3, if you want to know), and after going out of town (post to come!) I picked it up at the location where the shipping company held it for me after it tried to deliver. I did little else yesterday aside from some grocery shopping and getting to know my new phone. It definitely felt overwhelming with everything there was to customize, apps to download, and all those fun things, but it definitely fulfilled my expectations and I can't wait to integrate the new phone into my life!

Alas, the challenge now is to NOT pick up my phone and play with it all the time, and actually accomplish the things I need to get done this week. Of course, I made a to-do list in the phone... so there you have the perpetual challenge that I'll face as a new smart phone user. :-)

I got to hang out with college girlfriends this weekend (which was fantastic) and in discussing smart phones someone mentioned a study showing that when talking about iPhones vs. Droids, the same part of the brain lights up as when one discusses religion. Funny, but maybe less surprising than you'd think at first!

So there's my new purchase, with which I have crossed to the "other side." It certainly is a lot of fun!

Nostalgia

Hubby and I decided we were boyfriend and girlfriend on July 17, 2004, which was exactly seven years ago! To be honest, I never guessed back in high school that we would end up like this - it's definitely more normal NOT to marry your first boyfriend, but that's how it went for us. Whenever I've thought about that in the past 7 years, all I can think is hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Doing long distance in college gave us both space to breathe and pursue our dreams, and we both grew and changed, but somehow it happened in parallel, so that my high school boyfriend became my college long distance boyfriend, that guy became my fiance, and now I have my wonderful husband.

For this year's July 17 I thought I'd do a little memory lane, with whatever pictures I can dig up... so here are a few of the earlier years!

Out to dinner for a friend's birthday during senior year. I have pictures of us from junior year, but my copies are only in film, not on the computer! That's how long we've been together ;-)

Senior prom!

High school graduation

Christmas break of freshman year of college

Event at my college freshman year. (Why yes, I did wear the same dress as senior prom.)

Sophomore year - in my college dorm room before a date

Army-Navy game sophomore year (2007)

Dance at his school (2008)

Another fun fact about 7/17 is that we managed to spend each one further and further apart from years 1 through 5 or so... starting with a cute date the summer between junior and senior year (for one year) and culminating in 2009 when I was at a relative's wedding in Samoa! Anyway, that's not super important. The important thing is, we've gone through so much change in the past 7 years, but we've stayed together and evolved in that time, which is so fun to look back on. It makes me appreciate where we are now that much more! Love you hubby - hope you enjoy reading this post when you get back here and catch up a bit.

Lately

Here are a few things that happened this past week -

- I visited M where her family lives, about 3 hours away. It was a good fun time!

Me, M's hometown friend and cousin, her cousin's adorable son (second cousin??? idk), and M (the blonde on the right) 

(For clarification purposes, the cousin holding the little one is his aunt - his mom isn't in this photo.)

- I locked the keys in the car. It had to happen sometime. The combination of A's kindness, my apartment manager letting her into the apt, and hubby's intelligence to make sure we paid for another copy of the key, got me out of that jam! 

- I went on a date with A that included World Market, fried southern seafood (and pickles!), and attending a fun painting class while drinking wine. This was actually our second time at the painting class, but I wanted to share my masterpiece from the second go-round: 

Okay, so I didn't do the words... but everything else was all me! 

- I ended my volunteering stint today. Will very much miss all the nice people I met, they always made me feel so appreciated. Funny how free labor does that. But seriously, they were great. I'm excited for transition time and new adventures though! 

- I ordered a shiny new toy that will enhance my life, I'm sure of it. Will share after it arrives! 

7/4, 2011-Style

How's that for a weird title? Yeah. Anyway.

To just keep it real for a moment, the honest truth is that I kind of want July to fly by. Another month when I don't see my husband, as 2011 continues on past its halfway point, and I'm over the whole not seeing my husband thing! It's just so true and has to be said, even though I try not to focus on the negative. That said, I do realize that for my sanity, it is better to pass July by being social rather than staying in my apartment by myself and watching Lost and Teen Mom... so my strategy so far, for the weekends, has been to brazenly ask various people in driving distance if I can crash with them, and they are either too polite to say no or just darn nice enough to say yes!

This past weekend I took up my friend C on an offer to visit her at the military location where she and her husband live, which is within a few hours driving from here. We didn't do a whole lot, but it was good to see her, good to be social, and I got to participate in that location's July 4th celebration, which included music and some fireworks! Gotta love the annual opportunity to use the fireworks setting on my camera.

The best thing about this particular fireworks experience was that it didn't feel like we had to wait forever. The music was going on right up to the point when the fireworks started, so we felt entertained that whole time. Then at the end, we had the advantage of C's husband knowing his way around post, knowledge which he used to avoid long stagnant lines of cars. So all in all, a good experience. Plus I got to remind myself that I live in the South with sights like these:

Ah yes.

I also managed to watch the Wimbledon final (the men's anyhow) after being a nerd about that all of last week, so that was fun too. I will occasionally get back into watching tennis and just be really into how darn good they are! It's so fun to follow a tournament to its conclusion as well. 

So the weekend was very good - I couldn't help but remember the possible trip I'd planned for hubby and me, but considering the circumstances, it was so much better than hanging out here on my own. I tried to express my appreciation to C and her husband frequently! 

Tonight A and I got to do something fun - they have this thing around here, and in other locations too, where you can go to a painting studio, bring a beverage of your choice, and follow along as a teacher instructs a lesson on how to complete a certain painting. It sounds odd in theory, but at least for us it was a great time. We weren't confident going in but we were pleased with our final products. I can't wait to hang my little painting on the wall in our next home and then be able to say that I did it! It was also just a fun time for A and myself to take a mini-roadtrip (50-60 min drive), spend some girl time together, and do something fun and unusual. (A wants to speed through July just as much as I do, her fiance and hubby are chilling together and have been all year!)

I've also been volunteering again this week, though shockingly, that is almost over. A lot of milestones have happened lately - it's been over a year since hubby and I moved here, I start law school NEXT MONTH, and it's time for me to wrap up my volunteering. I can't say I'm exclusively sad, because I am definitely ready to move on, but I am so grateful for everything it has given me, not to mention all the people I've met there. I will be sad to leave that environment, that is true. 

This weekend the lucky victim of my visit will be my friend M and her family. M is a dear college friend of mine who lives in DC but whose family lives in this same state, a few hours drive away. When I heard that she was visiting her family I couldn't resist the urge to take advantage of the opportunity to see her and get myself out of town yet again! So M, thanks in advance for letting me crash you too - I can't wait to see you! 

So there you have it - I guess you could say at the moment I am feeling positive, but more than anything that's due to the fact that I've booked myself up and have enough to do that I won't be sitting home day after day after day. Soon enough (ie mid-August after I move and school starts), I will WISH I could sit at home a little bit. I know though, that this life change is going to be good for me. I just hope hubby isn't too far behind in his move so I can actually feel married again. That's the only tiny thing bringing me down, but it's gotta end sometime. Right? Right.... I think.

This was a major stream of consciousness post, but I hope it was readable anyhow! Hope everyone had a lovely 4th.

Recent Winner Recipes

Starting off with a fun fact: Hubby and I moved into this apartment exactly one year ago. Half that time it was like cohabitating, half the time it was like living on my own! Ah well.

But, the point of this post is to share two recipes I used last night that I was very pleased with - and will most certainly use again. Maybe next time I make each of them I will even take pictures!

[Image from FoodNetwork.com]

This is Giada's Chicken Piccata, and it is very easy and very delicious. Instead of pounding the chicken breasts to flatten them, you slice them in half (butterfly them). My technique wasn't the best due to my lack of experience (and fear of slicing my palm as well) but I just ate the uglier piece and gave the prettier one to my guest, and it still tasted delicious. I was also grateful that even though I didn't check the chicken for doneness by cutting into it (which I often do), following Giada's directions led to perfectly, beautifully cooked chicken. The sauce and other flavors were wonderful as well. I can see this becoming a go to recipe!

 [Image from FoodNetwork.com]

This is Peach and Raspberry Crisp by Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten). Hubby's aunt made this when I visited her family in the midwest, and it was so delicious that I definitely made sure to get the recipe. With all the peaches in season lately I've definitely been wanting to take advantage!  Anyway, my version turned out great as well, I used peaches, nectarines, and raspberries, put it all together before my guest arrived last night, and then put it in the oven while we were eating dinner. We ate it along side some vanilla ice cream and it was fantastic!

So there you have it - two recipes from last night that made me very happy!