gah! political confusion abounds!

Overheard in the (college) library:

"Well, Mr. Student, what are you going to be for Halloween?"

"Well, I was going to be a communist, but Obama stole my costume."

Um, what? I realize this is Georgia, but some of these college students need to research what communism IS before they talk about it. Seriously. Not even socialist- he went straight to communist. I don't care what kind of politics you have, kid- but get your political persuasions straight!

plugging away

I've been plugging away at the knitting, although work + school + Ranger Man has left me precious little knitting time. I'm okay with that, for now.

But first, a gratuitous Webster photo. That's my chair in the kitchen- I sit while Ranger Man cooks and that way we can still hang out together. Of course, as soon as I want to sit there, Webster decides that he wants to sit there too... so I sit on the chair, Webster sits on my lap and Ranger Man cooks. Fun times!



Here's the blanket I've been knitting for my cousin's wedding (last July)/Christmas.



Of the ten hanks of yarn, I think I'm most of the way through the fourth. I really want this to be done by Christmas, so I better get cracking. although, at this point, it may be a lost cause...

And for Ranger Man's uncle who sent us the two large boxes full of things to outfit our kitchen with: socks!



Using my foot for a model so they're kind of loose. A lot. Hopefully his foot/leg is bigger than mine. I've started the second sock of these.

I've also done some stash acquisition, but I haven't taken pics of it yet...

No culinary creations today.

We've got pictures of Monday's dinner (and the reason I wasn't at knitting group), but they're in Ranger Man's camera, not my flickr account, so they will have to wait for another day for their debut.

Currently, it's evening time and Ranger Man's still at work so... gasp... I'm cooking. I almost feel guilty, like I should be feeling more inadequate as my boyfriend cooks for me and does most of the cleaning while I sit in a corner and studiously read for school. But the fact of the matter is that he's better at all of that stuff, and he had always insisted that he would do it- I just didn't really take him seriously. Not that I didn't believe him, per say, more that I just didn't comprehend what he was saying. Now... I just don't complain. And I count my blessings every day, and I help with everything that I can- like tonight cooking dinner.

It's not even the actual acts of cooking and cleaning - or going to every grocery store in town looking for one specific type of hot cereal- that I appreciate. It's this amazing sense that I am valued. Not just for my looks, or what I can do for him, or what I can accomplish. Simply for being me. I am valued for being me. Well, part of it is that I come with Webster, and Ranger Man is totally loving being the cat-daddy (and is going to KILL me when he knows I posted that on the internet. Hi Honey!). But it's just me that he likes, and he likes doing things for me and making me feel special. It's kind of incredible.

So, I'm doing my part and cooking him a decidedly non-gourmet, but still hopefully edible dinner. It's not that I can't cook, it's just that he does it so much better, and he enjoys it more! I just hope that he comes home soon to enjoy it...

Cheesecake

This weekend's lovely culinary creation?

Cheesecake.



That's right, he made a cheesecake, and it is delicious.



My impressive feat for the day? I did not eat cheesecake for breakfast. I thought that was highly, highly impressive. In fact, I didn't eat cheesecake for breakfast or lunch- but all bets are off after dinner.
Yes, he plated it that way too...
And I think he's making fettucine for dinner tonight- I have got to start working out more!

Purrr

I found something else great about online classes- I can participate in class and Webster can curl up in my lap all at the same time. puurrr.

Need to vent.

Ranting I need to get off my chest:

1. No matter how hard/busy/stressful/exhausting your day was, you SHOULD say hello to me when I walk in the door. If you don't, and I find you in the house and say hello, you SHOULD at the very least respond. Before you shovel the next three bites of food into your mouth. I did not move across the country to be ignored.

2. If you gave birth to me, you have no magical rights to be my friend. If you don't act like my friend then I don't have to act like your friend. And yes, you should send me my winter clothes that I asked for without bitching about it or guilt tripping me. If you gave birth to me, I should not be worried about whether me talking to you or not is going to make you hurt yourself. If you gave birth to me- you shouldn't hurt yourself.

3. No one should hurt themselves.

4. I really, really had things that I wanted to talk with someone about my day- good stuff, not bad stuff... but stuff that I was really looking forward to discussing. I've been sitting alone on the couch all night writing a paper as after I was ignored, I was gone to bed without. Sometimes I hate all the Rangers.

5. Just because you have a cute fluffy white kitty tummy does not mean that I am going to scratch it. Mostly because then you'll want to play and get wound up and not be ready to go to bed.

6. Thank goodness for my non-crazy Aunt. She may be the only non-crazy person I'm related to. Maybe that's because she's only related by marriage.

This and That

Some random thoughts for the record:

I stand corrected: apparently the nice ex-Ranger didn't offer to draw me nude, he just offered to draw me, and all of his other work that he was showing and pointing to as examples just happened to be of naked women. Uh huh.

Webster decided to try to eat my Juno Regina the other day. It's actually surprising that he's never tried to eat my knitting before... but that didn't make it any less gross. Luckily he didn't get to the actual knitting part, and I was about to join a new ball of yarn anyways. But still, I didn't talk to Webster for a large part of Sunday night. We're talking again now.

While getting up before 5:30 am with Ranger Man enables me to get a ton of school work done- I'm still exhausted. He STILL gets more sleep than me- he goes to the barracks and takes a nap after PT some mornings, and all I do is read, write and sometimes throw in a little bit of knitting. Last night, after knitting group, I got home around 8:30 and went straight to bed. I was sleepy enough that I actually almost slept through the night- which meant I wasn't tossing and turning, so Webster slept all through the night too and didn't wake up hours before the alarm and want to play. It was a win-win-win situation. But still, I'm tired!

Also- it's getting chilly here. It's probably not actually that cold, but I've been living in a state of permanent summer for a year, so anything below 70 feels freezing. And it's all of a sudden cold too, there was no nice transition period. A few weeks ago it was all of a sudden not humid any more, and now it's all of a sudden cold. This place is weird.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

He's making them. Right now.

I'm supposedly reading for school.

I took some pictures of the cat today, but they didn't turn out so well as I am back to using my own camera (I can't really use his when he's right here. Well, I could, but it would feel funny). So I'm not posting the so-so Webster pictures. I also took some pictures of Ranger Man baking cookies in silky shorts and boot socks. But I'm not supposed to post those either, so this post isn't as great as I had planned. Sorry y'all.

I'm becoming Georgified.

We went to the Farmer's Market in town today, and there was also an art walk in the same neck of the woods, so we checked that out. While there we met an artist who was a Ranger long long ago who offered to draw me nude. hm. I'm still pondering how I feel about that. To his credit, he wanted to do it from a photograph as a birthday present for my Ranger Man, but still... it was a little odd.

They can't take him away!

I'll starve to death. Good grief- I am seriously getting used to this whole gourmet cooking thing. I like it. A lot. When they take him away am I going to be able to go back to mac and cheese and broccoli? He's ruined me!

In the meantime, I've been knitting a little. Not a lot, but a little. I have turned a heel on a new sock and I'm (only) about half-way done on Juno. That middle section takes forever! Ranger Man was going to take pictures for me last weekend - he is the photographer of the two of us after all- but we didn't get around to it. We went to see Wicked in Atlanta and it was amazing, and so much fun! We went on a real date and everything. Poor Webster missed us because we were gone all day long, but we had a wonderful day.

(I've gotten into the wine again, so this may not be so coherent. This may require editing tomorrow).

Everything goes better with wine...

How did I manage to find a guy who not only likes to cook gourmet food, but does it well?

I am not a meat fan, usually- therefore meat loaf (being just a big old hunk of molded meat) has never been that appealing to me. But that man can make a mean meat loaf. It was so good- and get this, cooking makes him happy. I get to eat well and he gets to do something he loves. wow. win-win.

We had a really great talk. I think the wine helped keep the nerves down and we were able to talk about (insert scary voice) "the future," without degenerating into tears and frustration. I've spent the morning looking at joint JD/Islamic Studies programs... The future looks bright again.

Is it still reintegration if...

You've never spent more than 18 days together (doesn't that make it 'integration' rather than reintegration?)

You thought you would have a month, not have a month, and then have a few months to make the integration really meaningful and fun, only to find out, all you have is a month and then ... well, that's it.

Yeah. We thought his next deployment was going to be mid-next year and that is not the case. So he just got home, but in my brain I'm already gearing up to say good bye again and this time it's a more real good bye because I won't get to talk to him and see him on the web cam every night, and know where he is... It's a real good bye- so my question is this. How do I not think about the good bye and only think about the hello?

The Old Switcheroo

A few weeks ago, the enrollment officer at work told me that she was going to a college/career development thing and would I like to go with her? I'm piecing together a fledgling career center at work, so my response was, "yes!"

I assumed that I was going to a "thing" where other people were going to talk to ME about college and career development. Honest miscommunication- I didn't ask and made one assumption, she didn't give me more details and made another assumption, and what it boiled down to was us arriving at the venue and me GIVING the talk about college and career exploration/development. Uh yeah. With no preparation (I thought I was getting information, not giving it!), no idea what exactly to talk about and 20 minutes to talk to eighth graders.

What an interesting day.

I told Ranger Man about it and he said "yeah, tell me about it, I had to do the same thing, but briefing a colonel today." To which I responded "uh huh. But you probably actually knew something about what you were talking about, and weren't worried about completely screwing up the futures of 60 eighth graders." "oh. yeah." (How cool is it that I can tell him about my day in person?!)

The first weekend.

He got back just fine (three airplanes in about eight hours, it was impressive), minus his luggage (my four hundred dollar suitcase mind you).

The airline found his stuff/my suitcase Sunday night, but until then he was without a lot of essentials, like his phone charger (who checks their phone charger?!) and toothbrush.

The first night he was here, just before we were about to go to sleep, I told him he could just use my toothbrush until his was found. He looked at me like I had two heads. "I brush my teeth in the morning," he said to me.

uh huh. right. after a garlicky spaghetti dinner? don't think so. I just raised one eyebrow at him, while he stared at me like I was nuts, and then all of a sudden an understanding came upon him and his face changed as his mouth said "Ooohhh. I brush my teeth now."

Yes honey, you brush your teeth now... what a goon. What fun it is to have him around!

Of course he came home on the weekend before I have three papers due, so while I was overjoyd to see him, I was also kind of crazy busy with schoolwork. And crazy stressed out about getting it done. So he let me go into the bedroom and shut the door to read and write while he completely made and cleaned up dinner on Sunday. I could definitely get used to him being here.

On a Break

Super-Secret-Army Land is about to give me back my boyfriend.

I'll be back later. Probably.

If only...

If I could survive on a diet of French Fries and vanilla milkshakes I think I would- it's a wonderful combination.

Oh, and mac and cheese.


And broccoli.

Those are my indispensable foods.