Posts Tagged ‘Carol’

Yesterday Carol and I went out to lunch at Sugar Magnolia's (mmm). It was really nice! I think we found our common link. She works the boring 12-hour night shift all week every other week, so she's been inhaling a lot of books recently. I'm just trying to get in the habit of reading more and should have a greater opportunity to, given I'll be on a bus for about two and a half hours each day. So we pretty much just discussed books the entire time. I borrowed The Great Divorce from her and finished it last week. We discussed that for a while then decided to go out and get some more C.S. Lewis. Right now I'm working on Mere Christianity and she is reading The Screwtape Letters, then we'll switch next weekend. We went to three bookstores together after lunch and each picked up a few things. I got another Frank Peretti book, The Oath, which Matt was all excited about. I loved This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness and Matt has read a few others by him. He's just awesome! Anyhow, things with Carol are great. She'll be coming over next weekend (her non-work weekend) to go see The Brothers Grimm and hang out at home playing Diablo II and Age of Mythology with us (she's never really gamed much, so this will be fun!). Matt invited his friend Donny over for dinner tomorrow. I don't really care for most of the people in the shop, but Donny's really cool. He was Matt's old MMORPG buddy back in the dorms. So tomorrow evening will be all about CoH, anime, and chicken parmesan (my new specialty!) Matt and I got Memories a few weeks ago, a collection of three shorts. We loved the second one, "Stink Bomb", and I'm sure Donny will get a kick out of it, too. It will be nice; we don't often have visitors. So Matthew, my little brother, is up in Fort Collins now, all settled in to his dorm. Classes start Monday and I'm all psyched for him! Neither Andrea nor I did so well our first year at college, I hope Matthew breaks the streak! He hasn't "checked in" with me or anything yet, I just know from my dad that he's up there and a little bored right now. Bored?! Bah! I sure hope not. Maybe my buddies up there can help him out, find something fun to do. *wink wink, nudge nudge Tim* :p This semester will be busy. Melissa and I are trying to work it so Monday is our day to hang out, which means I'll pick her up as soon as I get home, we'll make dinner and hang out, then I'll take her home and go to bed. Then Wednesdays Matt and I are planning on attending a Bible study group in the evenings. The bus only runs from Santa Maria to Lompoc every so often, that's why there's a big gap there as I wait for the second bus. This should give me a lot of time to do homework and study before I get home, though. I am pretty excited. Although it's nice and relaxing, I'm getting tired of just bumming around at home, cleaning up and putzing around on the computer. Hehe.

Man, I am so craving some of those peanut butter and oatmeal nobake cookies. I want to just go whip up a batch for breakfast! :-} So the news today is, well, slim. I was all hyped up about spending time with Melissa yesterday, but it turns out she got some viral infection (hopefully not from some infected animal at the zoo on Saturday!) and is miserably sick. Melissa and I have had sort of a rocky relationship, not because of how we get along, but just because of time and dedication, I guess. I "adopted" Melissa in March '04 and things started out really well: we'd see each other every weekend, went camping, did schoolwork together, etc. A mixture of her family events, my night-classes and unpredictable work schedule, as well as my laziness pretty much destroyed what we had and we ended up hanging out maybe once every two months. It stressed me out a lot because I care about her and want to spend time with her (also, in the BBBSA you sort of sign a "contract" saying you'll spend such-and-such amount of time together per week and I had my case worker calling up constantly to check on me … guilt!) but it just wasn't working. I almost tried to quit the program a while ago because I felt so bad, that she deserved a better, more devoted Big Sister. Well, I'm not saying everything's the way it should be right now, but our hopes are higher and our schedules are clearer! Not working in the squadron while trying to go to classes at night anymore will really help. We planned a little schedule sort of … she comes over at the same time every Wednesday and we'd also try to get together once in a while on the weekends. Well yesterday was our first Wednesday and I was all hyped for making chicken parmesan and beading necklaces together! Anyhow, long story with little point: I was just sort of bummed out. Heh. I'm meeting up with my pal, Carol, today for lunch. We used to work together until she moved sections and I moved out. It's kind of a strange relationship. When I first showed up on base she hated me completely. I don't know if it was a territorial thing (there is such a small percentage of girls to guys where we worked) and I was hogging her boys' attention or if it was just something else about me. She was all tough and frankly, just scared the snot out of me. It really upset me whenever she was rude to me for no reason and I'd whine to Matt about it after work. I don't know what happened. Her friend, Denna, and I eventually became better friends, so then it was sort of the three of us. Tension just disappeared one day. I don't know if it was that I was hanging out with Matt and she saw this as a threat (they were okay friends in tech school before I came along), but I proved myself over time? I held a grudge sort of for a bit, but there's really no point. Things have seemed pretty fine for a while. Anyhow, Denna, Carol and I used to go out to lunch together at Sissy's, a cute, colorful cafe in Lompoc, every two weeks or so. Denna moved to Italy and Carol and I were left with each other, pretty much the only girls either of us knows around here (seriously in the shop right now there is one girl and 44 guys … poor Anya). She works strange, unpredictable hours now, so we get together for lunch when we can. Today we can and I'm looking forward to it. We found another Lompoc restaurant, Sugar Magnolia's, which I just adore and sort of became "our place" to go out (Sissy's was more her and Denna's place hehe). I think Carol's sick of Sugar's today though, so ohwell, I don't get their awesome natural smoothies and pasta salad. Well … I like Carol enough, she's a sweetheart and Matt likes hanging out with her, too. But seriously, whenever we go out I feel like we just talk about the same things: work gossip (ugh!), her relationship status, or how Denna's doing in Italy. We get along, but I don't feel we really have anything interesting in common. Since I was thirteen I struggled in the girl friend department, but hanging out with all the guys didn't really bother me so much anyway. Now I just sort of feel desperate, I just want a girl to talk to every now and then! You know, a girl kind of like me, heh. Matt is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but I'm sure you understand … I think he does. I think I'm just feeling a little holed-up lately. I'm an inside, introverted person and hanging out with Matt is great, but every now and then I think I miss my childhood girlfriends. I don't want to be surrounded by a lot of friends or anything, I really just want one and for her to not live across the country. I think that's part of why I want to hang out with Melissa more … maybe it reminds me of when I was in middle school hanging with the "Chicklets" … but you know, she's thirteen. There's certain needs in that relationship that can't be met, either. Well, enough of that. Lunch today will be nice, but I guess I'm going into it feeling like the friendship is all ready sort of empty and it just bums me a bit. Yes, it's another morning where I just babble, so sorry. Yesterday I got a ton of schoolwork, errands, and housework done that I didn't expect to (due to my Melissa date being called off, wahh!) so I'm a tad ahead of schedule and can spare the thirty minutes of babble! So I think I will go whip up some no-bake cookies for later (not for breakfast, ick) and play with crazy Tal. He sure is going to miss me when school starts up in the Fall. The spoiled cat has a big toy all day long every day who is just going to disappear for the semester. Poor guy. >:-)

So it’s been a few days and I have little to report. School started on Monday, so that’s keeping me kind of busy. I’m only taking nine credits and they’re all online-courses, so it’s not so bad. I can do my psychology homework in my pajamas! I’m also taking World Civilizations and Logic, then I’ll have all my “core classes” out of the way finally. I really just do a lot of reading and that will last me all summer.

Matt and I are considering getting another cat. Tal is four months old now and extremely playful and it’s nice that I’m home all summer to hang out with him. I was reading that a kitten’s best toy is another kitten and maybe he would have fun hanging out with one of his own. Carol and I went out to see The Perfect Man on Wednesday (which was pretty cute!) and stopped by the shelter just to peek. There were so many kittens there, I was amazed. And so cute! When we adopted Tal the shelter told us he’s not very good with other cats. I don’t know if that’s just because of the environment he was subject to, if it’s something he’ll grow out of, if they were just the wrong kinds of cats, or if he’s really just anti-social. If we do look for a playmate for him, I think we’ll bring Tal along to see how he interacts with the shelter kitties and see if he can sort of pick his match. Hopefully that will go well!

My mother got home from the hospital yesterday, which I am very thankful for. She spent seven days in there and it sounded horrible. From what I hear, things aren’t too much better, though. The only thing she “can” consume is water and tea, and neither of those will stay down for her. She claims to be in more physical pain than she has ever known and I wish there was more I could do to ease that for her. We will just keep praying her pain subsides soon and she can get on with her day-to-day life.

So I’m all happy I found some new music! I stumbled across some Tea Leaf Green and Jack Johnson (awesome!) mp3s and now have CDs on order. I’m enjoying both tremendously and you should go check ‘em out! TLF is a San Francisco band, and I’m going to try to make it up to their next local show in September and Jack Johnson will be in Santa Barbara in August (going to buy tix now woohoo!) I haven’t been to any sort of concert for a while (well, Switchfoot up in San Fran a while ago, but it was late/far away and we didn’t stay through the whole thing) and it will be nice to go see one.

Well, here’s my promised recipe of the day! Last night we had a pseudo-Steak Diane. It’s more quick-and easy and there’s no setting anything ablaze, but it’s our favorite dish we’ve found so far. Serves 2 with wild rice and green beans!

2 (6-ounce) ball tip or strip steaks
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons minced shallots
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon minced fresh or frozen chives
1 Tablespoon Cognac or brandy

Season steaks with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, melt butter. Add shallots and cook over medium-high heat 1 minute.

Add steaks and cook 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Remove steaks to a warm serving platter.

Whisk lemon juice, Worcestershire, mustard, and chives into drippings in skillet. Cook 1 minute; stir in Cognac. Pour sauce over steaks and serve at once.

Tonight isn’t quite as exciting: just playing with my kinda-new crockpot and making a roast with veggies. Mmm! Matt and I are just going to chill out, play some Ragnarok Online and watch some Rayearth tonight. Ahh, this is the life!

Well, this might be incredibly boring for some, but I'm not sure I have anything that much more interesting, so I'm going to tell you what I had for dinner! Woohoo! Actually, I'm just now learning to cook. I know, I'm 22 years old and really all I've ever cooked is grilled cheese sandwiches and really bad scrambled eggs. Now I have my own kitchen and I really want to give it a whirl! I'm actually having a blast! I haven't tried anything too fancy yet (I just have two small cookbooks and a kitchen with limited supplies), but I'm having fun. My mother gave me a cookbook called "Recipe Please: Favorite Recipes from Colorado Restaurants". (Sidenote: Please pray for her, if that's your kind of thing, as she was admitted to the hospital for a ruptured appendix the other day. She was supposed to be sent home today, but I guess things have taken a turn for a worse and they're now projecting she gets released on Tuesday.) I don't believe I've found an entry in the book of a restaurant of which I've been to, but the food sounds really good! Tonight I chose my first meal from the book: Bravo! Ristorante's Lemon chicken with Penne. I modified the recipe a bit, taking out the ingredients which we don't have on-hand (asparagus and oregano) and fixed it so it only fed two. So, I'll post my interesting "Meals for Two" recipes which I attempt! Here was tonight's chicken: 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 clove garlic, minced 1/2 small shallot, chopped 1/4 cup white wine 1/2 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips 1 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola 1/2 cup freshly diced tomatoes 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan Pinch of mixed fresh or dried herbs (thyme, rosemary, parsley, and chives) 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice Salt and pepper to taste 1/2 pound penne, cooked and drained Fresh basil for garnish Serves 2 Heat oil in pan, add garlic and shallot and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Deglaze pan with white wine and reduce. Add chicken strips. Saute for 3 to 4 minutes. Add heavy cream and Gorgonzola and reduce liquid by half. Next, add asparagus, diced tomatoes, Parmesan, fresh herbs, and lemon juice and heat. Add penne to pan and let it cook just until heated through. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with basil and serve. Served with a 2003 Lucas and Lewellen chardonnay. I give it two thumbs up, but Matt didn't care for it at all. It seems he doesn't really like creamy-sauces (it's not all that creamy, though) so I packed up his for my own lunch tomorrow. I thought it was awesome, but that's okay. I'll cook it when he's not around. Check it out! Oh yes, and I'll have another culinary adventure soon to tell you all about! Now moving from the kitchen to the driveway … Matt and I have been cleaning the car. It's really quite the nightmare. It was such a cute paint job that Jason, Matthew, Jen, and Carol did for us last weekend, but they used the wrong kind of paint I think! We've used Goo Gone and soap and water and rubbing compound and have exhausted all those kinds of products at Autozone. It took me over two hours and tons of elbow grease to rub the huge LOVE off the hood. I considered a whole new paint job, actually, but that's out of the question now that I've looked at our checking account. So, if anyone has a suggestion on how to get this crazy super-paint off our car, it would be greatly appreciated! I'm going to see if my brother can find the bottle they used (two different brands, actually, and neither one of them is easily removed) and get me a phone number to call the manufacturer for a recommended solvent! Ick, my arms/thumbs are so sore. Anyhow, that's all for tonight. Try that chicken!

Phew! I know it's all cliche and whatnot, but seriously, last weekend was the best weekend of my life! Everything was so beautiful! *tear!* I'm currently working on getting all my favorite wedding photos up at my gallery. The biggest thanks ever goes out to Aaron and Alex! I invited them as friends and they went to work as photographers, taking hundreds upon hundreds of photos. I couldn't ask for better friends! So, here's how it went: Thursday Got up kind of early to drive to Fresno. Listened to all our wedding CDs in the car on the way up (no DJ, just a bunch of our faves burned to disk). Met up with my father and brother around noon, waited to meet up with Matt's family a few hours later. We all trooped down to the Fresno mall to pick up tuxedos then all headed to BJ's for pizza. Matt's family had been up since 3am New York time and nearly everyone was exhausted, hungry, and a bit grumpy. It was still awesome to get together for a meal and meet/catch up. My brother (Matthew) and Matt's brother (Jason) … well, it's absolutely uncanny! It's like they're twins. Very creepy. They just met and hit it off quite well. They sat all through dinner drawing physics problems and anime sketches on napkins and discussing little-brother random things. My mother and Ron were driving in from Las Vegas (the long way!) and got in later than expected. They met up with everyone at the Picadilly Inn, where most of us stayed the night. Friday This is the day that I had most of my wedding-stresses. This was mostly because I had only been up to Yosemite during the off-season and had no idea what a zoo it would be. What is a 30-minute drive in November is more like a 90-minute drive in June. So I was late all over the place and frustrated and got lost a whole lot. Jen was in the car with me when I was near tears and was a blessing in the way of emotional support! Thanks, Jen! *hugs* My mother and I met up with the banquet manager at the Wawona Hotel that afternoon to discuss the reception. This eased my worried a lot as I just got more and more excited about how beautiful it was going to be! That evening Dave and Diane invited everyone down to the Pines Resort's restaurant, Duceys, for Jazz on the Lake. This was awesome rehearsal dinner (though there really wasn't much to rehearse)! Papa Bear and Company played while we buffeted and danced out on Bass Lake. Carol (from work) met up with us at the last minute, too, and stayed with me and Jen in the Wawona that evening. The three of us and my mother stuffed birds nests and ironed dresses late into the evening. Saturday I couldn't stay asleep past 5:00 and was pretty surprised I got that much rest. Wedding morning is worse than Christmas morning! Jen, Carol and I got up and got ready to go to Revive Day Spa with Mama and Diane. I sat down first for a manicure/pedicure, which was so relaxing! Then Andrea showed up! Andrea was originally going to be the Maid of Honor and she lived in Monterey, which isn't far from Yosemite. But she just transferred to Texas and we canceled her dress and flowers and just accepted that she wouldn't be able to attend. At the very last minute she got approval to fly out to California (you can't usually take leave in training, but this is a special occasion!) She got in very late on Friday night, went out and found a dress in Oakhurst the day of the wedding, and I got an extra bouquet for her and it all worked out! Yay, Andrea!! After we all got prettied up at the day spa, the girls headed off to the Wawona to get dressed super-speedy like. Then off to the chapel! My mom is so cute, she played Bette Midler's "Chapel of Love" on the drive up to Yosemite Village while Jen and I danced in the back seat. We left for the chapel really early because I was afraid of the 2 mph traffic into the Village that my father experienced, but we ended up arriving early after all. We met up with Aaron and the guys in front of the chapel to take photos then went down by Superintendent's Bridge to take more. It was so horribly buggy out by the river we had to leave and return to the chapel. Everyone was being eaten alive. We waited around for the pastor forever and he finally showed up and we went back to the bridge for a gorgeous, mosquito-y ceremony. It was so pretty, but I felt horrible for Matt. Every now and then I'd just tune out the pastor and watch the four or five mosquitoes on Matt's face suck away and I just wanted to reach up and slap him. That's probably not the best thing to do in the middle of your wedding, though. Matt drove me to the Wawona for the reception and from there everything just seemed to go too quickly. Guests dinged on their glasses so we'd kiss five hundred times and Chris Nail threatened to keep dinging until we "did it like we mean it!" After that, Matt threatened to be rolling around on the floor with me at each ding. The food was good, but I didn't really eat much. The cake wasn't exactly like I'd imagined, but so so cute! And really, I didn't rig the bouquet toss, it just happened to go right for Jen! And when Jason caught the garter, that just didn't seem right and we did a redo (which is horrible! So sorry, Jason!) :p I had worried so much about which songs to play and what would make people comfortable and what wouldn't put them to sleep and all that, and I think I heard maybe a few seconds of two or three songs. All the things I worried about really didn't matter or even present themselves as a problem, but I'm sure most brides learn that. The whole day was really much better than I had dreamed and although it's corny, it truly was the best day of my life thus far! Sunday Matt and I stayed Saturday night and Sunday night at the Houndstooth Inn in Oakhurst, which is absolutely adorable and we highly recommend to anyone staying the night in the Yosemite area! All the rooms there are so awesome, but we decided to have the entire summer cottage to ourselves! We're going up to camp in Yosemite around the Fourth of July, so we didn't really get out around the area. I know it's boring or whatever, but we just stayed inside pretty much the entire time. We were both exhausted from a whole week of stressing and traveling and excitement, so we just crashed all weekend. That's fine with me though! We opened gifts (which just made me bawl; the people we know are so sweet!) and got out for dinner and Star Wars: Episode III. Matt doesn't have too much more leave saved up, so we had to get him back Monday night so he could return to work. What an amazing weekend! As for me, I don't have to plan a wedding, go to work, or study until Monday, so I'm just bumming around this week. Cleaning house, shopping, cooking — all the domestic stuff a wife needs to do, I guess (sleep in and eat leftover wedding cake, really!) Oh, and thank you notes. So many thank you notes! Life is good. It's nice to be back with Tal, who I think was pretty lonely without us for five days. No worries, we had a sweet cat sitter come and spend time with him! Sorry for such a long post today, but I needed to catch you all up! And go check out some pictures!

My goodness, there’s always something new that comes up! So, the original plan was I separate from the service, we get married 3 days later, than Matt separates two months later. The issue was where we were going to live. We can’t stay in the dorms and we can’t get base housing. We were relying on temporary lodging, but came to find that’s not an option. A two-month lease here is difficult to find in a desirable place. We found a 6-month place, though! The apartment we chose yesterday in Vandenberg Village seems wonderful! So we are getting married in Lompoc today! We have to be wed to receive housing allowances to move off-base. There will still be a wedding in June with our families. They know what’s going on and agree that it is the most practical solution. It’s nothing fancy today. We’re going to the courthouse at three. Redenna, Carol, Dan, and Matt Cooper will all be present. Then later this evening we are going over to Janet’s for dinner.

Oh my! I just got a phone call letting us know that we got the apartment!