He's home! He's home! He's home!

You'll be happy to know that the most wonderful person in my world is now here on U.S. soil. In fact, he happens to be in the same apartment as me. I'll blog more about the whole thing later, but I thought maybe this picture would get you by until then.

I feel it's necessary for you to know that my posture isn't as bad as it appears in this picture. I was excited to see him, so I was leaning into him. You try being away from your significant other for four months and see if you don't find yourself doing the same thing.















Especially when he looks this good in uniform. :)

So exhausted, but so excited

Last night, I stayed up until about 1 a.m. getting everything done I needed to do. I picked up the wine on my way home last night. I went to Whole Foods and got this amazing peanut butter I'd heard about. (They grind it from fresh peanuts on the spot -- I watched.) I ran to Wal-Mart and got some markers to finish my pretty sign for the welcome-home ceremony so K can find me faster. I bought a Christmas tree and some lights to put up at his apartment.

And I baked my cheesecake. It takes 32 oz. of cream cheese. I don't have a blender. It takes some elbow grease and some serious love to make homemade cheesecake with no blender. But I did it.

I finished my sign, and then I started packing. As I put on my makeup this morning, I called Cingular and got K's cell phone reconnected, since he'd had it turned off while he was gone. It took me forever and a day to load the car. My trunk is packed.

Last night as I was doing all these things in preparation, one of K's buddies called me. I'd sent his wife an e-mail asking her to call me if she or her husband heard anything about K's battery coming in early. I asked another friend the same. Since the guys are K's friends and are captains also -- and since they're there on post, in the same city and state that K will arrive -- I figured they'd hear any changes in plans if K wasn't able to call and let me know. So I talked to one of the guys and to another guy's wife who I became friends with. It was good to talk to them again. I miss them!

I've already told them and K that this Saturday at 7, we're going to have to get together because there's going to be a football game on I'm kind of interested in watching. OU has fought its way into the Big XII conference championship game, and I'm not missing it.

Yeah, sure, K just got back from Afghanistan. But hello, priorities?!

Counting down!

Thanksgiving was great. I've been crazy busy since I got back to my apartment yesterday. I haven't had time to blog about everything yet, but it will come. For now, the important part:

I got a call from K this morning. He's out of the combat zone now, and he's in Kyrgyzstan. He'll be back in Louisiana at about 1 p.m. Wednesday. I worked it out with my boss so I can leave Tuesday night after work. I'll have to work from K's apartment Wednesday and Thursday morning, but that's nothing to be able to be there when he gets home. Besides, by noon on Thursday, it's the weekend for me! K has a two-day pass, so it'll be a four-day weekend for him.

I have all these plans for K. I already went to Wal-Mart and bought some Miller Light. I know K's been missing that. I bought ingredients to make my Reese's peanut butter cheesecake, so I'll make that tonight. I'm going to go back to Wal-Mart tonight to pick up a small Christmas tree and some lights to decorate K's apartment. Hopefully we'll have time to run K's truck through the car wash, but I think it might rain, so that might scratch those plans.

I went to a wine tasting in June with ER, and there was this really good peach champagne. K loves peaches. I'm going to get a bottle of that for the weekend and also a bottle of this other kind of white wine we tried at the end of the tasting. It was my favorite! I'm also going to get some as Christmas gifts.

CG is going to drive down tomorrow and stop off at my apartment to pick up the spare keys to K's apartment. She'll drive on early because she hates driving at night. She'll take care of washing his bedding probably, since I'll get there late Tuesday night. Then, we'll decorate his apartment together so it'll be all festive when he gets home!

I'M SO EXCITED!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm in Oklahoma this weekend. Today, I'm at my mom's house with her husband and his three daughters. I got here last night at about 8:45. I'm going to miss the gym while I'm here, and since K will be home A WEEK FROM TODAY, I brought some dinky 5 pound free weights I bought before I started going to the gym. I figure 5 pounds is better than nothing. I really want to go to Wal-Mart to buy an exercise ball to do crunches on. I may wind up doing that this weekend.

I'm going to go running, too. I bought a knee brace to be on the safe side. I think one of my stepsisters is going to come with me. I'm anxious to see how I'll do -- really running is a lot different than running on an elliptical!

Tomorrow morning, we're all getting up early to hit the specials and go shopping. Should be fun!

Happy turkey day!

Dear Santa,

I realize it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I thought since my mom asked me already what I wanted for Christmas, I'd let you know early, too.

• A football. Not a rubbery Nerf "football," but a real, regulation-sized, pigskin football. Not anything fancy or leather. After all, I am going to just toss it around. But if I have my own, I won't have to borrow one anymore. I can throw a spiral from time to time. Just think how good I'd be if I really had my own ball!
• My desk. I already have it picked out, and it's not even expensive. I can just think of plenty of other places $100 could be used. Like my credit card bill.
• Some good running shoes. My tennis shoes are about ready for retirement. I'd like to try running outside again (and I promise to do my knee exercises this time).
• A black or dark gray coat. It needs to be something I can wear to work.

Since K's coming back next week, that's about all I need to make my life complete. Wait -- I should be more specific: That's all I need from Santa to make my life complete. :)

So excited!

This week is Thanksgiving, which means I have a three-day work week. I think it's wrong how giddy this makes me.

And next week, I'll have a three-day work week, too. I'm taking off next Thursday and Friday to use up my final vacation days. Turns out, it should work out perfectly: K is scheduled to get home on the 30, which is NEXT THURSDAY! Now, it could change to be sooner or later. But I hope it doesn't, because that will be absolute perfect timing -- especially since it's literally the ONLY time left this year I can take off work.

So 10 days from today, I could be getting ready to see K. Or I could already be with him. That's definitely something to be excited about!

A little tolerance

I bought two shirts to decide which would be best to make my special game day/Veterans Day shirt for last weekend's game. I went to SuperTarget today to return the one I didn't use. There was a line at customer service, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly it moved. When I went up to the open register, I handed the guy behind the counter my receipt and shirt. I noticed the woman at the register next to me was being very rude to the woman helping her. So rude, in fact, that I was distracted watching her. I realized the guy helping me was waiting for me to hand him my debit card so he could credit it for my return. I apologized and explained that the woman was distracting me. "She's being unnecessarily rude," I said.

The man told me the woman had been at the registers for about 15 minutes. After that, I could understand how she'd be a little frustrated, but it couldn't have been entirely the worker's fault that she was still there. And even still, there's no reason to talk to a grown woman like she's 5 years old.

I've been a cashier before. I've worked at the mall before. And I've been a server.

The holidays are busy, and it's hectic to work in any of those places around this time of year. The hours are longer, people are in more of a hurry (and are, therefore, less forgiving of wait times) and stores are more packed.

Whoever you are, if you've ever worked as a server, a cashier or a customer service person, I hope you remember what it's like to have those jobs -- especially around the holidays. And if you've never worked somewhere where the motto is "the customer is always right," I hope you put yourself in their shoes.

You probably aren't the first panicked or stressed customer those workers have encountered. Lines are frustrating, but so is working for hours and seeing no end to the line behind your register.

Treat your server, cashier or any other service employee you encounter just as you would want to be treated if you were doing that person's job. After all, it's their holiday season, too.

GAME DAY!

I have friends over right now watching the OU-Baylor game, and we're totally kicking butt!

After this, we're going to watch the Ohio State-Michigan game, and I'm sorry, Courtney, but

GO BUCKEYES!

(Courtney, if it makes you feel better, I won't be as upset if Michigan wins because of you!)

If that's not love ...

HIGH FIVE!

Two months ago, not many people would have known what that means, but I would have. And I would have laughed my head off with the few who were fortunate enough to know the greatness that is Ali G/Sascha Baron Cohen before the movie Borat.

My sophomore year in college, we would have gatherings at Brad's apartment to watch Da Ali G Show. His three roommates, their two girlfriends (no, they didn't share -- one was single), Brad, me and sometimes a few others would die laughing each week at his antics as they aired on HBO.

In the summer of 2005, when I'd just moved to Dallas, I read that Ali G was in this very city filming, but too many people recognized him and were ruining his antics by revealing his characters.

I'd told K about Ali G many times, but he'd never seen the show. Luckily, K has Netflix. We got season one of his show and watched it a couple weeks before K left. We didn't have enough time to watch season two.

But I got K into Ali G back in August, so now I feel like I should wait to see Borat until he gets back. Luckily, it's soon enough that if we miss it in the theaters, we'll at least be able to catch it at the dollar movies. But it's killing me that all these people have seen it and know even newer jokes from it, when I've been a fan for so long but am having to watch the paranoia from the outside as though I have no idea what the fuss is about.

Repeating to self: It's all for K.

(Slightly immature) dilemma

Last night, I went to this OU journalism grad thing for (surprise, surprise) alums of OU's journalism college. There was a cocktail hour, hors d'oeuvres and even a chocolate fountain. And it was all free.

As I was walking in, I was stopped by one of WK's co-workers. (WK works for as a designer for an ad agency. She has an art degree from OU.) Well, WK's co-worker happened to be talking on the phone to WK. It sounded like she was giving her directions to get to our gathering. When her co-worker hung up the phone, I said, "Is she coming?" Yes. Me, unable to hide my feelings on it: "Why?" (In case you didn't realize, art degrees have nothing to do with the journalism college.) "Because we told her to," her co-worker said.

So I get into the gathering and am mingling with people I hadn't seen in a couple years and was excited to see. I look over and see WK enter. Not excited to see her. And why was she crashing a journalism thing?

She eventually came up to me as I was talking to a friend I hadn't seen in a while. I found myself having to pretend to be excited to see WK. We engaged in conversation that was slightly awkward because I was annoyed that I was having to fake wanting to talk to her to not be rude. I don't like being fake or when people are fake. I wasn't over the top about it, though -- I simply carried on a conversation.

After a while, President Boren spoke, which was awesome. It sounds like OU is really doing well and making a name for itself. It's been written about in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Princeton Review in the last few weeks. In fact, just yesterday The Princeton Review ran a story about the elite eight colleges that are giving private colleges a run for their money. On the list, and with the biggest photo of the story: the University of Oklahoma.

Well, following President Boren's speech, the CEO of American Airlines, who is an OU grad, drew for two free plane tickets to anywhere in the U.S. Guess who won? WK. WHO IS NOT AN ALUMNA OF THE JOURNALISM COLLEGE.

I know it's slightly immature to be mad about this, but I seriously want to e-mail her and tell her if she has any conscience at all, she'd give the tickets to one of her co-workers who actually is an OU journalism grad.

Please tell me I am being immature and to just shut up and get over it. Thank you for your assistance.

------------------------------------------------
In case you're with S on not knowing who WK is, she's on my initial legend to the right of my blog. She used to be a Wednesday girl, but she slowly stopped showing up. She'd always be busy with something. After a while, we just stopped inviting her to save her the trouble of coming up with a reason she couldn't meet us or telling us she had other plans.

As she was phasing herself out, though, whenever she DID come with us, she'd talk the whole time about how great her job was, how funny these stories were from work that we didn't get. I told ER one day that I was convinced WK sat at work thinking of funny stories to tell us and writing them down, then rehearsing them all day Wednesday so she'd remember them at dinner. What's funny is that about two days later, Emily wound up saying basically the same thing to ER. It kind of became our joke.

Every once in a while, WK would call ER or me, and she'd always ask if we'd talked to the other one. I guess she doesn't realize ER is my best friend. She'd call out of the blue if she'd had a bad day, and she'd always say, "We need to do our Wednesday thing again." What she didn't realize is that we never stopped.

WK just always had this way of saying things to make you feel stupid or like she's looking down on you. Many times, she uses your name or nickname to talk down to you. It's happened multiple times. (One example: Danielle was coming to visit me, and her boyfriend, who was 19, was also going to come. They were both going to stay at my aparment. They have made the decision to "wait" until they get married. Well, Danielle's bf's parents were not cool with the idea of the two of them staying together at my apartment, although it had nothing to do with me. I was telling WK that it sucked because Danielle's bf was 20. WK said, "Yeah, [my name], exactly: He's 20." I said, "I know. He's 20 and in college, living in his own apartment. Anything that could happen at my apartment would just as easily happen in Norman in the comfort of his own room. He's an adult.")

ER and I have a great group of friends we hang out with, and WK has her own group of friends. Neither of us had seen WK in months.

Take THAT, cold!

It's so windy today! Before 8 a.m., Dallas had already had 50 mph winds. Crazy! It actually feels like November, though, so it's kind of about time.

I went to bed early again last night, and again with the aid of Nyquil. I feel even better today than yesterday. Yeah, my head is still a bit stuffy, and my nose is still kind of stuffy, but I can totally breathe out of one side, and I haven't even taken any Dayquil yet!

At this rate, I'll have totally kicked this cold maybe even by Friday. And I think I might finally go to the gym again tonight.

Me-1, Cold-0

Stuffy

I totally have a cold. I probably shouldn't have come to work yesterday, but 6 years of working for your dad makes you think you can work through anything. I pretty much only miss work if I actually get sick (read between the lines on that one to see what I'm trying to not say because I'm a lady) that morning while I'm getting ready.

Today, I'm actually not feeling sick like I was yesterday. My head just feels congested, and my nose is definitely stopped up. Kleenex is my best friend right now.

The weird part:
Remember a couple weeks ago, when my wisdom tooth was crowning and killing me? Well, I mentioned it to the other girl in my department who's my age (among a few other co-workers -- Hey, it hurt!), and she suddenly mentioned her teeth hurting. Well, she's been full time longer than me, so she has dental insurance. She went to the dentist the next day and got an appointment to have the suckers removed. Two days later, she was wisdom tooth- (and pain-) free!

Well, yesterday, I came to work sick. Later in the day, she opened my door and mentioned how she was starting to feel sick in her throat. I told her that mine had started with my ears feeling funny and with my head being stuffy and kind of hurting.

This morning when I came in, she told me she thinks she has tonsilitis, so I need to get to the doctor today. She'd looked in her mouth this morning with a flashlight and saw that she had white spots on her throat. Well, I've had tonsilitis before, and my lymph nodes were really swollen then. They're not right now. And my throat doesn't hurt.

I'm not quite sure if tonsilitis is contagious, but I definitely know I haven't kissed anyone in three months (from today, actually, since that's the last time I saw K), and I don't drink after people. I'm pretty sure I just have a cold or something that's not a big deal and will eventually go away on its own.

But guess who left work today at 12:30 to go to the doctor, then took the rest of the day off?

AND GUESS WHO'S STILL AT WORK?

I'm a loser. (And my co-worker must have good sympathy pains or something!)

We're totally sneaky

ER and I left early Saturday morning to head to the Land of Greatness (a.k.a, Norman) to surprise her sister and Danielle. Since ER's parents just moved, they had to miss the last home game of the year, which is also the senior game. ER's sister and Danielle are both seniors, so we decided to surprise them by showing up on Saturday morning at their rehearsal.

It worked perfectly because ER was originally going to have to work. She found that out last August, and it was something she probably wasn't going to be able to get out of, so her sister has known all season that ER wouldn't be able to make it. Well, we found out last Monday ER would be able to get out of work for Saturday. We still played it off, though, like she couldn't. ER and I got together Friday night and bought some goodies to surprise the girls with. She called her sister while we were running errands and told her again that she was sorry she wouldn't be able to make it. ER stayed at my place that night, and we got our gifts all together and made the girls both picture frames.

On the way up on Saturday, I called Danielle to wish her a happy senior day. She was disappointed I wouldn't be able to make it up, and she asked if ER was coming. When I told Danielle she had to work, she was disappointed about that, too. About an hour and a half later, ER and I showed up at rehearsal. Luckily, ER's sister and Danielle were on different sides of the field. We stood on the sidelines in front of ER's sister for about 30 seconds before she spotted us. Her jaw dropped to the ground, and her eyes welled up. Right then, the director had them move to another set, which gave ER's sister just enough time to run up and give ER the biggest hug. It was awesome.

Then, we headed over to Danielle's side of the field. She took a little less time to see us, but her reaction was pretty awesome, too. Her jaw also dropped, and she did a classic little Danielle happy dance. She ran up to us and gave us both hugs and said, "You guys tricked me!"















I made a special shirt for the game, since it was Veterans Day. The front said Boomer Sooner, and the back:















I totally sent a picture to K. :)

ER and I sported OU tattoos for the first time ever. Don't we look festive?















I owe the inspiration for the new fashion statement to Jef, who highly recommended I wear a giant double-T (the Texas Tech icon) down my face. I think the OU looks much better, myself.

Especially since we won. Sorry, Jef! ;)

Well that's not good ...

I'm wearing my new brown ballet flats for the first time today. I was excited for casual Friday because I knew I could break them out of my closet for the first time with jeans and my OU polo. And that's what I did. But there's a problem.

I didn't notice it until it was too late. I was already at work, walking through the halls of my department, when I heard the sound.

With every step I take (with my right shoe in particular) -- every time the ball of my foot rubs against the sole of my shoes -- a farting sound comes out of my shoe.

Pretty sure I'm gonna be getting some interesting looks at work today.

Turning point

I've never been so worried about the results of an election before. This is new for me.

Honestly, politics isn't something I think about a lot in my day-to-day life. I know it's important and it does have a big effect on my life and our world. I know those things. But I just don't trust a lot of things that go on in politics, and it gets confusing.

I wanted a change. I voted yesterday, and I had to make some tough decisions. I wanted Democrats to take over the Senate and the House because I wanted a change.

Honestly, I hate all the name-calling and the crap that goes with politics. It's frustrating! I hate that President Bush is on TV right now saying he will work through differences with the new leadership of the House and Senate. WHAT DIFFERENCES? Aren't we all for the United States? Aren't we all for the same team?

As I listened to the news this morning while I was getting ready for work, I realized what I'd wanted had most likely happened. But the thing is, as yesterday went on, I wasn't so sure that what I had wanted was really what I wanted. The change I wanted in Congress had nothing to do with red or blue, elephants or donkeys. I wanted a group leading us who would work (and by work, I don't mean labor, I mean click). I wanted a group who would bring different ideas and plans to the table.

But it all means so much more to me than it did before. The media gives such a different perspective of what happens overseas than K and his friends present. They tell stories of building schools and hospitals, working side by side with Afghanis, people thanking them at airports and giving up their seats on earlier flights so a soldier can get home from Iraq that much sooner to see his wife.

The Democrats have been applying pressure to bring the troops home. Obviously, everyone would rather have all those men and women safe and sound here in our country. But I read part of an article in The Washington Post recently where a soldier was talking about the rapport and the trust that the soldiers have built with Iraqis. He said that if we left now, it would upset that relationship and would leave the Iraqis feeling abandoned and betrayed. You don't usually hear that side in the media. And that side makes sense to me.

Now, there's the news that Donald Rumsfeld is leaving. My boss came in my office talking about how good that is. "Why is it good?" I asked him. He told me it would be really good for me, meaning that it will change the course of actions in Iraq, meaning K may not have to leave in August.

That's what I'm really worried about. The plan right now is that K will leave in August and be deployed to Iraq for a year. Obviously, I don't want him to go. I know there is so much left to happen before August gets here. It'll be close to an election year, and that will undoubtedly have an effect on what is going on in Iraq and with sending troops overseas. At the same time, there are things going on in the Sudan, in North Korea and in other parts of the world that could also affect where K is after next August.

I don't know what's going to happen, and this change all seems so big. I know the fact that some 23-year-old in Dallas is worrying about everything really won't have any affect on what happens or what doesn't happen.

I can only hope that God was listening to my prayer Monday night when I asked that he let those who have the right reasons in their hearts and who would be the best ones for their offices and our country to be the ones who are celebrating their new jobs Tuesday night.
____________________________________________
Less than 15 minutes after posting this, I found a quote online of a statement issued today that made me feel a lot better about everything:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist: "Washington must now work together in a bipartisan way -- Republicans and Democrats -- to outline the path to success in Iraq."

If all this change makes everyone do a better job of working together, that can't be a bad thing.

Amen!

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/

Pictures

Why I'm probably going to have to get rid of Noodle (and just in case you thought I was exaggerating that he was ruining my carpet):





















(side view)





















NASCAR!!! I can't wait until someday my brother is driving one of these.


















Soldiers from Fort Hood with the flag for the Star Spangled Banner.










The tow truck from Cars!












The cars lining up to start the race.








Stay tuned for more Sunday!

My heart can't take this anymore

First, there was news of the Reese and Ryan split. Those two always so happy and in love and just so perfect for each other.

But just moments ago, I was floored when I heard the breaking news announcement on the radio of the latest couple to file for divorce. And this one really got me.

I mean, if these two can't stay together, who can? I'm losing faith in marriage.

Busy weekend

Friday night, I went to the gym and did some legs and 30 minutes of cardio. I got a pretty good workout in! Then, I went home and vegged for a bit. Pretty tame night.

Saturday, I met ER at the mall. I went to American Eagle, and my lovely shoes weren't so lovely in person. They barely cover your toes, and I don't like ballet shoes like that as much. I was kinda bummed, but I wound up finding some at Aeropostale that were even cheaper. I even found a cute crimson sweater, which I've been wanting to find for a long time. It was also on sale.

We had lunch with ER's sister and her fiance. ER's sister is a good friend of mine, too, so it was fun. All of us -- including the fiance -- were in band together at OU. After that, I chilled at home for a while before heading to Jeremy's to meet up with our OU watch group. The game was pretty close, but it's tough to play at Kyle Field. We led the whole game and beat Texas A&M 17-16. What's cool is my boss, an A&M grad, had made a bet with me last week that if OU won, he'd wear an OU shirt and hat to work on the day of my choosing. If OU lost, I'd have to wear an A&M shirt and hat on the day of his choosing. I guess I'll be asking a guy friend if I can borrow an OU shirt!

Sunday, I got invited to go to the NASCAR race with a friend whose family had an extra ticket. That was pretty fun. I wish Tony Stewart hadn't won -- I don't really like him. I wanted Kasey Kahne to win. He was actually in second putting on a good show a few times about to pass Tony Stewart, but his motor blew with like 6 laps left in the race. Bummer.

It was really cool, though, to be at the track and think, "Someday, my brother could be doing this." I can't wait for that to happen. I'll be the proudest sister ever!

Because I'm indecisive

I love ballet flats -- love them. I am probably going to be buying some from American Eagle this weekend. My problem: Which pair to get?

















The price difference is only $5, so that's no big deal. I want them to be a pair I can wear to work on a more casual day or wear on a normal day. I'm not sure if the tweed ones would work for that.

What do you think?

Hello, thighs!

I did more lunges Monday night (with the 25-pound weights again), and I'm hurting today. Luckily, day two is usually the worst. That was the case after last week's lunges, and I'm sure it'll be the same this week. Thank goodness.

I feel like I'm walking like an old person today. I can't move too quickly, and it hurts to sit down and stand back up.

sigh

The things we do for buns.