First official weekend in Cali

It's been so nice to have the sun always shining and my nose not running from the dreaded seasonal allergies when I wake up in the morning! This past weekend was awesome to say the least. Friday I went to my first Marine "Dine-In" with Bryan. It was held for his current 169 unit that will be deploying in late October. It's a formal event so as I mentioned before I got to get all dressed up :) Unfortunately, as my luck would have it, when I went to try my dress on that morning before we left for San Diego to make sure everything would look good together one last time...MY DRESS DIDN'T FIT!!! It fell straight to the floor (even with my extra padded push-up!) I was completely horrified. I had nothing else with me to wear that wasn't short or knee length. For the next couple hours I ran around the city of Fallbrook looking for a long, black, formal dress. Luckily I found one before noon and then had to go straight to my hair appointment.

We left home at 3 and with California traffic, we made it to San Diego (which is only 45 min away) a little after 5! The cocktail hour started at 6 so we didn't have much time to check in to our hotel, change, add final touches, then taxi over to the other hotel where it was held. Unfortunately, I wasn't smart enough to remember to bring with me a smaller purse to hold me camera and cellphone so I wasn't able to take any pictures at the event, but I did get a few before we left. I can't begin to explain to you how intimidating it was walking into a room filled with 350-400+ Marines all dressed in their blues. They ranked all the way from Privates to the head haunchos. I ended up talking to more than a couple of the Commanding Officers and Captains throughout the night and they were all surprisingly pretty laid back and very casual. I made a few new friends quickly at my table so that I had someone else to talk to during the night. It was definitely a night filled with laughs, tears, tradition, and drinking.....lots and lots of drinking!

The next day we left San Diego and came home to do some errands around town. It was a good day to just chill and relax. I got a little bit of homework done and did some planning for our upcoming "re-wedding". Sunday we had some friends over for dinner and I left the cooking up to one of Bryan's friend, John. He made us all amazing chicken curry cutlet with rice and french bread with melted cheese on the top and insides. It was so good I had to take a picture or two :P

So far the rest of this week has been pretty casual. Lots of homework and going to the beach and cooking. I'm really starting to come into my own with it (or so I hope). I will post more later on since this weekend we're going to the boat races in San Diego with some of Bryan's friends. That'll be interesting. I miss everyone from back home sooo much. Keep in touch!

Moving!!!!

It's been over a week since my last post, but I've been sooo busy that I can't seem to keep my days straight anymore, so just a heads up, this one is going to be pretty long :P. This past week has been a non stop rush of packing, driving, and excitement. I had my last day of work for the year at the apartments on Thursday last week which made me really sad. I can't believe I'm going to miss actually going to work. Friday night my little brother drove all the way up to St.Cloud to hang out with me and help me move the next day. We had a ton of fun and I'm already wishing he was out here with me. Saturday was the big moving day. I finished packing everything up bright and early and then we began moving some of my bigger furniture to my friend Megan's house (where I will be staying when I move back to MN). Then came the fun task of fitting everything else into the back seat and trunk of my car! It was a tight fit but we made it with a little breathing room to spare.

After I said my goodbyes to my family and friends, I started on the first part of my journey to Mortin, MN. Megan was of course coming with me to move me out to California and was at Jackpot casino that night for a wedding reception. We both decided it would be best if we stayed the night there and I just crashed the reception ;) It was great to finally meet some of her friends from her "wild days" haha! I even got to see a familiar face at the reception since Shain (Bryan's best friend from the USMC) was the best man. Whats even better is that I finally got to meet his wife, Kathy, whom I've heard sooo much about. After a great night, Meg and I met up with Shain and Kathy, and Kyle and Erica (the bride and groom) for breakfast. It was getting pretty late so we said our goodbyes to them and started again on the long drive back out to Cali for the second time this year.

Megan and I are very lucky that we love and understand each other enough to be able to put up with one another all day every day for at least 5 days straight! We had another successful road trip with lots of laughs and memories made. While driving through Colorado we serenaded "Piece of Sh*t Car" to my oldsmobile after it decided it didn't want to accelorate or drive faster than 45mph!!! Not very fun when you're on an interstate and the speed limit is 75! On top of that, after we got through Las Vegas and into California, the traffic was so stop and go that my car started to over heat about every 3 miles or less so we had to crank the heat and roll down the windows in hopes of catching a breeze to cool off. We were getting pretty dilusional when we started jamming out to Nsync. But I have to say that animal crackers and chocolate frosting has got to be one of the most amazing snacks EVER! We definitely exposed our inner fat girls when we decided to perminantly place the can of frosting in my cup holder.

It may have taken us 31 hours with traffic to get to Cali, but we finally made it in one piece. I knocked on our apartment door and surprised Bryan that we were already there. I can't begin to explain how happy I was to finally see him again or how amazing it felt to be back in his arms. I missed him more than anything this past month. After unloading my vehicle, we showered, changed, and went to find some food for Meg and I. Ben and John had just gotten back from Las Vegas for the long weekend and stopped by to see us and the apartment. I hadn't seen them since June and missed their crazy personalities. The next day we went shopping again for more needed things and later that night I made my first home cooked dinner at the apartment for Meg, John, Bryan, and I. It was my favorite honey bbq chicken breasts, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans, and crescent rools mmmmmmm. I was impressed with myself.

On Wednesday Meg and I tried to get some much needed homework done, but do you know how hard it is to concentrate on a book when someone is whistling 10 feet away from you?! I think it'll get better once he's at work every day until the afternoon. Meg got to "play marine" for a bit when Bryan put her in his bulletproof vest and helmet. I was shocked that she didn't fall over from the weight! The three of us went on an adventure with the gps to find some dessert, but after getting lost twice, we decided that dq was probably a safer bet. I had no complaints for that one ;)

This morning was a bit of a sad say when Bryan found out he had "duty" today. This basically means that he has to dress up looking like a Nazi and sit in a TINY office at the barracks in case anyone has any questions or needs any help/ extra room key for their barracks at any time of the day. This is a 24 hr shift so he won't be home until tomorrow at 8am or so :( This sucks BIG TIME since Megan left this afternoon leaving me all alone. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but it doesn't make it any more fun. On the bright side, before Meg left, her and I drove down to Pacific Beach (pb) to soak up some rays at the beach. We ate lunch at this AMAZING little restaurant by the ocean and then found a spot in the sand to park our towels. It didn't really hit me until a couple hours later when I was dropping her off at the airport and hugging her goodbye that this wasn't just another vacation; I actually moved out here and she wasn't going to be staying with me this time. It was the hardest drive back home not having her there. We've been basically inseperable since the first day we met over a year and a half ago and now I just feel lost without her :'(.

So that brings us up to today. It's currently waaaaay too late at night/ early in the morning but I can't seem to fall asleep. Bryan is at work, Megan and the rest of my friends and family are in MN, and here I sit alone in my apartment on the internet. It's kind of a crappy ending to this post but the good news is that the next time I am on I will post pictures of the Marine Formal that is happening on Friday in San Diego. I'm still a litte nervous, but over all very excited. To all of my friends and family, I miss you tons and can't wait to see you again this winter! I hope everyone stays safe and healthy. Until then, see you soon!

Girls night out!

This past weekend was definitely one for the books! Even though I had to work both Saturday and Sunday at the apartments, I definitely found time to hang out with some of my favorite girls and celebrate my moving to Cali. After work Megan, Alisa, Vahna, and Shoutz came over to do a little pre-gaming and had a few laughs with our sweet "tattoos" lol.

After that we decided to head down town and had a few at the Red Carpet. Unfortunately, the band sucked pretty bad and after getting hit on by some unfortunate looking people, we went to try our luck at The Press. Our favorite little bartender was working and we had a blast. Most of us helped out a bachelor on his quest to fulfill as many things on his t-shirt checklist as possible. He was definitely a trooper :) We were even rewarded for our efforts and got free drinks out of it. Later on we would realize that those drinks were definitely what put our heads over the limit and into the toilet :P We made some new friends and ran into old ones too. After crashing back at my place at 4 am, the next morning came waaaaaaaaaaaaay too early! Going to work hung over and trying to function (even for just 4 hours) is ridiculously hard for this girl. Later that night I took a nice long nap, followed by lots and lots of sleep!

It was a night filled with laughs and memories with friends that I'm going to miss sooo much when I leave. I know it's only going to be for 4 months, but when you're leaving a best friend behind, it feels like forever. Make sure to let your friends know just how much you care for them and love them; even if you may want to strangle them from time to time :P