independent woman?

I have always fancied myself as being fairly independent. I think it comes with being an oldest child. I didn't have older siblings to show me the way, so I had to figure most things out for myself. I have never been the type to have a friend with me at all times. I enjoy being alone sometimes. I certainly was not the sort of girl who thought she always needed a boyfriend. I have always been pretty self-confident-- or at least faked it when I wasn't. During my dating years I was never a clingy girlfriend. While I certainly enjoyed spending time with boyfriends, I didn't have to be with them every minute. In fact, not spending every free minute with them insured that they wouldn't get on my nerves.

My dad is a surgeon. For a large chunk of my childhood he was in residency, aka he resided mostly at the hospital. When Dad was "on call" that meant we didn't see him for a few days. My poor mother was basically a single mom for those 5 years. And although it's not nearly as bad once a doctor is out of residency, my father still works a lot. It's just part of the job description. There are always lives to save, right?

So, I always thought that I would marry someone who worked a lot--a doctor or a lawyer or some such thing. Because that is what I knew. One of my ex-boyfriend's was a pilot-in-training and airline pilots are usually gone for a few days and then home for a few days. I totally thought I'd be able to handle to that. No biggie. I am independent, right? Sure it would be hard to have my husband gone, but that would just make the time together all the better. So I thought.

Well, then I met Jared and realized I could marry someone that wouldn't be gone all the time. The majority of Jared's work can be done from home. And even when he's a full-fledged professor, that will still be the case. What a revelation! And although we spent much of our courtship in different timezones, since we've been married we have had an inordinate amount of time together. It's ridiculous actually. But totally great. We just love being together. Duh! And even when I'm at work, we are on gmail chat since we both work on the computer all day. So we are almost always in communication. Like I said--ridiculous.

Well I'm sure you can see what I'm getting at. Jared has been away since Saturday morning and I'm going crazy. I hate this. This is the first time since last Christmas, which was before we were married, that we have spent a day apart. The fun parts of him being gone--like going shopping and watching dvd's he wouldn't want to-- I was done with by Saturday afternoon. For the past three days I have just been totally lonely. I hate going to bed by myself. I hate waking up by myself. I keep looking for him to hug or kiss, and then I remember he's not here. I have been super emotional too. This is probably mostly to blame on hormones (it's that time of month), but I have cried every night.

What is wrong with me? What happened to the independent girl I once was? My only explanation is that I fell in love. For real. And I got used to being close to my love. I joined my soul with his and now with him so far away, I feel like my soul is stretched thin. I miss him. My body misses him. I want him back.

Fortunately, tomorrow night he will be back. Hallelujah! I'm sure most of you are thinking I am a big baby. I know for a fact that a lot of you have spent much more time away from your husbands. How do you handle it? I'd like to know. Because even though his being away is for an excellent cause (spending time with the chil'ens), I absolutely HATE having him away. It sucks.

We will definitely be doing a lot of this tomorrow night:

girlfriends

Today, with my husband a couple thousand miles (give or take a few) away, I am grateful for girlfriends. And I am also wishing that my girlfriends lived closer to me. But at least we have phones!

Yesterday I talked to two of my dear friends on the phone:

Miss Jennifer V

and

Mrs. Emily W

Isn't girl talk great? I really do think it is vital. Women need women. There is just something we get from each other that isn't possible to attain from men. It's sort of mystical. Or maybe I'm just lonely. :-) Whatever it is I sure am happy to have been blessed with amazing friends. And several of them I've known since childhood. Emily here has been in my life for more than 20 years! That is pretty darn amazing, if you ask me. And Jennifer is part of a group of girls from college that I know I will always keep track of. Living together can create some long-lasting bonds.

Since getting married, I haven't made any new really great girlfriends. I haven't had a lot of motivation because I already have such fantastic friends. Plus, these first months of marriage I have been very happy to just be with Jared. But there are those times when I wish I had someone close by that I could call up and chat with or go shopping with. There are wonderful girls at church who I hope I get to know better, but I still don't feel that close to anyone. I feel like those type of friendships take time. I don't have children yet, so I don't have fellow mommy friends. And the girls I know without kids all work like me and are busy.

Right now, I'm really grateful for those phone calls and blog posts and chats that keep me connected to all my friends far away. I sure love technology! Thank you Jennifer and Emily for keeping me company last night. I love you both! And to all the rest of my friends out there-- call me! I love you all!

this and that

It's still raining! It was coming down pretty hard when I left this morning. Thank you, rain gods!

My husband is leaving me tomorrow to spend a few days in Utah with his kiddos. This will be our first time apart since before we were married. :-( I'm really grateful that he gets to spend time with the kids though, especially since they don't have school Monday and Tuesday, and Wednesday is Halloween. They will have a lot of fun. I just wish I got to go too! I can't believe it's already been two months since we were with them.




The only thing I'm looking forward to about Jared being gone is watching the entire last season of Friends on DVD. Thank you Netflix! And maybe the last season of Sex and the City too if I'm feeling kinda scandalous. ;-)






Also, Ohio State football is #1!!! Yay! Saturday night they are playing Penn State and ABC is showing the game. Woohoo!!! I've only been able to watch one other game, so I'm excited. Go Bucks!

And lastly, I can't resist these types of quizzes. This one is fun. Take it and come back and tell me what your accent is. Below you will see mine. For the record, I was born in Utah, moved to Ohio at age 4, moved to Utah at 18 for college, and am now in North Carolina. So I guess all that gives me this....

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Western. Like Midland, Western is another accent that people consider neutral. So, you might not actually be from the Western half of the country, but you definitely sound like it.

And if you're not from the West, you are probably one of the following:
(a) A Pittsburgher - the quiz can't tell the difference;
(b) Someone from Canada (probably southern Ontario) who doesn't have a Canadian accent;
(c) Someone from northern New England who doesn't have a New England accent; or
(d) Someone from Texas or the Heartland who was born after 1980.
You are definitely not from New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Detroit, the Deep South, etc.</font>

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Same Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different... Different

the photo that never was

All last week, four times a day, I drove by this tree and thought, "I need to stop and take a picture of it. The leaves are gorgeous and it is definitely the most beautiful tree around." But I kept forgetting my camera. Until it was almost too late. Because as you can see in the photos, a LOT of the leaves have fallen off. So now only half the tree has the beautiful leaves. But I finally did stop and take some photos, even if they aren't what I was imagining last week. Such is life. There is possibly some metaphor in there somewhere, but I think I'll just leave it at that.

rain!

Oh blessed day, it's raining! It's raining so hard that I can hear it pounding the roof in my office. And when I went to peek outside, it was so dark you'd think it was evening. And there's thunder! Blessed thunder! Please keep raining. We need you!

ps... Congratulations to me! This is my 100th post!

guilty pleasures

We all have them. Here are a few of mine.

*People--Even though I'm disgusted by our culture's obsession with celebrity, I still love checking out the latest celeb photos and "news" at People. Is J.Lo pregnant? Will Britney clean up her act? Where will Brangelina be spotted next? Why must I know these things?!!! I don't really care and yet I still waste time finding out. Why?!!!


*Go Fug Yourself-- So this goes along with the last one. But these girls are so funny, clever, and vicious in their critiques of celebrity fashion, they are addicting!


*Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice (aka Addison's Anatomy)--These shows have clever writing, great casts, witty dialogue, and sometimes realistic situations. But at the end of the day they are still soap operas. And I love them!

*America's Next Top Model--My husband questioned his love for me the other day when I spent an hour and half catching up on this season's ANTM online. He did not realize that I have watched this show from the very first cycle, and even though I don't subject him to it, I still get a kick out of it, despite Tyra's antics. I have to say though, that this cycle's girls are all crazy dramatic. I just want to see the shoots and photos and skip the crazy drama.

What are your guilty pleasures?

fig, anyone?

Until recently, I had never eaten a fig. Unless by fig, you mean the mushy stuff inside of a fig newton. But I'm talking about real figs. The fruit. Fresh.

My husband, however, has always enjoyed dried figs and was delighted the first time he discovered them fresh. He was excited that Whole Foods Market has them right now. And it turns out they are quite tasty. And also really pretty inside. The best way we can come up with describing them is a sweet cucumber with a hint of green pepper. They are a mild but sweet fruit.

But as I just found out thanks to the wonder that is Wikipedia, figs are not actually a fruit at all. They are the flower of the fig tree. Weird, but cool.

Aren't they pretty? I like them so much I had to add another picture.

drought rain

Bad news: North Carolina and the South are in a major drought right now. You can read a NY Times article about it here.

Good news: It's been raining off and on for the past couple days.

Bad news: It hasn't been raining hard or steady enough to fill up those nearly empty reservoirs yet.

Good news: But at least it's raining.

Bad news: This morning as I left our apartment complex for work, one of the grounds crew guys was watering the foliage! While it was raining! During a severe drought!

[photo by leslie]

pushing daisies

I like TV. It's true. But I do try to limit the amount of shows I get addicted to. This fall we have a few we must watch. Mondays: Heroes. Thursdays: Smallville (Jared) and Grey's Anatomy. But now Wednesdays have 2 shows I don't like to miss: Private Practice (aka Addison's Anatomy) and a new show called Pushing Daisies.

I am telling you all right now that you should watch Pushing Daisies! It is so fun and so delightfully quirky. Plus I have a crush not only on the adorable Ned, the pie maker, played by Lee Pace. But also on his equally adorable childhood sweetheart Chuck, played by Anna Friel.

The basic premise of the show is that Ned has the power to bring things back from the dead by touching them. But there's a catch... If he ever touches them again they die again. And if he brings someone back for more than a minute, then someone else dies. Ned has teamed up with a private detective and together they collect reward money for unsolved murders. Ned wakes the dead person up and asks who kills them, then touches them again to go back to being dead. Get it?

Well things get tricky when Ned finds out his latest case to solve is the murder of his childhood sweatheart, Charlotte (Chuck). He ends up not touching her again and so she's now no longer dead, but they also can never touch again. And she can't be recognized by anyone because she's supposed to be dead. Of course, sparks fly, but it's the perfect answer to keeping the tension alive because they can never really get together or she'd die.

I really want this show to stick around so you should all watch it. And if you are like us and can't always be home at 8 pm on Wednesday night. You can watch it online! Just go here. All the characters are so fun and one of the best characters on the show you never actually see--the narrator! He's great and gives the funniest insights into what people are thinking.

Watch it tonight! Or later online.

pillow talk

Warning: F-word (fart) appears below

Yesterday, 10:25 p.m., Jared and Katrina cuddling in bed.

J: What do I smell like?
K: Like boy.
J: What?
K: You smell like boy.
J: What does "boy" smell like?
K: Like you. You just smell like you.
J: But not stinky, right? Aren't you glad I'm not stinky?
K: Yes. You are remarkably unstinky for a boy. In fact... you hardly ever even have stinky farts.
J: I was just thinking that. It hasn't always been this way. In the MTC, everyone has stinky farts. It's something in the food. It can be quite embarrassing. You know, everyone is lined up taking pictures in front of the map and then... not good.
K: Yeah that's definitely not good. It must be something about how we eat cause I don't really have stinky farts either. I don't even remember the last time I had a stinky fart.
J: Me neither.
K: It's good not to be stinky.