busy busy busy!

hmm i guess a quick catch up is in order: yesterday was the "DCM dacha event" with all the russian students who won Fulbright scholarships to come and study in the US. very cool!! they were all really sweet and asking us questions about living in the US and what not.

this one guy tried to hit on me though and it was actually pretty funny because this was his pick up line: "when you were speaking, we could understand you the best and you were so beautiful" :)

(side note: my mom - who organized the event - had Danie and I speak about the honor code at UVA in order to really stress the importance of correctly citing your work etc lol)

oh and at the end of the event the catering company had a TON of left over beer and they asked if we wanted it. since we're headed to the dacha this saturday we of course said yes! so we ended up bringing home 30 cans of beer (which are MUCH bigger than US cans... maybe twice as big?). that is awesome because now we don't have to buy it.

on to this weekend!

tonight i am having my first ever dinner party :)

i feel so grown up and important lol. i'm serving: cheese fondue, caesar salad, tomatoe and mozarella side dish, maybe tortellinis (if people are still hungry). for appetizer we're just having some chips and dip and deviled eggs out on the table for people to snack on :) exciting!!!

danie, mike, beth, cyril, dylan and wren are all coming so its very exciting and they will all get to mingle and get to know each other before the dacha event.

speaking of which, i think i finally have everything taken care of. its very hard to organize a big event when there are so many people involved!!! but i have food taken care of, some alcohol (its pretty much just going to be everyone bringing some), the dacha itself is paid for, the cars are paid for, and i think i have a final list of who is coming.

phew. very confusing and slightly stressful because i wasn't sure if we'd be able to rent the AECA cars and drivers. luckily that all worked out :)

so now i'm just waiting for 5 oclock to roll around so i can duck out of work and head home to start cooking!! i need to make the deviled eggs (i already boiled them so their ready to use), cut up the bread for fondue, cut the tomato and mozarella, and make the caesar salad.

truth be told, my mom is VERY good at dinner parties and a very good cook so i'm slightly worried that maybe my food won't be exactly up to par. but then again, its my first time doing this!! lol.

and i love to cook so how bad can it be right? plus, relatively simple menu :)

i'll let you know how it goes!!!

sigh

why do weekends insist on going by so quickly?

the only good thing about time flying is that it means i'm getting closer to coming back to the states and getting to see tyler.

but it sucks because time passes quickly only on weekends and so i never feel like i got to relax and enjoy them!

oh well. this weekend we went out with ALL the interns (big mistake). we tried to go to a bar but as usual, with a big group, its hard for everyone to agree. eh, whatever.

beth and i have decided that the interns are not really very interesting so we're leaning towards not really doing things with them since they have a totally different idea of what is fun lol. and their fun = boring.

enough said.

sunday my dad and i went to Garbushka and i bought an extra camera battery so i could have it handy while travelling. I also got a new hairdryer so that i don't have to worry about adapters in England. oh and we got a fan that folds relatively flat and therefore i can stick it in my suitcase for my flight to England.

i am really happy about the fan because i sleep best when the room is cold and since i doubt we have AC the fan will at least offer some comfort. :)

we also spent a ridiculous amount of time looking for a watch battery for my mom. thankfully we were successful lol.

that was about it for the weekend. this coming weekend looks to be much more fun. Cyril and Dylan are arrivign from st. pete with their class (they are studying up there for the summer) and so we'll be going out with them for dinner and what not. also, friday i am throwing a dinner party :) fondue!!! saturday we are going to the dacha for the night so that SHOULD be fun :)

i hope its sunny so that we can sunbath while at the dacha!

eh, thats about it for now. i'm so sleepy :(

new blog page

Following the examples of Ashley (roommate) and Charlotte (suitmate), I have decided to make a blog specifically dedicated to my time spent in Oxford.

That way family and friends can read up on what I'm doing and I can share pictures and stories that much easier.

The new address is:

http://caitieinoxford.blogspot.com

I know, I know, I'm excessively original and imaginatative. (is that a word? hmm... )

So if there aren't that many posts on this blog for a while, its because I'm posting things relating to the lead up to Oxford on there. :)

happy reading!

Oh, and I have been toying with the idea of starting a more regular, daily blog when I get back to school.

I know for sure that I probably will not use this one anymore... I think it would be good to get a fresh start on a new blog somewhere.

Anyway, I'll be sure to post the new address here before I leave for good :)

meet the interns

Yesterday I met some of the Interns here at the embassy for the first time. They seemed pretty nice so I have higher hopes for this summer. I had been emailing out some ideas for things to do this summer but hadn't recieved any real responses so talking to them in person really helped to sort things out.

there's Doug, the former marine. he reminds me a lot of rod but i'm not exactly sure why... interesting.

Chris is really nice and works for my dad. he goes to school in California and seems pretty interested in actually joining the foreign service.

Tyler is the "senior" intern since he is the oldest and works in political. he was really nice too and is from Montana... i just think thats pretty cool :)

Wren is the youngest and he's my age. he actually went to high school with my roommate at UVA... what are the chances of that?! He had chilled with us before and he seems pretty easy going and what not.

the girls on the other hand, i didn't really meet. I briefly talked to Sarah and Dalia... they seemed less enthused to talk to us. Although they did seem pretty nice at the time. After hanging out with the guys for a while, beth and i headed home and on the way passed Sarah sitting on her step with her boyfriend (one of the marines). she was TOTALLY different this time... more stand off-ish.

we naturally decided it was because her boyfriend was there and she didn't want us to talk to him :) lol.

whatever the reason, i don't know if i'm a fan of people who act totally different depending on who they are with... so yea. SKIP! haha.

Tonight i'm taking Tyler's cousins out for dinner. Kelly and Jeff are i think around my age and are here visiting with their family. They were all really nice when i met them yesterday evening.

actually, i was pretty proud of myself :)

i was at work yesterday, and had been thinking of whether or not to call, when i finally decided to go for it. so i called his mom and had a nice chat and then just let her know that if they wanted to, they were more than welcome to join us for dinner while they are here. so yay!

plus i get brownie points for being so nice and all inclusive :) haha. so yea, i think we'll go to il patio cause everyone likes italian right? eh, we'll see what they feel like :)

circus, soccer, red cross, professors, oh my!

During Charlotte and Walter's last days here, we went to the Russian circus here in Moscow.

Now, we went to the "new" circus instead of the "old" circus so when we arrived and I saw how small the ring was, I just naturally assumed that there weren't going to be any large animals. I was actually ok with that since the larger animals usually look really unhappy and I had thought that there would probably be poodles, who are absolutely adorable.

Anyway, the poodles came out and did their tricks, which are easy to enjoy because they are just jumping over things or running around or ducking under things. Basically they are still being very animal like so its not too distressing to watch. Plus their trainer seem to have a great relationship with them.

The bears were a very different story. They looked sickly and abused and were really upsetting to see. I was really happy when they left the ring. I hate it when the trainers make the animals pretend to be human, like riding motorcycles and things. yuck.

After intermission, Charlotte and I started to smell zoo animals... you know that smell... but we were unconvinced that large animals would fit in the ring. We decided between us that the animals must be some sort of small horses and couldn't possibly be anything bigger.

How wrong we were!

Not only was it an elephant, but TWO! They were amazing and didn't look as abused as the bears, although I'm still not really a fan of animals in zoos.

After that came six beautiful horses, although they were kind of frightening because they were circling so fast. It seemed like they would fall over any minute!!!

So that was the circus. After that we went to the Starlite Diner and Molly Gwens to eat and relax.

On Monday, I went to the "Liberty Bar" here at the embassy with my dad to watch the World Cup USA vs Czech Republic game. I still can't believe its not being broadcast on AFN!!! But I guess it makes sense since Americans don't watch soccer. But still, very annoying. And since we don't get Sky Cable (whats the point?) we don't have the right channels to watch all the games. We have to rely on "Channel 1" which we get without sound for some reason lol. It was a nice evening even if the USA did TERRIBLY. Sheesh.

My favorite part was the look of suprise on Koller's face when he scored the Czech Republic's first goal within the first 5 minutes. It was like he was thinking, "Well, that usually doesn't happen". Lol.

Tuesday I went to the Red Cross to see if there are things I can help them with since I can be their intern on a part time basis. It felt really strange to have people giving ME briefings individually. I mean, I had four meetings with very important people all by myself. Pretty cool.

When I got back to the embassy I did some work in the office before heading home half an hour early (not that anyone minded lol) so that I could get dinner started. We invited Professor Jeffry Rossman over since he is here in Moscow temporarily and I had taken a class with him at UVA.

It was a nice evening and dinner was pretty tasty if I do say so myself. You know, I'm on a roll lately with tasty dinners... first I made "Sicilian Chicken" which is baked crispy paremsan chicken. And then last night I made Farfalle Chicken and Mushroom in White Sauce. Thats Farfalle (Butterfly) noodles, Browned chicken, sauteed mushrooms, and a cream sauce made with lemon juice. REALLY easy actually.

Anyway, thats it for now. I'm going to create a new blog for my Oxford adventures. I'll post the link on here when I get it all sorted out.

RUSSIA! et al. :)

Oh la la, where to begin??? Last week had a lot of stuff going on, so I guess I’ll start from the beginning! I had hoped to post pictures along with the blogs (like i'm doing on myspace) but I think I'll just make individual picture posts for each of the days...

May 12-21:

Being with Tyler alone for so long was just incredible!!! We had so much fun just being a normal couple. We even went to the pet store a few times and he agreed that it would be ok if I had a poodle when we live together. (I know, I know, we’re not trying to get ahead of ourselves! He’s not bobby lol. We’re just hypothetically talking about things so that if the time comes, we’ll have some idea of whether or not we’d be interested in living together. I kind of like this system because it gives us an idea of whats ok with the other person… like dogs lol).

We saw and played with the most beautiful little miniature poodle I’ve ever seen. She was apricot colored and so sweet… Tyler thought she was adorable too. I was so sad that I couldn’t just buy her on the spot. Sigh. Oh well, soon. Seriously. As soon as I move into an apartment that allows pets… I’m getting a dog lol.

And Tyler got a very special delivery (from himself though lol). He bought a really nice flat screen tv... I was really impressed... especially since he doesn't watch tv lol. He wanted it for movies so he is quite happy. And he intalled basic cable because it made his bill for internet cheaper... how does that make any sense?? With basic cable, he's paying $2 less than when he only had internet. So weird.

Oh and he also got to show off his manly skills building the tv stand and a little side table we bought at target. I was suitably impressed lol.

Anyway, it was sad to leave him up there in Boston but I’m glad he likes his coworkers and they all go out to dinner or movies or stuff together so that I know he’s not lonely. And we’ve been emailing a lot and talking every night so its actually going pretty well.

Oh and I got to meet up with Dimitri Phillips and John Zavras from ACS for dinner and then chilling at their apartment!! So exciting to see people I hadn’t seen in years!

May 22-24:

Back in Falls Church, I stayed with Sylvie and had some good girl time with her and Lauren. Lauren and I hit the mall (as did me and Sylvie lol) and I of course bought far too many things but how could I resist???

Anyway, we all got our nails done and then I went back later with Sylvie’s mom Brigette to get pedicures lol.

And even though the doctor took a biopsy, I haven’t heard from her so I think I might be ok for now. Ugh but exams every 6 months is going to SUCK. Oh well, better than cancer that’s for damn sure.

Anyway, Sylvie and I met up with some of her high school friends, including Jared, who I had met way back in the day. We had a fun night smoking sheesha and talking about the past lol. I think I’ll pick up some vodka for him on my way home cause he’s a pretty nice guy and knows his alcohol (for better or worse I think lol) so I know he’d appreciate it.

May 25th:

I arrived in Moscow after a pretty great flight. I had gotten bumped up to first class at the very last minute (literally after I handed in my boarding pass to get on the plane) and therefore the flight was really relaxing.

Actually, the way I got bumped up was really weird. In DC, Sylvie drove me to the airport and we had delicious sushi while waiting for my plane. And then before I went through security, we ran and got some gummy bears, with which we created "Franken-gummies".

What are those you say? Well, first off, we are huge losers apparently. So just keep that in mind lol. During Spring Break our senior year in high school, Sylvie, her family, and our friend Liz came to Greece to vacation with my family. During this visit, we took them all over Greece, to a village in the mountains where we could hike around (really beautiful), to ancient Olympia, and even on a cruise to the islands (amazing!!!).

It was during the car ride to Olympia (from Athens) that we found we were pretty bored. And we just happened to be eating gummy bears. So, we decided it would be "cool" to bit the gummy bears into sections (head, torso, bottom) and then stick them back together with different colors. For example: Green head, red torso, yellow bottom, etc. The combinations are endless lol. So yea, those are Franken-Gummies.

Anyway, that was my parting ritual with Sylvie lol.

When I checked in, I asked about my seat and the woman said "oh you have a very good seat. Its a window, right behind the bulkhead, so you have extra leg room". I though that was great (if a little funny since I have no need for extra leg room lol). And she just kept going on and on about what a great seat it was, so I was feeling pretty confident when I arrived at JFK.

While waiting for my Russia flight, I noticed there were a lot of people crowded around the desk and when they made the announcement that the flight was overbooked, I thought it was odd that they only needed 8 people to get off the flight since it looked like there were about 40 people waiting. Odd. Anyway, they were offering business class seats on the flight to Amsterdam which then connected to a Moscow flight and had you arriving in Moscow only 3 hours after you were originally supposed to arrive.

I was pretty tempted to volunteer for that flight because a) I wasn't in a hurry to get to Moscow and b) they were offering $400 delta dollars instead of business class. Now, I was tempted because Tyler might end up back in Rochester in the fall (either for work or for school) and now that Independence Air went out of business, its not as cheap to fly there from Washington. I was thinking those 400 delta dollars could be used to buy tickets to visit him... but then i started thinking about how i've NEVER heard a good story about trying to use airline dollars. And I didn't have my international cell phone with me so I wouldn't have had any way of reaching my dad to tell him to have the driver come later. So I decided to stay on the flight I was orignially on.

Now, Delta boards according to "zone" (as I'm sure most airlines do). And I had "zone 6". As they were announcing zones 1-3, something odd happened. All the people waiting got in line... which I thought was strange since there was NO WAY they were all in zones 1-3. In fact, I could see several boarding passes that read "zone 7". So I thought that was ridiculous and decided I wasn't going to stand up and wait in line, choosing instead to just stay seated until the line died down.

When it shortened, I got up and it moved pretty quickly. The airline employee checking our passports for visas started talking to me about South Africa (since he saw I was born in Pretoria). He was asking "so where did you live? Cape Town or Jo-burg?" haha. I told him Cape Town and Pretoria but then felt strange for holding up the line so quickly moved forward.

As I approached the check in desk (where they have the machine that scans your ticket), I could hear two of the employees worriedly discussing the passenger situation while looking at the computer. "Wait but these two people don't have seats assigned and now they're on the plane??" haha... who does that?? just gets on the plane without an assigned seat? Anyway, I still wasn't worried since I had a "great seat" waiting for me lol. But as she scanned my ticket, it read "check seats" which was confusing since I had been assigned it way back in Washington.

So they just took my ticket and scribbled "1F" on it and were like "sorry hun, we had to change your seat". As if I was going to complain lol. Anyway, the flight was pretty good overall.

The turbulence was not too bad although I really hate those rough spots (even if they do last for less than a minute). I was met by one of the embassy drivers who took me home where my parents were waiting with some lunch. After eating a bit I went with my dad over to the embassy to get a new badge (because they always seem to change them right before I arrive…). Then I went home and relaxed.

May 26th:

Our nanny, Theresa, arrived as a surprise guest for Erin’s graduation. Erin had no idea she was coming. We first hired Theresa when my family moved to India (I was almost 2). She stayed with us from then until I was in 9th grade so she really became a part of the family. She had a pretty good visit, just relaxing and visiting different sites around Moscow, and of course the graduation ceremonies.

She brought with her some amazingly beautiful saris for Erin and I. She always brings us some kind of Indian clothing as gifts but these were really fantastic. She had thought that the red would be for me and the blue for Erin but after trying them on we decided to switch lol.

Erin's school hosted a pre-graduation dinner for the graduates and their families. We sat with Erin's boyfriend and his mom (his father was out of town on business and his sister hadn't arrived yet).

Memorial Day:

We celebrated by renting the embassy’s “near” dacha for the day where we (meaning me, dad, erin, Theresa, axel – erin’s boyfriend, and muffin) watched movies, played cards and barbequed dinner. It was really cute watching muffin scampering around the dacha compound… I really miss having a dog when I’m at school…

June 1:

Charlotte and Walter arrived at 5:30 am (fuuuuuuuuun) so I was up at 4 to be ready to head to the airport with my dad to pick them up. I called Tyler as a surprise since we usually only talk at night for me (afternoon for him thanks to an 8 hour difference).

After we all got back from the airport, they headed back to sleep while my dad and I (having both taken the day off of work) relaxed and watched tv/read a bit. Charlotte and Walter had decided to skip the actual graduation ceremony (since it would have been kinda dull for them) so after my dad, Theresa and Erin headed over to the theater where it was being held, I ran Walter and Charlotte up to the badge office to try and get their guest badges. But the stupid camera was not working (as usual) so I had to run around the embassy getting them temporary guest badges.

This left my half an hour to get to the graduation ceremony. So I RAN through the metro stations and up the escalator and made it with 5 minutes to spare. Perfect timing as usual lol.

The ceremony was really nice and it was weird watching Erin graduate!! But I took a lot of pictures and managed to get a bunch of really good ones for her. After the ceremony we headed home to pick up Walter and Charlotte and then everyone went to the Hard Rock Café for a celebratory dinner with the entire class and their families and friends (there were 70 people in her class).

Dinner was kinda eh, but afterwards Erin partied with her friends and I took Charlotte and Walter down the Starry Arbat and onto the metro so that they could get accustomed to it and therefore be able to go around on their own.

June 2:

Theresa left and it was pretty sad since we don’t really know when the next time we’ll see her will be since she lives in India now. Hopefully we’ll either see her on one of her vacations to the states OR we’ll go to India for a holiday and see her then. It all really depends on where my Dad and Mom end up going after they finish their last year in Russia. They were considering going back to the states but would really like to stay overseas. Especially if my dad gets the head job at the consulate in Istanbul. He would love that since he graduated high school in Ankara and already speaks Turkish from when we lived in Cyprus (his job involved working with the Turkish side of the island even though we lived on the Greek side).

Later that night, Charlotte, Walter and I headed off on the overnight train to St. Petersburg for two days of exploring.

June 3:

We arrived in St. Pete at around 5: 30 am and got to the apartment we were renting (forget trying to get a hotel… they were all booked because people are already headed to St. Pete for the G8 conferences and besides, the apartment was much nicer lol) around 6 am. As soon as we arrived at the apartment, my mom called and asked where we were since my friend Cyril (who I’ve known FOREVER… literally since I was 2 cause he lived in India with us) was at the train station trying to surprise me lol. Oops.

Anyway, I called him and we made plans to meet up at 12:45 for lunch. So we all went to sleep until then. After we met up with him at a metro stop, we went to a Russian fast food place that serves all kinds of blinis (the Russian version of crepes).

Then we headed down to the waterfront to find a boat to get to the summer palace, Peteroff. Thanks to Cyril’s Russian skills (he’s in St. Pete on a summer program to study Russian and History… he goes to Duke usually) we were on our way soon thereafter. Peteroff was beautiful as always (I’d been there before) and so most of our time was just spent taking pictures… well and imagining what it would be like to live there… I mean, no wonder the people revolted…

anyway, after that we all went back to our respective homes (Cyril to his dorm and us to the apartment) to get ready for the concert that night. We had tickets to see some Mozart classics at the Marinsky Theater.

It was really good even though I don’t really like classical music. And the theater was incredibly beautiful!! We stayed for about half the concert and then ducked out at intermission so that we could get some dinner.

As we headed to a restaurant (we ended up at Il Patio, an Italian restaurant… really tasty) Cyril’s friend Dylan called and told him that they were both in trouble with their professor (in charge of the program) for going out really late the night before (they had been celebrating a british friend’s birthday… but lucky for the brits, they aren’t in the same program) and so he would be in serious trouble if he was out past midnight.

This wasn’t really a problem though, except that we had thought about going to a club or something, because we were all pretty exhausted from the train ride and all the walking we had done. So after dinner we all went home with plans to meet up the next day.

June 4:

After waking up at around 10:30, I called Cyril to see if he wanted to meet us at the Hermitage (the winter palace that is now a museum). He sounded half asleep so we decided he should meet us later. So Charlotte, Walter and I headed out to the palace where we split up so that Walter could see his favorite art pieces while charlotte and I explored the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and pre-historic artifacts.

After that we went upstairs to see the Matisse, Delacroix, and Picasso works. Then we all met up near the gift shop and headed out to the Yussupov Palace where Rasputin’s attempted murder took place (I say attempted because his autopsy listed drowning as the actual cause of death despite being stabbed and poisoned and a lot more).

We were hurrying to get there since we thought it closed at 3 (actually closes at 5). We discovered that they had a Rasputin tour at 1:30 but we were too late for that AND it was only in Russian . So we decided to explore on our own.

The palace was really nice (it has several drawing rooms, all in different colors, and a theater!) but the audio tour never even mentioned Rasputin. We next headed back to Nevskii Prospect (the main street in St. Pete) where we stopped at Chocolatnista (a coffee place) to wait for Cyril and Dylan.

When they arrived we finished our cappuccinos (I love them!) and headed out to St. Issacs church where we walked all the way up to the colonnades in order to see the view of all of St. Petersburg. It was really fanastic… just a long way up!! After taking tons of photos, we wandered over to Decembrist Square, where the Decembrist Uprising unsuccessfully took place. This was kinda cool for Charlotte and I since we had studied the uprising and Pushkin (who was suspected of being involved despite being in the south of Russia). Also special was seeing the statue of the Bronze Horseman since we had read Pushkin’s story.

Next we walked down Nevskii to a Spanish restaurant where we had a really tasty dinner. By the time we finished it was 8:15ish and the boys really wanted to find a bar so that they could get Walter an absinth shot… charlotte and I were a little worried since we had to be back at the real estate company’s office by 9:00 in order to pay for the apartment and meet the driver who was taking us to the train station.

We managed to make it there in time and Cyril and Dylan accompanied us to the train station where we had a few drinks while waiting for out train (since we didn’t leave until 10:20). All in all it was a fantastic trip even if I was pretty sleepy at work Monday (since we got in at around 5 am).

June 5th:

I headed into work while Charlotte and Walter chilled at home and wandered around the city a bit. We were all tired so it was a pretty quiet day. Although we did watch Fox’s “Anastasia” because no trip to St. Petersburg would be complete without it… lol

June 6th:

Yesterday I again went to work (9-6, five days a week lol) while Charlotte and Walter went to the Kremlin and saw Lenin as well as St. Basil’s church. That night we went to a sushi restaurant with Erin and Axel for dinner.

It’s one of my favorites and a place I always go with Tyler… so it was kinda sad not being with him but the food is so delicious that its worth it! When we got home we made a cake just for the hell of it and watched an old Grey’s Anatomy episode that Erin had taped (we get “AFN” here which is Armed Forces Network and shows a lot of good shows but a couple weeks behind).

I guess that’s it lol. Its been a lot of fun so far and I’m sad that Walter and Charlotte are leaving on the 10th… sigh. But its ok cause Charlotte is headed to her summer program in London with Ashley and will overlap with my program at Oxford by a week so I can come into London and visit them!!

Also, Cyril’s group is coming to Moscow for five days or something like that around the 18th or 20th of June so I’ll have him and Dylan to meet up with so it won’t be too bad. Oh, and beth starts working at USAID (down the hall from me!) on Monday so I can finally gossip with her lol.

watch for more posts with pictures soon!!!

short update

last night tyler and i had dinner with one of his friends from work, John. the other two, Brent and Rusty, couldn't make it and that ended up being fine since John is very attention needy and likes to be the center of attention apparently :)

we went to Sakura's and had tasty sushi which made my day

i also tried their fried tofu dish and it was also fairly tasty... i just wish they would cut it into smaller pieces so that i don't have to wrestle with the little spoons trying to cut them into quarters lol

so all in all, a good night was had. then we came home and watched Serenity on Tyler's new widescreen, flat tv... VERY sexy :)

he doesn't actually watch TV but he is very excited about watching movies on it and what not. he says his next project will be to acquire really nice speakers to go with it.

i never cease to be amazed by tyler's ability to handle technical things... he is just so brilliant when it comes to computers and all electronics EVER apparently.

i mean, he hooked up his laptop to the tv and we watched the movie that way since he doesn't have a separate dvd player (due to his former lack of a tv lol)

and he is just so sweet to me that it makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world, as cheesy as that sounds. i dunno... he just makes me happy :)

last night as we were headed to bed, we were talking about the summer and i was suddenly really overwhelmed by the fact that i won't get to see him until august (maybe). we'll have at least two months (june and july) apart... which is more than we've ever had between visits despite not living in the same state.

and i mean, i'm not worried about him cheating on me or me cheating on him. i've never cheated before and honestly never saw a reason for it. i mean, if you are more attracted to someone else, why are you staying with your partner?

anyway, i just don't like thinking about the time apart.

he has been pretty cute lately... what with talking about getting a ferret and two dogs etc. i like that he is thinking about the future too but that we both can still take it lightly. i like that there isn't any pressure cause it leaves us free to enjoy our relationship :)

i guess thats it for now... tyler will be home at 3 today (yay!) and then we might go out to dinner again or maybe just stay in :)

diary of a housewife...

well, here i am in boston... absolutely loving being with tyler!!

i feel like a housewife since he goes to work every day from about 8-4 and i stay home and do the dishes and read and what not.

granted, i fully comprehend that there are FAR more things real housewives do but in tyler's studio apartment (which i thought i'd hate but actually love) there really isn't that much that needs to be done. plus there are no little kiddies to feed, wash, and entertain. lol.

so we've had a pretty relaxed couple of days since i got here on friday night, although just getting here proved to be quite a task.

when i arrived at the airport and checked in for my 7:00 flight, i heard rumblings about whether or not we would actually get to boston. thinking this was weird, i asked the check in guy if there was something wrong in boston. he said he didn't know anything about it, but that united had cancelled all of their flights. needless to say, this was not helpful.

so i arrived at my gate and saw to my dismay that all the jet blue flights to boston (including those that were supposed to take off at 11 am and 3 pm) were not only still on the screens, but had severe yellow "Delayed" signs next to them... not a fun discovery.

i went over and sat down and noticed they were boarding one flight and had sent passengers for another flight over to a different gate so both flights could take off at the same time. i thought this was promising because it was only 530ish which meant that maybe my flight would take off relatively close to its originally scheduled time.

needless to say, i was wrong.

about an hour after those flights took off, i wandered away, having received an approximate departure time of 830 for my flight. i grabbed some food and a couple books and made my way back to the gate where i discovered the number of passengers had grown and there were quite a few angry passengers at the desk.

i was quite confused.

so i sat down and just watched in amazement trying to figure out who these people were. the man next to me explained that these were passengers from the 11 am flight, to which i replied that couldn't be possible since the 11 am flight had left an hour ago. apparently, it hadn't but instead had sat on the runway for an hour. this brought up the question of what happened to the 3 pm flight that had left at the same time. if that flight had made it to boston, then why didn't this flight take off? and secondly, why didn't the earliest flight take off first anyway?

the 3 pm flight had been grounded at JFK it turned out. so no one had reached boston. very frustrating. but still, it was only about 645 so i didn't feel i had the right to be upset about delays since my flight hadn't actually even passed its original flight time yet.

finally, jet blue makes an announcement. i had been wondering why flights weren't making it there since i had called tyler several times and he assured me it wasn't raining or storming. apparently, fog was the problem. and while bigger planes have the correct navigation systems to handle fog, the smaller planes jet blue and other small companies fly did not. therefore, logan airport was not allowing them to fly in. so jet blue was "working" on getting a bigger plane down from jfk which would have to correct navigation and could take the 11 am flight to boston. still no word on what is happening with my flight and the 830 flight after mine.

anyway, in the end, it started raining in boston which dissipated the fog and the 11 am flight once again boarded their plane. but this time, many of the passengers were not there since they had cancelled or made arrangements for flights on a different day. so they started calling passengers from my flight according to the time they checked in. i was the fifth to last person called. but, as they explained, our baggage would be on the following flight which hopefully would leave very soon.

upon arrival in boston, i made the surprising discovery that the later flight had been cancelled and that the bags would arrive the next day. very curious because we had not had any problems in our flight, except for a bouncy landing.

anyway, i was just happy to be in boston with tyler! although as he said, "i had to drive through a monsoon to get here" (a statement which proved scarily true as we drove home in torrential rain)

this rain would continue for DAYS, finally stopping tuesday night. many parts of MA are still flooded and even in tyler's little town of Lowell, about a mile away from his apartment people were using boats to get back to their homes. we were lucky and didn't have any flooding.

this rain didn't stop us from having fun though. saturday night we drove to Boston College and had dinner with my friends Dimitri and John from high school, along with some of their college friends. we ate and then headed back to their apartment where we hung out and talked. it was all really nice :)

sunday we went to Nashua to look at the dogs in the pet shop as well as run some errands. they had a miniature poodle and i am now fully convinced that i want one. i even have a name picked out "bella". tyler even agreed that we could get one :) actually, he voiced the idea of getting two: one white, one black. i'm glad to see poodles have won him over :) and of course, we won't be givign them stupid hair cuts. but rather the "puppy cut" where they have short hair all over instead of pom poms.

as a side note: i hadn't realized dogs were so expensive. both dogs my family has had were rescue dogs and therefore free so i hadn't realized that people actually charge hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars for dogs. strange.

the rest of the week was spent just hanging out together, watching movies, cooking delicious dinners and deserts. very exciting.

we made tasty pasta, chicken, stirfry, cookies and chocolate covered strawberries :)

well, i guess thats all for now. tonight we're going out to dinner with brent, rusty and john. they all work with tyler. brent and rusty are also RIT co-ops and John is a graduate of RIT. very cool. we're getting sushi which is especially exciting :)