Grass. Really?

So while I am here in Medford, OR I am noticing things that I did not expect. Mainly: the ground. Yes, beautiful mountains surround me closely on all sides and the sky is excellently blue when the clouds part. Everyone is very nice and friendly which I don't know why I wasn't expecting. But really....the ground....is soft. I suppose its coming from Virginia where there is a lot of red clay and most of the dirt is placed there and comes in bags from Lowes. But here, the dirt is black and soft. The grass is so thin and soft...the kind you can roll and around and lay in without getting pricked from thick sharp and all around unpleasant grass. You don't need a blanket to lay on the grass..it is just pleasant! I have kind of been obsessing about the grass...I even took a picture of it.

What else weirded me out when I paid attention? The birds. I have never heard these kinds of birds before and they are everywhere and loud. I am not that into birds. They look like regular birds, but they sound completely different than anything I have previously heard. These things as well as time changes has solidified my opinion of travelling as distinctly weird.

Waiting at the airport. Flight delayed then connecting flight cancelled due to wind. I arrived at my first gate at 1:20 because I wanted enough time to make it if there were any problems. But there weren't any. So it is going to be half an hour *crosses fingers* before I board this flight. My batteries are all half dead except for my ipod which I started using when I first arrived and decided to wait until I got on the plane for my 6 hour flight. Wise choice. Now my laptop is half charged so I will have to remember to plug it in tonight at the hotel. I do hope they send a shuttle at 3 in the morning to pick me up from the airport, otherwise I will be taking a taxi in the middle of the night to get there. I am still partially enthused for the trip, but mostly, having spent most of my dat waiting to just get on the a plane, I am a little less than joyous about the whole thing. I just hope my bed is soft tonight and that the extra two hours of sleep will make up for the going to bed 3 to 4 hours later than normal. I don't think I can sign up for room service for the following morning in the middle of the night...I think things like that have to be turned in the night before by like 11. At least that was the rule for the hotel we were at for Valentines Day. But I still want my wake up call. I bought a donut from dunkin donuts. I haven't had one in a while. The girl put it into the bad upside down and i lost many sprinkles.

Flight was long but good. Secret Lives of Bees was a very good movie. My audiobook is very good. I told Carol it was like listening to the History Channel. I got to talk to her once I got into Denver but then my phone died and I packed the charger. I was hoping I could hop onto Wi Fi here but it keeps failing me. I was moderately happy to arrive in Denver but sad that I came in the dark. Its like stopping in Hawaii in the dark. You have the knowledge you were in Hawaii but none of the memories from having seen its beauty.

Arrival in Medford. Slept on the plane. It is 3:07 my time and I am in my hotel room, which smells funny, and I have no luggage. My luggage decided it would prefer the original schedule of going to San Francisco. In theory it should be here, at my hotel in 2 hours. THEN I CAN TAKE MY MEDICATION. Only 6 hours after I should be taking it. My phone is dead, my charger is in my bag as well. I thought ahead and brought my glasses to change into on the plane in case I wanted to sleep...I just didn't bring a contact case. I am exhausted. My hotel smells funny. Its got that pink and green thing going but they tried to update it with bronze and maroon...they just didn't get rid of the pink and green. I became instantly depressed when i walked into the room because I have a king bed, all by my lonesome. I don't think I have ever slept in a king bed alone. My driver is nice. he's old and kind of scraggly but he's a sweet guy and he will be taking me back and forth to work every day this week, as well as picking up my luggage for me tonight when it comes in.

I know. I'm cool.

So this is my first but technically my second visit into laptop ownership. My first came when Carol got a new laptop for christmas and gave me her old one before it stopped working. It was large and heavy and hot and the wireless was kind of crappy but it was interesting. Now, because of my work trip coming up, I had to take my lap top from work to bring with me. Less of a lap top and more of a thinkpad, this tiny device makes me very happy. I never wanted the 15" screen and I believe this one is at 10 or 12". It is light and rests easily on one leg and is not dreadfully difficult to type on, despite its small size. I think I am getting closer to the idea of a small laptop for myself. Unfortunately I am doing mostly work while I am having this laptop in my care but I enjoy the possibilities.

Vicky's

I have decided that new underwear is really one of the best things in life. It completely changes how you feel in an outfit. I have random desires or rather obsessions to shop for different things. Currently it is underwear. I want new casual underwear, new flirty underwear, new sexy underwear, new romantic underwear (yes there is a difference). I want new bras because all of my bras are from high school and they suck. So I have recently bought two new bras and desire five more.
This is my problem. I can never just decide I want or need something and then buy it. I have to buy it and all of its friends. I need new jeans, so I want at least three new pairs of jeans that fit me like a glove and look great with everything. I want my hair to be perfect so I would in theory go to a stylist for consultation and then buy an entire line of styling products just to reaize two weeks later: I'm really not that interested in putting the time into perfect hair.
And somehow, I am between sizes at the moment. I am sure I fit a size just fine but my closet is made of clothes that are a bit too big or a bit too small. Does this mean I should go out and find clothes that fit me now, or decide to gain or lose weight each week so I can fit into all of my clothes? I just don't know. But in the mean time....I might have to get a Victoria's Secret credit card.

heads or tails

So I am flying out on Sunday to Oregon for training. No, not any cool part of Oregon, just Medford. My mom wants me to call my Aunt when I go out there because she lives on the other side of the state. Apparently we'll feel the closeness.

Carol has never been on a plane. She just found out I am going completely by myself and she is scared something will happen to me. My flight out is going to be on US airlines, the airline that landed in the hudson where everyone survived. My flight back is going to be on Continental, the airline that crashed into someone's house where everyone including someone living in the house died. Wish me luck.

Long but not Lost

I have discovered that I am losing touch with my friends. I know I don't show up to functions or call or even call back when I've been called, but please don't think that means I don't care, or that I don't want to be a part of your lives. And I realize that there really aren't many people in my life that know what goes on with me or much about my relationship other than that we are together and have been for nearly five years. I don't want to lose the people that I care about. You were at my wedding for a reason: because I love you. Because I have known you and considered you my friends longer than anyone else in my life. Because even though I am a crappy friend who doesn't stay in touch, I know that if I ever really needed you, you would be there. Because even though since I've met you I have had other friends that have come in and out of my life, it wouldn't mean anything to have them there, but it meant the world to have you there.

So this is it: the insight into my life.

For the past nine days Carol has decided to stretch Valentine's Day into a week. Last Friday she surprised me when I arrived home with a long stem rose and a nice dinner out. At dinner we decided to get drinks and what better place to get drinks than at our bar? So we drove 3 hours down to Staunton, VA to "get our drink on" as my neice says. We were a little disappointed when we got there that they had a band, which is a new trend they are doing of live music every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But at least I did like the band as the lead singer had played at the theater previously. But it was great to walk in and have people get excited over seeing us, shocked that we would drive all that way just to get drinks from Baja. But, considering the price of alcohol and the price of gas it kind of equals out....except for the hotel room that night..which probably pushed us over. The next day we saw her sister, went to the new Chinese Buffet in Waynesboro, and went bowling. I almost won.

On Tuesday or Wednesday of last week Carol took me out to another dinner at the Japanese Steakhouse. We were all alone at our table because it was 5:30 on a weekday. But the food was good as always and the time was well spent together.

Valentines Day is always tough for us. I was never very big on the holiday myself before Carol and I were together but Carol was. She was. For the past 8 years its been kinda rough for her and Valentine's Day never does run smoothly. We have had many failed attempts at a nice evening but this year we really pushed it through. We got reservations at the Westin in Alexandria for the weekend. It was lovely, really it was. The staff was a lil meh to bitchy but the room was lovely which was the part that I was interested in.

I worry for my mother. I mean I know they haven't always been happy. I was recently told during wonderful family dinner after my parents shared probably have a bottle of Jack Daniels that my mother was in a deep depression once and that I got mad at her for it and that made her push herself out. Apparently it was when I was in high school and she wanted to get a divorce and I was too absorbed in my own depression to really give a damn about hers. But since then my Dad has been an angel. He really has. They make random vacations throughout the year alone together. He always buys her flowers at least once a week. He keeps the drinks coming because he finds her absolutely adorbale when she's drunk and he is so clearly in love with her. For Valentine's Day they didn't really have any plans. My Dad asked my Mom to make him some chocolate chip cookies which she did. But on Valentine's Day I woke up to a voicemail from my mother asking me where I was, when I was coming home, and that she missed me because she hadn't seen me the last couple days. I would have hoped she'd have been too busy to wonder where I was, or maybe even ask my Dad if he knew where I was in case she forgot. But I'm starting to realize the only way for them to both know what is going on is to tell them both individually because they never share any information with each other.

But I suppose they have had plenty of Valentine's Days in the past 30 years that they don't need to do something special everytime. But this was our first really special Valentine's Day where we actually made plans to do something special. And I was pleased that it went off without a hitch, an argument, or any form of silent treatment. In fact we spent nearly six hours Saturday night drinking champagne and wine talking...I have no idea what about though because those bubbles do go to my head rather quickly and she woke up with a hang over.