Home Again, Home Again...

Aaron and I had to separate again after just about two and a half weeks of marriage. We were both flying out of the same airport on the same day--him to WA and me to GA, not to be reunited until the 23rd of November. I was so proud of myself when I told him goodbye- not a tear (which, over the last couple of years had become my M.O.)--only just an ever-so-slight trace of sadness. "We're each other's home base now... it's different this time..." I told myself.

It's true. It is different now. But it's almost been harder! That could be because I've been packing up all of our wedding gifts, all of my stuff from the house in town (or "The townhouse" as Lucy calls it) and the lake house, packing it all into boxes and moving it (via multiple trips to and fro) to Aaron's parents' house in North Augusta because "they" (being whatever company the military contracted our move out to) are coming Monday to get our stuff and move it on out to WA--all on my own. Talk about baptism by fire. This is my first military move. It's not even been a month since we've been married. And Aaron will (when they finally show up) be essentially unreachable. And you know what? Even if he was reachable, I wouldn't want to be calling him every 50 seconds asking him what to do and what this or that means, etc... I'm going to need to get used to this and I want to do be able to do it myself, even if I make a few mistakes here and there. He's been so sweet, walking me through bits and pieces of what to expect and the paperwork and the bureaucracy of it all and I've been pushed (or violently shoved) out of the nest and I'm officially on my own with it now. But, how hard can it be?.....right? Ahem...anyway...I'll just be glad when it's over, regardless of where our stuff actually ends up!

My time at home so far has been fun. I thought I'd feel different now that I'm married- I don't. Same Becca. Same Augusta. Same parents' house. Same parents. Same sweet friends. I got the chance to hang out with a few of them this week- some in Columbia at my old watering holes--Hunter Gatherer and then Jake's--with Matt, Mary Neil, Lonnie, Michelle, Laura, Madden, Kristi, Meg-- and also with some Augusta pals at my hometown watering hole--Bees Knees-- with Victoria and Joanna...It's good to know that I still have good friends "back east" (as "us westerners" call it). A few highlights:





Siiiiiiiiiigh....Good times.


Where was I? Oh yeah, so only 9 more days until Aaron and I are reunited and he's done with the training he's been finishing up in WA. Also, not long until his birthday--November 25th. He'll finally be my age :) What to get your husband for his first birthday as... well, as your husband??

Where The Buffalo Roam

That's where I live. Sort of. Actually, about 3 hours south of us is where we spotted a few buffalo on our way home from hiking. Said buffalo was just standing on the side of the road, like it was no big deal that he was a buffalo and he was standing on the side of the road. It was to me. So I took pictures. Like these...

Buffalo spotting isn't the only change that I've adapted to over the last couple of weeks. First of all, I'm living on a military base. (Here's a pic from just outside the gate):

My first Monday morning here, I awoke to men outside yelling "Left, left, left right left..." and one of those "I don't know but I've been told" songs. I assume they were running in some sort of formation but I don't know. Since it was still dark outside, I didn't bother to get out of bed (like any normal person) to take a gander. After I was almost settled back into sleep, I was almost blasted out of bed by Revelry playing on the loud speakers all over the base. And sadly, that also happened while it was still dark outside. Needless to say, I've started to wake up a little earlier--at least when we sleep with the window open.

My favorite thing about living on base (apart from the Commisary- can we say savings?) is the flight show I get everyday. True, it's not the blue angels. It's student pilots flying little sputtering planes for the most part--with the exceptions of T-1's (the trainers for the heavies--like C-17's--they look like private jets) and the T-38's (the trainers for fighters--like F-16's--they're very fast). It's still pretty cool to see planes constantly flying overhead- sometimes low to the ground, sometimes taking sharp turns, taking off or landing. In this picture, you can see one in the very background.

That's all I've got of the planes so far...

This past Saturday, we took a trip south to go hiking like I said earlier. It turned out to be a really fun day. It was beautiful in this part of Oklahoma with these pretty large rocky mountains, covered in huge boulders. Who knew that was in Oklahoma? We hiked most of the time (and boulder hopped... yes, I did that... and I didn't even fall)

and then headed towards one of Aaron's favorite restaurants. It's actually famous. It doesn't look like much:

But, they grow their own cattle (so they don't feed them any hormones--just grass), grind the beef in house everyday (fresh!), make their own beer. All in all, pretty awesome. They've been on the Food Network a few times and are named one of the top 8 burgers in the country. A little gem in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma. We decided to go all out: He got a huge burger (the seismic), I got ribs and we shared one of their beers. With all of that, we had managed to save room for their homemade icecream and peach cobbler, which we also shared (we were hungry--we'd hiked all day). And then we began the 3 hour trek home.

Unfortunately, not long after we arrived home, we both weren't feeling so well. We thought we'd just eaten too much and vowed to never do that to ourselves again. It turned out to not be that so much as it was food poisoning. Now, I'm sure this is a rare happening for this restaurant- like I said, it's very well known and very reputable. The only thing we shared was that icecream... but we were SICK. We didn't get any sleep all Saturday night and we made a Wal-Mart run at 6 AM on Sunday to get OJ, Gatorade, Tylenol, etc... that would be the only time we got out of bed all of Saturday- both of us were completely out of it all day.

But my sister made a very good point: At least reason we got food poisoning together wasn't because of my cooking. So we've still got that to look forward to...