Hooray!!

The day that I have been awaiting for the last 5 1/2 months is FINALLY almost here!

Matt and I have been doing the long-distance relationship thing since January, when I moved back up to DC to start work and he remained in Atlanta to finish working on some music projects. But this weekend, it's finally going to be over! Tomorrow evening, I will be flying to Atlanta, and Saturday morning, we will start the drive back up here with a truck full of Matt's stuff! We'll be splitting the drive into two days, with a stop at his best friend's house in Chapel Hill, NC on the way up. But by Saturday afternoon, we'll be back up here in time to enjoy the fireworks, as viewed from our sunroom :)

He'll still be heading down to Atlanta now and then to work the music, but he'll be based up here, which makes me VERY happy. Being separated like this is never an ideal situation, and it was absolutely not what we wanted, but the need for a steady income and the fact that I couldn't find one in Atlanta made it necessary. I can't wait to see Matt - we haven't seen each other since mid-March, for a variety of reasons, and I miss him!!

Just keep your fingers crossed that my flight is on time and that we get out of Atlanta early enough on Friday to miss the holiday traffic!

Have you read the Rolling Stone article yet?

If not, get hot.

Seriously. In order to REALLY understand what's going on here, you have to read the article. The media reports are OK, but they're not really getting it. For example, this wasn't an interview with General McChrystal. Nor were 90% of the quotes actually spoken by him. And how the RS guy wasn't supposed to be with them that long. And oh by the way, he got a chance to take a chop on the article before the author sent it to press. MESS. I have one question: Why not just tell the guy, after his original 2 days, to find somewhere else to hang out??

I can't get over this whole business of demoting GEN Petraeus to take over a job that fell under the purview of CENTCOM. The overwhelming thought seems to be that President Obama did this with the thought that it would take him out of the running for a possible Presidential run in 2012, although I'm not sure how likely that would have been. The names that were being tossed around as possible McChrystal replacements are now being thrown around as Petraeus replacements. Personally, I'm cheering for Lt Gen John Allen, who was the Commandant of Midshipmen while I was at USNA. It will be interesting to see where that goes....

There really is no disagreement, at least among those with any military experience, that this was a fireable offense, and President Obama really had no choice. That's not the interesting part here. The interesting part, in my mind, is what comes next.

The Heat Is On

Go figure, just a few months after the most snowfall in the history of DC, its ridiculously hot. Doesn't it always work out this way? High yesterday was 91, and it was supposed to be the coolest day this week. Amazing.

There just has not been much going on in my world lately, just a bunch of little things. Nothing worthy of a big long blog post, so instead of a bunch of little ones, they're all together.

This weekend I got to make a trip down to Suffolk, VA for my good friend from USNA's Freedom Party. Divorce from d-bag is final, and we had a pinata complete with his face to celebrate the occasion. I hadn't seen her in quite a while, and it was great to catch up. And not only did I get to see her, I got to see her partner in crime in about 98% of my plebe year corruption. (It's OK, they freely admit it, and are proud of it even!) Seriously, though, it was fantastic to see both of them, and the rest of the folks that came out for her. I miss that crowd!!

This whole GEN McChrystal thing is a big old mess. 3rd law of the Navy, anyone? Take heed what you say of your seniors, be your words spoken softly or plain, lest a bird of the air tell the matter, and so shall ye hear it again. It was drilled into us Plebe year at USNA; I'd imagine there's something equal to it in the Army that the good GEN learned at West Point. Rule number one in the military - never talk sh*t about your seniors!! It will be interesting to see how it all plays out, and to see how much more politicized this can get. Its already pretty bad, as anything is these days when it involves talking about President Obama.

9 days and a wake up until I see Matt!! Hooray for finally getting him moved up here! I seriously cannot wait to have him back in the same place with me. Its been really difficult doing the long distance thing. Its lasted longer than either of us wanted it to, and I'm glad its finally over.

Quite the shot, if I say so myself

This is what the sky looked like when I left work today. I actually think it looked way cooler in real life, but this isn't a bad picture for a cell phone camera!

Music Recommendations

I went to the Birchmere the other night for the first time to see two ladies that I absolutely love play an acoustic show. It was fantastic, as I had no doubt it would be.

My best friend Molly turned me onto Toby Lightman's music back in 2004 or 2005, when we were still roommates living in Va Beach. She's just put an acoustic CD of some of her fan favorites from over the years, and its really good. She has 3 full band CDs available as well.

I first heard Aslyn on the radio around the same time when "Be The Girl" first came out. I met her for the first time in 2005 after missing her opening for Better Than Ezra, and have since enjoyed following her career and hearing her music evolve. I've also had the privilege of getting to know her a little bit over the years both on The Rock Boat and from my time living in Atlanta. Her latest CD is the best CD I bought in 2009, and not nearly enough people will hear it.
 
I highly recommend you all get ahold of as much of the music these ladies have made as you possibly can. The usual itunes, amazon, etc has them all, or click on the album titles to go to their merch stores to order hard copies.

Aslyn: The Dandelion Sessions

Toby Lightman: Know Where I'm From

Glee

Yes, I am a Gleek. I freely admit that as exhausted as I may be, I've stayed up on Tuesday nights for the last 2 months or so until Glee was over because I couldn't bare to have to wait until Wednesday to watch. I got excited by the guest stars. I wondered which songs were going to be covered this week. I laughed, I cried, I sang along.

So last night, after lots of crying during the episode, I realized that the season is over, and I'm sad. It helps that they're reshowing the entire season, including the episodes already on DVD, all summer. That will get me my fix, for sure. But its not nearly as good as its going to be in the fall when the new episodes start back up.

I know I'm not alone here. What were people's favorite episodes? For me, anything involving Kristen Chenoweth and/or Idina Menzel, with the Neil Patrick Harris episode way up there as well. And any time Brittany got to talk. GENIUS writing. What did you like?

Hello, spring? I think you missed your exit

It's been 90 degrees, hazy, and humid with afternoon thunderstorms this week. About 3 weeks ago I was wearing a sweater. What happened to spring? I think it forgot us.

But that's all OK, because Thursday I bought my plane ticket to fly down to Atlanta and help get Matt up here for good! Hooray! We haven't seen each other in 3 months now - the constantly changing schedule of the move combined with his trips to Tallahassee to help his parents move has made it really hard to plan visits, and I miss him! 4 weeks from now, we'll be on our way. I can't wait.

I'm finally really settled into work. I've just about got the new boss figured out, or as well as I could expect to, anyways, and I'm getting into the groove again. Not gonna lie, it feels good!

Almost as good as the thought of the completely relaxing Saturday I'm about to have. Pool til the storms start, then Friday Night Lights marathon! I recently started watching FNL from the beginning, and I'm hooked. Thank goodness for Instant Netflix.

Oh, and the Arthritis Walk went really well. We're still taking donations until July 1st, so if you can spare a little bit, please head over to my website and support this amazing cause. Here's a picture of my sister Emily with all of us that walked for her - that's me, my cousin Elisabeth, Emily's best friend Caitlin, and my other sister Sophie. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and a great time.