Big Girl Pants

I was so surprised...I'm a married woman, starting her adult life, in a strange, new place.

I knew this day would come. Well, I'd hoped I wouldn't be a spinster cat-lady the rest of my life. But I just knew I would get married someday, because I was just too much a hopeless romantic not to find love. And I did, miraculously, find someone who wants to spend the rest of his life with me, even though I'm weird, and blah, blah. That's not what I'm here for today.

Surprised that I'm starting my adult life, married? Sure, I am. Surprised I'm starting that life somewhere new? Not really. Surprised it's New York (and upstate, too)? Yessir, I am. And not only am I now starting life with a partner, it's in a society I don't really know anything about. But I'm not here to talk about that, either.

Mostly, I kinda wanted to update those who care about what's been going on in our lives since I pretty much fell off Facebook. I know everyone knows about our getting married. Duh. I posted just way too much about that. And I know you've all seen the pictures floating around, but here are my favorites:

The First Kiss.

The First Dance.

The Wedding Party.

 Anyway, "What's been happening since then?" you ask. Well, I'm sure you also know that we moved across the country. With two adults and one cat. In one car. From Arizona to New York. Ugh.




If I have any advice for anyone, it's this: don't do it.

The Bridesmaids.

No, but really, it wasn't that bad. We were extremely lucky, and had basically no problems along the way with tires, weather, other car problems, cat problems. We lucked out. Maybe the gods took pity on us since we has just gotten married days before.

 My wonderful husband drove (pretty much the whole time, since he's stupid and has a stick-shift and I get really nervous and tense and upset driving it) for two and a half days up to Minnesota, about 8-10 hours each day, stopped at his parents' house for a few days of respite, then booked it for two and a quarter more days from there to Watertown, NY, where we've been ever since.

A couple things I want to impart on you, from our experience driving across the country with a cat:

1. Don't feed your cat(/dog?) the night before leaving. Russell learned the hard way coming out to AZ from Oklahoma, and I'll tell you, it wasn't pretty. So, that first day of driving, the cat didn't get anything to eat beforehand, and it works like a charm! We also only fed her once, at night after we stopped each night, with a can of wet food, since it travels very easily. She lost some weight, but she's perfectly fine now that she gets her regular schedule!

2. Get lucky with your animal. Seriously. We were extremely lucky to learn that Tiger handles car rides, all day, with a packed car, really well. Sure, she freaked out every now and then and would drive us crazy for like half an hour, but that was mostly when she was telling us she needed to pee/poop. (Oh yeah, put a small version of a litter box at the passenger's feet. Best idea we had. Learned that the hard way, too. We used a small basket from Russell's parents' house, a plastic bag, and some litter. Then you just have to tie up the bag, dump it in a gas station trash can, and put a new bag in! Easy!) Tiger, though, mostly climbed around the stuff in the car, and slept. Awesome.

One of Tiger's favorite places to sleep.

And this.

And this.

And look how cute the Newlyweds are.

When we got into Watertown, the first thing we did (on my birthday) was to check into the cheapest hotel we were willing to stay in: the Econo Lodge. Then, we got me all situated in the Army database as an Army wife, with a military ID and everything. Yay! I'm official now! And then, finally, we went to the Housing office to work on getting a house.

Blah, blah, stuff happened, and here's the scoop on that: We're on the list to get the officer housing, which looks awesome! We'll (hopefully soon) be getting a 3-bedroom (as if we need that!), and pretty much all the houses look brand spanking new! Needless to say, we're pretty excited to move in! And to move out of the Econo Lodge, but that's another detail, clearly. We've got a pretty good chance, it seems, of being able to move in fairly soon, too, which would just be so awesome.

Next, I stumbled upon an open position on Drum as a pre-k "associate," which I assume is Army talk for "teacher." I applied, and now just have to wait for the call for an interview! Hopefully.

Until then, and we get all moved in somewhere, and we can find me a cheapo car (eventually), we're just hanging out in our hotel room. Being boring and trying to eat fairly healthy and cheap.

Oh, also, my husband had infected bed bugs bites that drove us to the hospital on the night of my birthday to make sure it wasn't shingles. Don't worry--the antibiotics are clearing him up, and he isn't all welt-y and gross anymore. :]

Umm, said husband is bothering me for attention now and I'm pretty sure I've forgotten whatever else I was gonna tell you guys, you lucky dogs, you.

So anyway, you few readers out there that made it through all that rambling, stay surprised, people. :] 'Til next time!

Also, from experience, don't let the bedbugs bite! ;]