Grown up Pants!

This week I am working on putting on my grown up pants and dealing with the future. 5 months ago, I started dating an amazing guy and in the last week he put in his 90 days at work and is beginning to talk more about his impending move back to the real world 7,000 miles away from here. I have gone through the gamet of emotions from being excited for him to begin this next chapter in his life and start accomplishing a life long goal that he has to being heartbroken that I won't get to see him and that it could mean the end of us. We have begun to talk about what the future holds for us and it has basically been me breaking down in tears everytime I think about it. Although we knew 5 months ago this was coming, I think we avoided the topic for so long, that now it is pretty painful for me to discuss, but he is convinced the more we talk about what will happen in 3 months the better it will be. I have always said that long distance relationships don't work, but he has me second guessing everything else that I know about relationships, so I would be willing to give it a go for him...if he is willing to as well.

Week 33: Hoards of Food (Nov 21-27)

Yikes, a lot of food was consumed by me this week. I think I set a record for the number of Thanksgiving meals I have personally eaten. By the time the week was over I had downed 4 delicious dinners fully of yummy morsels.
Dinner 1: It all began with the Third Grade International Tasting Party on Wednesday. We had 23 dishes from countries around the world that included perogies, cheese curds, and coconut rice balls (my favorite!).
Dinner 2: On Thursday, I was invited to a Thanksgiving Feast fit for a King. It was in the backyard of someones home and even though it was raining it was quite to wonderful traditional Thanksgiving full of turkey, mashed potatoes and more.
Dinner 3: PDR on Friday (Kwaj Thanksgiving Day)- Every year I look forward to Thanksgiving with my Kwaj friends. We all crowd around tables at the chow hall and gorge on some of the best food the dining hall prepares all year long. There is copious amounts of consumption of turkey, crab legs and delicious desserts to tempt the pallet.
Dinner 4: Cafe Roi on Friday - For my second Thanksgiving Day meal, I dined at the chow hall on Roi with Kwaj friends and the boy, FS. I was full and really didn't need anymore food, but once I tasted the yummy sweet potatoes, I couldn't stop. They were AMAZINGLY delicious and I think I may have gone back for 3rds on them.
I think I spent the rest of the weekend eating pretty much nothing since I was stuffed to the brim and sleeping off a food hangover. Good thing Thanksgiving comes around only 1X a year!

Week 30: Battle on the Water and Arrgh Matey (October 24-30)

Sunday was all pirate, all day! The day started with a sailboat water balloon battle in the lagoon. The Boy had come down for the weekend and had his first sailing experiences ever and today's sail just might be my favorite sail yet. It involved 5 boats with an arsenal of water balloons trying to take out the other pirates and boats. It was a blast to throw water balloons and the boat I was on was well prepared with a balloon launching sling shot. We were able to take out the other boats pretty quickly and while other boats may deny our win, we are confident that we were the winners of the battle. I did take a direct hit to the face (OUCH!!) but recovered quickly and wasn't left with any lasting marks. (The guy who threw it did go out of his way to apologize the next day when he saw me.)

The evening involved the Swashbuckler's Pirate Ball at the Yacht Club. It was a great party with lots of homebrews and rum punch. The night involved some pirate games, lots of costumes and hanging with some of my favorite people on the globe. I had a great pirate costume from a co-worker that resulted in some wonderful compliments from a variety of friends. It was a great night shared with friends and The Boy.

Week 28: Timmy the Baby Sea Turtle and Flying to see to a Boy (October 10-16)

When I arrived at school one morning this week, my 3rd grade partner-in-crime shared that there had been a new nest of baby sea turtles that were hatching and headed the wrong way. We decided to head up and see if there were any little turtles that still needed saving. As we got up to the beach, a couple of students were carrying a little guy towards the beach. I asked if I could hold the little guy and was given the go ahead. WOW!! I was as giddy as a little kid holding while holding this little guy (A friend named him Timmy). He kept squirming and was definitely a fighter. The students took him to the edge of the surf and let him go; I was just amazed at the determination and fight that this little guy had as he used all his might to make his way towards the big deep blue. I know that he has statistics and a slew of ocean obstacles in front of him, but I can't help but think that he might be the 1 in 4,000 that will make it to adulthood.

Timmy and I right before he was released into the ocean.

I also had another new experience this week. I flew to see a boy. It was a little surreal to hop on a plane with the sole purpose of going to see a guy that I am interested in. I am still taking it one day at a time, but so far I think things are going pretty good. I get a smile on my face when I think about him and feel very comfortable and content to just be in his presence. After an 6.5 year dating hiatus, I am still adjusting the idea of dating someone and know that I need to work constantly on communicating effectively.

Week 25: Cheesecake and New Friends (September 19-25)

Early in the week there was a dinner party to celebrate some dear friends who are moving far, far away to California. I jumped at the chance to make a yummy dessert that would be gluten free and a big hit with all. After looking at bunches of recipes, I settled on a cheesecake with a macadamia nut crust. It was scrumptious and many went back for seconds. I never realized how easy it was to make a cheesecake and can see myself making them for many other dinners and celebrations in the future. I have a couple tweaks to make, but over all would change very little.

This week I also flew to Roi for a W&D Girl's Night with KC, LC, and MJ. We flew up Saturday after work and returned late Sunday afternoon. It is funny how I build expectations and thoughts of how things will go in my head and then it is all thrown out the window and my expectations are exceeded. Us 4 girls, we like to think that we are an entertaining and fun bunch and that was confirmed this weekend. We started playing some card games and before we knew it had 4 new freinds from Roi that joined us for the fun and ended up in mass quantities of booze flowing. I know that you are thinking, wait didn't you and KC decided to go dry for 30 days, well we modified it to only cover Kwaj. We figured that since it was our challenge we could change the terms:) Well the night ended with me hanging out with one of our new friends for 12 hours. It has been a long time since I talked that long to someone that I just met, and it felt good to let the guard down, well not all the way down, but just a little.