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Back in the 'Burgh

We moved back to Pittsburgh April 10. It was quite a journey actually! Usually the drive can take anywhere between 10 and 12 hours depending on traffic and how often we stop. Tony was supposed to get his official papers from the Marines at noon. They were being very strict and made him wait in an office until noon on the dot. Of course the past 10 days he was getting off for the day as early as 8:30 in the morning. Not Friday though! The day when we could have really used an early day. Even then, the guys who had to sign his paperwork weren't in the office so he had to walk around trying to find them. That weekend was also Easter weekend. Almost every single Marine on that base got a 96 (96 hours of leave) for the holiday and they were all getting off at noon as well. So needless to say, traffic was horrible. It took him 30 minutes just to get to the main gait--usually only takes about 10 if that. Then it took him an additional 30 minutes to get from the base to our apartment--usually 10-15 mins. It was almost 1:30 by the time Tony pulled up. He was so irritated and frustrated. But I was so excited because he was no longer an active-duty Marine! I gave him a big hug and said "Hi there civilian!" It seemed to make him relax a bit and laugh hehe.

My dad and grandpa had flown down together Wednesday afternoon. They came to help us load up and we needed the extra driver since we had 3 vehicles. I was so happy to see my dad, it had been since Christmas! So...Tony goes in to change into regular clothes and we start loading the rest of the stuff. By the time we finished packing up the truck, put my kitties in their cages in my car, vacuumed and swept the floors, turned in our keys at the office, filled up on gas, and weighed the two vehicles to get reembursed from the Marines for the move...it was about 2:30 when we hit the highway. So even if traffic was great and we did it in 10 hours that would put us getting in after midnight...

Traffic was very heavy. Dad drove the moving truck, which was a beast and it didn't get up to more than about 55 mph. It was heavy and blowing all over the place. So it was a slow start on our journey. We ended up spending the night in a pet-friendly hotel outside of Quantico. It was nice to rest and get a shower. We planned to leave at around 8:00 (I think, or maybe 9:00) When we reached for Malone's kitty carrier, he bolted under the bed. It was like he was saying "noooo we just got here! I don't want to go into the cage again!" Tony lifted the whole bed up so I could reach for him. Thats when I said "oh my gosh, Tony! There is a whole in the box spring and he is CRAWLING into it!" Yup, Malone found a whole and got up INSIDE the box spring. He was crawling all around in there. I was afraid he'd get tangled up in the metal stuff in there. So we carefully turned it on its side, found him in the bottom corner, then cut it open and pulled him out! He was wide-eyed but he agreeably went into his carrier and settled down in the cage for the ride.

On the road we went. We drove for a few hours, by-passing the busiest highways since traffic was still pretty heavy for the holiday weekend. When we hit 81 we saw a sign saying the road was closed ahead and to follow the detour. I thought "hmmm I hope this doesn't slow us much"...little did I know! Shortly after, traffic came to a complete hault. We inched along barely a mile in about 45 minutes. This went on for 4 miles, taking us almost 2 hours and 30 minutes just to get to the detour. My mom was on the phone with us looking at the traffic situation online saying it had been closed like that since 8am. We were there around 11:00 and 12:00. I think it was so poorly handled, escpecially since it was a holiday weekend with lots of travelers! The detour took us through a tiny town much like the area I am from. This place wasn't built to handle detour traffic from rt81. So we were inching along in there too. Finally we got on the road again and it was mostly smooth from there. We got home around 4:00-5:00 at last!

I feel so happy to be home. It took a few days to even sink in that I'm finally back home for good. I don't have to pack up 2 days later and drive back to North Carolina. I've been trying to make the addition homey and cute. Its getting tough since I have a lot of stuff and not sure where to put it all! Plus my kitties like to be in the middle of everything I do. But its coming along! Sunday mom made a delicious Easter dinner and my grandparents came over. Easter is one of my favorite holidays, it was great to get home right before it!

Its definitely nice to finally take care of Fanny and Dale. My parents had to do it for a whole year. And it wasn't an easy one. Both equines had a really rough summer with colics and injuries. I appreciate all the work they did and all the stress and money to care for them. I'm happy that I'm back and the burden has been lifted off them. Tony and I built a little riding area in the back for me. As soon as this weather breaks I'm going to take them back there and start conditioning them. Fanny might want to show this year, but we'll see. And I have always wanted to show Dale, maybe this year is his year!

Twilight Update...

I finished book two on Saturday! It was great and I'm eager to dig into the last two books. I am moving on Friday so I don't have as much time to read the third one, but I'm already over 100 pages in. I better slow down or I'll be sad after I finish gobbling down these books, anxious for more!


Back to the packing and cleaning grind!



PS It was so warm and sunny this weekend, I happily spent both days of the weekend on the beach for a couple hours. I have some nice color to move home with! :)

Twilight Saga

Last weekend, my husband and I got the movie Twilight. I had been curious to see it but had my expectations low-I'd heard such mixed reviews about it and the books. Let me say that I was pleasantly surprised! The movie was wonderful. The characters were so easy to fall in love with. Its amazing how Meyer (author of the saga) was able to make the vampire characters so enchanting and appealing that you are able to love them, rather than fear and disgust them for being an evil undead creature.

Stephanie Meyer is rather young, the bio on her website tells us she was born in 1973 (she would have only been 12 when I was born). Twilight was her first published book. It came out in 2005. It mustn't have been as popular as it has been the last year or two becuase I never noticed it in the stores actually. Now, of course, the stores have huge Twilight displays with shirts and bags and posters and more. I wasn't looking, but I had been in book stores for college and I can remember waiting in the very long line at Pitt's bookshop looking around at the Fiction books surrounding me. I can't recall ever seeing it.

While between theater and DVD, I decided I'd give the books a shot. At the time I was finishing up the final two Harry Potter books, so I figured I'd get to Twilight eventually.

Last week, I had a great coupon for Books-A-Million so I decided to just go for it and get the Saga. I read the first book in less than a week, it was two pages shy of 500. I was so drawn into this story I could not put it down. Even though I had seen the book and knew what happens, I still wanted to read the story and easily swallowed 100 pages in one sitting. I realize this book as been criticized a lot, but I truly enjoyed it.

Last night I started the second installment of the Saga called New Moon. I told my husband "I hope I can finish it by November when the movie comes out." This was obviously before I read page one of the first book! At the rate I am going, New Moon will be finished by Monday.

Eclipse is book three, and I have heard its fantastic. The one Twilight fan said to me, "you know...book two was great, but oh my gosh book three! You will NOT be disappointed!" and I quickly told her not to give me any details.

Breaking Dawn, the final book, is the most recent and final addition to the Saga. Where I am now in the second book, I won't say what happens incase anyone who is reading this hasn't read it and plans to, my curiousity is going out of control wondering what could be in the next 1100+ pages of this Saga.

....So what on earth is it that makes Twilight so appealing!? Its directed toward teenagers, and obviously I am not a teenager any longer. Maybe its because we can all relate, even just a little? I mean no, I've never been madly in love with a vampire who drives a shiney silver Volvo (haha), but I can remember being a young girl in love with a boy who she knew was wrong or would never be able to have a future with him. And Bella is a realistic character. She is clumsy, akward, and unsure of where she wants to be in the next few years (although you readers know where she really wants to be!). I think Kristen Stewart is the perfect Bella. Kristen is really a beautiful and talented young lady, I am very excited to see her grow into a wonderful actress!

And Edward, he is so beautifully described in the story. And the things he says are so romanitic, you don't have to be a gushy person to melt over them. Then seeing the character on screen played by the stunningly handsom Robert Pattinson, how could you not fall in love with Edward!? I remember seeing Robert as Cedric in the 4th and part of 5th Harry Potter films and thinking "wow, he is so attractive!" I read somewhere that Robert beat out 3000 others to claim the part of Edward, I can see why! He's really made a name for himself now by playing Edward. Suddenly girls are going crazy over him, wonder if he was ready for it?!

OBX in a Day!

This post is a little late...

The other weekend, my husband and I took a drive north east together to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. From where we're at, it was only a little over 3 hours of a drive. My family and I used to drive down to the OBX every summer for family vacations. I remember going in I think it was 1994, 1995, and 1996. The summer vacations had to stop after I got involved in showing horses and we moved my pony Dale to our home, unfortunately doing both wasn't going to work out! We did get down there as a family once more in 2000. I have such fantastic memories of these vacations, even though my brother and I fought quite a bit! They were still wonderful vacations. We rented the same condo every year, the exact same unit. The condo was called Sea Walk. It was a two bedroom little home right on the beach. It probably took all of 35 seconds to get from the back door to the waves breaking on the shore. My mom is the mega beach bum of the family, I know this was some of her favorite days as well. One of my favorite memories is when my mom woke up very early before the sun rose. She put a tape in the video recorder and tried to capture the beautiful sunrise. My mom is not a morning person, never has been! But in her morning daze she must have loaded the tape backwards and when we went to watch the video it was nothing but black and white 'snow' on the TV. What a bummer, but a funny story to tell at the same time. :)

Anyway...Tony has never been to the Outer Banks! He has been living here in Jacksonville for 4 years during his time in the Marines. This is pretty much the only opinion he has been able to form of Coastal Carolina. And quite frankly, this area does not do Coastal North Carolina any justice! Sometimes while I am here I forget I'm on the Coast of NC. He seemed to really enjoy the OBX. It was late March on a Sunday morning/afternoon. So there weren't many tourists and it wasn't crowded. We went to Jockey's Ridge. We took tons of pictures. I always found Jockey's Ridge so impressive--a huge pile of sand mountains in the middle of everything. I have only been on the dunes once before when I was about 9 years old and our trip to the top was cut short by a sudden thunderstorm and we had to leave. I truly enjoyed climbing the sand mountains and taking in the view at the top.

We then parked at the public beach access and walked around on the beach. It was a little chillier by the ocean since its still very early in the season, but it was still very beautiful. I tried to soak up the sand and the sound of the ocean. I love the smell of the beach and how my skin and hair feels from the salt in the air.

Something I never visited in all my trips to the OBX is the Wright Brothers Memorial. So Tony and I figured "why not?" and went to check it out. It was actually rather interesting. The dunes have been preserved and the area declared a National Park. Grass has been planted on the dunes to keep from the wind blowing the sand around. There is a museum in the area with an exact replica inside of the first plane. There are also blocks to mark the exact location of the take off spot and the 4 landing spots from that day in December over 100 years ago when the brothers first flew. At the top of the largest grass-covered dune is the memorial. I've seen it from the road but seeing it in person was impressive! It was a beautiful sunny day so we hiked to the top to take pictures and enjoy the view. I really enjoyed it!

Last but not least, we enjoyed lunch at a little local bar and grill called Tourtuga's Lie. This is a family tradition and one of my favorite places to eat in the whole world! On every trip to the OBX we have gone here to eat probably 2 or 3 times each vacation, maybe more! Its delicious, the service is extremely friendly, and the prices are very reasonable. Its one of those places that only locals and seasoned visitors know about. As a kid, I religiously ordered the same item on the menu--gilled cheese! I ordered that again, and my mom's regular item--steamed veggie platter. It was wonderful! Tony had some very juicy looking burger that he really enjoyed. I couldn't finish it all so I got the rest of my veggies to go and finished it off on the car ride home.

This little day trip was fantastic. We didn't spend very much, just a tank of gas and some money on a few suveniers and our lunch. I took nearly 100 pictures and felt so happy once we got back to Jacksonville. Living so close all these months, I had to take advantage and make the drive up! Some day I hope we can all go down as a family again, in the summer of course to soak up the sun!