Movie Minute: Sparta Doesn't like the Printer

Here, Sparta shows his dislike and curiosity for the printer at my old apartment in Cullowhee.

Photo of the Day January 25

This person really, really wanted a parking spot close to Wal-Mart!!! There's been much debate over how he got his door open.

Together

I have been waiting for this day since exactly one year ago! I can happily say that my dream has come true and that the wait is over.

Next week, my boyfriend Stuart is moving to Cullowhee!!!!!! 

Our long distance relationship is over!

Stuart has decided that after working for The Angus Barn since last January, he wants to move on and find a place that will help him move forward in the cooking ladder. While The Angus Barn comes with a lot of prestige and respect, employees stay at the Barn for many years. Due to this, there is little opportunity to be promoted. At 23, Stuart has big ambitions and wants to some day be a kitchen manager. 

After my announcement of returning to Western Carolina University for this spring, Stuart and I faced once again being five hours away from each other. Honestly, I didn't think we'd survive it for a second time, but I wanted to make the right decision for me and my career. It's not guaranteed that Stuart and I will marry each other. I needed to make a decision based on what I knew: UNC-Greensboro and I didn't get along in any way, and I needed a solid education to make sure I could get a job after graduating. Even if it meant a huge hit on our relationship, I had to put my education first. 

While I was preparing for Cullowhee, Stuart started to think about where that left him. It turns out that Western Carolina's catering company, the same company where Stuart worked during his years as an undergraduate at WCU, is looking for a sous chef. While Stuart does not have the sous chef job, he will begin working for the catering department this February with the understanding and motivation to soon become the sous chef. With his background and his experience already with the WCU and Aramark, I have no doubt he will quickly succeed at his goal. 

I am so proud of him and the major decision he is not only making for us but that he's also making for his career path. For the first time, he's permanently moving away from his hometown and Raleigh and living on his own without parents, siblings, or even a roommate. He has a beautiful efficiently-style cabin settled in the woods in Balsalm Gap that overlooks a small brook and comes with horseshoes, a fire pit, and a mini gym.

It is has been difficult this month to be without him, and to have no Internet until this week and no cell phone service at my trailer. I can't text him good night or good morning until I get to campus. The lack of communication has hurt us, but next Wednesday, things are going to be very different. 

For the first time since Christmas 2010, we will be living in the same city (or close enough anyway), working in the same community, and there's no end in sight. He won't be graduating this time. I won't be going anywhere. We won't a relationship based on longing for the other and waiting... just waiting until the other comes back. 

Next week, the next big step in my relationship with Stuart begins. I can't wait or be more excited!!! I love you, Stuart. 

Movie Minute: Sheep Herding Demonstration

Stuart and I attended a sheep herding demonstration at a fair in Raleigh over the summer. This was the same fair that he really proved himself a man and won me a stuffed animal by throwing a ping pong ball into a fish bowl! :)

Photo of the Day January 21

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE GREATEST SISTER IN THE WORLD!!! I LOVE YOU!!

God has Left Hollywood

JC didn’t know the situation he was getting himself into when he picked up a satellite cable box for my TV a few days before the broadcast of the 69^th Annual Golden Globe Awards. I am a huge fan of movies, Hollywood, celebrities, and the awards season!! I look forward to the Golden Globes, People’s Choice, Screen Actor’s Guild, and the Academy Awards like I look forward to Christmas! Tis the best, most glamorous season of the year!!

Starting at 5 p.m., JC and I settled in to watch first the pre-red carpet segment where three fashionistas commented on who they believed would dress the best, then two hours of red carpet interviews and fashion, then the three-hour award show! I felt sorry for Justin who had to listen to me say “That dress is ugly!,” “Ohmigosh! Why is she wearing that?”, and “OMG! I LOVE HER DRESS!” about thirty times as celebrity after celebrity filed onto the red carpet. He patiently listened… or appeared to listen to me ramble on and on about red carpet fashion, who was who, who was dating who, and why they were nominated. Really, he was just waiting for the chicken thighs I was baking to hurry up and be ready to eat.

Two things I noticed about this year’s red carpet:

1.       1. Only three or four couples made an appearance together. Many celebrities were man-less or chick-less.

2.       2. WHAT THE HECK WAS GOING ON WITH THE DRESSES???!! They were downright ugly this year. Mila and Emma took the win in fashion for sure.

Then it was time for the actual awards ceremony. Out came the rum and Coke. Unable to watch football, Justin kept me entertained as I created a drinking game for him. One must drink when:

1.    A celebrity thanked the “amazing talent” in his or her category that they just smoked them in
2.   A celebrity was cut off by the music because they rambled on too long
3.  A celebrity thanked God

Quite often, Justin had to drink because the music cut off a star, like Kate Winslet who always goes over. One thing we noticed, however, was that no one wanted to thank God this year! We waited two hours and 45 minutes before Meryl Streep, God bless her, got up on the stage for her Best Actress award for The Iron Lady and thanked the good Lord upstairs.. sort of! It was actually a joke, but JC drank anyway! Meryl refers to one of the members of the audience as God, but at least there was some mention of religion somewhere. Ms. Streep also took home the prize of Best Speech and The 3-in-1 Drinking Award, bestowed to her by JC and me, as she thanked a type of god and thanked not only the other females in her category but every woman who was nominated in all the categories, and she ran out of time after stumbling through her speech because she left her glasses at her seat and couldn’t read what she wrote!!!

Congratulations, Meryl Streep!! You not only know how to give an amazing performance on the silver screen, you can also give one heck of a speech!!

“Why don’t you make a film our daughter can see for once?’” — Martin Scorsese, accepting best director for “Hugo,” referring to how his wife, Helen, urged him to make a children’s movie.

Hoping for Internet

It’s been one week that I’ve been living with my new roommate JC, my friend and boss! And, every day, I am cracking up with laughter at the hilarity of our friendship and the mountain, farmland environment we are living in. I know more about the livestock I’m living near than my human neighbors.

“Two months ago, living together with just a two text thought,” JC said. “Now it’s for realsy.”

…Yes, he actually said “realsy.” 

A neighbor. I call him Bruce

Tonight is just another night of me reclining in my bed and JC sitting on the cat hair-covered ottoman at the foot of my bed because my room next to the window is the only way to get Internet around here! Well, make that Justin just fell off the cat hair-covered ottoman! He has a habit of leaning back in his seat, which is quite impossible in the overstuffed handcrafted birthday gift from my grandmother.

Tonight, I decided to satisfy my sweet tooth and brought out a large bag of Jelly Belly beans that I bought at UNCG when I was trying to spend my declining balance points. Unfortunately, this bag isn’t an actual Jelly Belly bag; it’s a plastic bag that I shoveled unidentified and unlabeled beans into with a large metal scoop. There’s no flavor key to look at. We’re looking at the colors and hoping for the best! It’s not going very well…

Twice, JC has run out of the room to splash chocolate milk down his throat after eating a bean that he described as having “a kick to it.” I’ve spit out quite a few. Don’t trust the orange!!! It lies every time!! The flavors aren’t even starting to make sense anymore.

I handed JC a red bean with white dots. Watching him chew with a disgusted face, I asked him what it tasted like.

“Dirt!” he promptly answered. “I’m going to add banana!” Then, he popped in a yellow dotted bean into his mouth.

Like I said, it’s just another night gathered around the window hoping for Internet…! So much for “quiet hours” after 11.

Movie Minute: "Man From The South"

I thought I'd post something different for Movie Minute today. This semester, I'm taking a Film Adaptation class for my English major. The class explores the methods and critical analysis of novels that have been adapted into films. Here's the short film from Alfred Hitchcock that we have to watch for Friday based off Roald Dahl's "Man of the South." Enjoy!

Photo of the Day January 9

Happy birthday to Stuart!!! He turns 23 today!

Photo of the Day January 7

Meet some of my new neighbors!!! ...No pun intended!

56. Longing

Book 56: Longing by Karen Kingsbury (A)

Hooray!! I'm so excited for the character development in this next novel of the Bailey Flanigan series!!! Bailey, Cody, and Brandon Paul are back for the continuation of their complicated young lives. Bailey's Broadway musical run is in trouble because audience members no longer want to watch Hairspray. She also is still dealing with conflicting feelings about Cody when she's dating Brandon. Brandon is completely in love with Bailey and will do everything in his power to convince her that she deserves more than the runaway-when-things-get-scary Cody. In fact, he wants to propose...soon! And, Cody has realized he's truly in love with Bailey and is about to break-up with his new girlfriend Cheyenne when she is diagnosed with brain cancer and needs all the love and support she can get. It's a Christian soap opera, folks!!!
I am all about Team Brandon!! I used to root for Cody all through the Above the Line series and into the new Bailey series, but now I'm done with that boy. He had his chance! Now, leave Bailey alone! I want her to be with Brandon, and he's doing a great job of keeping her with him!
Once again, Kingsbury does an amazing job of making these characters relate-able. My favorite scene is the one between Bailey and one of her Hairspray cast mates in the Starbucks. The transformation of the cast mate from when you first meet him in Leaving is worth getting teary eyed! That scene alone is worth reading the novel.

Photo of the Day January 4

I'm all moved in at my new home in the thick of the mountains of Cullowhee, North Carolina. I have no cell phone service whatsoever, wild critters all around me, and there's just a smidgen of snow left on the ground from Monday night's snowfall! It's already been a culture shock compared to my warm Greensboro home!
Sparta is adjusting well! He's fallen in love with a large, overstuffed recliner chair that was left by the previous owners. He's going to be heartbroken when he realizes I'm having it moved out next week.
Here's a portion of my living room. It still needs a bit of work, but I'm most excited about the new cat tree that belongs to Sparta. Kate and Ma worked hard building it, and Sparta's still learning that the tower actually belongs to him. He's never seen anything like it before, and it's taking a bit of time for him to warm up to it.
Well, better head out into the cold. I have to walk down the mountain to the mailbox and say hello to the neighbors - a handful of stray dogs, a barn-ful of alpacas and llamas, and the cluster of mini horses that never leave their spread of hay!