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.