I'm gonna catch this blog up real quick, because things are about to get a little crazy up in our house, and I wouldn't want to go on without detailing the awesome visit I had with my best friend, Sarah! Unbeknownst to me, she and Lance planned for her to surprise me here in Oklahoma.  When Lance came home with a bouquet of flowers, my suspicions were piqued, but nothing could have prepared me to then find Sarah standing in the doorway!  Clearly, the two of them are permanently made "Best Husband" and "Best Friend", respectively.

Between going to different high schools, Sarah's studying abroad in Italy, and then on to different colleges- its been a very long time since we've had a good chunk of time to catch up properly and just hang out since for years its been last minute coffees, BART trips, lunches, and oddly timed phone calls.  However, I'd be lying if I didn't say I had a mini-panic attack at finding out I needed to entertain my worldly friend in the middle of nowhere for 8 days!

We more than made do though; remember that art museum that was tragically closed when Lance and I wanted to visit? Sarah and I finally visited (and Lance escaped what were surely torturous hours of cultural musings).  We went to Oklahoma city and maybe/probably saw Toby Keith, we did art projects, went antiquing, and learned about the Chisholm Trail at a curiously detailed museum in Kingfisher.

Lance took us out to the airstrip to look at the planes, it was the first time I got to see his new aircraft, the T-1.  It was not as big as I thought it was, I couldn't imagine having to sit in it for 4 hours at a time!  Sarah's visit was well timed because, in addition to still being very busy with flights in general, Lance also went on another cross-country overnight flight.
I really can't get over how lucky I am for all of the great people in my life that care about me so much- as good a person as I try to be, nothing I can do can compare to the awesomeness of them!

...and now for something completely different...

As grateful as I am for my friends and family- one thing that I am NOT grateful for is the leaky mess of our apartment (ok, fine, I'm thankful to have a roof over my head- I would just rather it not torrentially leak through our kitchen lights, electrical outlets and cabinets).   This is not the first mention of its yuckiness in this blog, but it will be the last- we are moving.

On base housing requires a 6 month retainer, and since we don't want to risk indicating that we want to FAIP and then being stuck here for the long haul, we are remaining off base and in the same complex.  Wary as I am of the management and maintenance, the apartment we are moving to was our friend's old one, and doesn't have a history of problems like ours.  Its risky, but at least we avoid moving and storage fees that would have come with moving somewhere further and inevitably smaller.

In all fairness, I'm really only writing this because I'm housebound waiting to get the keys and the greenlight so I can start moving.  Hopefully the bulk of little things can be moved today and tomorrow, because my sister Patricia is coming to visit on Saturday!  Lance's class is having a fundraiser tomorrow, and he is preparing to have his 'nav-check' next week.  Supposedly things get a lot better and its into the home-stretch after that.

Birds must just love Oklahoma because of all the juicy bugs we have here, and they seem to like our roof in particular.  Sometimes it seems like just a matter of time before the pigeons that congregate on the skylight above our room come pouring in!  Starting a few days ago I heard a fluttering noise in the chimney. I figured the sound was coming from the top on the outside and simply traveling down into our living room, but it quickly became clear that the sound was, in fact, coming from the chimney. 

 Distressed at the thought of a pigeon being trapped in our chimney I waited it out to see if it escaped, the noise stopped so I hoped that was the case- and not that the poor thing had died.  The noise stopped, but picked up again the next day, and the next. That nerd was living in our chimney.

After a few failed attempts at pounding at the wall and blaring youtube clips of Peregrine Falcon territory protection calls, the only thing I seemed to be tempting to leave was Lance.  So we decided to smoke it out, figuring that if it could get into the chimney, it could easily get out, right?  With us armed with cardboard boxes and a fly swatter, the fire was started, the flue was opened, and the grate was shut. 

Into the flames flew a tiny soot covered bird.  We flung the grate open, releasing our squatter into our living room, then the kitchen, then straight past the open door into the office- with Lance in hot pursuit. 

It was finally goaded out the front door, clearly shaken, but then again I'd be pretty torn up too if the bottom of my house opened up into a fiery inferno.

well, ready as I'll ever be! Graduation has kicked off the biggest summer of my life and there is a LOT to be done.  This week I've started packing boxes to be shipped to Oklahoma, and boy does it feel good to watch my heaps of clothes shrink and organized stacks of boxes rise (it feels less good to lift said boxes).  Sarah and I are planning a tag sale for this weekend, and I've found its a lot easier to sort things into save and toss piles when you figure you may be able to make some money off the toss pile.  I'm also meeting with the wedding DJ soon to go over things we want played at the wedding- actually, interestingly enough, he asked for a 'do not play' list, saying that that is often a better guide. Currently that list is known between Lance and I as the Nickelback list.

Truthfully, my to-do list is a mile high, so if we're taking the title of this post, "ready", very seriously there is NO WAY I am ready! I haven't even packed my Harry Potter books yet! Internally though, I'm super ready to get going.  I can't wait to marry Lance and start our life together, even if it is in Oklahoma (I still maintain that most of the people are lovely, there is no traffic except when the train runs through the middle of town, and the weirdly flat landscape is a lot less lame if you imagine yourself to be on some distant tornado-ridden planet--VISIT ME).

Currently I haven't got any job lined up, so hopefully I'll be able to find something fun to do and that will allow me to meet interesting people, and this blog won't turn into a synopsis of whatever episodes of Torchwood I watch every day.

Allons-y!