Not .. much .. power .. left

Alright there isn't much battery power left in ye olde laptop so I have to make all this quick.

Keith and I found a positively lovely place in Thetford which we love love love ...

Our car is paid for .. all we have to do is pass our British Driving Test ..

And all our things are scheduled to arrive July 2.

We thought we were going to go broke - but we're absolutely fine. Its been a hectic week and a half but we've gotten nearly everything taken care of.

The weather has been cracking for over a week now and we've been out walking around enjoying it. We're going to put the battery in the camera and snap some pics in a bit - but I'm not sure we have the cord for it in order to get the pictures off the camera and onto the laptop .. but we'll see!

If not .. we'll have to wait until July 2nd to get the pictures off the camera.

Hope everyone is doing well! Haven't had much time to sit on a messenger and talk to anyone at all, and I do hope you all understand.

Cheers!

Thursday May 25th - Thursday May 31st

Well we made it in one piece - but not without a story or two. Yeah yeah, I know. I can never get from point a to point B without something happening. Its fine by me for the most part because if it weren't for those stories my life would be pretty damn boring.

One of the tiniest jets ever took us from Oklahoma City to Chicago. It was cute though - and on take off it was like being in a little race car. Keith and I were kinda bummed when we got the print out for our tickets because our seats were rows and rows apart ... but they assigned new seats when we got to the airport. It was really cool watching everything disappear underneath us though.

Airport food is crap. Sheer crap. I will never eat another cinnamon roll as long as I live thanks to the Cinnibon place in the airport in Oklahoma City. O'Hare in Chicago had slightly better food - but since we'd been up at 3am .. and it was only like 9am they were all still serving breakfast. We didn't want breakfast :( We were ready for lunch. So we grabbed a couple sandwiches and a couple drinks which came to like $30 USD! Yeah major suckage.

From Chicago to Heathrow I slept mostly. I was awake off and on but not for long. They gave us crappy food on the plane, but I ate it anyway cuz hey - free food, right? It was pretty crowded on the jet to Heathrow. The seats were uncomfortable, and I didn't figure out that you could maneuver the head rest around until we were only about an hour from landing.

Alright so we landed at Heathrow airport around 10:30pm. The guy who was supposed to meet us at the airport couldn't make it so we had to call a courier. This doesn't sound like a big deal .. but it costed us 160 pounds to get here :( And yesterday 2.04USD = 1 Pound so yeah it was anything BUT cheap.

I had no idea what jet lag was, but I was fully aware that I was known to get carsick when I'd ride in the car with my family on long trips. Its roughly an hour from Heathrow to Mildenhall. We were on the M1 when I felt a little queasy. I figured it was just because I was tired from all the travel. About 30 minutes later I suddenly felt REALLY sick and told Keith. Before he could say "Want me to tell him to pull over" I started to throw up.

I covered my mouth with my hands but knew that wouldn't be near enough to save the interior of the driver's brand new Volkswagen. So I lifted the bottom of my shirt, made a pouch, and continued vomiting into the shirt. It only took him a moment or so before he quickly pulled over and I jumped out of the vehicle and continued to blow chunks. Keith started rummaging through the suitcases and found me a new shirt. I tore off my other one and put on the clean
one right there on the motorway without even a glance. The driver told me to sit up front because it would keep me from feeling quite so sick .. and I did.

The full wrath of my spew hadn't hit me until we got home. There was vomit all inside my bra .. it was just horrid. I apologized over and over again to the driver but he assured me that everything was fine. I was most proud of myself for not getting a drop inside his car. It was all over me instead. I'm still embarrassed about it - but what can ya do?

Things are really hectic and probably will stay that way for quite a few weeks while we try to get a car, house, and while Keith gets settled in with new co workers and whatnot. So far it hasn't been so bad though. Holy crap the pigeons in England are HUGE! They're freaks of nature and that's no joke. They are really eating high on the hog I tell ya. And there are bunnies everywhere .. which I giggle about.

So we arrived in the UK at 4am Friday - and Saturday we hopped over to Cambridge for the beer festival. We thought the best way to dive into the beer over here was in this forum. This was our first major encounter with English culture. People think that just because most everyone in the UK speaks English that they have the same culture, customs etc as Americans and that's just not true. Keith and I knew this before we came - but there were a few surprises right off the bat.

We were at the beer festival for quite a few hours, and we were so astounded by how many small children were there. We didn't mind, of course because we saw it as a good thing that parents spend so much time with their kids. In the states if adults are going out - they call a sitter. Anyway - there was a whole section dedicated to entertaining children. We were there with a couple guys in Keith's squadron, and since they have been in country for more than 5 years they were giving us pointers.

Pub is short for public place. There are kids in pubs. Its just like going to a Chili's in the states. Yeah they serve alcohol, but that isn't always all. The drinking age is 18 here - and drinking is a very social thing. Cambridge is a very liberal town - and most towns in the UK for the most part are far more laid back than most places in the states. No one cares here if you're American. There are so many tourists here from so many countries and everyone overall is just soooo nice! I for one, totally wasn't expecting that much hospitality right out of the gate. I never expected strangers to strike up conversations while bellied up to the bar waiting on a pint (or half pint in my case after a couple). My family had all told me how shy UKers were, but then again I'm sure they hadn't taken into consideration the places we'd be.

There does seem to be a lot of smokers, but the laws are so different here. You can't just smoke wherever you want. There are designated areas nearly everywhere so it isn't as if you have to walk through a cloud of smoke to get from point A to point B. In the states (at least in Oklahoma and Missouri) you can pretty much smoke anywhere you want - but not inside some places. Most restaurants have smoking and non-smoking sections. Not here. Nearly everywhere is non smoking - and usually you have to be like 15 feet away from buildings to smoke. Keith and I were both VERY happy about how environmentally conscious the UK is. There are all these colored barrels for different rubbish (glass, cardboard, paper, garden trash, and kitchen trash) and go out on different days. Its just second nature to recycle here - and we totally love that.

Everyone here has said "Do not just stay near the base and definitely don't just spend your time in Britain." And we haven't planned to. We do plan to first explore the UK before we head to France, Germany, Italy etc. Just like Saturday we're going to Leed's Castle .. in a couple weeks we're going to Salisbury and Stonehenge ... we plan to do a lot of traveling while we're here. We're going to stop worrying so much about money and just kick back and enjoy this
opportunity to completely submerge ourselves in history, culture, and customs.

Though we've only been in the UK for a week - we both already love it. It already seems this four years is going to fly by. Tomorrow we're off to find a house and get a car. Cheers!

PS - There are no air conditioners! Why? You don't NEED them here!

Leavin' on a jet plane ..

My visa literally came about 12 hours ago - which I'm totally psyched about which means that I will be leaving with Keith tomorrow (thursday) for England. I'm about to wet myself I swear to you!

Everything is taken care of ... except the movers coming and boxing up our crap. We've decided to ship our computers UPS so that we don't have to wait 40+ days to get them back. Ugh we'd be bored after a bith I'd imagine.

Stick it in!

That sounds dirty, but it isn't. We bought a bunch of adapter plugs for our computers, chargers, etc but now I'm asking myself "Should we have gotten transformers instead?" The Radio Shack guy said that these plugs were all we needed - but the voltage is different. Most normal appliances are dual voltage meaning that they can run on either 50 or 60 .. and as long as you don't try to stick a 110 into a 220 you'll be alright ... but now I think its just a last minute freak out before we leave.

But then I sit and think ... if we do in fact need transformers .. we can always buy those once we're there. Yes I'm sure it won't be cheap but what can you do? As Keith always says "Stop freaking out .. I will take care of it." And ya know .. that's always true. No matter how much I thnk something is a big deal or how much I freak out - he always gets things straightened. <3

Until We Meet Again

So I'm guessing we will get things settled by June 1st. That gives us a good couple weeks. We may not be in a house by then - but we'll at least be in synch with the time change and whatnot. My laptop is going in my suitecase so I will be catching up with things ASAP. We only have like an hour layover at O'Hare before we fly non-stop to London .. so I highly doubt I'll go through all the trouble of taking out my laptop for such short use. Ya never know though .. I might get a blog itch.

Speaking of the blog itch I have to apologize for slacking recently - but I have just really been really busy with getting things done on top of stressing over that damned visa that I just haven't been able to blog a thing at all. I haven't done much of anything really .. but Keith brought me chocolate yesterday so as 'fat kiddish' as it is ... that made me feel better.

Its a Map, Sir

So people have asked "Orchid where in the UK will you be?" And I say "Mildenhall." Even though the UK is about the size of Texas everything is divided into counties so the villages and towns aren't well known but the counties are all part of saying where you live. And? If you talk to a rental agent you have to tell them the county you'd like to live in .. not necessarily the town as there's lots of rual area. So? Where will I be living? I'll tell you!

RAF Mildenhall, Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk and that isn't three different locations. Its kinda like saying the city, county, and state .. except there aren't 'states' in the UK. Bah anyway I could spend forever explaining it but I'm sure most get the picture. Speaking of picture .. I made a little arrow of where I'll be for those that don't know anything about the UK so they can kinda connect the dots and whatnot I guess? Its my way of staying close, I guess. I know where all my family and friends are .. but they don't know where I am at all besides "England" so ...



We leave tomorrow and dunno when things will be settled so wish us luck! <3

Holy crap.

So I haven't blogged or anything else for a few days. Keith and I have been running around like crazy. We got married on the 7th - we've been scrubbing his dorm room - and filling out lots n lots of paperwork.

His room gets inspected Wednesday and I only PRAY that is passes. Seriously they go over that place with a white glove before they'll pass it. Monday I have to start my paperwork to get my passport and visa and we're both holding our breath that it'll be done by the time we ship out. Right now its looking like on/about May 18th is when we'll be heading to England.

I have to call a couple friends to give them more exact dates of when we're going to arrive in England so they help us out. I have a friend in Cambridge and this summer Keith's Norwegian friend is going to take his holiday in England to visit :) So even though we're going to be far far away from home - we will still have friends. RAF Mildenhal here we come!

Willow is having a baby so huge congrats to that. I'm going to guess that her due date is October so I feel it would be in her best interest to have her baby on my birthday (rofl!)

I have a few tings to unpack and whatnot so that's all I'm gonna say for now. Perhaps later once the sun isn't glaring off the pool I will sit and blog more ... but I really want to sit outside right now.

O M F G I am so worn out. I've been scrubbing this place meticulously for hours now. I've been on my hands and knees washing, scrubbing and waxing floors and I'm about to just start crying. All that's left to do is wax ONE more floor, vaccum, steam clean the carpet and move furniture and I am DONE. I only hope it'll pass inspection after all my hard work :(

Being out of here will lift a little stress. My little cousin called me last night -and it totally surprised me. I'm not particularly close to my family at all ... but she called. Why? Because she just wanted to. That and she turns 21 next week and wanted to hang out. Her husband is in the Air Force also - and stationed at the same base Keith and I are at. So yeah I guess he and I are going to hang out with some of my family next week.

My knees, neck and legs are killing me soo bad right now. I'm just worn out. I know, I know I shouldn't whine. Keith is probably just as tired as I am and he's at work right now - and may not be home for 4 more hours - AND he has to work this week end. So really I have nothing to complain about.

He told his parents about us getting married and I don't think they took it all too great - so that has me feeling guilty on top of being worried. I don't care if they never like me. I don't care what kind of preconceived notions they have about me ... I just don't want him upset and I don't want them to be upset at him. Why am I so damn protective? For the past few days I've just thought to myself "Yeah I can't wait to sit down at a dinner table with them and explain how its impossible for us to have a conventional relationship - much less a 5 year courtship like they'd -want- us to have - taking into consideration Keith's career choice." I really don't think his parents understand how the military works. I think he's just been the "good one" and even though they talk to him they don't listen to what he says. I know for a fact he's tried to explain everything to them - but they simply don't 'get it'. His mother doesn't realize that if Keith so much as has a headache that he has better health care than both his parents combined. I know she doesn't realize how well he's gotten fed the past 2 years because she asks him if he eats all the time. They've never been around it - they don't know.

But yeah at the same time I feel so bad for wanting to set them straight. I feel like I'm being way too confrontational to people that I should be somewhat submissive to. I understand that he's the baby. I totally get the fact that they now feel left out of his life since he doesn't live within driving distance. I don't know how to really put how I feel - but I know that even though there is absolutely nothing wrong with how I feel - I feel bad for even feeling that way. I just hope things are alright.

Keith and I have to take care of a few things tomorrow - but all in all we're off base. I think Wednesday is when we're going to hit up the county courthouse and get married so that I can get all my paperwork started. Even though we get one thing done - here comes another we have to do. I'm totally not looking forward to packing all that stuff back up - bring it back on base - and have someone else pack it up for us to ship to England. What a pain! Oh well.

So here's the song of the day! I heard it while I was scrubbing the bathroom and now its in my head :P Enjoy

Dark Blue by Jack's Mannequin

I have (I have) you breathing down my neck (breathing down my neck)
I don't (don't know) what you could possibly expect under this condition so
I'll wait (I'll wait) for the ambulance to come (ambulance to come)
Pick us up off the floor
What did you possibly expect under this condition so
Slow down.. this night's a perfect shade of

Dark blue (dark blue)
Have you ever been alone in a crowded room when I'm here with you
I said the world could be burning down
Dark blue (dark blue)
Have you ever been alone in a crowded room well I'm here with you
I said the world could be burning 'til there's nothing but dark blue..
Just dark blue


This flood (this flood) is slowly rising up swallowing the ground
Beneath my feet, Tell me how anybody thinks under this condition so
I'll swim (I'll swim) as the water rises up, the sun is sinking down

And now all I can see are the planets in a row
Suggesting it's best that I slow down
This night's a perfect shade of

Dark blue (dark blue)
Have you ever been alone in a crowded room when I'm here with you
I said the world could be burning (burning) down
Dark blue (dark blue)
Have you ever been alone in a crowded room well I'm here with you
I said the world could be burning dark blue


We were boxing
We were boxing the stars
We were boxing (we were boxing)
You were swinging for Mars
And then the water reached the West Coast
And took the power lines (the power lines)
And it was me and you (this could last forever)
And the whole town under water
There was nothing we could do

It was dark blue


Dark blue (dark blue)
Have you ever been alone in a crowded room well I'm here with you
I said the world could be burning (burning) down
Dark blue
Have you ever been alone in a crowded room well I'm here with you
I said the room could be burning now there's nothing but dark blue


If you've ever been alone in the dark blue
If you've ever been alone you'll know (you'll know)

Keith and I got the apartment - and we spent last night and part of today haulin' a few boxes over. No reason we shouldn't have everything done and out of the way by wednesday or so :)

SONG OF THE DAY!


Gorecki by Lamb (Its practically me and Keith's "song")

If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
Still my heart this moment
Or it might burst
Could we stay right here
Until the end of time until the earth stops turning
Wanna love you until the seas run dry
I've found the one Ive waited for

All this time I've loved you
And never known your face
All this time I've missed you
And searched this human race
Here is true peace
Here my heart knows calm
Safe in your soul
Bathed in your sighs
Wanna stay right here
Until the end of time
Til the earth stops turning
Gonna love you until the seas run dry
I've found the one Ive waited for

The one I've waited for

All I've known
All I've done
All I've felt was leading to this
All I've known
All I've done
All I've felt was leading to this
Wanna stay right here
Til the end of time till the earth stops turning
I'm gonna love you till the seas run dry
I've found the one Ive waited for
The one Ive waited for
The one Ive waited for

Wanna stay right here
Til the end of time till the earth stops turning
I'm gonna love you till the seas run dry
I've found the one Ive waited for
The one I've waited for
The one Ive waited for

Well looks like there isn't going to be much going on this weekend in the ways of Keith and I hanging out other than maybe moving.

I'm not sure yet because he was off to talk to the apartment manager before he left for work - and he didn't come home for a break so I'm stuck clueless until at least Midnight (or later.)

I've packed up a total of 8 (or 9) boxes so there really isn't much left to do as far as packing goes. I haven't cleaned as I packed, though. I figured why let Keith completely off the hook, yanno? Not to mention there are all kinds of papers around here and I have no idea what's trash and what's not so I've been afraid to really do anything other than put things inside boxes.

You can really tell that its Friday night. Guys running up and down the hall yelling, girls cackling like banshees as they stumble up and down the stairs ... and its only 19:30! I mean seriously!

I like it though, really. All the sounds around here, that is. It reminds me that I'm alive. For so long I've lived in a form of isolation. Its the best way I can describe it. Even when I lived in my friend's basement there wasn't as much going on as there is here. On weekdays when things are 'quiet' as far as everything goes - there are still plenty of sounds. Every Wednesday at noon tornado sirens blare for a bit. Every couple hours you'll hear the roar of a jet overhead. Car alarms randomly start beeping and honking (usually at o'dark stupid on Saturday morning) and its all just fun for me to hear. I like sitting here on the bed reading and hearing someone walking by the door on the phone. Its a game for me, I guess. Since our room is by the stairs people usually stop to finish up their conversation right outside the door - so I try to guess who they are talking to before they walk down the stairs. Mom, Girlfriend, Dad, Brother etc.

Keith has been sleeping like crap lately - which in turn has been making me sleep like crap. I think he's stressed. We go on leave March 16th and we're heading up to Chicago to see his family and stuff -- and he hasn't told them about us getting married yet. Soooo I'm sure that's stressing him, on top of all the preparations and paper work we have yet to do in order to get my visa/passport for our move to the UK. I really don't mind all this sense of urgency and the hectic schedule. Its actually kinda fun. Even though my day-to-day routine is pretty mundane - his never is and I never know how his schedule is going to affect me.

So yeah we're possibly moving this weekend. I'm sure when we go on leave that I will take my laptop with me. I need to install the cam software so I can upload any pics we take and such.

Its gonna be a busy remainder of the week :'(

Well Keith and I have found a little apartment to move into - so now we can get married and start all the paperwork to get my passport/visa/military ID. What a pain. I'm hoping that I can skip changing my last name in order to speed up the passport/visa process. Let's hope it does.

I've been packing stuff up tonight - took stuff off the walls etc ... but I'm totally not gonna mess with his computer. He can unplug and pack that beast himself!

He's going to work on the CF University/BEF Video when he comes home and he hopes to finally have it completed by Friday. Then this week end he and I have to scrub this place down so that they can inspect and blah blah blah.

Wow I suddenly feel really hungry. Meh oh well. Gonna roll up these rugs and call it a done deal with the packing for now. Already his room is looking weird with nothing on the walls and all the rugs off the floor.