You're a Part Time Lover and A Full Time Friend...I Don't See What Anyone Else Can See in Anyone Else but You

On February 5, 2010 under this bridge...

This guy proposed to this girl by asking "So, do you still want to marry an Australian?"

The girl took two seconds to think about some of the good times they had shared together...

And she said, "Yes!"

It hurts, It hurts, It hurts, It hurts

An anonymous commenter was asking me in their comment this morning if my secret is that I am knocked up, at least I think that's what they were asking. I'm not, but in an ironic twist, I did spend my morning with my head in the toilet! If you've ever suffered from a migraine then you know how debilitating they can be. My head was hurting so bad that it made me nauseous and all I could do was walk between laying on my bed and sitting/laying in front of the toilet. Lucky me, what a fun way to spend my last day of being 25! I could understand spending my last day as a 25 year old this way if it was self-inflicted because I decided to have a big night drinking to celebrate my upcoming birthday, but I didn't, and I think it is because I get migraines and have to suffer through the throwing up and the pounding head that I don't drink to excess anymore because why would I want to feel this way any more often than I have to? I'm on the mend now, but I still have a bit of a lingering headache.

I had planned on revealing the secret today, but I didn't get the posting done this morning so instead we can celebrate my birthday on here tomorrow by finding out what I've been hiding. Consider it my birthday gift to all of you!

Can You Keep a Secret?

I've been holding on to one for awhile now.

All will be revealed soon...

Oh, Mexico....Baby's Hungry and the Money's All Gone

We've been eating very healthily around here for the past week and Dad and I have been trying to get our 10,000 steps in a day (he's been doing better than I have, sometimes getting as much as 16,000 a day, but I am at least doing 30 minutes of working out each day) and since I do the cooking around here, I also do the menu planning. One night I made fish tacos, another night I made lettuce wraps, and one night I did Mexican chicken and rice, which I had never made before and that turned out amazingly! Since I thought it turned out so well I wanted to share what I threw in to the pot with you in case you want something delicious, healthy and super cheap some night. (Skip to the bottom of the post if you could care less about the recipe because there is more news from me down there.)

Mexican Chicken and Rice

You will need:

4 Chicken Breasts

White Rice, I used what we had which was basmati...probably about 2 cups (I just dumped part of the bag in to the pot)

1.5 tablespoons of minced garlic

2 Large Chicken Stock Cubes...I used the Knorr brand which are bigger than stock cubes I've seen in Aus, so might need 3 if you don't have access to Knorr

3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil (this is approximate, I just dumped some in to the pan that I thought was right for the amount of garlic and onion I had)

3/4 of a brown or yellow onion

1/2 red bell pepper

A couple of shakes from No salt Mrs. Dash or whatever multipurpose seasoning you use for cooking

A couple of dashes of cracked black pepper

A 28 oz (794 g) can of tomatoes

Water, about half of the empty tomato can's worth

1/2 Can of Diced Green Chiles (I used Ortega Fire Roasted Chiles, these are mild), you could probably use fresh green chiles, just a lot less

Instructions:

1. Dice up your onion and red bell pepper fairly small.

2. Pour olive oil in to a large pot and start heating it up. Add garlic and onion and saute for about 2 minutes, you just want to sweat the onions, not get them brown.

3. Add the red bell pepper to the pot and saute them for a minute, before adding the green chiles and sauteing them for another minute.

4. Add the can of tomatoes, water, the stock cubes, and the spices and let cook to boiling for 5 minutes. Make sure you keep stirring the sauce so it doesn't burn on the bottom.

5. Add the chicken breasts whole to the sauce and turn down to simmer. Cook for approximately an hour and then try to shred the chicken breast with two forks in the pot. Let the sauce and chicken cook for another 30 minutes and then shred it further if you couldn't get the chicken to shred in to small pieces before.

6. At this point, you should have a lot of sauce in the pot still. Mine looked pretty watery. I was going to originally serve this as a stew over rice, but when I noticed how runny the sauce looked, I decided to pour the rice directly in to the pot and let it simmer for another 20 minutes.

7. After 20 minutes all the liquid should be absorbed and you should have a delicious pot of Mexican Chicken and Rice.

I was surprised how good this turned out. My Mom ate it for lunch and dinner the next day in San Francisco and called me raving about how good it was. I'm already craving it again so it's a good thing that I have all the ingredients in the cupboard still because we will be having this for dinner again this week at some point!

Still no ETA for when I'll be back in Australia, but Boyfriend and I have both been working on my visa stuff this week. Hopefully his stuff will arrive by Thursday next week and then I can send off all the paperwork to the Washington office on Friday and then fingers crossed that I have a quick turn around time for my visa being granted and can be back in Australia by April.

Tonight Boyfriend is headed down to Sydney with Bob Marley, the Miner, Croc, the Teacher, Tinkerbell, and the Farmer to see ACDC. I'm bummed that I am missing out because I think it would've been a really fun night with everyone, but I'm glad that my ticket could go to Bob Marley in my place.

Also, GREAT news: Boyfriend went in for an interview this week and he got the job!!! Woohoo! He is really excited about it and the company seems pretty cool: they are an engineering company who focus on building sustainably. I'm so happy for him and can't wait to hear all about his first days there.

Valentine

Will you be my valentine if I'm a world away?

So....another curveball. I am still heading back to Australia, I'm just not exactly sure when. Originally I thought I could get a work and travel visa for another year, but I can't. So then I said, "Ok, I'll go over on a tourist visa and get my spouse visa granted while I'm there on the other visa" but today I got back a notice from the Immigration Department stating they needed some more info from me before they'd grant my long stay tourist visa and that oh, p.s. on a 12 month visitors visa like that, they attach a stipulation that says you can't apply for any other visas while you are on that one so I'm back to square one. That means that I will have to apply for the spouse visa from here in the States and then wait for it to be granted before I can go to Australia again. The process can take anywhere from 1-6 months, I think, depending on how long it takes for you to gather all of your documents (like fingerprints that you have to send to the FBI for a criminal history check and that can take 10 weeks to be sent back) and send them in and then have an Immigration Officer assess them. Ugh!

I wish I would've known it was going to be months instead of days before I saw Boyfriend again and then I would've given him a few extra hugs and kisses before he left. We are both upset at the prospect of not seeing each other for awhile. I'm feeling sick to my stomach right now to be honest and really, really bummed. Not the Valentine's Day I was hoping for!

I'm going to try and stay positive. We have a lot of the paperwork already collected and I sent off my finger prints last week, thinking that my Mom or Dad would be sending them on to me in Australia. It is also cheaper, I've heard, to apply outside of Australia for this visa. And while I won't get to be with Boyfriend, I will get to spend more time with my family. I think I will start job hunting again so that I can earn some more money to bring back with me when the time does come.

I'm not so cheesy to say "absence makes the heart grow fonder." There is no positive to being away from Boyfriend for however long it ends up being. There is also no positive in missing out on seeing my favorite band, Brand New, for the second time in Sydney when I have tickets.

Sorry this is a Debbie Downer post. This afternoon I was totally going to post pictures of the cute little Valentine's surprises I made for Nae, the Camp Counselor, and their other good friend, D.C. Hope your Valentine's Day was better than mine!

Let's Stay Together

Hello from Australia! Well...not quite. Is that not the second time I've used that line in a month now? My visa didn't come through last night before my flight so I had to change my plans at the last minute. I'm sad that Boyfriend and I won't get to share our 5 year anniversary (today, the 10th Aus time) together and I won't be there to spend Valentine's Day with him, but this way I can get some last minute things worked out here and I can also finish up work for my Mom.

I also have to apologize to the Runner because I will be missing out on her housewarming party now, but I can't wait to see the place when I get back.

Other news from around here: I've seen two different bobcats in a week now. Dad, Boyfriend and I saw one on our last day of "treasure hunting" down in the campground and then Mom and I saw one running in the road and then hiding in the bushes next to the road on our way out grocery shopping on Sunday. Both times were so neat. It always feels really special to see wild animals like that.

Also, yesterday we celebrated my birthday before I was supposed to leave. Nae, Mom, Dad, and I actually got to sit down and have lunch together (we hardly are all ever together for a meal, let alone one in the middle of the day!) and I got a birthday cake. Nae is getting me stuff in South Africa as her birthday gift to me and Mom and Dad got me a new laptop! It is so nice and shiny and the volume actually works on it without having to use headphones and I don't need to attach a wireless mouse to it, the built in mouse actually works! It also has a built in webcam so now we can have webcam chats over Google chat when I get back to Australia! It is so sweet and much needed as my other laptop was dying and has picked up some kind of major rogue virus that not even Boyfriend can figure out how to get rid of.

Anyway, I should probably get to work. Hope you're having a good Tuesday or Wednesday where ever you are!

San Francisco

So I kind of forgot how to crop pictures so I used Microsoft Paint or something to erase the bottom portion of the picture, hence why the bottom is not straight!

I'm leaving tomorrow night. I'm not ready to. Will it really be October or November before I see my family again? That seems impossible. I don't like the sound of it. I love these people, I don't want to be away from them for that long! It feels like a betrayal every time I leave, though it isn't one and I know they don't feel that way about it. They love me enough to let me live my life and choose my own path to happiness, where ever it takes me. I know I'll cry like a baby and so will Mom at the airport. Ugh, goodbyes are so hard and then 14 hours to think, think, think about it all. Then I will be blasted with a new timezone and the shock of summer weather to my system and I will be miserable as I adjust back. It is hard for weeks, sometimes even months to get back in to the swing of my Australian life and then it becomes normal again. It's still hard to be away from my family then, but at least it doesn't feel like a raw, open wound after awhile. My friends in Australia really help with adjusting back, too, as they become my adoptive family while I'm there. It is great to have their friendship and love and support. They are not "convenience friends" as my sister says about some of her friends here. Anyway, it's always hard. It's hard leaving here at first and it's hard leaving my friends in Australia, too. Such is the life of a girl who calls two different places home! (But really when I think about it, how rad is it that I can call two places home?!?)

Anyway, here is a song called San Francisco by Alkaline Trio that is totally appropriate for tomorrow:

Choking on the thought of leaving
Drinking to keep from sobbing
Four PM, four dollar pints
At SFO, the time and price

With all my happiness aborted
The PA painfully starts boarding
I sink deep thirty thousand feet
Into my window seat... electric chair

And I was drinking you goodbye
My heart floats in the bay
From sour home Chicago
I hear it beating far away
There's no telling what I'll do
If I don't return to you

Hopeful thoughts of soon returning
Can't put out my stomach burning
Plastic wings and plastic smiles
And salted peanuts to stretch my mile

Choking on the thought of leaving
Drinking to keep from heaving
Five PM, five dollar pints
Hellbound Airlines, time and price

And I was drinking you goodbye
My heart floats in the bay
From sour home Chicago
I hear it beating far away
There's no telling what I'll do
If I don't return to you

I was drinking you goodbye
My heart floats in the bay
From sour home Chicago
I hear it beating far away
There's no telling what I'll do
If I don't return to you

Cause Every Little Thing Is Gonna Be Alright

Boyfriend respectfully rebuffed the naysayers and once again it is him and me against the world, although we really don't want to do battle with anyone. We say hop on board our happiness train and be happy with us, get on and sit there quietly and let us enjoy ourselves if you aren't on the same page, or get left behind at the station... it's really up to you at this point.

Oh man, all this flowery language and vagueness in the last 2 pots. You're probably thinking who is this chick? What happened to Little D, this isn't how she writes at all? Well, I can assure you that it is still me and I am on a natural high right now and am choosing to focus on the positive things and trying not to let others' negativity bring me down.

Super tired after a big 2 days in San Francisco. I was also bummed to have to drop Boyfriend off at the airport tonight because it meant our time here in California had ended. It flew by! I'm so glad that things fell in to place as they did so we had this opportunity to spend 2 whole months together out here and with my family. I'm going to miss them and all of us hanging out together, but I'm excited to see all my friends back in Australia and also to see what this year has in store for us.

I'll probably get a chance to write again before I leave, but just in case I don't, wish me luck and wish Boyfriend good luck on his flight because it is sprinkling in San Francisco and he's flying back in to some pretty bad thunderstorms in Sydney- not fun!

Teach Your Children Well

...and then trust that you've done a good job so when they are in their 20s you don't second guess every big decision they try and make.

Big , big, big stuff is going down right now and I wish that I could say it was all happy big stuff, but it's not. Boyfriend is going back to Australia tomorrow night and the reality is I might not be following him out on Monday like I thought I was. After an amazing two months together in California I don't think this is how either of us saw the last few days playing out. We are happy and in love, but we've got some naysayers trying to put a damper on the love and happiness. I'm willing to prove the naysayers wrong; I'm just waiting for Boyfriend to figure out whether or not he is. When he lets me know, I'll let you know.

Keep your fingers crossed for me. My stomach is in knots.

And I Need to Know I Can Trust You With My Life On The Golden Gate Bridge

Here's the rest of the trip pictures. We had a great walk across the bridge. It was a clear and sunny day and I was shocked that I was comfortable and actually warm doing the walk in just a tshirt and work out pants. So not what I was expecting to walk in in San Francisco at the end of January.

Snow in Mt. Shasta, CA

Aliens Exist

Sorry for the lack of a post earlier today as promised. My computer has been hijacked by viruses so Boyfriend has been trying to fix it all day. I will try and get the pictures up tomorrow (Tuesday).