Socialization? Yes Please!

As some of you may know, Mike decided to "squeeze in" Airborne school here at Fort Benning before he does his captain's course.   Airborne school is a three week class in which Mike learns to safely (I hope) jump out of a plane.  The class started last Monday and will be finished next Friday, the 27th.  Apparently people are allowed to watch the jumps, so maybe next week I'll  be able to tell you all about Mike's plunge!

Anyway, the point of the above information is to explain how busy Mike has been.  He leaves at 4:45am every morning in order to be on post in time for PT (about a 20 minute ride).   He gets home every evening around 6:00-6:30pm.   Obviously after such a long and physically demanding day, Mike is not up for much activity.  So basically our weekday time together consists of about 2 hours per day...Mike gets home and we have dinner, watch a little TV, and he's typically in bed by 8:00pm. Like I said, this class will be done next Friday so it won't be too much longer that we live like this.  The problem for me is that up until this past weekend, I knew absolutely nobody else in the area aside from Mike!

Mike cuddling with Jesse before he heads to bed:

(he'll be mad I put this on here, but it was nice since the cat usually sits on me, not Mike!)

Needless to say, I have been getting a little cabin fever.  Yes, I go out most days and run a few errands since we're still settling in the house (one day I went to see a movie by myself..."We Bought a Zoo"...it was cute)...but I don't really consider this socialization.  I'm also applying to several jobs not only for the extra cash but to keep busy.  So far no luck on that. 

This past weekend was a holiday weekend which in the army means they don't just get the holiday off but they also get the Friday before that off, turning it into a four day weekend.  I was excited to have some time to hang out with Mike, AND we had all kinds of plans to see OTHER PEOPLE!!!

Before we saw other people though we had to get some playing time in with the cat:

The only reason why Mike and I were able to get out and meet new people was because of his awesome friend Kurt, who he had met way back in his Fort Sill days and then ran into again at SF selection.  Kurt and his wife Jessica will be with us through the captain course here, and also in NC since Mike and Kurt are both doing SF training.  Anyways, Kurt already knows some people here so Friday night he invited us over to his friends house about 10 minutes away.  We spent the night just relaxing and chatting with a few people, and we got invited back to the house on Sunday for the Ravens game (the guys who live in the house are big Ravens fans).

Saturday, Mike and I decided to go see "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."  As usual, it wasn't as good as the book but it was interesting.  VERY long though, almost 3 hours.  Saturday night, Kurt got us an invite to another couple's house in Phenix City, AL which is about 15 minutes away.  We had a great dinner there and watched the Broncos lose.  Again, we met some great people!  We did end up going back to the guys house on Sunday to watch some football games and ended up  playing some beer pong despite the fact that the guys had to drive to Alabama to buy beer (they don't sell it on Sunday in GA). Jessica took a lot of pictures so I'll have to steal some from her eventually :o)

All in all it was a fantastic long weekend during which I got to talk to people other than Mike! Monday we pretty much lounged around all day and i cooked a pork tenderloin for dinner.  I'm trying some new recipes this week, last night I made this bow-tie pasta with a pesto sauce, chicken, and some veggies.  It turned out pretty good.  I've got tilapia marinading in the fridge as I write this for some fish tacos tonight! YUM!

Well, hope you all enjoyed those fascinating details of my life :o)

Love,
Christine