This Weekend Rocked…

…because…

I spontaneously visited my friends in Waxahachie. Spending time with them (and Baby Whitley) was totally worth the hour and a half that I spent stuck in traffic. We went out for Mexican food, and they treated! It was my lucky night!

Buttermilk-battered, fried avocado. You dip it in queso. No, it's not healthy. Sorry for the blur. I think I'd already had two sips of my margarita by this point, and that's all it takes for me to be tipsy.

I watched footage from Will and Kate’s wedding. I got very sentimental when they said their vows and started crying. I love love. And I miss my husband. He was home last year when they got hitched. Sigh.

I saw The Magic Flute at Cowboys Stadium. I was overdue for some quality time with my mother-in-law, and it was a fun, out-of-the-box thing to do together.

Cowboys Stadium - big, big, big.

I went shopping with my mom. I ended up with three pairs of shorts, one pair of jeans, a new top, and a new skirt. We also had us some California Pizza Kitchen. Talk about a way to spend time on a Sunday!

I finished reading Mockingjay (the 3rd book in the Hunger Games trilogy). (Long live YA!) I had already read it, but after seeing the movie, I re-read all 3 books. I had about 30 pages left in the book on Saturday night. Instead of going to bed, I stayed up late so that I could finish reading. I was tired in the morning, but it was worth it.

My pile of unread books. Hmm, which one to read next???

Testing is over! Friday marked the last day of standardized testing for this school year and for many, many months. Thank goodness! I had all I could handle of that.

I talked to Stephen on Friday night, Saturday morning, and briefly on Sunday morning. We rarely talk that often. It was glorious!

Throw in a nap, some tv-watching, and a smidge of blogging, and that’s pretty much my entire weekend. Can’t complain!*

The Magic Flute

Yesterday, The Dallas Opera hosted a simulcast of The Magic Flute. It was performed live in Dallas at the Winspear Opera House, and at the same time it was streamed to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington and project on the jumbo-tron. My mother-in-law heard about it from a coworker, so she told me and we went together!

While I wouldn’t say that either one of us loves opera, we are both up for an adventure. Plus, it was at Cowboys Stadium! This gave us a fun (and free!) excuse to check the place out. (I had been to the Stadium once before, but my MIL had never been there until last night.)

We got there plenty early, so we were able to walk around and explore a little bit. The place is massive! We agreed that they have really nice bathrooms. (That’s important in a place that cost mucho dinero.) The concession stands were open, so we both got burgers (her- Angus, me- black bean) and then ambled around before heading to our seats.

We were supposed to sit in section 342, but we couldn’t seem to find it. In our quest to our section, we ran into some very friendly employees. They told us that we could sit in a different section that had open seating. These particular seats were padded and toward the center of the stadium. We eventually found ourselves seated on the 40 yard line. Heck, yes!

The opera itself was just okay. (Like I said, I’m not much of an opera person. I just kept thinking of the Phantom of the Opera, which is not an actual opera.) I did, however, love the instrumental stuff. It’s Mozart, and he knows his shizz. The costumes were also really cool.

The first act lasted over an hour. During that time, the kid behind me kicked my seat repeatedly and coughed in my general direction. (Thanks for that, kid.) I also noticed that my mother-in-law fell asleep. I tried to focus on the storyline, but it was a little confusing. About the time the prince started dancing with a bear, a lion, a monkey, a bird, and a dinosaur, I had had enough. The act ended shortly there after and we peaced out. It was free, so I didn’t feel bad about leaving early. We got to check out Cowboys Stadium, enjoy some music, eat some burgers, and I got in quality time with my mother-in-law. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday night in my book.

Are you an opera fan? Know of any operas that are less confusing/more enjoyable than the Magic Flute? Ever been to Cowboys Stadium? It’s big!*

Redeployment

Re-de-ploy (verb) – To transfer (a unit, a person, supplies, etc.) from one theater of operations another.

Civilian speak: Redeployment means that your soldier is coming home from deployment. I really wish they wouldn’t call it that, though. The pre-fix “re” makes it sound like you are doing it again instead of undoing it. Alas, the Army didn’t ask for my opinion on this one.

My soldier isn’t home yet. He’s still down range as they say, but I’ve started to get many, many e-mails about redeployment. When it’s all over with, Stephen will go from Afghanistan back to Germany. I don’t get to see him until the unit gets their post-deployment leave. (And no, we still don’t know what’s happening after that.) For OPSEC purposes, all I will say is that we’ll be reunited before the start of the summer olympic games. The date seems so close yet so far.

As if the thought of being reunited wasn’t already a great thing, we booked our vacation to Australia!!! We started talking about it last month. There was some hemming, some hawing, some pro/con list-making. Finally we decided to take the plunge. It’s official, we be going down under!

Source

My big question: what shall I wear? We are going to Cairns, where the average winter (it’s the southern hemisphere, so it’ll be winter there) temps are 6o – 80 degrees farenheit. Shorts? Light layers? Sun dresses? How many swim suits should I take? I think I currently have two pairs. Is two too few?

Focusing on Australia and dreaming about our vacation helps me keep my anxiety about redeployment at bay. There’s still so much up in the air. Most of all, what’s it going to be like when I see my husband for the first time in over 250 days? (That’s how long we’ll have been apart when we are finally reunited. Emphasis on finally.)

Wardrobe advice is needed: what should I pack? Is two swimsuits too few? Should I take jeans? What does one wear on a really long ass flight?

By the by, thanks for all the well-wishes yesterday. My tummy is much better today!*