wow. what a whirlwind. so much has happened in the last few months.
first off, Jon and I got married in a small civil ceremony on September 9, 2009. Should be an easy anniversary date to remember. We married at the Cumberland County Courthouse (well, the magistrate is located in the detention facility across from the courthouse) in modest fashion. Jon's mom, dad, brother, and sister were present. My father flew out from San Francisco. It was a wonderful time. I started bawling during the actual ceremony part of it (surprised?). After 4.5 years of being together, albeit in separate locations, we were unified legally. I know a part of me is a bit self-serving in blogging this, but I really want to document this for myself for the years to come. (Seriously, isn't that the point of blogs?)
Dad ended up having a whirlwind of an experience flying out for the mini ceremony. He had a red eye flight, got unexpectedly flight delayed, had at least 2 connecting flights, ended up at my airport around 10am where I immediately drove straight to the courthouse. After the ceremony, we all went to a nice seafood lunch, I somehow wound up back at work still in my ceremony garb and Jon in his uniform. Then we all went our separate ways with Jon's family driving back to Tennessee and my dad flying back to San Francisco the next morning.
Jon and I spent 5 days at Hilton Head, South Carolina by the beach. It was nice, but rather disturbing that we were by far THE YOUNGEST couple on the entire island. Of course it was the off-season, but I felt like we were in a retirement community the whole time. Still nice for a mini-honeymoon.
Backtrack a few months to August, I actually had my 14.5 minutes of fame on national tv and uhhh..internet. My sister-in-law texted me about a gown giveaway to military brides that was featured on Fox and Friends. On a whim, I figured it was worth a shot. I saw that the deadline was in one day, but I submitted a 300 word entry and two pictures of me and Jon. Less than 24 hours later, I got a phone call that I had won. Two days later I was flown to New York City, driven straight to the Bridal Salon of Manhasset, chose and got fitted for my wedding gown of choice, stayed at the famed Oheka Castle on Long Island, then got interviewed on Fox and Friends both for their live show and their online After the Show Show. All this was due to the awesome efforts of www.chatterberries.com, the new bridal and wedding planning website.
I have more pictures of the entire chatterberries weekend on facebook, but here are some snapshots.
My cousins (and Eric!) were awesome enough to capture and consolidate all the videos from the Fox and Friends and Chatterberries websites.
The dress I received is from the Ulla-Maija 2010 Spring Collection. At the time, it wasn't even being sold yet to the mainstream public. It's now released officially. At the time I was picking dresses, I had no idea what a splash hit the dress had made on the 2009 Bridal Market (Bridal's equivalent to Fashion Week). The dress held a special place in the heart of the owner/head designer (Charles Bunstine) of the couture gown line - as the dress came to him in a dream. It was quite remarkable to hear how he traveled to Italy to have the particular duchess satin milled by one gentleman in a condensed timeline in time for Fashion Week. At least three different editors/runway reports singled out the gown I was destined to choose. (I had no idea of this until I researched my gown upon my return from NYC.)
Anyhoot, I'm saving the dress for the big wedding ceremony, whenever that happens! Woot!
Eh...haven't had much time to tango since I've been exhausted from work.
here is a video for your enjoyment. I call it Go Army Tango. This was at our resident Fayetteville, NC's tango guru's birthday party. He has opened the eyes of many army individuals to the joys of tango. In this video, all the ladies at the milonga get to briefly dance with the birthday boy. Here you'll see a random lovely lady, Jhonlie, Audrey, then me.
***********************
Work has been hectic and busy, but fruitful nonetheless. What can I say? We're in the war business. But that's a whole other blog story for another day.
Thank heaven for little girls for little girls get bigger every day!
Thank heaven for little girls they grow up in the most delightful way!
Those little eyes so helpless and appealing one day will flash and send you crashin' thru the ceilin'
Thank heaven for little girls thank heaven for them all, no matter where no matter who for without them, what would little boys do?
Thank heaven... thank heaven... Thank heaven for little girls!
-Sung by Maurice Chevalier in Gigi
This song holds particular significance in my life with my dad. Since growing up was just the two of us, we were a huge fan of any movie or song that championed fathers or small families.
Ones that stand out most in my mind:
Movie, My Father the Hero, with Gerard Depardieu: There's a hysterically funny scene where Depardieu is playing on the piano and singing "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" in tribute to his daughter, but all the locals mistake him as a pedophile and are horrified by his gumption in singing the song. Of course, Depardieu is oblivious to all this, with disastrously funny results. That scene always made the two of laugh like crazy and my dad always loved that song.
Will Smith's version of "Just the Two of Us" - Dad always loved that song.
Well, this past Thursday, I was watching the Gigi DVD with my dad. (He came and visited me for a week.) Jon happened to call me from Afghanistan and we solidified our plans in moving our civil wedding ceremony date to an earlier date.
My dad (to be honest) really never liked me dating any guy, but really I know it’s because he’s not ready to let his little girl go. The topic of marriage was taboo for many years.
Once I got off the phone with Jon, I sat down on the couch with my dad with a really serious look on my face and said, “Dad, we have to talk.” From the look on his face, my dad knew this was it, and he could no longer fight it. He actually gave me his “blessing” to get married. The irony of the whole situation that nearly made me lose my serious face with him was the fact that the end of Gigi was playing and “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” was being sung on the TV. What timing! And irony!
It’s been a good week for the two of us. I haven’t spent this much father-daughter time with him for years…at least 8 years since I left home for college. My favorite memories of him from these past couple days is of him dancing with the dogs (holding Runt and Elly by their front paws and dancing with them). He puts up a stern façade with pets, but I know he’s got a soft spot for them by the way he teases them and pets them.
It’ll be good to see him again within a month, except this time it will be my last time as his baby girl and my first time as Mrs. Cochran.
Currently Gigi By Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan, Hermione Gingold, Eva Gabor see related
I need to get better at updating. I'm slacking. Forgive me.
I can't believe it's been nearly half a year since I've posted. I think I did a better job of updating in Iraq than back here. Sorry!
Well, I am not in Arizona like I had anticipated for the longest time while I was still in Iraq. Plans changed big time. When I got back, I was at a huge crossroad trying to figure out where I was going in life...ok...military life. I was slotted to go to Arizona for more advanced training, but then I realized I would be at the mercy of the Army if I went that soon. (I could be deployed by Jan 2010, if I did head to AZ) That wouldn't work out for me since Jon will have just been getting back from Afghanistan at that time. What kind of a marriage would it be if he and I kept rotating out deployments at different times? We'd be high-fiving eachother as we passed eachother coming back from deployment and the other going back out on deployment. Sucks...
Anyways, I had three paths at the time, and was pulling my hair out with the unknown. I was ready to head to Arizona, but that would've meant being on a completely different deployment cycle from Jon. Not good. So, I thought to do something I would never expected myself to do. I intereviewed to be a General's Aide - basically, be someone's "gopher" for a year. Third, my unit was offering me the opportunity to command a company. The aide job and the command job would've kept me at Fort Bragg for at least another year.
Well, as it turned out, I took command of my Company in May and haven't looked back since. It's a fantastic job that makes me want to tear my hair out but do a happy dance at the same time.They say the best job in the Army is to be a Platoon Leader and a Company Commander. They’re right.
So guess what keeps me up at night?Training. I worry about training.It sounds tool-ish, but it’s true.My thoughts are to preparing the unit for our upcoming deployment.Good times.
Jon is doing well in Afghanistan. He’s given me enough heart attacks with some of the harrowing events he’s experienced, but I’m glad that he can share it with me when possible.I’m so happy to know that he is doing ok out there.Granted, it’s not an easy life out there. For the longest time, they didn’t have regular amenities like showers, but living conditions have improved.
As for being back in the states, I’m glad to be around civilization again. I haven’t been able to salsa dance as much, but I have had more occasion to tango. Got the chance to dance in San Francisco and even for a night at the Washington, D.C. Tango Festival.Then of course, there’s the tango community in good ol’ Raleigh-Durham.
Elly belly the dog is still doing real well. Great companion.J
got to take a bath for the first time in years and it felt absolutely amazing.
no, i'm not dirty like that. i've gotten so used to taking showers and having to be in a rush somewhere that the thought of a bath was inconceivable. it's the simple joys in life that matter, and it's no wonder that we've forgotten to pay attention to those little things.
as for the news that is evidently taking me forever to get to...
Jon and I got engaged!
It’s been a long journey, but I’m looking forward to the next chapter of our lives. I’m currently on my last 2 days of leave before I head back to Fort Bragg. I’m currently freezing my butt off at Fort Drum, NY. Jon deploys to Afghanistan in a few days, so we are real lucky to be together in between deployments.
On the bright side, we’ve got Elly the Golden Retriever with us. She’s been like our kid, only…not as troublesome! She’s remarkably well-behaved and much too sweet for her own good. We’ve been spoiling her rotten and probably well on our way to making her fat. We’ve turned into “that annoying dog couple.”
There’s so much to tell! But I don’t know where to begin. Regrettably, I lost everything on my old laptop (the hard drive crashed)…so all my pictures and videos from the last couple of years are gone…which kills me…I think most of the ones I treasured most already got posted to xanga some years back, so some of them are saved…as for all my deployment memories that were on my laptop, alas, those are gone…
I’m missing a special group of people that made this deployment so much more bearable and they are the Salsa Family. We grew so close and words can not even begin to describe how horrible the last 15 months would’ve been if it hadn’t been for them. Not only did we take joy in learning how to salsa …it was so great to see how 90% of the dancers started out as never having danced all their lives to performing and wowing crowds in Baghdad and ultimately performing in Saddam Hussein's palace. Those times are unforgettable. Forgive me as I put up a hodgepodge of pictures and possibly videos, but I have to publish the ones that managed to get emailed and saved to me…
the scariest monkeys that gave me multiple frights thanks to my co-workers. the monkeys finally met their demise in a failed attempt to scare me when they tried to place them atop an air conditioner and then came falling down and smashed itself upon the leg of a chair.
an actual burn mark i received from a rifle range. i still have a slight scar from it. yes, it's an actual 5.56 mm round seared into my forearm.
a fuzzy video from our hispanic heritage month performances throughout parts of our base. i'm the third couple dancing.
an end of year trou-sesh in baghdad. best meal ever. everything from seattle's best coffees,hot dogs, taco bell, popeye's, random PX danish cake, fatty butter cookies, and wtever else we could sink our teeth in to.
Interests:Eating Out, Travel,
Film/Movies, Fine Arts, Literature, Performing Arts,Culture, Broadway Shows, Current Events, Entertainment, Politics,
More specifically I love:
ballet, ballroom, chatting, chilling, classic movies, black and white films, musicals, eating, fortunetelling, anything french, speaking french, pistol, reading, riflery, sleeeeeping sleeping, tv, san francisco Expertise:1) Lamenting about How I Left My Heart in San Francisco... 2) Insomnia Occupation:Military Industry:Government
