Muse In Nashville

Last night James and I saw Muse in Nashville.

 

 

We hadn't been to a concert since we left Fort Lewis in 2011. What the heck is wrong with us? I love live shows.

 

Our tickets were strange though. When James bought them, they were only offered as "paperless". When we entered the Bridgestone Arena, there was a woman with a little credit card scanner. She took the credit card you purchased the tickets with and if it was a match, your tickets printed out of her little handheld scanner. Naturally, James and I were wary of this "paperless" idea because it's way too easy to not really have something when you don't have anything tangible. But it worked out, so I'm ok with this ticketing process now.

 

Muse was awesome. I love it when you see a band who sounds like the record when you hear them live. When they don't, it makes you wonder how the heck they got a music deal in the first place. Must isn't one of those bands-- they sounded amazing. The played a few of my favorite tunes. And they sounded absolutely silly talking with their British accents in Nashville-- the home of country music.

 

We had a ton of fun! Well, at least I did. I think James was mostly along for the ride.

 

Wedding Hair

The only occasions I have ever had my hair done professionally have been for my two weddings. And I don't even count the first time anymore since this second updo kicked my old updo's ass all over the place. Hands down.

 

My wedding dress was a reproduction 50's vintage style tea length dress. So I wanted to keep my little retro theme when it came to hair and makeup. I know I do not have any ability to do this. (See my Military Ball photo for the high end of my hair styling skillz.) So I paid an arm and a leg to have a professional at the Planet Hollywood Spa make me beautiful for the day.

 

 

 

I couldn't have asked for a better updo. And my makeup was fabulous. I felt like a movie star.

 

This would be me as a movie star acting with a dinosaur:

 

 

Having this beautiful wedding hair made it an easy decision to ALWAYS have a professional do my hair whenever my dress costs more than $100. That's a special occasion dress price. Since I'm all done with getting married from here on out, that means Military Balls. I can't wait for the next Ball so I can be a beautiful movie star again... but without the dinosaur. Dinosaurs freak me out.

No Pictures

I've been slacking on making posts to the blog. Let me share my reason, which might sound more like an excuse. But I swear its a reason...

 

I shattered the screen of my iPhone and I am entirely too cheap to replace the glass and/or the phone. Since I shattered the screen, a myriad of things have begun to malfunction within the phone: Of course to include my camera. I like to have a picture to accompany my blogs, and if I can't take pictures, I just don't think to blog.

 

Reason. Not excuse.

 

And since I cannot add a picture I have taken on my iPhone recently, let me just add this hilarious rabbit meme.

 

 

That's probably better than anything I would have photographed anyway!

 

I'm trying to hold out on buying a new phone until I get back from Egypt, because the phone technology of today will be old and not so fun and shiny when I get back next year. Alas, the shattered phone screen is letting in moisture as it sits in my sweaty ACU pocket all day. So I might have to give in and replace it when it completely dies.

Bad Dog Mom

Picasso had a birthday this month! He's a 3 year old little man now!

 

And I could have sworn on my life his birthday was today, the 26th of August. I hyped up his birthday to him all weekend long. I hid his birthday presents until today.

 

I got an email from AKC yesterday that I opened today that read as follows:

 

 

Hmm. This is dated the 25th of August...

 

This means I've been celebrating his birthday on the wrong day for the past 2 years (since I didn't celebrate his OG birthday-- I didn't know who he was yet). I felt like the biggest douche of a dog mom. You'd think his own MOM would know his birthday and not have to be corrected by the American Kennel Club! I immediately showered him with his withheld birthday gifts. He didn't seem to have the horrified reaction I did. He mostly just ate his treats.

 

So for future notice, to all of you who follow Picasso and his endeavors, his birthday is actually August 25th. FYI. I know I need to adjust my calendar...

Wedding

James and I tied the knot in Las Vegas on August 10th. There are a million funny or sweet stories to tell, but I think the story that needs to be shared is a story of a catastrophic wardrobe malfunction.

 

**Let me preface this tale by saying I had just been bragging to some friends that this has been a completely stress free wedding for me. Karma is a bitch.

 

So I was getting ready in my parent's hotel room. As my mom was zipping up the back of my gorgeous wedding dress, the zipper broke. And when I say broke, I mean, the dress was completely zipped up the back but the zipper teeth weren't biting each other any longer. This dress was not meant to be backless, and there were only 30 minutes until the ceremony was supposed to start.

 

I burst into tears. Of course I burst into tears. Who wouldn't? My day was just ruined. I put on a ridiculous green dress (it had pockets-- you can't get married in a dress with freaking pockets) and wanted to back out of the ceremony.

 

James saved the day and called every resource he could think of to save the dress. He finally found a tailor downstairs in the casino mall who would look at the dress. I ran to the tailor with 2 friends in tow. The seamstress replaced the entire zipper in just about 15 minutes. I was zipped back into the dress-- and thank you sweet baby Jesus the zipper teeth stayed biting each other. I ran barefoot back through the casino and arrived at the chapel 10 minutes late.

 

Out of breath, but in a beautiful dress (without pockets), I married the man I love... who also saved the day. XOXO

 

 

 

 

Passport

 

Today I had to apply for a government passport. I think I'm going to have to turn in my current civilian passport to get the government passport issued to me, but its really not a huge deal since the only time I go abroad is with the military.

 

"So why do you need a government passport, anyway," you ask. Well let me tell you. A small group of Soldiers of the Combat Support Hospital has been tasked to occupy a few clinics in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. I am on the primary list to deploy early 2014.

 

Normally, I wouldn't start talking about something like this when it is so far away. Especially since I do not yet have orders in my hot little hands. But applying for the passport today made it seem completely real to me. So let's all keep our fingers crossed that this mission stays locked in and I'll soon be abroad again.

Absence

I'd like to apologize for my unexpected leave of absence. I had a job offer land in my lap that would have been amazing, to say the least. I spent a lot of time trying to get this position, and in the end, I was not chosen. If I had gotten this job, I would have had to terminate this blog. So perhaps, not getting this job was a good thing (for my few readers). As always, something new is in the horizon at work. Let's just hope I can hop on this opportunity.

 

Don't worry, Picasso was still being awesome the whole time I wasn't blogging.

 

James and I are getting married 1 week from today in Las Vegas! Woot! I'm really excited. I'm sure there will be blogs to document this awesome event. And tons of pictures. It's not everyday you can wrangle up your family and best friends in one central party location and have a super great celebration. Yay! 7 days away!

 

I was still being pretty awesome, too.

 

4th of July with The Clarks

I flew from Boston to Aberdeen Proving Grounds this morning to see one of my best friends and her family. Ashley and I were roommates when I was stationed at Fort Lewis. We got to see each other briefly last summer while I was attempting EFMB at Fort Sam Houston-- where she was then stationed.  But really, it had been over 3 years which is WAY too long since I've seen this girl!

Ashley and her husband David had their first baby 4 months ago. Jayla is a very sweet and adorable little baby. As many of you know, babies and Jackie are awkward together. I have not worked up the nerve to hold her yet, but Jayla and I have an understanding that I will eventually pick her up. And I will try not to hold her like she is dripping, like I did the last baby I held (that didn't turn out well). 

Pretty, pretty drool princess!

After my very exhausting drive from Providence to Logan International Airport at 0300, Ash and I decided being bums would be perfectly acceptable so we just hung around the house all day. I know it's the 4th of July, and it's the most super American holiday but I'd rather bum around and grill some burgers and relax than fight crowds to see 30 minutes of fire works. I am very aware I love America without fireworks.

Besides, I've made a new best friend at the Clark household. This is MJ, their half wiener half some other kind of mystery dog:

MJ loves Aunt Jackie.

MJ (which is short for Michael Jackson-- check out that one white paw) wants to play with me all the time. He brings me his toy chicken and whines until I throw it. Even if he's not close by, he still whines until I throw it. He wants to be in my lap at all cost. I really like this little wiener dog.

I'm so glad I came to visit Ash and David. Happy Independence Day 2013!

Night Time Downtown Providence

James and I stayed in a nice hotel in downtown Providence while we were visiting. We explored our surroundings and found a pretty sweet microbrewery right around the corner. The atmosphere was decent and the beers were tasty. The bar tender was super cool, and thought we were basically amazing since we both are in the Army. He thought we were so amazing, in fact, that our tab at the end of the night was $30. Now, I can tell you, our tab should have been triple that because James and I like to party.

 

We had a really good time hanging out. (So good, that we went twice.) But when it starts to be closing time, something triggers your drunk belly to demand food. So James and I went on a food quest. I think we found the holy grail of drunk food.

The poster on the side that bragged Man VS Food had visited this mobile burger joint just screamed, "Eat here!!!" I did have a Murder Burger, as suggested by the poster. But I opted out on the egg. Eggs don't belong on burgers. We brought our bag of burgers up to our hotel room and proceeded to devour the most delicious burgers I think I have ever had. Or at least, the most delicious burgers Drunk Jackie has ever had.

First Day In Rhode Island

 

Today was my first full day in Providence. James was an excellent tour guide and showed me a bunch of sights and places he grew up.

All the homes are old and unique. Including the house James grew up in. I didn't take pictures of random homes because I thought that might make me a creeper. But believe me, most of the homes are 100+ years old and very ornate and brightly painted. And the hydrangeas in all the yards were absolutely beautiful. I said so every time we passed them, you can ask James. I probably sounded like a broken record.

We went to the Rogers Williams Park Zoo today. It was a small zoo, but it had a few of those penny smashing machines (James knows I love those) so he wanted to make sure I had a few from Providence. Plus I love animals. The elephants were eating with their gross trunks, the camels were chewing their cud, the giraffes were drooling and the bald eagles were hanging out being Americans. What more can you ask from a zoo?

 

 

I love zoos. I make a point of going to the zoo in any city that has one. After the zoo we went across the park to the Natural History Museum. There were some good exhibits dealing with space and Rhode Island history. I found this guy upstairs:

RAWR!

 

We had an incredible dinner at a Greek restaurant to wrap up the night. While eating we had some prime people watching opportunities. We saw this guy multiple times doing many things while extremely high. Most of the time he was sitting in this living room chair on the street, actively smoking pot and handing out fliers.  We also watched a pedestrian come within inches of being smashed by a speeding pickup truck.

 

This did not take away from the delicious meal one bit. I want to eat the chicken I had there every night for the rest of my life. True story. Great day sight seeing in Providence.