I'm leavin on a Jet Plane!

Tomorrow I head out to Japan and gosh am I nervous! I am nervous for a lot of reasons. Leaving my home country for one. Flying for over 24 hours is another. But the main reason I'm so nervous, or should I say sad, is saying bye to my family. Oh gosh I know that this is going to be the only hard part for me but I really hate that I am moving SO far away. I said bye to Molly and Ben on Sunday and unexpectedly, I got really upset. I don't know why that suddenly came on. I know I'm going to talk to them a lot but it's not the same as living a drives distance away. It makes it kind of hard you know? Don't get me wrong though, I am SO excited to see Mike and officially set up our house. And to have a job...and basically start my life. But the anticipation of it all, the unexpectedness, the foreign reality of what is to come makes it quite difficult for me to swallow. I still feel like I moved back to the states where everyone spoke English and I was able to buy any clothes that I wanted at any of the stores. Now that will all be more of a challenge. I just have to get used to it all I guess. And I am...but I don't think I've ever related to the expression "Bittersweet" until this moment. 

To my many friends that read my blog, can I just say how sorry I am that I didn't have the chance to call you before I left? I know I have the time to type this post but I sort of feel guilty talking on the phone when I only have a couple hours left to spend with my family : ( I will definitely call you when I am in Japan but right now, so much has been going on that I really haven't had the time for a much needed friendly chat. Relating to the subject, let me post my phone number in case you guys ever want to call me: 404-478-4605. This is our home number with an Atlanta area code. I've told you all already that it's a stateside number so please don't be hesitant to call because it won't cost you anymore than it would to call my old number! 

Also new in my life is a NEW BLOG! I really don't like the address that I use now (what the heck does "snippetsfrom2284" mean anyway?) So I've been working on a new blog for the past couple of weeks. There are no posts on it yet but if you have the time, could you please change me over to this address? http://thequinn-tessentiallife.blogspot.com/

Once I get to Japan, which will be Thursday night your time and Friday morning my time, then I will start typing on that one! 

I really will miss you all...and Barnes & Noble, The Cheesecake Factory, and the many glorious malls that surround our country...but I hope to post happy experiences of my next new beginning for you all to read!

xoxo, Bridget

Tegan

For some of my SHAPE readers, you will know exactly who I'm talking about when I mention The Munns Family. When I was in 7th grade, I became friends with Kirby Munns (Now Kirby Fish : ) and was warmly welcomed into their family. 

Unexpectedly, Kirby's niece Tegan has recently been diagnosed with cancer. To better inform you on her condition and what you guys can do to help this family out, please check out their blog dedicated to Tegan. 

http://teganlyn.blogspot.com

Some Boxes, A Wedding, and Roasted Cat Fur!

Doesn't that title just draw you in??? Well then you must read on to find out what I'm talking about! 

Since coming back from California on Tuesday, I've spent the past three days packing up boxes to ship over to Mike. In total, I've sent over TWENTY of them! Now before you freak, let me just say that these boxes are quite small, about the size of two text books put together. On the first day that I went to the post office, the lady was really nice and told me I could save a lot of money if I packed all my things in the small priority boxes because the aren't charged by their weight. The standard price is $11.95 a box so times that by twenty and it adds up for sure. But, realistically it could have been so much more had I packed large ones and was charged by their weight. The ladies at the post office have be SO nice. They know me by name at this point and keep giving me all of the priority boxes for free! It has made my life so much easier and I'm so grateful that they are being so helpful. I have one last stack of boxes to take to the post office today and that should be it! (Minus the box of Christmas decorations that I'm not sending over right away.) 

Tomorrow morning, my mom and I are getting up early and driving to NY to pick up Molly's wedding dress and alcohol for the wedding. Monday and Tuesday will be spent cleaning the house, picking up programs and dropping off supplies for the reception. Then on Wednesday, our family will start flying in up until Friday. On that day, we'll have the rehearsal, the dinner, and maybe celebrate my birthday in between all of that? (Shout out to my Auntie, it'll be her birthday too!) Then Molly's wedding is on Saturday! I'm SO excited! I've written a pretty unique speech and after the wedding, I will post it for fun so you guys can read it. Unfortunately, there will be no pictures from me for a while : ( Remember when boo-boo schmitty lost her life due to the sunscreen explosion? Welp, my camera did as well. 

Oh and on a side note, Molly's cat Milo is an idiot. I had a candle light in my room and Milo thought it'd be a great idea to stand over the candle and roast his fur! Now he has a black mark under his tummy and when I went to check him to make sure he still wasn't on fire (yikes!) he swatted at me! He hates having his tummy touched, let alone roasted by a small flame : ) So the purpose of lighting this candle was to make my room smell good, but now it smells like burnt cat fur...

Outside of House

Our First Home

As most of you know, for the past six months that we've been married, Mike and I have basically lived out of a suitcase. When we found out we were going to Japan, we did some research and learned that we could live in an apartment or a garden unit. The difference between the apartment and garden unit is that the apt. is in a ten story building and the garden unit is like a town house that has a front and backyard. Both of us really wanted a garden but everyone told us that it was highly unlikely that we'd get one since it's just the two of us. Welp, my husband pulled some strings and we were able to get our garden! I really don't know how he did it actually. 

Below is a video of our new home for the next three years. You guys are seeing it for the first time like me and let me tell you, I got very anxious watching this video. I'm anxious because I really can't wait to get over there but also, seeing all of those boxes...oh man. I am not looking forward to moving in a house full of chaos. I pride myself on being organized and I just want wait to get my hands on this house and make it feel like a home. And yes, there were parts where I cringed watching this video. There's no carpet, only linoleum throughout. Having a washer and dryer exposed in our kitchen like that...yikes! And those ugly brown doors and kitchen cabinets! Oh and the air units! Man, I could just go on and on about all of the little details of the house. But you know what? I am so grateful that we have one. When you don't have one for a while, being offered ANYTHING that closely resembles a place that you can call home will make you happy. I know Mike and I will be happy in this house and I hope you guys come and visit us...after it looks cute I mean! 

Here is the new House!

Bachelorette Weekend

This weekend, Molly and Ben came home for their bachelor/bachelorette parties. We kept Molly's day really low key and had a mom/daughter/sister weekend. In the morning, Molly and I went to get facials and our eyebrows (ok and lips too) waxed. Then the three of us went to the mall where Molly got a make-up trial at the Clinique counter. Let me just say that "Teresa" did a HORRIBLE job on Molly's eye make-up. I mean, every time I looked at Molly, I would crack up laughing. This lady went so crazy with the make-up that she made huge purple circles around the tops and yes, bottoms of her eyes. It looked like someone decked Molly in the face in each eye! Anyway, that experience wasn't extremely helpful but I think I get the idea of how I will do Molly's make-up...no purple circles! Then we went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant so that Molly and I could eat a fully carb-loaded dinner since we were running the Broad Street run the next day. When we left the restaurant, I noticed that my coach bag had a huge black stain all around the bottom. Turns out my aerosol sunscreen container burst inside my purse and completely ruined my $300 baby. I was devastated. I mean, I didn't cry or anything but I only had that purse for a year and a half...it was my first purchase when I got my first paycheck and it was a reward for getting into grad school. Anyway, boo-boo schmitty (that's what I named my purse) will be resting in a quite place until I can find a way to bring her back to life...or bury her for good. Then today, Molly and I got up extremely early and ran 10 miles in the rain through the entire length of Philly. For the first 7 miles, I was feeling pretty great. Then it was like I hit a wall and both of knees were just killing me. I have no idea why. They never bother me when I run on my own. I knew I would finish the race, it just made it that more uncomfortable for me towards the end. We finished at 1:29 which is pretty average. I was hoping to finish at 1:20 but like I said, the pain made me slow down a bit. Now I'm just recovering on the couch and planning out what I'm going to pack for my trip to California! I leave on Tuesday and will be there a week. I am so excited to see my family! 

Welcome to Japan!

Today makes a week that Mike has lived in Japan. The first few days were new and exciting for him and Mike said he couldn't believe how green Japan was. He said he flew over Tokyo before landing at Yokota and he couldn't tell where the city began and ended. Then on Friday, I got a call from Mike at 6 am telling me that he debit card was stolen along with some money from his wallet. He said he was at the gym for two hours and noticed right away that it was gone when he checked his wallet outside. Long story short, the jerk spent over $600 in two hours before Mike called our bank and had them cancel the card. Not exactly a warm welcome to Japan but we're grateful not more was stolen out of his wallet. Can you imagine his ID and pilot's license right in the middle of inprocessing? Anyway, we had to come up with a few ideas for Mike to get cash since that was the only debit card he had and we couldn't figure out where we put his checkbook between all of the boxing/moving that was going on. Everything is fine now and we've been fully refunded for the cash that was taken but I'm really bummed that it had to happen right at that second. Every few days, I'm sending another box in the mail to him with some of our x-mas gifts/wedding gifts or things we've collected since September and each time they're mailed, another $20 is gone. This may be the longest three weeks of my life!