Tired. So very tired.
Staying in tonight because last night ended around 3:30 or 4 this morning. I drank water, but PJ shrugged off my offer, so he hurt this morning.
Put things on walls, plastic crates are in basement. yay. looks like an apartment.
Not forming sentences. Time to stop typing.
My new apartment makes me happy.

Got my French-English picture dictionary tonight. Yay! Let the learning begin. I am lame.
Waiting for PJ to get here so we can have dinner. I am famished. Ate crackers with baba ghanouj and cucumbers for lunch... at 1:30.
I made an incredible dinner that is waiting to be eaten. I prefer to eat with good company. It feels more like real life :) Chicken marinated in beer and Dijon mustard, then coated in whole-wheat (health nut, maybe?) bread crumbs. Broccoli. Mac n cheese made with skim milk, mustard, a bit of beer and cheddar. Healthier than the usual. This is a bad meal... so fatty! But the chicken is baked, and this is the first time there has been cheese in this apartment. (oh, there was some feta once for a Greek meal... oh well.)
Had a great night tonight. Walked 2 miles home and got free hummus at grocery store (Kroger card discount + coupon machine at store + double coupon day = free hummus! Lame but funny!)
Had a glass of wine while waiting... might explain the post being so random.
This weekend will be the second I've spent here, the first with nothing to do. I plan to do nothing. Scratch that. I plan nothing. For once in my life, I do not have any plans. And that's OK.
Sigh. 5 minutes more, then I'm eating alone!
My good friend Katie Gill is coming here in two weeks. She is from Indian Hill, so she's not coming to see me. Still, it will be great to see her. I haven't seen her since before Korea, hard to believe. I love this girl. She's more gung-ho about copy editing than I am. She works for the TImes in Washington. She rocks. I have a great gift for her... a compact. She once told me that she wanted to dress and look nice as easily as I did... or something like that. I am usually a mess, so I took it as a compliment.
This girl is 22 going on Buddha in terms of wisdom, I swear. Plus, she can drink. Who could ask for more?
Work is going well, by the way.
OK, I give up. I am going to eat. or maybe I'll wait.

j'aime bien faire la cuisine.

So one thing is for sure. No one is going hungry in this apartment. I have created some real culinary masterpieces since moving into my own place. Cooking is something I missed terribly when I lived in Korea and then with my mom.
Last night I marinated beef in garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil, cilantro, red pepper flakes and salt. To that, I added a sliced onion. Tonight I :
- made rice with cilantro, hot sauce and lemon juice
- sliced roma tomatoes and made a guacamole for dressing
- seared the beef and caramelized the onions.
With a nice bottle of red, yum. PJ was impressed.

Monday night I was cranky and hungry. I finally acquired all the ingredients for my favorite pasta: alla puttanesca.
anchovies, garlic, red pepper flakes, kalamata olives, capers and tomatoes. Delish!

There have been other good ones:
the cilantro/lime chicken with black bean-corn salsa
tarragon chicken baked with white wine, jasmine rice and artichokes
Korean fried rice with kimchi, tofu, tuna, lots of veggies and hot sauce

Oh, I love cooking.

Pj thinks it's funny that I won't eat ANYTHING from a box/can except for raw ingredients. I bought light microwave popcorn tonight, and it's the first snack food I've had in the apartment. I won't eat premade food, and I don't eat fast food unless traveling. That's what being overseas did to me.

He did introduce me to my new favorite ice cream flavor: cherry cordial. Dark chocolate and maraschino cherries in sweet cherry ice cream. Divine! I usually don't eat ice cream (the whole milk aversion... for the record, yogurt and cheese good for me. milk, ice cream, stand back! Milk tastes spoiled to me because I've been drinking soymilk for six years now.) The other night we read the CIA World Factbook and ate the rest of the ice cream in bed. It was decadent. I love having quirky couple things.
We read NYT online together and challenge each other with vocab words.
OK, I really am tired now.

nothing new

Life's a bit dull here in Queen City.
I go to work, come home, make dinner for PJ and me, we go to bed, and I do it all over again. He's living here more or less.
The highlight of my night was buying a French-English picture dictionary online. Oxford makes a great one, and I have the Korean-English version. I love it. I used it in my classes all the time, and it is full of the most random scenarios/vocabulary. The pictures are so 1980s.
I've been here a month, and I've had to go home three of the four weekends. This weekend I have to go home again, this time for Erin's wedding.
I'm really tired most of the time because I haven't quite adjusted to the new schedule. I like my job and the people I work with, but I haven't made a single friend. I am friendly with people, and I've met some of PJ's friends, but I haven't met anyone on my own or gone out with anyone without him.
I know he feels bad for me, and I worry that it will stress us. I am going to have a welcome party soon (or more like a please be my friend party), so things should change after that.
I am tired, tired, tired.
This princess needs her beauty sleep. I have another wedding on Saturday, which means another bouquet for me to try to catch. Ha. PJ is going to be at this one. He's sweating it already!

un nouveau chapitre dans ma vie

In Cincinnati. Great apartment, great job. Great boyfriend.
I'm a lucky girl.
I miss Korea (and Japan and France and Spain and Italy) but I'm happy.

Vorrei viaggiare ancora un giorno presto. Ma oro sono felica! Ritengo per la prima volta molto attento e vivo...

Ho bisogno di studiare! Ho dimenticato molto italiano e francese e coreano!