Amanda Takes Off...

Passing a kiss and ride lot at a school, Good Man wonders, "Why is is always 'kiss and ride?' Why is it never 'hug and ride?'"

Passing a Metro station, Good Man asks, "What is 'park and ride?'"

"Remember how we parked the car at the Metro station and then took the train to the Arlington courthouse to get married? It's like that. You park. And ride."

"So...why not call it 'parking lot?'"

In a parking lot with tons of empty spaces I see a woman park directly in front of the store, blocking access to the door and say, "Does she realize that's not a parking space?"

Good Man responds, "Oh, America! Parking lot land!"

We got a new woman in class today. For all of my complaining about where the women have been, you'd think this would be good, right?

I actually didn't work with her at all. I got to class and my stomach was in knots and really hurting. I told Special Forces and asked him if I could work in the second room (a smaller room which usually isn't in use). I told him I'd warm up and work on poomse. He agreed.

I ran through the first four forms and damn, I do not deserve my belt. Messing up on the first four forms? Having to turn to the book of forms I keep in my bag? Ugh.

Special Forces came to check on me after about 40 mins. He ran through some forms with me, told me everyone forgets sometimes. I know that, but il jang? Forgetting that?

I did end up running through all of my forms at least twice. Once I got to yuk jang, I didn't really have any memory problems. No, then I started to run into "and how do we do that here?"

Even though I was working mostly alone, it was a great workout, physically and mentally. Physically, I was taking my time, sticking the landings, really working on it. I wasn't just slopping through them. Mentally, it was exhausting because good kimchi! I should remember il jang! But it was also mentally demanding because I was suddenly noticing things I hadn't noticed before. In il jang almost every turn is toward the side where you've already punched (right punch? Next move will be a turn to the right).

And then...class ended.

Apparently we have a new student. I'll call her Brown Belt Wannabe, because dammit, that's what she is.

In the course of five minutes she complained that she had earned a brown belt at her other school, so why couldn't she come in as a brown belt here? Never you mind that she couldn't tell you what system her old school worked under. Never mind that she didn't know the names of her forms in English or Korean, but they did them to music. All the time. She had been in the national championships! (Whose national championships? Well, why should she be expected to know that?) She had medals at home. And why didn't we just test her so she could prove her level? But don't actually let her be a brown belt, because then we're going to expect decent work from her! She had worked hard for her brown belt and she wanted to wear it, because after one class everything was too easy and in two or three more classes she was going to be very bored because it was too easy.

Shit.

And I thought I had a hard time adjusting to a new studio. At least I did my complaining here and at home.

Poor Special Forces. Kwanjangnim is in Korea and he said, "Well, OK, when the school owner comes back, we can talk to him and—"

"Does anyone else come in at their old belt?"

Special Forces gestured toward me, "She did, but she got her black belt in So—"

"Then why can't I?"

I left because I wanted to scream, It's not about the belt, lady!

"[Good Man]! Come, quick, bring my camera!"

"Why?"

"Babies!"

Baby Worm and Worm Egg on Some Sort of Matter (Pear Stem, Maybe?)

I wanted the Chinese double happiness symbol on the wedding certificate. Or the invitation. Or the announcement. Good Man refused. I wanted to use Hanja for the date on the wedding certificate. Or the invitation. Or the announcement. Good Man refused.

But when it came to the programs, Good Man had no opinion on what should be done.

I wasn't going to do programs because we have no attendants, no music, etc. But I decided that everyone needed an explanation about the no-officiant-stand-and-speak part. And Koreans never know what a Claddagh is, but like it when I explain it. And the non-Koreans might like to know why Mother's throwing food at us. So we made a program. Since everything else was English first, I made this one Korean first. It turned out nicely and cost $17 to make 27 of them.

Good Man and I have a balcony, but we rarely sit out there. Today I decided to clean off the table that came with our rent so we could have dinner outside. It was warm but not too warm and bright but not too bright—I always complain about how dark our kitchen is.

Pasta in a Cheese Sauce, Salad, Dressings, Green Apple, and Sunflower Seeds

Hmmm...

I had made what I thought was a decent meal, as well as some watermelon-kiwi drinks for dessert. But Good Man complained. The vinaigrette smelled like...vinegar. The salad had celery in it. He doesn't like plain watermelon.

Watermelon-Kiwi Drink with a Sprig of Fresh Mint

I grew tired of it. "Wow. You really make me feel good when I prepare dinner for you five or more night a week and you complain about everything. If it were up to you we'd eat ramyeon or spaghetti every night. You can start cooking, go ahead."

"You are like my mother," he replied.

"Why? Because I prepare good, healthy food for you and you bitch about it?"

He laughed and nodded, "Yes, exactly." He grew quiet. "미안해, 미안해."

A few minutes later he tried the drink. "Oh! This is better than plain watermelon. This is actually good. You are sneaky like that."

Laughing

"I know you don't like exercising, but it's good for us," I said.

"I know. I married you because you won't be in a wheelchair at 60," Good Man said.

I looked up at him from the floor. I was doing push-ups. Good Man was calling me "US Marine!" because I was doing them full. I let my elbows drop. "What?"

"Yeah, you won't have that bone problem that women get, because you are strong. And you make me exercise and you make me eat fruit and you will make me live a long time."

"You married me because I'll make you live longer?"

Good Man nodded, "Yeah... What's wrong with that?"

"We should stop by that garden center and see if they have worms! I want more worms! We don't have enough worms."

Good Man half rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Leave worms alone. If you quit worrying we will soon have many, many worms! It is called exponential growth."

"But the eggs aren't hatching! We have too much food and too few worms."

Good Man put on his sing-song teacher voice. "That's why it's exponential. You have to have the worms first. And then it's two times two times two times two times two times two times two times... one, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two and so on. Understand?"

It feels like Good Man and I got a lot of wedding stuff done today. We got the site survey done for the tent and it doesn't need sub-flooring (read: one less thing to spend money on).

Dropped off the flowers at Mark's Lover's house.

We got three-quarters of Mark and Mark's Lover's "thanks for doing so much" gift taken care of.

We went to Costco and priced food. Need to get some more vegan options for my vegan grandparents (thinking of looking at Whole Foods for that).

I helped my dad find and buy a plane ticket online.

Doesn't feel like there is a whole lot to do in the next week. Finish photo centerpieces and work on the program, mostly.

A few weeks ago a coworker came to our house for the first time. She guessed which condo was ours based on the fact that we had food growing on our balcony.

I've been battling aphids. I tried doing a home solution of water and dish soap, but it didn't help, so I finally bought a commercial insecticidal soap solution. I've used that twice. I also ended up getting one of those tape lint rollers. Last week I actually lint rolled aphids off of the plants.

Good Man thought I was nuts, but it seems to have worked. The aphids had nearly killed the red peppers, had attacked the green peppers, and had started in on the cayenne peppers. As of today I'm finding no aphids on the cayennes or greens and only a few on the reds.

The red peppers might just make it, but I wouldn't be surprised if we get nothing. I think I have too many green peppers in the pot, but one is starting to flower. The cayenne peppers are doing great, which is wonderful since those are the peppers we use the most often in Korean cooking!

The cayenne plants are making me so excited. I'm growing food! My own food!

Cayenne Peppers

Red Peppers

Green Peppers

We also have a bunch of herbs going. The peppermint needs a haircut. I trimmed a flower head off of the dill to keep it from going to seed. The basil was a mistake in that I only got one plant—I should've gotten two. The leeks? I have no clue why I thought I could grow leeks on a porch. It'd be great if I could because leeks are expensive, but right now I'm basically using the leeks as chives.

Peppermint

Dill

Basil

Leeks