The Time Traveler's Wife.

Helen Keller once said:

"the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart"

This quote could not sum up life on deployment anymore. However, technology is really a great thing, because it helps out with the seeing part a little bit. Thank goodness for the glorious iPhone. One of my favorite things that Dan does is take pictures of everyday life and things I would appreciate and shoots it to me via email. I love the random-ness of the pictures and they always make me laugh and feel like I'm part of whatever he's doing at the moment.

Beware then, my loyal readers who are around Dan; you too may soon find yourself blinded by the flash of his iPhone lens and instantly (and digitally) sent to me :)   

I know I/this/we can be cheesy but I couldn't help but share some of the things that I miss most and most of the littlest things that make me so happy:

Here we have evidence of a good night that Dan sent me last night. This picture might look like it actually was taken sometime in mid-2004 when we were living up the height of our college days. Well, the caption for this picture is exactly that, something that some people who may be reading this find very funny.

The setting: Second Year, First Semester. 100 Stadium Road #3- the Woodrow Apartments. Saturday morning. 0800. Living Room.

My Dad made a surprise trip to UVA. Yes, that's right, a 3 1/2 hour drive without so much as a "Hey daughter I'm coming to visit you!" notice. There may have been beer consumed in our apartment the night before. We may have saved the cans. And we may have engineered those cans into a large pyramid extending from the coffee table to the ceiling. And my dad may have walked in, unannounced, to see it. Caption of this picture are the words that Rachel said to my dad when he walked in:
"Mr. Harris- you wouldn't BELIEVE this. Somebody broke into our apartment, brought all these beers, drank them and left us with THIS!"

This was in fact, a true story, one that I know we all still tell and laugh at today, and I'm sure Dad remembers :)

Here is Dan at a San Diego Chargers game. Caption: "I got this hat for $5!" Me: "Yeah.... I can tell...." :)

Meet James. James is Rachel's adorable 4 year old nephew. Dan and Billy have become even better friends since the Navy took their girls away from them for a long time. So, while Rachel's mom was in town, Dan & Billy accompanied Ms. Sharp and her adorable grandchildren to a fancy shmancy brunch at the Hotel Del Coronado (the adorable grandchildren's parents, Lauren & Seth, Rachel's older sister, were on house-hunting leave on the East Coast). As you can tell, the Hotel Del brunch features a chocolate fountain. How can a 4 year old NOT love this?!?

"Good news- we're putting our new martini glasses to good use!" Ahhh yes, those martini glasses which my limited experience with them includes: unwrapping them, putting them away, and sending the thank you note; luckily Dan is making sure they get good use in my absence. Thanks for helping Dan out with this Billy, and thanks Bridget for the awesome glasses- I can't wait to use them too!

Don't be fooled- Dan too is having adventures in the kitchen in my absence. I can't wait to come home and have my husband cook for me- yum! :)

This next set of pictures I absolutely love and do a good job of illustrating my odd personality. I love made beds. Not messy beds, but perfectly, coordinated, made beds. Those who know me really well will know that I do not function well when the bed is unmade. One time, I was running late to work and didn't have time to make the bed. I was legitimately uncomfortable at work, knowing that my bed at home was a wreck. Luckily, I lived near base then so I was relieved to go home at lunch, make my bed, and return to work much less troubled and more productive.

It should come as no surprise then to know that I ordered a new set of sheets and new quilted pillow shams for our bedroom right before I left on deployment and was devasted when I was told to leave before my delightful Pottery Barn box arrived, allowing me to put together the new color/design I had been scheming in my head. So, when I found out that it arrived, a week or so into my deployment, I was tickled with delight and (nicely) demanded to Dan, who could give a rats pa-tootie about quilted pillow shams and new matching sheets, that he wash the sheets and re-decorate the bed just as I had been imagining in my head (I can't take all the credit, thank you Jill from the Jacksonville Pottery Barn who probably isn't reading this because it would be weird if she was, who helped me put together many combinations of patterns using a duvet, a quilt and multiple textured pillows).

So Dan, understanding my insanely weird obsessions with made beds and my inability to function knowing a bed is unmade, humored me and put it together to my specifictions and took these pictures. I am really digging the new look, aren't you? I am very excited to mix and match other combinations but I think the cranberry pillow shams really added something nice. And for our guests, don't you fret, I've got something slightly less over the top but still very classic and matching and coordinated planned for the guest bedroom. That one should be on it's way & I'm looking forward to seeing it come together :)

And finally, my favorite. This picture was entitled "Help- there's a man outside our window!" which normally would have freaked me out. However, it was just the window-washing man (I would have been terrified to be 17 stories up doing this).  While this is a cute, spontaneous and funny picture (plus it does a pretty good job of showing the San Diego harbor in the background, gosh I miss that....), it is something so small in the details you might have missed it.

On our dresser are all of the picture frames that we will eventually put wedding pictures in, in addition to some other clutter laying around. But what caught my eye was the watch (that little silver strip) laying in front of the glass canister. I remember throwing that watch on the dresser, just before I left, during the whirlwind 52 minutes that I had at home to pack and say goodbye to Dan. The fact that it is still there (and of course ALL of my stuff is there still and I obviously had a hand in all of the decorating and unpacking) but to see this little watch, carelessly thrown on the dresser, still sitting there almost a month later, instantly brought me to tears. I don't know why, something about knowing that he hasn't touched it or moved it, like a little teeny piece of me just sitting idly and quiet, watching everyday life, counting the minutes and waiting to be part of it.

I love these pictures and all that they represent, and even though I'm not in any of them, I know that I have a little place in each picture and that I can't wait to fill that space in just over 5 months. Until then, my watch is doing a good job holding my place and Dan's iPhone is helping to keep the memories and good times. I love you :)