Don't you just love it when....

You sneeze and then double over in pain due to the fact that you spent 20 minutes working out your abs the day before??

And then you decide to go work them out some more today.

And THEN you spend $109 on new sneakers and work out clothes without an ounce of guilt because hey, you're worth it.

Missing my mini-me

Good lord I'm clumsy!

So, about a week ago I was getting ready to go to work and everything was right with the world. Except for the extreme humidity we have here but whatever. I was shaving my legs in the shower like I hadn't a care in the world when I suddenly felt a weird tugging beneath my Venus razor (they're the best brand I assure you).

I looked down at my fantastically tanned leg and noticed a strip that was whiter than the rest of my fantastically tanned leg. I was confused at first. I looked at my razor, which now had a big chunk of my skin stuck in between it's blades. Then I looked back down at my leg. At this point the blood had started to flow. And when I say flow, I actually mean pour. Right down the rest of my leg and pool around my feet.

I have to be honest. I freaked. I started hyperventilating and blacking out from loss of blood and not being able to breathe. But I tried to calm myself down (and failed) as I attempted to comb through my conditioned hair and rinse it out. Because if I was going to the hospital my hair was at least gunna look good! I have priorities people.

When I got out of the shower there was blood everywhere and I was still hyperventilating hardcore. I have never injured myself like this in my entire life. I have a grand total of zero scars on my body. The worse injury I had was my sprained ankle and that didn't involve blood or exposed raw flesh that shouldn't be exposed.

I grabbed a washcloth and just held it to my shin, shaking and sobbing as I quickly called Dustin who was at work at the time. When he picked up I could barely catch my breath to form words to tell him what had happened. But that's OK because he caught key words like "blood everywhere" and "cut myself!" Of course he starts thinking the worst which happens to be me chopping my finger off. That would've been pretty scary too.

But hot damn, did he get home in record time! And as soon as he saw me and my leg he started BAWLING. He didn't do a very good job comforting me. Then I felt bad for scaring him so much. But I was scared too! I couldn't help my reaction.

I calmed down mucho once he was there though. And once the blood loss stopped after 15 minutes or so. Yea, I got quite a few layers of skin sliced off. Fear was quickly replaced with total grossed-out-ness. I had to throw out my razor cause I couldn't bare to look at a piece of my leg in it and I had shivers and heebie jeebies the rest of the day. I didn't go to the hospital because what would they do that I couldn't do at home?

We put peroxide on it (baaaaaad idea), slathered the neosporin on and covered that shit up with a crapton of Boo Bah band aides.

It stung a lot and it still does almost a week later but it wasn't so bad as far as pain goes. I was mostly really grossed out. I still have no idea how I managed to do this to myself. And then I felt stupid for fucking up my lovely beach legs. AND I was very unhappy with the idea of having a scar. I've been covering it with vitamin E and cocoa butter like crazy to try to keep it from scarring.

I'm really grateful that this wasn't on one of my tattoos though. It would've been completely ruined. And that's just a waste of money.

Later that night after work, I re bandaged my battle scar. I was spazzing out because the blood had come back and it brought one of it's friends, pus. It was so gross. But as I'm screaming and gagging I'm also telling Dustin to hurry up and get my camera. I paused from trying to hold back vomit long enough to pose for this cute picture of myself. You're welcome.

Mmmmm. This picture really doesn't do it justice.

In the battle between Tara and Razor.....Razor: 10, Tara: 0. That'll teach me to duke it out with pink hygiene products.

The next day it started to scab as you can see from the above 3 pictures. It looks a lot better now but there's still pus and blood and pain every day. And I keep accidentally banging my leg against things. That's what sucks the most. I just shaved my legs yesterday for the first time since this happened and I was terrified the whole time. It's gunna take me awhile to feel comfortable holding a razor again.

I wanted to share this with everyone because it scared me to death and I don't wanna be the only one who gets grossed out by this. I'm just generous like that.

Life is good

So they've been working me a lot at the Banyan Tree. I guess they wanna hurry up and get me trained so I can start working on my own. They usually only have one cashier working at a time because that's all they really need. Unless it's a Friday or Saturday night, I hardly have any customers. And the customers I do get are usually just people coming to get they're money exchanged for Yen or dollars. All in all, it's a fairly easy job.

I do a lot of sitting around and talking with the girl that's been training me, LaNishia. And thank goodness, she was the one that got picked to train me because we became friends almost instantly. She is quite a delight and we laugh soooo much when we're together. Probably more than we should be at a job this boring. But hey, it makes the day go by faster.

Starting Sunday, I'll be working alone. I'm nervous and sad that I won't have anyone to talk to. Although it's an easy job, there's a lot of tedious things to remember and I'm still dealing with a lot of money. I'm afraid of messing something up and having my draw be short. I'm also afraid of the anti-robbery exercise we'll be having spur of the moment sometime within the next week or so. Oh yea, and the inspectors will be here this week as well. Why do I have to put up with this? I'm the new girl!

But anyway, I like the job all in all. It's not fun but it could be much much worse. Plus, I get to watch crazy drunk people on Friday and Saturday nights when I work till 2:30 am. That's always fun. Until it gets annoying.

I do have a work email now: Tara.santillan@kadena.af.mil so please email me there cause I have nothing to do most of the day! I can go on the Internet but a lot of the websites are blocked including this one. I was really hoping blogger would work so I can get caught up on it but no such luck. Oh well.

Another reason I love Japan

4th of July weekend

How was your 4th of July weekend?? Ours was incredibly fun but also rainy. It was actually almost cold over the weekend. It was weird to put on a hoodie outside after it being sooo ridiculously hot for so long. But it didn't last long. It's hot and humid once again and I hate it.

Unless I'm at the beach.

Anywho, Dustin has been wanting to go mini golfing at the craptacular course they have at the community center here on base. So I reluctantly went along with him. But to my surprise I actually liked it! It was mostly due to the fact that I'm naturally good at it and was able to beat Dustin every time.

This course was pretty tricky even if it was kinda small. I didn't notice too much because I'd never been mini golfing before this. Now I wish we had gone to the big one in Boise.

That building back there is the commissary. I hate the commissary. I cannot express to you how angry and frustrated I get every time I shop there. And I have to shop there because my options on grocery stores are limited and I'm a girl who likes to cook. But I really hate the commissary.

Balls. Mine was the pink one of course.

Dustin and the beaver skunk.

Keebler elves?? Give me cookies!

We didn't get to finish our game cause it started to rain. But don't worry, we went back a few days later and played. And then melted from the heat.

The next day (the 3rd) we went to America Fest which was a fairly big festival on the flight line with mucho food and some live performances. We were mainly going to see Melinda Doolittle from American Idol season 6. We dug her and Dustin even voted for her a few times during that season so we was excited.

Oh my goodness. It was literally pouring that day. I had so much water in my shoes I felt like crying. I hate soggy socks. But I didn't mind too much because Dustin has a plate of deep fried oreos right there. Lordy, were they delish. I wanna make some at home! We also had a giant turkey leg and a pulled pork sandwich but we ate them before I even thought of taking a picture.

Miss Doolittle was amazing like she always is. Her band couldn't set up because of all the rain so it was just her, her two backup singers, and a laptop. I felt bad for her because they was hardly anyone there because of the weather. But she still kicked ass.

Little kids kept running up to the stage and then parents would take pictures of them. Melinda would run up to them while singing and pose for pictures. All throughout the song. It was super cute.

Me clearly enjoying the rain.

Oh, and then she had all the kids come up on the stage and dance with her. It was pretty entertaining. At the end of her performance she told everyone to come around to the side of the stage so we could all meet her and get autographs. We did just that and somehow ended up being the first people on line. And it wasn't like we rushed to do that. We calmly wandered over to the side of the stage and eventually everybody else followed.

I love this lady. She was super sweet and so nice. And way teeny tiny.

Dustin was a little excited as well. This is what happens when you get your boy into American Idol.

I guess they had the planes all out and displayed. Dustin likes to see them and tries to tell me all about them. My mind goes elsewhere when he starts that. Do you think this plane would be a Decepticon or an Autobot?? This is what I think about now every time I see any kind of vehicle.

Then we watched the Lt. Dan Band (Gary Sinise from Forest Gump and other such things) for awhile. They were pretty OK. They only do covers I guess and they have a lot of people in the band. And Gary Sinise doesn't even sing. But it was still fun.

Even Melinda Doolittle jammed in the audience which I thought was pretty cool. We ended up leaving a little early to go meet up with some PMEL guys. We then all headed out Gate 2 to see this metal band play at a bar. They were actually pretty good even though my ears still occasionally ring from it. We ended the night with Japanese Wendy's and a creepy little karaoke bar that had the most random song book I'd ever seen. They had Disney songs!

The next day we took the long ass drive up north to Okuma. It's basically a camping recreation area on the beach that's military owned. One day we plan on staying in one of their log cabins. There's a lot to do there as long as it doesn't rain. Then your screwed.

We mini golfed there which I rocked at of course. We also ate some pretty good military cuisine. It was good as far as military club food goes.

Live entertainment here also. Dustin looks so content and peaceful here.

It's because he's watching Japanese high schoolers break dance. I know when I think 4th of July celebration, this is what I see in my head.

I look...wrinkly here.

Oh how lovely it is to live here! The waves were a little crazier than usual but Dustin kept me from floating away. Thank goodness, cause I'm not a very good swimmer and I hate water in my face. But I still want to go diving.

That platform thingy was scary to walk/stand on. But there were these little girls running back and forth on it like it was nothing. They had balls of steel. Or maybe they were just idiot kids.

Our Independence day ended with fireworks on the beach and Sun Chips in our mouths. It was quite wonderful. It was actually the fifth 4th of July in a row that Dustin and I have spent together. Realizations like that make me feel old.

I don't know how I charmed myself into this one

Remember that job I was telling you about a little while ago? The cash or cashier's cage or whatever it was? And remember when I said that I did horrifically at the interview and totally didn't get the job cause I didn't hear anything from them when I would've, had I gotten the job?

Well, I guess I was wrong. I got a call from the employment office yesterday to come in and fill out some more paperwork. I couldn't understand the woman very well on the phone because of her accent so I just assumed it was just something they forgot to have me fill out on my application before.

When I got there I filled in some more things on my application about things I've done at previous jobs. It wasn't until I'd been there for about 15 minutes that the woman informed me that I had actually gotten the job that I had interviewed for. And we had to ask her because she kept pulling more and more things for me to fill out and Dustin and I were getting really confused. Apparently the packets she was giving me where background check and security paperwork.

I'm still trying to figure out why that woman would hire me. Maybe she liked my smile. Or thought my dress was cute. It was pretty cute. But I am glad I finally have a job and maybe it won't be too terrible. At least I'll be out of the house and be able to talk to people other than Dustin. And THEN, maybe I can weasel my way into that bakery job in the fall since it's under the same manager.

I was gunna spend all day today cleaning the house because it got a little outta control over this fun-filled four day weekend. But I slept later than I wanted to and then spent almost 2 hours filling out those security packets. And I'm still not done! I have to bring them bright and early tomorrow morning and then type them all up at the employment office. Now it's 3pm and all I wanna do is make cookies. Which I still might, depending on how much cleaning I get done.

But anyways, HOORAY TARA HAS A JOB!!

Why is it that...

I can't, for the life of me, flip pancakes properly but for some bizarre-o reason I rock at flipping crepes??

You'd think that I'd be worse at flipping crepes because they're basically the thinner and more delicate version of pancakes. But apparently I'm awesome at producing 10 perfectly round and unbroken crepes. Me and pancakes just don't get along I guess.

By the way, I made crepes for Dustin for breakfast yesterday. And yes, they were awesome.

Calimanos Unite!

I have to be completely honest. The main highlight of the whole New York/Wedding trip, was being with all my siblings again. Especially the 3 youngest. I haven't seen them in 2.5 years and I always miss them the most. I miss Dustin and Brittany a lot too, don't get me wrong. It's just that I feel like I'm missing out on so much of the younger kids' lives. They're growing so fast and changing so much that it hurts my heart to think that I never get to see any of it.




Dusty and Brittany are all grown up now. Who they are today is who they've been for the past few years. They know who they are and they aren't going to change much in the years to come. It was awesome spending time with them and having all of us Calimano kids together again. It really doesn't get any easier being apart though. We haven't all lived together in about 7 years and I'm still not used to it. They're the people I miss most in my life. Along with Dustin, my siblings are the ones I love most in this world.



When I woke up on the day they were going to be flying in, I actually had butterflies in my stomach. I was excited and nervous. My biggest fear was that they would act shy around me and like they hardly knew me anymore. And that I would feel like I didn't know them either. It's never happened before but we had also never been apart for that long. I planned on seeing them everyday they were there and spending every possible moment with them to try to make up for lost time. Even though I knew, no matter how long I spend with them, it's never enough.

I was also afraid that when I saw how much they've grown I would start crying right there in the airport. And that wouldn't have been a good way to start our reunion week of joy. Plus, crying in public is embarrassing and I try not to do it at all.

All my fears left me though, as soon as the kids and I spotted each other. They completely bolted towards me with the biggest smiles on their jet lagged faces and I was bombarded with hugs and British accents. I cannot express in words, how happy I was at that moment. To see them and to see how happy they really were to see me. Brianna literally clung to me and I was really pleased to see that we were still playing favorites. Even though none of us have favorites of course. ;)

Dustin had my Nana's car and my Uncle Dennis, who came to the airport as well, had his. I, of course asked if I could steal the children away with us. My mom, of course, knew I would ask that and said yes. At this point I was so excited and happy that I was talking far too fast and too much to these poor tired kids. I don't think they minded too much since they were completely wired but Jadzia informed me that I talked too much.

But it was only the beginning.

That entire week I spent every day with my siblings except for the day after the wedding. I saw that they were very much the same but also very different. They've grown up so much and so wonderfully I could hardly believe it. I have never in my life met sweeter or better behaved kids. And I'm not just saying that because they're the loves of my life. They truly are amazing and I would be super lucky to have my own kids as wonderful as them. I give mucho credit to the fact that they're being raised by my mom who, even though she's waaaaay less strict these days, is very fair.

And also my step dad, who's pretty much the nicest guy on the planet and loves those kids to pieces.

Jadzia is the oldest of the "littles" and I think that's where I bonded with her. She's had to play oldest for the last few years and I really think she's grown from that. I don't know how, but she's actually gotten sweeter since the last time I saw her. She's the most talented person I know and can always make me laugh. And goodness gracious, has she gotten gorgeous! It's pretty crazy. She's also very protective of Brandon and Brianna. I got scolded a few times by her for mentioning things that may or may not have hurt their feelings. Then I felt very ashamed of myself!

Now, with Dusty and Brittany, I actually feel like I'm younger than them from time to time. They enjoy patting me on the head and treating me like I'm 5. Probably because they're 10 feet taller than me. But I have a feeling that soon Jadzia will be "older" than me as well.

When we were saying our goodbyes, Jadzia broke my heart the most. She seemed the most emotional and even told me that she wanted us to get a giant house for all of us siblings to live in together, which is actually a secret dream of mine. I feel a lot closer to her now because of that.

Brandon is still as sweet as ever. He's silly and then he's very serious and sensitive. And still very much Brittany's favorite. If we had faves that is. Which we don't.

He's a very cool little kid and has the best laugh I think I've ever heard. He laughs at Dustin's jokes so that's always fun for Dustin. lol He's very laid back and just a very understanding guy. I've always been able to talk to Brandon as if he were much much older. He just gets how people are feeling and why they feel that way. Now that he's 12, he feels a lot older and like he can't show his emotions as much. He's not as mushy as he used to be. I got weird looks from him every time I would roughly grab his face and plant a giant kiss on his cheek. But I'm excited to see what he's like as he gets even older.

And then there's my mini me. Brianna Rose. The girl was like a new accessory all week. She stuck to my side like glue and wouldn't unlink her arm from mine for a moment. I got pulled on and sat on every single day. And I wouldn't have had it any other way. I believe she's actually grown on me even more since that trip. I also think that she may have made her way into Dustin's heart as well. Never in my life have I seen a 9 year old break out into tears because she felt GUILTY that people were buying things for her and taking her to fun places. These kids didn't ask for a single thing they saw all day on our Manhattan trip. And we went to the Hershey's store, M&Ms store, and the ginormous Toys R Us. At one point, Brianna wanted to buy a Barbie paper dolls book (with her own allowance, no less) but then looked at the price (10 bucks) and quickly put it back on the shelf!! She claimed that it was far too much money! How many kids have you met that would do such a thing??

She continued to amaze me at the end of the night when she was miserably cold and tired and Dustin offered to buy her a I Love NY hoodie off the street. She started saying, "No. It's OK. I don't need it." I assured her that it was fine and we wanted to get it for her because we loved her. But that just made her cry because she felt bad that we were buying her things. Jim ended up buying her the hoodie which she felt better about, I guess. I then told her that she was my favorite and she informed me that it wasn't nice to have favorites.

Then there's Brittany and Dustyloo. They're grownups or whatever now. They're some of the best friends I could ever have. I'm proud of both of them and admire them soooo much. I wish I could have the motivation that Brittany has or even a smidgen of her talent. And I wish I could be as laid back as Dusty is and not worry about anything. Or even be as funny as him.

Oh, and I also hope he marries this girl. She's amazing and I love her and would like her to be my new sister-in-law. Yup.

I wish I knew the next time we'll all be together again. Money is a huge issue in all of this and I really wish it wasn't. I would love it if we were all at least within driving distance of each other. But at least now I know that no matter how far apart we are, we'll never feel disconnected from each other.

Update on us

So, I've still been pretty bummed out lately and it makes blogging seem like homework at times. But, I know some people check here daily to see what we're up to so I will try to force myself to update as much as possible. It's just that being at home all day makes me super lazy and I end up losing all motivation to do anything. Except bake that is. It sucks pretty hard. I haven't felt like this since I first moved in with Dustin over 3 years ago. Tara doesn't do well without a job.

I started to feel a little better last week when I hung out with some cool girls at the beach. Then I got an awful sunburn on my entire body. I'm dealing with the peeling portion of this right now and I look like I have leprosy. This is only the second sunburn I've ever gotten in my life and I was pretty sure I was going to die of skin cancer the very next day. I didn't. But I was still scared. I guess the sun burns me here too.

Then, last Friday, I got a call for a job interview at the Banyan Tree Club. I was super excited but also didn't know exactly what part of the club the interview was for. I was hoping that it was the bakery that's there. I went to the interview on Monday and it turned out to be for the "Cashier's Cage" which just sounds soul sucking to begin with. I did terribly at the interview. I could not answer the questions for the life of me and realized pretty early on that I was totally not what they were looking for. I didn't have enough experience for that job. I would've been super surprised if they hired me.

I'm glad they didn't but I'm also really upset that I still have to continue looking for a job. It turns out that the bakery there actually only hires locals. And I've noticed a few places on base that are like that. How is that fair?? That's why there aren't enough jobs for the spouses. The Okinawans are able to work on base AND off base where we're just stuck with the few limited places on base. It's retarded. BUT, the manager of the Banyan Tree Club informed me that they're starting construction soon to make the bakery bigger and then they'll start hiring military dependants in the fall. She even said that she'll give me a call then if she remembers to. They apparently even fly in a pastry chef from New York to train them twice a year! How awesome would that be?? But would I be able to wait that long for something that isn't even guaranteed? I guess we'll see.

Dustin has been working too much. 6 days a week at the moment and it truly sucks. At least he has the next 4 days off for the 4th of July. You'd better believe we're taking full advantage of this and packing in as many fun activities as possible. It starts today when he gets home from work!

He's also just discovered about 2 weeks ago that one of his old band mates from Mtn. Home, Phil, is actually here. And has been here since September. It's very exciting. But, if either of them were actually good at keeping in touch with people, they could've been hanging out since we got here. Boys are lame though.


In other news...


I gots these long, scary Barbie nails that aren't as scary to me anymore since I've had them for 2 weeks now. But when I first got them I kept making these claws with my hands and hissing at Dustin.

See?? HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Also, for Dustin's 25th birthday (June 23rd), I made him some loverly Mountain Dew cuppycakes. The only problem I had with the cupcakes was the zesting I had to do with the crappy zester I have. It took about 45 minutes to zest a small lemon and lime.

All that work for such a teeny tiny bit!


But the cupcakes came out lovely and yummy! Then it was onto the frosting. Ooooh lordy, the frosting. This frosting single handedly made me hate life and tell Dustin that I would never cook for him ever again. It just would not cooperate. And I think the main problem was the fact that I had to boil some Mountain Dew until it became a syrup.

Well, it never got syrupy. It pretty much stayed the same and I added it to the frosting anyways. Stupid idea. It basically became frosting soup. It was retarded and pissed me off so much. I get very very worked up when things don't go my way in the kitchen. To the point of tears. It's pretty bad. You don't wanna be around me when this happens either. I might stab you.


Stupid boiling Mtn. Dew. *Shakes fist at computer screen*

They looked pretty enough when I first put the frosting on. But after a day, it had pretty much all dripped off.

And although I swore off making cupcakes that day...I decided to make some patriotic ones two days ago. My decorating skills are...lacking. Dustin thought they were super but what does he know about decorating cupcakes, right?

What a mess. A tasty delicious mess. Some had chocolate chips and some had butterscotch chips. And I kinda went a little crazy with my rum extract. I put some in the cakes and in the frosting. It was good but maybe a little overkill on rum flavouring.

Look at this lovely mini cupcake. Look at those decorating skills. I'll have you know, I didn't do that flag. Dustin came in from work and went, "Ooooh! I wanna decorate one!" and pulled this masterpiece outta his ass! Then I gave up on life.

I'm sure I have more to tell you guys but I can't think of anything right now. If I do later, maybe I can get my ass to actually post another blog. I would like to blog more than once a week like I used to. I know once I get a job, things will get much much better. Hopefully, that day comes sooner than later.

Happy 4th everyone!