Another week down another week of crazy events!

 

I got up early last friday (3am cst) after goin to bed a lil after midnight to start processin out for holiday standdown leave.  Was actually awoken by a knock on the door to find out the other dude in the room was already dressed and was havin room inspected so he could leave.  I was like niiiiice thanx for lettin me know that dude.  So i joined in the room inspection, got dressed, assured i had everything (which was still alot!) and headed into the crazy winding line that is the mass exodus.  I was processed out way early as my shuttle ticket wasnt even until 0930 but i asked if i could catch an earlier bus to which they okay'd so i hopped a 0440 bus off the base to the airport.  From there gettin to the airport in about 1hr due to the snowy conditions i immediately went to the kiosk to check-in and see if there was an earlier flight out since my flight didnt even leave till 1500.  To my surprise i found a 0930 flight leavin out so i immediately went into standby for it.  I ended up gettin a box for the 2 grocery bags worth of clothes i ended up with as the night before i was told id be on snow watch (out shovin snow on the sidewalks for others until my "later" bus arrived)  So since i left early i never got the chance to put it in my seabag so had to carry it wit me.  Well now at the airport i threw it into a cardboard box that they sealed up for me and checked.  Went on down the concourse to the gate where soon after several other Washington bound sailors arrived.  Watched a couple episodes online of shows before findin out they moved our gate w/out advising us.  So w hustled down there, got my seat confirmed and within 30min I was in the air flyin home hours ahead of schedule!  Landed round 1330 and was picked up by wifey who shuttled me back to her job since she wanted to go back to work (yeah i know, nice.)  So i headed on up to the corrections center to say a final farewell those there who really were friends to me and kept in touch after my bein let go.  It was nice to see some of'em, others never got acknowledged the same as they treated me these monhs.  leavin there went and got wifey and kids, home to pack, then up to Seattle for the "Breakfast w/santa" at the Sheraton Hotel for the weekend.

 

the next day we went down to Southcenter on a search for a new wedding ring or me which i found the biggest bang for buck pricing in at $650.  1/2ct diamonds, 14k whie gold and just blinged out!  Were gonna hit a couple other stores but the snow started back so aborted further missions and headed on back to the hotel. Tried to hit the Gucci store and Louis Vuitton but both had closed early due to the weather (wusses, like it never snows or somethin).  Sunday checked out and came back home to do a full assessment on what needed to be done before i left and it was a LOT.  Stopped by McChord AFB to go to th BX and the commissary. Started wit the laundry and gettin the house reheated as it was FREEZING cold, down to 52 degrees when on avg it was 72. (she had been turnin the furnace off to save $$) explained to her that actually costs more that the furnance now has to run extra long to get all reheated and could contribute to why the kids were sick cause it was too cold.

 

During the week it was filled with plenty of runnin around.  Before the week was over i was back at McChord AFB gettin all medical benefits in order and explained indepthly to me to relay to wife since she hadnt had the chance to go do it, but that wasnt before goin up to NAVSTA Everett to talk to them come to find the base had shutdown due to weather! What the heck?!  Ended up talkin to a Master Chief there who explained what i needed to do (which is how i ended up at McChord).  Good thing i had shaved before goin up there!  Stopped by the big NEX that they have up in Marysville and its niiiiice!  Purchased a few things then headed back south.  Had prior arranged to meet with Lucy to pickup the pair of PC Speakers i had loaned her before our fallout that led to the termination of our friendship (which sparked the special edition letter a few chapters back)  We ended up discussing the finer points of the argument and after apology and hug the friendship was re-established.  Was an awesome feeling to have her back as a friend and the animosity dissolved.

 

The following days took me over to NAVSTA Bremerton to get my SUV registered wit base tags and do a lil shoppin at the NEX there as well.  Got the Christmas tree up and lights strung wit my daughter.  Got a lil shoppin done for Christmas dinner that i was hostin since normally i do thanksgiving and my parents Christmas, since i was gone and they did Thanksgiving i did the other.  Had Fried turkey, collard greens, mac & cheese, banana pudding, and peaches n cream pie.  It was booooomb!  Threw back some beers, and hynotiq, played a full 18 holes of Tiger Woods Golf wit my dad on the wii (i lost by 3 strokes), then we watched Transformers on Blu-Ray and stopped it to compare it to the standard dvd (HUGE difference)  But it looked hot on my 61" widescreen hdtv (not lcd/plasma though it has 2 hd connections in the back)  All disbanded and i went to cleanin as i do eeeevery year after cookin.  Got all laundry washed and folded, storm door fixed, 2 fence boards replaced, all light bulbs changed that were out, shower knob and floor grate changed out, yeah ive been busy!  Downloaded pics and softwares on my laptop in preps to be taken back to IL wit me, bought several cd's of peeps i was discoverin released new ones got all those uploaded to my ipod.  Even got ahold of the new TI and Leona Lewis fro my girl Lil Momma for a upload project she wanted me to do for her for her son's Christmas gift.  Was nice seein her again too.  Even got to see my homegirl Cake and hangout wit her for a minute!  Got the 2nd aircard returned and refunded that was too slow for my liking so just went ahead and set up an appt for comcast install the day after i return.  Cheaper anyway.  And with that I bought a 19" Lcd tv for my dorm rm as i decided to bring back my ps3 as well

 

Still much more to be done and clock is runnin out so ill write another chapter soon

Well its another week down! And this one is one of the best to be conquered cause in a few hours at this very timeframe ill be in the air hundreds of feet above the US headed Westbound back to WA!  This whole week has been chompin at the bit just waaaaaaaaaaaitin and countin down the hours.  In the meantime still goin about my daily bitness of goin to school.  That ended last night with a final test score of 92%!  So i scored a 94%, 96%, and 92% on the 3 tests for an overall AVG of an A! Yea!!  I wanna keep that momentum goin into the other classes, stayin focused and doin good cause word has it the top 10% of the class after A-school gets to pick their orders and as i said before my 3 on my dream list will be Everett, Bremerton, and NAS Whidbey.  Whatever gets me back home to WA.  Wanna hear somethin crazy? they were tellin us that preparations to dock comin into the San Juan inlet and down Puget Sound takes about 14 freakin hours!  14 hours!!!!  I was like oh heeeeeeeeeeeeell naw, ill jump ship near forks, swim to shore and hail a taxi! hahahhaha.

 

I lost 2 more of my roommates a couple days ago.  They graduated their class before me and bein their undesignated as a rate they go off to their ships now in the fleet and im now left behind of the original 4.  Sucks pretty bad.  Got one guy that came in replacin Gonzo a week or so ago that i dont really talk to at all.  Today was actually the 1st time i had a convo wit the dude.  He's leavin Jan 8th to his ship so its like, theres no point in buildin a relationship wit the dude.  We move out our rooms early tmrw morning anywho as we leave to the shuttle buses that'll take us to the airport and apparently we wont be able to come back to the same rooms which absolutely sucks.

 

Went to get my clothes from the dry cleaners wednesday and was told they werent yet prepared which pissed me off cause i turned'em in on Sunday so that gave'em plenty of time but noooooo they were waitin till last minute to do it.  Whatever people.  Had'em sow on a patch to another shirt as well so total came to $11.25 for 3 pieces.  Word has it that come Jan they'll be sellin our new Camouflauge uniforms that'll replace the typical (out of fashion) utilities.  Cant wait either!  Ya'll know i like to dress fly and in fashionable clothes and these utilities got me lookin crazy!

 

Been cold here.  Pretty bad nights drop down to single digits (9 degrees lowest posted), wind chill into the negative.  And daily M-F id have to walk to school in it.  Ice on the road and sidewalk had people fallin like crazy, some actually really becoming injured.  I was fortunate to break my fall streak as i didnt fall this week like the last 2 weeks lol.  Lost traction a couple times but held it together!  Seein bundled up you almost couldnt see what race i was!  i wasnt playin out there! anything i could possibly covered indeed was.

 

Did some more catchin up on shows.  All done with New York goes to Hollywood, Luke's Parental Advisory, Heroes (2 more episodes aired i thought i had already saw season finale now i really have!)  Forgot i had started watchin True Blood before comin to Boot Camp so got several episodes watched but not fully done (9 out of 12).  Decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and return this At&t card as well and go ahead and have Comcast Cable Internet installed in the dorm room when i return. This card is about $50/month for 5gb download.  Has 3g network but still not as fast as it could be.  I have to hang the card out the window attached to a 10ft usb ext cord.  But i can get cable internet for bout the same if not cheaper (military disc as well as 2nd line bein we have it at home as well), and unlimited d/l and way faster speeds and no more havin to walk to the USO to use their wi-fi since id have the speeds in room capable of watchin my shows.  Its gettin to cold to walk all the way across base unnecessarily so im gonna have to roll wit it.  Card was $107 w/$100 mail in rebate (that i never filled out), for Comcast just need to buy a Cable Modem w/built in wi-fi.

 

Well its chowtime and this has taken almost an hour as is cause im drawing a blank on things to say so next entry will be back in WA!  Take care ya'll!