Busy-ness

Well, I apologize because I've been slacking in keeping my posts up to date. For all of you who check it regularly (my friends in P-cola, family back home, the scattered east coast friends, and someone in Allen Texas...not sure who that is) I'll try to do better so you have something to read when you check my page!! :) Some exciting developments that have been going on lately. We'll start with work. Keeping busy on that front. Trying to get my head back above the surface when it comes to all the paperwork and planning things that will happen late this year or even half way through next year (I know, I never would have guessed someone would start planning an event over a year in advance!!). Then on top of that stuff I'm out flying when I need to. Had a couple of cases lately, nothing that turned into anything spectacular, but it was still fun to go out and try to help people. Oh, and before I forget, one of the cable channels (I think its A&E but I could be wrong) is planning on doing an 11 week "reality" show about the Coast Guard in the Astoria Area. They are going to bring out the cameras starting in November and they'll be here until around April trying to catch all the good SAR cases and kinda following along with specific people at the air station and boat stations. Sadly enough, yours truly (me), didn't get chosen to be a main character, but who knows, you might be able to catch a glimpse of me during some of the shows. And if not, then hopefully you'll still watch and learn lots about what we do up here in the NW. On the community side of things, I just started my training as a volunteer fire fighter for the city of Warrenton. I'm pretty psyched about it. I got to play with fire a little bit when I was on my ship a few years ago and its a thrilling experience. So I have to go through a 6 month probationary period and then I get to start responding to calls and helping even more people out. I think the other perk is that I'm getting to know people in the community. I've never really gotten involved in a town before like this, and I'm excited for the possibilities. I'm already getting to know people and make friends in the department. Hopefully my friend base will continue to grow and I'll find people to hang out with on weekends and to go do crazy stuff with on my off time. (cause right now it can be kinda boring without anybody to hang out with). As for the personal side of things. I'm really up in the air right now. Obviously its best to move on when things don't work out, and that's what I'm up to now. I've gotten back into dating (albeit long distance again). Nothing serious at the moment, but promising (aren't they all). But I am definitely going slow on this one. No rushing into things. Not sure exactly why I want to go slow. Maybe still getting over the last, maybe just a knee jerk reaction or a subconscious protective feature. Either way, we'll see where things lead and we'll go from there. (I think I'm also too busy in the present to even really look to far in the future when it comes to a girl). That about covers it, I believe. Nothing too knew has come up for that big exercise next month other than the fact that I'll be in Portland for about 4 days to participate. I will be going to Arizona next month though to visit my new friend for a few days, and then at the end of the month, my "brother" from home will be coming out to visit me for a weekend. Sounds like an exciting and busy month. As always, stay safe, and don't forget to tell your friends and family that you love them!!

Missing Home

Hmm...lets see. I think the tally comes down to being home a total of 6 and a half days out of 42 days. Now, don't get me wrong, I love travelling and seeing the country (and world when I can), but give me a break!! No, it really hasn't been all that bad. I exagerate. Even though I haven't been able to sleep in my comfy bed all that often, or watch my cat chase a lazer pointer like the silly thing that she is, I've still had some fun times. (maybe I'm repeating myself from an earlier post, but here I am again, away from home doing the king's business). Alright, enough rambling. Just as an update, life is going farely well for me even if I am busy and never home. I've been able to catch up with a few old friends (one of which I hope to have dinner with tomorrow) and make a few new ones (one of which I am definately looking forward to seeing again). Coming up in the near future I am looking forward to starting my training at the Warrenton Fire Department. I turned in my paperwork and even though I will miss the first training day this Thursday, I'm sure I'll be able to catch back up and start learning a ton of new stuff. After that, the month of October is gong to be pretty packed with a nationally run exercise that I'm going to be part of called TOPOFF. Should be pretty cool (even if it does take up a lot of time and energy). TOPOFF is being held in Portland and Guam and Pheonix. Speaking of Pheonix, I'm hoping to head down there sometime in October too, if the timing works out with the whole exercise thing. I also had the chance to hit up a huge private holoween party in Miami, but it just didn't work out, so that kinda sucks. Oh yeah, and one of my good friends from home is thinking of visiting at the end of October too...hopefully that can get all figured out cause I haven't seen him in quite a while. And then, after all that craziness...I hope to take a trip down to Costa Rica for a week with a friend so as to just relax and enjoy the sun and amazing beaches that I keep hearing about. Well, I'm going to get off my soapbox for now and try to get some studying done so I can pass my yearly instrument check (and if you don't know what that is, feel free to ask!)

The Griffon

Yes, the picture you're looking at is of a rollercoaster. But that vertical structure you see in the middle isn't a support beam, its actually the track!! This is the Griffon at Busch Gardens in Virginia, and its an awesome ride. So if you get the chance, take a visit there and take a ride. Also, if you're military, you can get in free once a year. Its a pretty sweet deal, and its nice to see companies saying thank you to my brothers and sisters out there serving us all. This was what i did to keep myself busy this weekend, my last weekend here. And this thursday i'm off to Boston to visit my friends up there and hopefully catch a Red Sox game. Until then, enjoy yourselves and stay out of trouble :-)

Update

So, I got called out by a friend earlier for not putting up a message in the past almost two weeks (yeah, you know who you are). So I thought I would make her happy and let her and everyone else know what is going on with me these days. Right now I'm over in Yorktown Virginia (as you should know from my last post) and I've been here for a while. My cat is stuck at home missing me like crazy I'm sure...and probably tearing my house to pieces. And yes, my buddy Brooks is taking a look-see on her every now and then to make sure she's still fat and happy :-) As for me, I do miss home a bit, or I should more accurately say I miss my house a bit. Home, in my opinion, is where your family is, and right now, I'm the only one in the house (other then my fuzzball) and my family and most of my close friends live back in Illinois. What a lonely existance, I know. But, I'm adapting and overcoming. These past few weeks here in Yorktown, while not so much fun because of a sickness that any recent student would know as "Death by PowerPoint", has been a real blast because of the opportunity to be near a bunch of cool people again. I'm not saying the people I live near in Oregon aren't cool...I'm just saying I don't know them and I haven't been able to make friends with them. But the people in my class have been a blast. We've gone out a bunch. Including all you can eat wings at Hooters, Kareoke at a place called the Cactus, watching the Blues Brothers while drinking beer in the common room, or the most famous, watching the Bears beat the Colts in Monday Night Football (I know, preseason) drinking beer and having 5 of us end up leaving the room with no hair on our heads that night :-) It feels kinda funny too...not that I've ever really had a lot of hair, but hey, gotta try something new every now and then!! (maybe I'll throw a pic up of my bald head if I remember when I get back home to OR). Other than that, things have been pretty normal. I flew up to my former Commanding Officer's wedding up in Connecticut last weekend. He works at the Academy now and so he got married on base. First time I've been back there since graduation. It seemed the same, and for any academy grads, yes I still got that pit in my stomach as I got close to campus. The ceremony was nice and the reception afterwards was a lot of fun in the O-club. Gotta love open bar. So all-in-all the weekend was good. And as a random pleasant surprise, on the way up to CT, I ended up making a new friend on my flight! Who could ask for a better weekend :-) So that is where I sit now. Its Wednesday night, and I only have about 6 more class days left till I'm off to Boston to visit Amy and Mike (gotta make sure he is a good guy and takes care of her!) We're actually hoping to catch a Red Sox game when I'm up there...that would be so cool because I haven't been to ball game in forever, and I've never been to Fenway. What fun! So thats about it for me. Like I said, nothing too exciting. Oh yeah, I almost forgot....going back to the point that I was saying about being lonely and not knowing anybody in my town. When I get back from my wonderful trip to VA, I'm signing my papers and joining the volunteer fire department for the town of Warrenton, OR. I figure that it would be a great way to meet a lot of the people in town, do a service to the community, and learn something new :-) So, thats it for now....I think. Well, I can't think of anything else at the moment, and I'm tired so I 'm heading off to bed. Hope all is well for everyone who takes the time to read this post!! Don't forget to smile :-)

A weekend off

Well, after my short stop in chicago with my parents, I made it to virginia and headed to class. Although I never enjoy death by powerpoint, I do have to admit I've learned quite a bit in my first week. Hopefully I will continue to be a sponge and make the entire month of training worthwhile. That being said, it was definately time to get away for the weekend!! So I headed up North to DC to spend a few days with my good friends Eric and Samantha. They are my saviors for this trip (and suprisingly enough, they invited me to visit again!) As for the weekend, it was a blast. I do have to admit that I did spend a lot of my time enjoying Eric's extensive Star Wars Lego collection. And now he doesn't need to build his death star anymore :-) We did get out though, saturday night we met up with Justin and Lauren, and Kelly and Doug for dinner in Chinatown. (a place called Matchbox, a little pricey, but excellent food). And then this morning before hitting the road, we went out and hit some golf balls around at a fun minigolf place. It was actually ranked in the top 5 in the Nation in some magazine. Sadly enough, Sam beat both Eric and I. Oh well, I guess that means that we need to get back out to the range and practicing :-)