Happy Birthday To Me..and an update for the past two weeks.

Another year down, and I don't feel a day over 28 (except in this case, I am only a day over 28)!
I have the day off of work thanks to some pleading, but I still got to go to PT this morning and do what's known as a "ruck march." For those of you who don't know what that is, a ruck march is the name for the Army's plan of getting Soldiers ready for war, buy having them walk around with a 70 pound backpack (known as a ruck sack) for at least three miles. I can't say it was fun, but I finished with the rest of the group.
HAving the day off is actually doing good things for me, for one, I get to update this blog, which has been suffering due to my heavy work schedule. Also, I get to take care of some personal business, that otherwise I'd have to try to squeeze into my busy work schedule. Are you seeing a pattern? I have a very busy work schedule!
My days typically start at 6am - I get up, shave, head to work for PT (or as I like to call it, Army torture (still, it's getting me physically fitter than I was before)), come home and clean up, then head back to work, where I typically stay until 6 or 7 at night on an early night. I don't HAVE to stay that late, but usually I have news stories due the next day, and no time during the day to get them done, so I hve to stay late. Sometimes I stay as late as 1am, but that's because I take pride in my work. The one thing that helps me out, is Vanessa calling me to talk to me for about an hour. She doesn't realize it, but I get so focused in on my work, that I rarely take breaks, and I begin to stress out. Her calls are welcome, because 1) I Love her, and I enjoy talking to her, and 2) talking to her allows me to forget about what I'm working on, and focus entirely on her. Once I leave the mindset of work, I'm completely stress free. It often helps to reenergize me, just hearing her voice, and I appreciate it more than she knows.
Recently, I had to take over for my boss (in the military, it's called an NCOIC, or NonCommissioned Officer In Charge) and run the news section for two days. The job was nice, but really stressful. I had no preparation or training to run the section, but I think I came out okay. I found a few news stories for the section, and matched up the personnel I had to each story. For example:
- the guy who really likes sports is shooting the Harlem Globetrotters wen they come to town Wednesday.
- Our resident lady's man will shoot a group of college girls on the base who are holding a summer camp for kids as part of their summer internship.
- One of our fast tracker Soldiers who really wants to be in a leadership position will shoot the Audie Murphy Award Ceremony (an award for outstanding leadership).
- I took the "fluff" news stories, like families training for a chemical or nuclear attack, and a piece on a guy that volunteers to teach gymnastics to Korean kids.
The reason I assigned the shoots the way I did, was to match each person to their passion, so they's be more motivated to do it, and maybe spend some time putting it together. There's a real lack of effort, or pride in one's work here. I think it's because the leadership doesn't care about the product, or the person, so long as the newscast airs each night. With noone telling you you did a good job, or getting any feedback other than, "that really sucked," almost everyone in my section hates their job, and it shows in their work. I'm doing what I can to liven things up, but it's an up mountain battle.
But enough about work for now.

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Vanessa's been gone for two weeks, but it feels like forever ago already. It felt like that the day after she left. I miss her so much. Now there's a question in her head about whether she's meant for me. I think it's the fact that she's moving to Germany, and has never had a guy stay with her after a move, is getting to her, but there's more to the story. She feels jealous of Barbara, and the feelings I had for her. I've told her time and time again, that I don't even think about Barbara anymore (even though she just found her way into my blog), and that I'm passionate about marrying her as soon as I can. Still, she questions why I'm with her, and every time she does, I explain to her that Love - with a capital "L" - doesn't go away, just because a person moves. I can thank my parents for teaching me that lesson, because from the time I was a child, even to this day,I see how close my dad is with his mom and siblings, and see how tight a group my mom is with her sisters (even if they don't see each other or talk often, they're ALWAYS there for each other). I really think that taught me about being there for the ones you love, even at great distance. I just multiply that by infinity for Vanessa. I Love her more each day, and that's not something I have to try to do, it just comes naturally. The thought of her makes me smile, talking to her drives away the storm clouds, seeing her excites me as only seeing the one person you KNOW was put on Earth just for you can. I just tell her over and over that I Love her, and hope with time, she'll know that I'm going nowhere, and I'm not looking for anyone else but her, because when you find your soulmate, you don't tend to look around for second best. It's like having Fillet Mignon on your plate, but looking around the room to see if anyone has beef jerky on their plate. You can't begin to compare the two, and neither can I.
I Love Vanessa. I know she knows, and I know we'll be together for as long as God gives us. I just have to keep telling her that I'm here for her now, I'll be here for her tomorrow, and I'll be there when we're celebrating our XX anniversary. All the while, I'll Love her twice as much as yesterday, and half as much as tomorrow.
ULI

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Happy 230th Birthday America. The base I'm on didn't shoot off fireworks because of some fire hazard, so this 4th of July wasn't very eventful for me in Korea (until Vanessa and I got to chat, then the fireworks really went off!). I went white water rafting with the AFN crew the Saturday before the 4th. It was the same trip Vanessa and I went on, but thanks to a Friday rain, the water was higher. It wasn't as fun, though, and I'm sure you can figure out why. Sunday and Monday, I pretty much just relaxed at home. Since I don't wear black on the 4th of July, I wore my only pair of blue jeans, and my stars and stripes shirt and boxers, but without a fireworks display, no one on base got to see me in color that day (ha ha).

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I was planning on flying to Japan late in July, but my boss will be out of the office through mid-August, so I had to push it back. Now I'm looking at July 31 - 18 August, but don't set any calendars just yet. I'm going to request the leave, but it has to get approved. I know I'll make it there in August, I just don't know exactly when. It's so much better there than it is here: not just because Vanessa's there, though that is the number one best thing about Japan today, and not even because the work environment is better/more cohesive. It's because those things are missing here. When Vanessa was here for the short time she was, people at work were nice to me, they let me leave early, and asked how she was doing on a daily basis. Once she left, it seemed that the dark clouds of contention, that had been held apart so the blue sky could shie through, slammed that window closed, and once again, eveil reigned (and rained) down. Also, the people at work - as most of them are E-4 and below - not only work together, but share a living space as well. It's somehting we had to suffer through at Yokota as well, but I moved in with Vanessa, and out of that situation. Aside from Vanessa, working and living with the same people kind of gets you tired of seeing their face, so the last thing you want to do is go out and have a good time with the same people you see all day and night. Again, except for Vanessa, because I cherrish each second with her, and I worked with and lived with her, and will continue to do so until perpituity. There's also no sence of family at this AFN. The Air Force folks have it a little more than the Army folks do, but that's because we come from a service that cares more about the individual, than the mission, but I see it lagging in the Airmen who've been here a while, and I can even feel it leaking out slowly from me and the other new Air Force sergeant who got here 2 weeks after me. It's hard to not let some motivation go, but I try to hold on to what I've got, and inspire others to tread water until their tour is up.

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Oh, back to the ruck march. After the march today, I was stretching after PT, and one of the Soldiers noticed my leg. There's a large "swelling" on my left calf, and he worried that it might be dangerous, so I had to go to the hospital to get it looked at. When I got there, a nurse told me that I missed sick call, and would have to make an appointment. So I did - for the 28th. So this thing on my leg, that's been there since I got to Korea, if not before, and that could be potentially dangerous and health threatening, will have to wait another 18 days before someone in the medical field (strike that, the MILITARY medical field) can look at it. Man, I like the Army! (((Please note, I don't accentuate my sarcasm, but I bet you knew that was it)))

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So this has become a rather lengthy post. I notice that when I post long ones like this, no one leaves me feedback, so I'll just throw this into the void, and be glad. Glad that it's off my chest and onto the internet, and glad that maybe someone actually read this far.

If you did mae it this far, leave me a note that says, "Squirrel," just so I know who's really reading.

I love/Love you all in my different ways. Thanks for putting up with no updates for the past couple of weeks. I'll try to get better - but I do have a busy schedule. :)




ULI