What a week it's been.

First Things First!
The wedding is back on. Most of you who read this already knew that, but for my irregular readers, and those who just signed on, the wedding plans are on track once again (read last blog if you really want to - though it's cryptic, so you might be better off just smiling in blissfull ignorance).

I am in the process of contacting my groomsmen. Some of them, I haven't spoken to in a couple of years, so finding them may be difficult. Matt, Jason, and Martin...if you're out there...EMAIL ME...Email Me...email me...me...me (echo effect brought to you by ILM).

At this point, I want to thank our families, both mine and Vanessa's, for helping out so much already. Her mom has been instrumental in getting us the place, and looking into the reception hall. She's really doing a great job, and that will help us in the long run. My Mom, her sisters, and their kids are going WAY above and beyond to help me with the reception. I have SO MANY ideas to talk to Vanessa about when I see her next month. This "seven" theme, what I thought would be easy, has exploded into so many possibilities. Thank you all so much for jumping into this. It's hard to plan a wedding & reception, esp. overseas, and you all are making it much easier and less stressfull for the both of us.

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Work. Sucks.

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Just kidding (but not really). I still love my job, though day-to-day it's difficult to get through without thinking of ways to get out of it. I've never thought this way about work before. Not even when the bosses at Yokota did everythig in their power to hurt Vanessa and my relationship, not when a certain former boss of mine took away a shoot that was important to me, so (he/she) could shoot it for the recognition, not when I worked any of the mundane jobs in college (like waking up at 5am to go unlock a building no one used until after noon). This is the first job, ok not job, but station, where I dread going to work some mornings.
That said, today will be different. I made myself a bet this morning; if I leave at or before 5pm, I'll quit smoking for the rest of the week. If not, well, status quo. I have the opportunity to shoot American NBA stars today, as part of the USA Basketball Men's National Team's visit to Korea for the World Basketball Challenge 2006. I don't know many of these people (I don't watch too much TV or enjoy basketball all that much, so don't hate me), but for you sports fans out there, here's the list:
Carmelo Antony
Gilbert Arenas
Shane Battier
Chris Bosh
Bruce Bowen
Elton Brand
Dwight Howard
LeBron James
Antawn Jamison
Joe Johnson
Brad Miller
Chris Paul
Amare Stoudemire
Dwayne Wade
& Kirk Hinrich.
I CAN NOT GET ANYONE AUTOGRAPHS! Please don't ask. All I'm supposed to do is shoot video of them practicing for their game agains Korea tomorrow, and interview a couple team members about why they love the troops so much. That's it.

My boss lady has been better about talking to me, in fact, when I come to her with a problem, she's just as likely to try to help me solve it, as she is to yell at me for being an idiot who should have known better because I "read the S.O.P." already, right? 50-50. That's much better odds than I had at the beginning of last month. I also had her delegate some responsibility away from me. Once she noticed that I was sinking with all the weight she put on my shoulders, she's slowly chipped away by assigning other people to do a task or two. (((She's on leave this week, a fact that has everyone around the office saying one word everytime someone states that fact, "Yes!")))
I still feel Atlas' pain though.

I just wanted to put it out there, that work is getting better. The less I anchor, the better it is, and last week, I had to anchor 4 days in a row. I hated coming in to work, I hated staying until 9pm to do radio news (not that I haven't stayed until 9pm to finish a story, but that's my own dedication, not picking up the slack for a coworker). I'm still the alternate anchor, the training NCO, assistant assignments editor, assistant News NCO, a videographer/producer, and an acting supervisor (I've laready had to give out an LOC and LOR - military versions of calling an employee into your office and telling them they're screwing up, and one more means they're fired). There's a lot on my plate, and I wasn't even hungry to begin with.

This weekend, I decided to hold a nonviolent protest. I didn't come in on Saturday at all. I know, how much of a protest can it be to not come in on your day off, right? Well, if you consider the fact that I haven't NOT come in to work on a Saturday since my first three weeks here, and it makes more sense. I came in on Sunday, to put together a story I shot last Monday, but that's because I anchored every day after that. So much to do, so little time to do it...unless I stay late and/or come in on weekends (and the trend has been to do both).

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I miss Vanessa.
I miss her everyday.
I miss her smile, her loving touch.
In every single way.

We have moved up our communication a notch. We use to call each other every day, but it began hurting our wallets when the phone bills came. Now we video conference through Yahoo instant messenger. It's so great to see and hear her every night. Sometimes my coming home late after working 18 hours makes it difficult, but we at least get the chance to see each other and say our I Love Yous. It helps make our time apart more bearable.

Honestly, I don't think I could make it through the day sometimes (most of the time) without talking to her. She helps melt away all the sorrows and pain of the day. Sometimes she calls me at 5am just to say good morning, and we always say goodnight. I'm the happiest I've eer been with her in my life. I only hope I show her that. I'm SO looking forward to September, when I'll get the chance to visit her in Japan before she flies off to Germany. We're hoping to meet up there, and praying for it everyday. Until then, it looks like we may spend upwards of 8 months apart. Eight of the most important months in our engagement. I was thinking about this last night, but we got engaged, then I left. For our entire engagement, up to the wedding, we will have been in the same place for a month (the time I got to spend with her in Japan, and my leave in September). If we do both get assigned to Germany, we'll probably be miles apart, and have to travel back and forth between our bases to be together. It sucks, but we're both willing to sacrifice to be together. That's what makes us a couple that will work. We want to be together, and will find a way. I just hope against hope that my chain of command lets me go to Germany. If you ask, I'll send you an email string from my Captain, almost begging our AFN assignment superintendent to station me with Vanessa somewhere in Germany.

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So that's today's update. I know I've only been doing weekly (if that) posts. I'm going to try and get better, but everyone knows, work comes first, and free time is a commodity I can't trade much of.
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