March 30th

Checked into NMPS (Navy Manpower Processing Site. Also know as: the Navy's Medical Processing Sucks) today. It was as bad as I thought it would be although there was the standard hurry up and wait bit. Muster was at 0500 and my part only took one hour so I had another two to kill. As expected just when I was falling asleep back in my room, it was time to get back up and head back for briefs. Freaky thing: they must pull a lot of the pictures for their briefs from the Navy media center. On one of the slides was a picture of me from IM training (running around the Camp Smith track). I don't think anyone noticed which is good because it was one of the really bad pictures. Weird. I did get a chance to run to the Exchange at lunch which was nice. It was a warm, beautifully sunny San Diego day. They are so hard to beat. The air is so crystal clear it almost hurts the eyes. There was a nice breeze blowing and at one point I walked past a row of flowering shrubs and got the most wonderful perfume of blooming flowers. Seriously, it was amazing. After class was over, I was done heading back to the Q thinking it was in for the day but got restless. I threw on some sneakers and hit the road to look for the gym. I found the freakin' jackpot. Track in back; pool open from 0500 - 1845. It's 76 degrees but damn the luck, I just happened to have my wetsuit with me. I know. They get to make fun of me here too. But 76 is too cold especially at 0500 in the ay-freakin'-em. So tomorrow morning the plan is to get up early (since I'm going to have to get on East Coast time anyway) and hit the pool. Frankly I didn't think I'd be able to workout hardly at all but lo and behold, they can't keep me down. The run this afternoon was awesome. Fast and light. Too bad though, there was a whole field of soccer players with fantastic legs that I could have oggled if I'd been going slower. Clear, cool air. Smell of pine trees. Light evening breeze with the sun slowly lowering under the horizon. I miss Hawaii but if I have to be somewhere else, this is certainly high on my list of places to go. Tomorrow's another day. Can't wait to see it.

March 29th - Trip from Hawaii to San diego

March 29th: A letter to my husband since we're not in phone contact and he reads this religiously. Don't know why. Schmoopie, So it’s day one of the move. The day started without much sleep; another day in a strange bed. A 0430 wakeup and out the door (late again) by 5:15. Said goodbye to TN and OH. Depressing and we’ll leave it at that; they are at Iroquois Point for a race this morning. It’s amazing how many people are on the roads at that hour, especially on a Sunday. In keeping with my desire to spend as much money as possible in the shortest time possible (ok, not really but that seems to be the way of things lately), I spent $462 for an upgrade to first class. For that price, I get a boarding pass that’s a pretty gold color. Who knew? If I knew that, I would have been upgrading all along! A gold boarding pass. Will wonders never cease. Normally I wouldn’t care at all unlike TN that has made a small career out of mastering the Frequent Flyer system for every airline including the obscure ones from places like Singapore and Malaysia. Sitting in coach doesn’t really bother me all that much except for the obvious – 1) getting crunched in next to some really a) big person or b) someone in need of a shower and/or dental hygiene. Really it isn’t that hard. Second thing is (I always sit on the aisle) the carts that come through driven by irked inflights that just don’t give a shit about those of us crunched in like cattle. There are no permanent scars but some bruises throughout the years. Anyhoo, I’m $462 lighter and I expect to be treated like a queen for the next 6 hours. This may be the only flight that I wish would last as long as possible. OK, not really. In the mean time, I’m sitting here in the waiting area listening to some moron pontificate about Jesus. As a Christian, I’m on board with the whole concept but at this point, the conversation (attempted conversion so it seems) is being conducted as the volume of an annoying cell phone call. Something that is (or rather should be in my opinion) an extremely personal subject shouldn’t be conducted so the entire waiting area can hear you. So far, I haven’t heard the other person who’s theoretically part of this conversation say a single word. Maybe that’s because he’s conducting his portion of the conversation as a normal volume. GASP! That’s just crazy talk. I gotta say, I’m not totally on board with the whole idea of actively going out of my way to turn someone to Christ. I would think that the far more effective thing to do is live the life of a good example and if someone asks, you share. OBE. It's now quiet. (OBE = Overcome By Events) Well, it’s time for me to board with my…..GOLD boarding pass. Yea! They just made the announcement that 1st Class is full by the way. Now doesn’t that make me special Part 2:With two movies and only 5 hours of flight time, the flight went pretty quick. It was yet another opportunity for great people watching. The dude who sat next to me looked older but had the body language of a younger person. Grey and balding but wore sneakers and put his feet up on the wall in front of us like a teen ager. Where on earth did Americans figure out that it was okay to put their feet all over everything. In your home, no one cares but really? I'm simply not doing this justice. Anyway, he didn't try to talk so that fantastic. Based on what he was watching on his portable DVD player and the fact that he was playing 15-year old, he wouldn't have been that interesting. So, after a quick stop in LA (for a much needed espresso....ahhhhh....), we were off to San Diego. My first taste of this GSA things was great and I'm sure a harbinger of things to come. HUAH! Hurry Up And Wait. After driving around the base for a while, I decided to go to the BOQ for directions. Thankfully, it was apparently the place I was supposed to be. Unfortunately, I had to take a number because there were about 50 fucking people waiting in line. I was #56. As no doubt I will say frequently over the next few weeks, "I don't make this stuff up." It only took 90 minutes to get checked in. So finally, I'm here in the BOQ with a full belly courtesy of Subway and the History channel on. I suppose not bad. Except for the fact that it's a 0415 wake-up for uniform fittings. Fuckin' AWESOME!! I love this shit!So, sorry schmoopie, there aren't a lot of fun things (or funny things) to talk about today. I have no doubt, however, that the fun-factor will increase exponentially as I progress towards Fort Jackson and Kuwait. The best news is that, after three years, my wireless finally works. I'll talk to you soon :) Love, K