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| Well, over the past year or so, my Xanga has certainly languished. I find that I only tend to post when away from home as a way of cheering my wife up and the original intention of my blog, keeping friends and family up-to-date with my endeavors, has fallen by the wayside (particularly since no one reads it anymore). On the other hand, I find myself increasingly wanting to speak out, basically just run my mouth about whatever might be going on in the world. Given this two premises, the only logical conclusion was to revamp my blog and turn it into my own personal soapbox. I hope to update far more frequently than I used to, randomly picking issues to talk about. I don't plan on sticking strictly to politics, I'll probably talk about movies, books and my favorite artistic medium, sequential art (comic books). For those just joining me, I am a 22 year-old happily married U.S. Marine. I live quite close to Camp Pendleton, California where I am eking out the remaining two years of my service contract. My political views place me in the camp of 'moderate liberalism' and I imagine my blogs will reflect this. I'm not adherent to any particular party and my stances on many issues like abortion and the death penalty are quite ambivalent. I'm a firm Christian (in that I adhere to the Apostle's Creed) but I detest moralizing. We live in interesting times, there are many many things going on in the world around us. Sadly, I find our society generally characterized with apathy towards many of these occurences, quite content to just sit idly by as our governments misuse the power we've entrusted them with and watch reality TV instead. As such, consider this blog my part in the battle against indifference, whom I consider our greatest enemy. My intention in writing is not to make others agree with me or prove the superiority of my opinions and arguments, but merely to shine a light on various different issues and hopefully get others to shine their lights on them as well. I'll end this blog that illustrates quite clearly why I bother to do this at all: “So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect.” - Eleanor Roosevelt | | |
| So the day began with tears and hugs. Once again I am forced to leave
my gorgeous wife at the behest of my neo-nazi-like employers. This
time, my mission sends me to Yuma, Arizona, home to WTI - a rather
important field exercise my Marine Corps standards.
Despite having gotten less than an hour's sleep the night before in order to maximize time with honey (I mean my honey,
or rather my wife and the honey, gah, I'm confused!), I find myself
driving a rickety old 2001 Dodge pickup that has seen far more use than
is healthy down the Interstate. We meet the usual traffic on I-5
heading to San Diego but once that's clear, so is the road. It's
basically a straight shot to Arizona for about three hours, the scenery
ranges from giant rocks to shrubs to sand. There's a creepy part where
you cross the rope bridge from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(you know which one I mean) and another where you're basically
free-falling down a mountain (3000 to 0 feet above sea level while only
traveling 7 miles forward), but other than that it was an easy drive
despite being half comatose. It helped that I purchased a second coffee
from McDonald's, though most of it found itself spread out around the
inside of the truck.
Once in Yuma we found the Air Station with ease and received our little
badges that say we can go where we need to go. A quick bathroom stop
later and we were on our way to Site 50, which is where we'll be doing
all our actual work for the next eighteen days. We had directions from
the base and among them was an instruction to, I quote, "veer off the
road". Needless to say, I didn't feel particularly confident. We drove
twenty miles east on the highway, and through a border patrol
checkpoint that I thought was rather homosexual, and then had to
navigate a series of dirt 'roads'. I put roads in single quotes because
you really have to lower your standards for what qualifies as a road to
really consider the pitiful dirt paths we drove on today as such.
There was initial confusion as to the nature of a 'dike' that we had to
go down on and so of course when it came time to veer off the road we
veered in the wrong direction and found ourselves astride the
aforementioned dike. For those that don't know, a dike is basically a
rather tall but narrow burm. What purpose it serves is completely
unknown to me, but believe me when I say that driving on one in a
pick-up of questionable reliability and handling is a terrifying
experience. After what seemed like an eternity (we honestly considered
the possibility that this dike led straight to hell), we were able to
u-turn and find ourselves back on the correct path. We quickly handled
our work business and proceeded to our hotel.
Well, actually, we proceeded to a hotel,
and the another, before we arrived at ours (which of course was
of considerably lesser quality than the two visited prior). When making
our hotel reservations several weeks ago, I called so many hotels that
the one I actually booked with completely slipped from my mind. We
arrived at the Hampton Inn and gratefully admired our luxurious
surroundings and proximity to a surprisingly large mall only to have
our hopes dashed when they failed to find our reservations. This of
course was due to the fact that we didn't have any. A quick phone call
back to the office and I learned that I'd actually made reservations
with the Best Western which was thankfully only two hotels up and still
an excellent choice. Of course, once we arrived there it turned out we
actually had reservations with the Best Western Coronado, but if you'd
like we can accomodate you here because no offense but the Coronado
sucks and so does their breakfast, oh wait, you need eighteen nights?
Sorry, I guess you'll have to stay at the Coronado, I hear it's lovely
this time of year.
In all honesty, our hotel is fine if not nearly as nice as the Embassy
Suites in Baltimore. Once we were all settled we headed back to
the mall (which was now two exits away from us instead of across the
street) and bought some running shoes. I got the nicest running shoes
I've ever owned and they damn well better be for what they cost. I must
say, Yuma is much large than expected (Pop 120,000) and hosts a
ridiculously large mall. Once shoe shopping was complete, we watched
Employee of the Month which was one of the weirdest, stupidest,
funniest movies ever and then had dinner at the Olive Garden. All in
all, I'm pretty exhausted but it was a fairly entertaining and
adventurous day. I can imagine the days that lie ahead being nearly as
fun, what with having to work and all. Ironically, I still don't even
know what my work schedule is or when I even have to show up, so I
guess I'll come in when I feel like it.
I miss my wife terribly and the eighteen days that remain of TAD seem
like an immense chasm separating us. Still, I constantly remind myself
how lucky I am to be married to her and the first place and eighteen
days doesn't seem quite so bad. In twenty-one days, I will have been
married for a full year. It boggles the mind. So much wonderful and
perfect has been crammed into the past year, much more than I ever
thought I'd be blessed with in my entire life. I go to sleep secure in
the knowledge that I have what very few people do: all I could ever
want.
On that note, I bid you goodnight and farewell (adieu, adieu, to you
and you and you). Tomorrow begins a new day, and new adventures await.
Fraaavrite!
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| Today was a lovely day of coffee-drinks, thoughtful-books and lots of presents for my pretty wife-creature. Home is truly where the heart is. While long conversation and other phone-related activities certainly made this business outing far less painful than the last, I cannot begin to describe the feelings of happiness and 'just rightness' that flood my being from being home, where I belong. Plus, I get family hugs. And other kinds of hugs. If you're at all interested in current affairs or have even the slightest desire of learning more of what's occurring in our day and age, I heartily reccommend the book below. The way the author handles his references is rather wonky (certainly not MLA), but it is nonetheless worth reading. At the very least, it may compel you to seek out more information. Celebration = Presents! | | |
| You know what makes boring business trips that send me three thousand miles away from the one that I love much less horrible?
Phones.
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| Hrm... stuck at work for the next... 30 hours or so, sound fun? I get to wave cars in and harass them whenever I can find a semi-valid excuse to do so. I miss my beautiful wife and it galls me that I must be apart from her for such an extended period of time. I'm not in a bad mood though, strangely enough. I was going to be, particularly when I walked into the kitchen at 5:30 this morning and found the freezer wide open and the floor covered in water, all our food probably ruined. What I did was lay next to my sleeping wife for a few moments and thought about just how lucky I am and how great my life really is, minor inconveniences aside. Without even doing anything (other than look peaceful and gorgeous), Asami restored me to a state of calm happiness and that is how I will remain. So, thank you for all you've done for me, particularly today. I hope everyone is as fortunate as I to find an anchor for their life, something or someone that reminds me of how truly wonderful the gift of life is and allows us to appreciate it in all its aspects, regardless of whatever else might be going on. | | |
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