3 Month Update

here's your 3 month update... The belly's bigger, the baby's healthy, and we still don't know if it's a boy or a girl. Not much of an update, huh? Well, talk to my sis. This is all the information she gave me!

Once again, here's a freaky alien-like picture of what the baby may look like in this stage of its development. Stay tuned for more news to come.

Wiz Quiz

i got a call this morning around 10AM saying that I was one of the lucky few selected for today's urinalysis. I've done plenty of these since I joined the Navy almost 4 years ago. It sees like every time they come up, they tell you that you need to provide a sample just after you get done using the bathroom. I used to complain about it, too. This time was different...they caught me just as I was waking up. I hadn't performed my routine morning bathroom visit yet, and I was ready to go. It took me 20 minutes to shower, eat breakfast, and get into my uniform. With each passing minute, the urge to urinate got noticibly stronger. Every time I caught a glimpse of the toilet, it took an enormous amount of self-control not to use it. I drove onto base in another 15 minutes and by the time I made it up to the urinalysis office, I thought I was going to wet myself. Thank goodness I managed to hold it long enough to make it in the cup. I think that next time, I'll just go ahead and use the toilet and start drinking.

The Official Date...

ok, so the paperwork has finally gone through for my discharge, and I am getting out no later than August 18th. It is highly probable that I will be leaving before that, but that is the latest I will be coming home. I can't wait to see all my friends and family, but it looks like I won't have to wait much longer! Yay!

Slipping already

sorry folks, but it appears that I have gone one whole day without writing: a sure sign that this blog will soon begin to slowly die out. I only hope that I can make a continuing effort to keep it as up-to-date as possible. That's the only way people will keep coming back to check it out, right? Otherwise, they'll lose intrest. That is... if they had any intrest to begin with.

The Big 2-0

my little sister is not so itty-bitty anymore. Today, her teenage years are officially over. Happy Birthday, Liberty! I hope it's a great one! I wish I could be home for it. Maybe I'll give you a call at some point and see if you got everything you wanted this year. Love ya, sis!

The snoozer

ok... here's me. Passed out. Please notice the right hand poised strategically over the alarm clock. It looks really uncomfortable, but it's perfect for sleeping through those loud blaring noises that try to steal precious sleep from you. At the first hint of sound, the fingers are programmed to react in a pushing motion, triggering the snooze function, and allowing you to keep right on dreaming without even realizing that an alarm has occured. This particular sleeping posistion was, no doubt, a result of months, if not years of sleep deprivation. It is not recommended for everyday use.

9 Weeks

this is a model of a baby human in it's 9th week of development. Currently, my little sister is housing one of these curious creatures within her own body. Yes, that's right. Liberty is now approximately 9 weeks pregnant. I am proud to say that I was the first one of the family who was informed of this little tidbit, and I am also proud to say that I'm going to be the best freakin uncle the kid could ever ask for! I don't care what anyone else says. So the baby is due to arrive in February sometime, and they still don't know whether it's a boy or a girl, but the parents are thinkin' girl. They've been tossing around a few names, like Sasha for a girl, and Cyrus for a boy. This is all very exciting and I can only imagine how the rest of the family is taking the news. I still find it funny to think of my mom as a grandma now. And my grandparents as great-grandparents, for that matter! It'll also be fun to see my skinny little sis carrying around a big fat belly. I think she might need a cart to wheel it around in.

And just because I couldn't picture a big-belly Lib in my mind, I decided to do a little experimenting to get a better idea of what it might look like as the pregnancy continues. Just as I thought, that gut is going to take her to the ground. It's not going to be pretty. After she pops the baby out, maybe she'll manage to retain some of that extra weight so she'll no longer be in danger of blowing away in strong winds. Wishful thinking...

Lost without you...

have you seen this girl? Apparently, she has run away from home. She hasn't been seen here since Tuesday, and the dishes are starting to pile up in the sink. Where has our beloved dishwasher gone? The lovely lady you see pictured is my ex-roommate, Lauren, longtime girlfriend of another roommate, Jack. She lived with us for several months under one condition: Since she had no way to pay her share of rent, she would be our designated dishwasher. But she went above and beyond to help out around the house. From bringing in and sorting mail, to folding laundry, to scrubbing bathrooms, to pulling weeds, and even cooking dinner from time to time... she gave 110%. And now, sadly, she has returned home to South Carolina, leaving 3 lost sheep to fend for themselves (myself, Jack, and Shawn.) Now, once again, we must fight over who's turn it is to do the dishes. You will be missed, Lauren.

Some people just can't take a joke.

The Patch~

i am really, really getting tired of telling this story over and over again, so I decided to post it online for all to see. This here is the reason for me getting out of the Navy. My old boat, the USS Greenville seemed like an ok place at first, but I soon grew to hate it... just like most everyone else who lived and worked on it did. Last September, crew morale was at an all-time low as most of us were in shiftwork, where we worked 14 hour days and then came back to work again 10 hours later, seven days a week. This went on for way too long with hardly any end in sight. This idea of mine to redesign our "hooyah" patch came as a reflection of that. It was an effort to cheer up my fellow crewmates and bring a seldom-seen smile to their faces. I was largely successful. Many of them wished for me to actually make my design into a patch just to have as a keepsake. Something to remind them, once they finally left the Navy, of how life onboard the Greenville could be rather unbearable at times. Months went by, and around Christmas time I had so many requests for these patches that I ordered up a batch of 100. They arrived in the mail just as Christmas Standdown had started and within a week, they were all gone. Just 1 day after the last patch had been distributed, The Patch fell into the wrong hands. The situation was blown way out of proportion when several counselors were called upon to investigate the Greeneville to see why it's crew was "so depressed they all wanted to commit suicide." Perhaps I should have seen this coming. It wasn't long before they had me pegged as the one responsible.

~

Good Ol' Charlie Oscar

From that day on, the captain had his heart set on getting rid of me, but he did not yet have a reasonable excuse for kicking me off the boat. I hadn't done anything against Military Regulations. However, there was one thing that the captain did have control over: my qualifications. I needed to go through him to be qualified Reactor Operator, and I had to do it within a certain amount of time or I would be "disobeying a lawful order." All the captain had to do was wait it out and refuse to see me until I was past my qual date, which is exactly what he did. He managed to squeeze one more EastPac of work out of me, and then as soon as we pulled in, I was transferred off the boat. At the same time, he put in a recommendation for Removal of Nuclear NEC and Submarine Qualifications. A few more weeks went by and sure enough, I was relieved of both titles. I had to strip the dolphins off my uniform the day before I went home on leave for my birthday. When I came back, i was faced with the decision of either cross-rating and going to a surface ship for 5 more years, or renegotiating my contract to get out of the Navy on a Reduction in Force (RIF) discharge. Guess which one I picked?? I think I've seen enough of the military to realize that I don't belong in it. I don't like the complete control that they have over my life. I want the freedom to make my own decisions and do what makes me happy. And the military is definitely not the place for that.

YAARRR!

the Pirates were out in force the other night as the crew celebrated the birth of Jack Daniels in the only way we knew how... getting drunk, dressing up, and terrorizing innocent children. We rolled seven deep to the 9:45 showing of Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest, chucking poker chips painted silver and gold at little kids yelling "there be treasure for ye, yer little brat" and other such nonsense. The movie was entertaining... at least I thought so. However, a few of our pirate crew were unable to stay conscious through the entire film. They were later forced to walk the plank.

I need another drink, Jack!