By them we mean us! Sorry for the lack of . . . well. . . everything Jon and Virginia lately. We have been pretty busy with all kinds of stuff. Mostly wedding planning. So in case you did not hear yet out final wedding date is going to be September 13th 2008. Which is only 6 months away! Very exciting stuff, but moving on.This past weekend we took a last minute journey to Vancouver British Columbia(Canada). It was a bit of a celebratory trip for Virginia’s recent job opportunity at KISS Fm in Seattle. She will be working weekends for now, and hopefully more soon. Back to the trip, we decided that Vancouver would be an interesting place to visit since Jon had never been and well neither had Virginia(obviously). We made a stop at the Aquarium for the better part of the day. There we saw a huge frog show which was of course up Virginia’s alley! They also had cute little sea otters which Virginia didn’t want to stop watching(it was feeding time and they eat off their cute little chests!) After leaving there we hit up a comedy and dinner show called the giggle dam. One word. . . AMAZING. The name of the show was “Diapers to Depends” so you can kind of get the humor there. I don’t think we stopped laughing the whole time, especially when they called us out and told everyone we were Americans, further more they said to be nice, we were probably packing. The whole night was great.The next day we were on our way back to the states and somehow Jon had left our birth certificates and social security cards back at the hotel, and hour away. We ended up figuring out a bit later where they were and were on our way back to get them. We were just happy to have them since we need to apply for our passports for the honeymoon!
Even though I spent the past couple months in a time capsule, the rest of the world kept moving at its regular pace. One thing that Virginia has noticed since she’s been out on the west coast is that life is a lot slower out here than it was in the northeast. It’s not that we don’t keep ourselves busy, it’s just that people out here have a more relaxed (and less stressful) outlook on life. I must say that it has been very nice to get back home.
About a week ago I spent the day packing and getting ready to leave Guam, and about midnight (Guam time) we left the area where we were staying and went to the airport. About 8 hours later we took off to fly home and landed at around 3am (Washington time). After about 22 hours of traveling and an 18 hour time shift, I was pretty wiped out… and even today I’m still a bit jet lagged.
Since I’ve been home I’m working on getting back into some sort of a routine. Much of my time has been catching up on the routine maintenance for our home network and media systems. Installing updates, downloading new versions of software, and reading about the new products and rumors that have come out since November. I must say that I’m quite glad I sold my Apple stock (AAPL) before I left as it has dropped about $60/share from it’s peak.
Tomorrow we are leaving at about 2:30am to head back to the airport for a trip to NY to work on wedding plans. We are looking forward to getting back to visit friends and family. We will only be back for a week, and it will likely be the last chance we have to do any planning in person vice over the phone. If we don’t find time to see everyone while we’re back, we ask that you don’t take it personally. Our schedule is going to be quite full.
~Jon
Well hello everyone. I just wanted to let you know that I am alive and doing well. Some of you have heard from me in the few days that I’ve been back in port and some of you have heard that I’m okay from Virginia. I have to say that I don’t really have much to tell you all. Living in a submarine is very much like a cramped time capsul. Nine people share a bunkroom between two missile tubes and your own personal space is limited to about 30 cubic feet. That may sound like a lot, but it’s actually smaller than a decently priced coffin, and not quite as comfortable. I can’t complain too much because while I was always busy, the work wasn’t usually very labor intensive. And the food was almost always good. I’m very much looking forward to being back in the States however. For those of you that have gotten my Guam cell phone number, if you call me I plan to let it ring through and then call you back. I got a great deal at 4 cents a minute outgoing, but it’s 27 cents a minute incoming.
Missing you all,
~Jon
Well the good news is I did in-fact hear from Jon the bad news it was at 5 am our time. He is sounding very good and very much looking forward to coming home soon. Though it is still going to be a while before I see him, it is kind of nice to know that he can call me now!
Update on the happenings of this week. I went tot Seattle to go to a bridal show and Church with out friend Adrien(who is also getting married in September). I worked a bunch. Lastly I received a call from KISS fm out here(top 40 station). They like my stuff and want to meet me. So I have an interview on Monday morning! I could not be more excited about it either! Wish me luck.
~V~
Seriously not knowing when Jon is coming home is killing me! The fact that I have had the last 4 days off isn’t helping much either. Luckily I was able to go to dinner with some navy wives(which was very helpful) and went to a bridal show with our friend Adrien. That helped to take up a few days, but now I am home alone with nothing to do. Every time the phone rings I pray that it is him. I check my email about 40 times a day, no lie! It is quite pathetic. This morning I got lucky with my first email in about 4 days. Apparently the system has become very slow so it takes 2-3 days before he gets my messages and vica versa.
He seemed to be in good spirits, although he did mention that the food he once thought was so wonderful is starting to get old and he is quite sick of it. He was asking about some of his friends back in Washington as well as in NY, I think you all know who you are. I am sure he is dying to hear all of our voices.
~V~
Yup until Jon gets home. I am totally missing him and he is always on my mind. It seems like even if he was coming home tomorrow it would be too long to wait. I received another email from him and again he sounds like his spirits are up. He still isn’t getting enough sleep and is finding it hard to get time to write me or anyone for that matter. Tomorrow night I am attending what the wives call the “Final Fling” which is the last get together until he comes home. That right there tells me that he must be coming soon, just don’t exactly know when. Which is killing me. Best to just carry on and try not to think about it though. Just be expecting him to start blogging sooner or later(hopefully sooner)
~V~
I just heard from Jon for the first time in a month! He said all is well and he is looking very forward to coming home. Duh I think we all are! Hopefully he will be home by the end of the month.
~V~
Yup the end of a HUGE year for me. At the beginning of last year I was single, working full time as a waitress at chilis in NY. Now at the end of the year I am in Washington state, attempting to pursue radio again and working in a fine dining restaurant. Oh did I forget to mention I am engaged? Yea a huge year.
Tonight I will be working at midnight in the restaurant, which is fine because if Jon is not here I would rather be at work than home alone. I hope that everyone important to us East coast and west coast alike has a wonderful night and New Year!
~V~
Haven’t really been blogging alot lately, and I apologize. There is a very good reason for this. I made a trip home to Ny, and it was a surprise. so in the days/weeks leading up to it all I wanted to talk about was my trip, and not a whole lot else was on my mind. I left on December 17th and just returned on the 27th. Both trips were very long(especially by myself). Overall my trip home was awesome. I got to surprise everyone from my brothers, cousins,aunts,uncles to my grandparents. It was so fun to have a secret!
Let me tell you what was not fun. . . My trip home yesterday. I arrived at the airport at 5:30 am for my 7am flight. Check in and everything went fine. As I am waiting I hear that the flight is overbooked and they need a volunteer to catch another plane. They were going to refund the cost of your one way ticket plus $200. Good deal right? I thought so and went to the ticket counter to volunteer and see when I could catch another flight. They said they had one going at 11:35 so I agreed. The good thing is here I made $600 all e for future flights home, the bad thing is I had to wait 5 more hours. I pulled out my blanket and sat in a corner and slept. Atleast until a french family sat next to me and their children started climbing on me. . . seriously HOW RUDE! I boarded my plane and go the seat I wanted. . . popped a nyquil and went to sleep. When I woke I felt terribly nauseous and ended up vomiting on the plane. Thankfully I did manage to do it in a bag. . . I am so glad they still have those! The poor flight attendant saw me and came and took my . . . uh. . . trash. That right there made me feel sorry for all the flight attendants. . . I have a new found respect for them. I arrived in Vegas to find out that I had a 3 hour layover. At this point I felt so sick I just wanted to be home in bed. After playing $2 in slots(high roller I know) I sat and waited for my plane to arrive. I has A2 boarding position which is the 2nd person to board. . . very good, but when I got on I realized that this was a continued flight from somewhere else and all the good seats were taken!
Needless to say I arrived ok in seattle, my bags that was another story. I had to go to the baggage claim office for my bags since they were on the first set of flights I was supposed to take before the bump. That was nice since I didn’t have to wait for them on the turnstyle. However someone had cut off the strap that connects my small bag to the top of my large bag. Trying to walk with 3 larger bags and a book bag was not fun. To make matters worse I had to walk the entire length of the concourse to get to where the airporter was picking me up and I had 10 minutes to do it. It took some major running and balancing to make it and I BARELY made it. Ofcourse since I had to do all that I couldn’t make a claim about my brand new luggage being ruined. So I called today and got the run around about how I needed to go back to the airport and bring the luggage, and should have made a claim yesterday. After finally calling 4 different numbers for southwest I managed to get someone who cared. He gave me another $100 voucher for future flights, so in the end I have $700 in flights to be used by 2009. Was it worth all the pain and vomiting? I do not know, but I know I am happy I can go home about 3 times, round trip for all my troubles!
P.s. Jon comes home in less than 4 weeks!
~V~
Since Jon has gone there is not a whole lot for me to do. So I have been working alot. This week was the first time that they let me put in a full 40 hours, unfortunately I couldn’t work today seeing as though I am still sick. Yes apparently my strep throat and bronchitis has not gone way, and I have had this for almost 2 weeks now. Today it literally feels like someone is sitting on my chest, there is so much pressure on my chest. I guess I should look at the bright side, it keeps me out of the rain. Although I am glad that I am not in NY as they are getting pounded with almost a foot of snow as we speak.
Communication with Jon has come to a hault as he told me he can’t email me until after the new year. He did say he has been working in the kitchen as a dishwasher for a few weeks and that his hands prune very badly after he is done. Good thing I sent him out with lotion! It sounds like his spirits are pretty high and will be home (hopefully) in about 4 weeks.
Thank you for your prayers
~V~