It's not Monday but here's a Military post.

As we all know it is not Monday and I haven't posted about the military in a long time but today seems like a fitting day for a military post.  Today this post will serve two purposes.

#1: Today is the 12 year anniversary of 9/11

I don't dwell a lot on tragedies well, I try not to.  I was in 5th grade when the terrorist attacks happened and I'll tell you exactly how I felt when I found out what was going on in Mrs. Ratica's English class, confused.  It took me awhile to figure it out.  Kids kept being picked up and I was hearing buzz words like bombs, airplanes, and Al Qaeda but no one was telling us 5th graders the whole story.

English class was eighth period for me and that's when Mrs. Ratica finally turned on the TV and showed us what was happening.  I was still confused though, I had no idea what it all meant.  I had so many questions like, what is a terrorist, who's Osama Bin Laden, why would they want to hurt us.  I think I vaguely remember my mom trying to explain it to me and it was probably the first time in my life that I actually watched the news.  Of course now I know what it was all about and I personally will never be able to forgive the people that did this to us.  I will always remember the innocent people killed and everyone that tried to help.  For all of those that were lost that day and any other day you may be gone but you are not forgotten.

#2: Kyle heard back from the Navy

This topic is a little more personal to me and I haven't wrote about it in a long time.  The reason for that is because nothing was happening.  However, he met with his recruiter on Monday and something has finally happened he's been accepted into the Naval Flight Officer program.  I'm happy/proud and upset all at the same time.  I guess nothing is really official yet, he hasn't signed anything, but we're getting closer.  I'll keep you updated but in the meantime,

Happy Wednesday!

Military Monday: For now I know more than you

Today I want to gloat about how I know more than Kyle.  I got upset yesterday because we were talking about the future and whenever anything about my/our future plans come up I get upset.  I've learned that this is just how it's going to be for a while.

Anywho, so we were talking about future plans and Kyle said that he probably wouldn't be assigned anywhere for like 2.5 years or so because of training and therefore I would have like 2.5 years to do what I want in PA because I "don't get to go with him through training".  WRONG! He was wrong.  I never get to say that but today I do.  He was partially correct in that I don't get to live with him while he's at OCS but I can live with him through the various stages of flight school which I am still unsure about.  When say unsure about I mean I don't know about all the various stages of flight training but I do know I can live with him if I so choose and that makes me happy because A. we can live together and B. he was wrong and I got to tell him that.  So for the time being I can say that I know more than him.  Ha-ha!  Thank goodness for small victories.

In other news, I don't think I'm going back to the bakery job.  My boss basically called me an idiot multiple times on Friday and other times earlier in the week and I'm not going to put up with that.  I don't think she's going to stop either or that this is some kind of new hire ritual because she constantly puts down the other girl that works there and she's been there for 8 months.  I don't know how you can put up with a person like that for so long but more power to you.  I however am not going to deal with her because I don't have to and I'm not going to let her ruin my enjoyment of baking by her verbally abusing me.  So I'm back on the job hunt hopefully it's short lived.

Happy Monday!

No Military Monday

As you may have noticed I was on hiatus for the weekend.  Also, I'm skipping Military Monday today because I don't even want to think about the military or the Navy or the fact that my significant other is joining today.

I had a great weekend.  I ended up in Virginia with Kyle and his parents.  We went to this lovely little winery called "Narmada".  They had really good wine and Drew Stevyns was there.  He's a musician and he's just wonderful.  You should all check both the winery and Drew out.

Also I don't know if I mentioned this but I'm now home for the summer.  I don't know if its the better choice but I'm here with the people I love so that's good.

I started and ended my summer job hunt today.  I'll be starting work next Tuesday at this darling local bakery called Sweetie's and I'm so excited.  Mostly because it won't be just a counter, customer service job like I thought.  I'll actually be helping bake!  I'm totally pumped.

That's all for today.  Summer is a hard time to blog.  Happy Monday!

Military Monday: "Support your Significant Other, Friend, Family member"

Today I wanted to talk about the phrase that any new military spouse, significant other, friend or family member is going to hear when they ask, "How do I deal with my son/daughter, husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, friend, fiance/fiancee going into the military?"  As we all know I'm not quite a military significant other yet but it's going to happen sooner rather than later and when I first found out about my SO wanting to join the Navy I took to the internet to see what others had to say about me being sad about this very sudden decision.

When Kyle first told me that he had decided to apply to go to the Navy I was in shock and I found pretty much every military blog, support website, etc. to tell me what to do.  I wanted to know how you were supposed to cope with a life changing decision like this.  And the answer that I got the most was, "Always be supportive of your new sailor/soldier/etc.".  No way!  I would have never thought I should be supportive of Kyle's decision.  That my friends was sarcasm, of course I knew I needed to be supportive and I am/was.  My real question was what do you do on the days when you don't feel like being supportive?

It was harder to find an answer to that question and I never actually did.  So here's my answer.  Do whatever you want.  However it is that you cope with being upset about a big change in your life that you can't control, do that.  It's pretty simple but I would have been happier if someone had told me that.  My coping techniques include ice cream, sometimes a chick flick and crying.  One night I was feeling really down about the whole thing.  I felt like I didn't know anything, it was all so uncertain.  Do I go with him? Where will I live? Will I have a job? Will we get married? What about my hopes and dreams?  Nobody had an answer to those questions so I went to Wal-Mart, bought some Ben and Jerry's and then went home and bawled my eyes out.  And guess what it helped.  I eventually talked myself through some of my questions and kind of came up with answers.

I also want to let you all know that it's okay to doubt sometimes and if you don't feel like being supportive that's not being selfish.  If your friend or family member or SO decides to join the armed forces it's not only a big change for them it's also a big change for you.  You might not physically have to go to basic or be deployed but it's a challenge in it's own right.  So it's okay to have days where you want to cry all day or punch a hole in a wall, okay you might not actually want to punch a hole in the wall,  but trust me it's okay to not be supportive 100% of the time.

How do/did you cope with your loved one joining the military? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Monday!

Military Monday: Military Vocabulary

When my boyfriend decided to inform me that he had decided to join the Navy and it was not going to be for the  teaching position he had previously explained to me I freaked.  I didn't know what to do and I was pretty sure that life as I knew it was over.  And in all honesty for the most part the life that I live now will change drastically in about a year when he does leave for basic and all that fun stuff but I'm a lot more accepting of it now because I've read about 300,000 articles all about military life.

I know I'll never be fully prepared for what's coming but I read the blogs and I've learned a lot.  The following are some terms and acronyms that I found really daunting but now don't seem as bad.

PCSing

When I started reading blogs and articles I saw this one everywhere and I had no clue what it meant.  I read things like "10 things to know for your first PCS" and "Not every PCS is the same" and "What to expect when you're PCSing".  I didn't actually read that last one but it is a really great title.  I'll have to remember it for later.  But in case you didn't know PCS stands for permanent change of station.  I was also afraid that you would be doing one of these like every other month or something but it turns out that it's more like every few years.  So I guess it's not that bad.

Reintegration

Reintegration is something that happens after a long deployment.  It's basically when your significant other (SO) comes back and he/she has their way of doing things and you've figured out your own way of doing things and those two ways don't exactly mesh.  It seems that for some people reintegration is really hard and frustrating but for others it's rather easy.  I suppose it depends on what kind of couple you were in the first place and how understanding the two of you are.  I told my boyfriend about this phenomena and I don't think he feels that it exists but I'm pretty sure it does and that one day we're going to learn first hand ALL about reintegration.  It should be fun.

Sea Tours and Shore Tours

One day the boyfriend brought home some pamphlets about the positions he applied for and nosy little me decided that I had to read them.  One of them started talking about shore tours and sea tours and the words "sea tour" scared the crap out of me.   I was convinced that the boyfriend would be spending six to X amount of months on a boat and that I would literally never see him.  That's not what a sea tour is my friends.    A sea tour basically just means that your SO and maybe you if you choose to follow along will be stationed on a base near a boat.  Your SO may have to go on the boat for a little while at times but the good news is that he/she won't always be on the boat and you will get to spend time with them.  What a relief!

That's all for this installment but I'm sure we'll talk about military vocab more in the future. Do you have any terms that scared you or you think I should know?  Tell me about them in the comments!  Happy Monday!

Military Monday

My newest idea for a series is, you guessed it, "Military Monday".  I've decided to start this particular series because my boyfriend recently decided to fill out an application for the Navy.  I'm very proud of him and I plan on supporting him in all of his future endeavors.  This decision though is a pretty big one that not only effects him but also me and his family.

I'll start by giving you a little background information on Kyle and I.  We met in 2009 in our first semester of college.  We were both in a theater group.  We started out as friends and by the end of our second semester and the play we were dating.  It's been three years now that we've been together and for two of those years we've lived together.  It's pretty serious.  I'm also pretty sure that we're going to be together for the long term, at least I hope so.

So here we are in 2013 and we're both a year away from graduating.  About a month ago we were both in the same boat.  Neither of us had a "real" direction for what we were doing after graduation next May, then a week later Kyle found his direction, the Navy.

At first it was for a teaching position in Charleston, SC.  It would have kept him there and there would have been no deployment, no active duty.  I liked that.  Plus we would live in South Carolina which seems like a pretty nice place.  He talked to a recruiter about this position and everything was hunky-dory, for like a day. He later found out that his GPA wasn't high enough for the teaching position but there were plenty of other careers in the Navy he could look at, the only "down side" being that they are all active duty positions and there will be deployments.  This news was upsetting but there was still the opportunity for me to go with him when I could.  I'll let you in on a little secret up until that point I didn't realize that to get the benefits of your significant other being in the military you have to be married.  That was lesson number one for me.  Marriage is a big deal and I never want to rush into it but now with that little nugget of information I think following him when possible will be tougher to do without being married.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to force him to marry me just so I can tag along and reap the benefits through his military career.  I'm a big girl, an adult in fact and I can take care of myself.  I do want to get married someday though.

I don't come from a military family and neither does Kyle so all of this is very new to me.  Kyle deciding to join the Navy was quite the surprise and I'm still unsure of how to deal with it.  Right now everything is still far away (kind of) and he's not officially in.  I'm still scared though.  From everything I've read so far military life isn't necessarily easy for the enlisted or their families but it is rewarding.  I know I have a lot to learn and I probably won't learn a lot of it until it actually happens but you can never be too prepared. Right?

So this has been the first "Military Monday".  I don't think all of them will read like this but I thought you all should know why I decided to start this series.  In a nutshell it's because I'm scared and I'm looking for advice but I also want to give advice to those who are looking for it.  For future "Military Mondays"  I'll probably include something new that I've learned about military life and occasionally updates on where Kyle is at in his prospective military career.

Hope you enjoyed the first installment. Happy Monday!