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By John, on July 12th, 2007
A series of unfortunate events unfolded this evening. While I was at the gym I was trying to instruct the girl on how to do some particular exercises. She wasn’t comfortable doing the exercises and I took that to mean that she just didn’t want to do them. I was wrong about that one. So, we came home and she was slightly… annoyed with me. I cooked dinner and started cleaning up the apartment while doing laundry. I was done with everything else but the dishes and the kitchen so I headed in there. She normally does the dishes because she is sweet and she knows that I loath the task. Tonight I was on KP duty. I was unloading the dishwasher when I knocked a chefs knife off the counter and onto the floor. Unfortunately for me, my foot was in between the knife and the floor. The knife took a stab at me (literally) and gave me a good ole bleeding gash. I remembered being calm about the situation and directing Jessica to grab me a exercise band to strap a sock to the wound. In essence, I made my own gauze and ace bandage. She was a bit frazzled at the onset and was very concerned. I knew that I hadn’t hurt myself that bad but I knew that I definitely was going to need a couple of stitches. I called my Flight Commander and passed on the information and headed off to the ER.
I had to deal with the insurance when I got there because I wasn’t at a military hospital. I expect to be billed for the visit and then pass that on to Tricare (our insurance of sorts). Jessica asked the nurse for some gauze because I started to bleed through my quick fix and onto the floor. They saw me with a quickness and said that my quick fix bandage wasn’t half bad… it wasn’t half good either but it worked. The nurse started to irrigate the wound and thought that I was going to give her a tussle because it stung a bit more than I expected. She told me that we’d have to throw down if I kicked her because she didn’t get paid that much. I can’t say that I blame her.
The PA came in and doped me all up and gave me six new stitches… hooray for medicine. They gave me a really strong pain killer and I don’t know how I’m going to react to it. Hopefully it won’t make me loopy… or so loopy I can’t handle myself. I’ll have to sort out the incident paperwork and the insurance and the military hospital stuff in the AM.
There were two funny things about the whole situation -
1. I had just sharpened that knife and Jessica had nicked herself the other day
2. She wasn’t mad at me after I injured myself – I guess she does like me after all
By John, on July 1st, 2007
I added some new photos to the gallery of the Mariners game last night. Jessica’s grandma was nice enough to provide tickets and let me fill one of the seats. I spent a chunk of money eating rather unhealthy but very tasty ballpark food. If you don’t have a strong gut you probably shouldn’t eat there. I think we are going to another game in a couple of weeks.
By John, on June 22nd, 2007
I’ve been trying to get out of my current career field for a few years now and the chance is upon me. I’m going to let the best chance to retrain pass because I think I’ve found a better plan. If I was to retrain I would undoubtedly move away from here within the next year – no doubt about it. If I didn’t retrain I could use my job reservation and reenlist whenever I chose to do so. I have a guaranteed job for the next four to six years if I take the oath once again. Odds are, unless I place Korea on my list of bases I won’t leave here for a few years. Some people have been at this base for eight years – I’ve never heard of anyone being stuck at a base for eight years
Since I’ll be hanging around I can do a few things -
1. I can stay here with Jessica until she finishes school – she promised me she’ll be done my spring quarter
2. I can continue to work the second job and continue to pay off my debt
3. I can start taking classes again – if I’m not moving there is no better time like the present
4. I can still go snowboarding in the winter – if I were to move I might get stuck far away from them thar hills
5. I can continue to hang around a very important girl
6. The docs can continue to evaluate why I have a hard time running and hopefully solve the problem
After she completes her school, I can still apply to retrain but it might be a different career field and it will probably be under a different retraining program – its slightly harder to retrain in this manner but I might be able to do it. The other option is that if I finish my degree and she’s got hers done I could separate early from the military and become… a civilian again. I love the military but that doesn’t mean I can’t move on with my life. The military provides a great sense of security and in some ways I may be afraid to take that risk.
So… here’s the risk… and I hope it all goes well
By John, on June 17th, 2007
If only I could keep it up -
So, on Thursday night I spent the evening wearing a polo shirt that was provided to me as I stood directly next to the stage at a Faith Hill and Tim McGraw concert. For the evening I was a member of the security team. My only job was to be a visible presence, answer questions, and remove any fan that attempted to jump up on the stage. I only answered one question and nobody attempted to jump on the stage so it was a relatively boring evening. I’m not a fan of country music – save for Johnny Cash – so I almost fell asleep a few times. Jessica was with me and was watching from a different part of the floor. She was rather jealous of me and wished that I could have been sweat on by either one of them – I don’t quite get it. She had fun but it was an extremely long evening. If only it was music that I actually liked – Stevie Wonder would have been awesome.
Friday was another night of fun as we went to watch the Tacoma Rainiers play in a triple AAA game. I’m not a huge fan of watching baseball but when you go to the park there is a lot of other stuff to watch if you have little interest in the game. They also have two of my favorite food groups: brats and beer. I haven’t had a good brat in a while – you know, brat, bun, sour kraut, catsup ( or ketchup) – all the things that make it good. We were staying for the fireworks that were at the end of the game and I guess it was a good choice. The game was all tied up through the 9th inning and we gave up 5 runs in the top of the 10th. Three of them were from an unforced error… doh! Since the Rainiers hang out at the bottom of the standings I didn’t think they had a chance in hell of coming back from that one but a miracle happened and scored 6 runs. I was extremely tired by that point so I really didn’t care but it was one heck of an ending. There were fireworks after the game but I almost fell asleep. If I’m tired I’m willing to sleep almost anywhere.
Saturday – last night – I went to Katie’s house – she is one of Jessica’s friends. We imbibed large quantities of behavior influencing liquid. Needless to say…. I was inebriated. Good times were had by all.
The girl is making me pancakes right now – she could be a keeper. If only all of my time off of work was this enjoyable.
By John, on April 30th, 2007
Man is not mean to live alone and many of us spend much time, money, and effort in the search for another person to be with. Some of us our adept at this process and quickly find the individual that is a perfect match. Others like to play the game for a while and aim for variety of quality. Some people are so afraid of the game that they make excuses for the majority of their life on why they can’t meet anyone. I’ve never been much into the variety game as I often shoot for one at a time and see where it goes.
For the longest time after the divorce I had a huge fear of rejection. I’d been through it once and I never wanted to feel like that again. The experience changed my life and made me for the better. It made me realize that I would get up the next day and move along. If nothing else, I’d learn something from the situation. This time around I told myself, what the heck, whats the worst that she’s going to say? All she can do is tell me no. I had to be careful with that growing experience because the first thing you want to do is put up a barrier so that nobody else can get close to you because the hurt sucks. The hurt, as bad as it is, is probably the best part because its the thing you’ll remember. You’ll remember why you went out there in the first place so you wouldn’t have to experience the pain again. The pain happens if it doesn’t work out but you’re shooting for never having that feeling again. If it does happen, the sun will rise again tomorrow… unless a nuclear apocalypse coincides with the collapse of your relationship causing nuclear winter. The odds of this happening is minimal and I’m sure that dating would be the last thing on your mind. I’m willing to wager you’d be trying to not die of starvation, a permanent sunburn, or radiation poisoning.
So, for the last month I’ve been dating a particularly spectacular girl who I enjoy spending time with. I’m fairly set in my ways as I’ve been out on my own for a while and I’m used to doing things a certain way. There is still a whole bunch of flex in me and dating is all about finding the flex in yourself and in the other person. You’ll know immediately if there isn’t a spark when you first meet but the test of time is seeing how you interact when a difficult situation causes friction. So, we’ve moved through the first one of those (thanks Target!) and I’m curious to see where it’s going to lead us.
So, yes granny, I am dating a girl.
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