The weirdness surrounding the sudden disappearance of this blog and the strange emails from their support are the biggest reason I’m moving this blog. I’d really hate for this to suddenly just be gone one day with no way of getting it back and as I talked to a few friends it seems Tumblr is a bit known for their malfunctions. This also isn’t the first issue I’ve run into but the other things were very minor comparatively.
http://militaryadventures.wordpress.com/
I decided to go with a free wordpress blog versus hosting the software on my own (if you even know what that means) because I didn’t want to spend a ton of time setting something up. Wordpress also has comments, so you all can leave your impressions.
Cheers!
Would you all be more interested in a blog where you can comment? If so, send me an email.
I showed Aiden, my nephew (the boy pictured) the picture below of Christopher in his ACUs. Aiden didn’t seem to recognize him at first and I had to tell him who it was. Even though children are not in our future, Christopher got along surprisingly well with Aiden.
I think part of it though is because they would gang up on me. Also, the fact that Aiden is very pointed about sharing his gummy snacks with Christopher whenever possible buttered him up.
For those of you don’t know, I tend my nephew during the week and so Aiden’s had constant exposure to Christopher for about a year and a half, I actually think closer to two years now. I don’t think Aiden quite understands yet that Christopher is going to be gone for a while.
Don’t really know what the problem with the blog was. I was able to see all of the articles in my dashboard but for whatever reason it said the blog didn’t exist.
WARNING: GEEK SPEAK
I think it was an issue with the subdomain as all of the articles were still there, meaning the files still existed on the server but the subdomain was no longer pointing to them. I tried pinging the blog, this and another I have, but they don’t have static IP addresses so I couldn’t point blank tell the support guy it’s a subdomain problem. They had me purge my cache and delete my cookies, which, I hate doing because I’m lazy and I like my browser remembering stuff for me. The things I do to fix a problem, geesh. :)
END GEEK SPEAK
Christopher gave me his address. I’ve already emailed it to a lot of people, but if you want it just drop me an email, phone call, text, etc.
I’m taking it he had one of the other guys take this photo, but he says it’s nice to be in uniform.
He also mentioned that he only has a couple of addresses but figured he could send me letters for everyone and I could get them to the appropriate people so he could save on postage.
He’ll be able to call me one more time tonight but then they’re going to take his phone and other stuff. It sounds like he’s headed over early tomorrow to Basic and then I’m pretty sure he won’t have a lot of time to talk. I think this week has kind of been a luxury in that way.
South Carolina has been good to him so far. He says he can breath easier but he’s still kind of getting over a cough. I’ll be getting info in the mail soon and I think I have a lot of paperwork to fill out in my future.
He had taken with him a book, about pirates, non-fiction, but hasn’t really had time to read it. They gave him what they call a “smart book” which he’s already read a couple of times and continues to review. The week has been pretty monotonous for him. Go here, stand there, wait a while, fill out paperwork, get shots and what not. I think I’d be bored out of my mind.
I asked him why they call it a smart book and he says he has no idea. Probably because it makes them smart. I suppose sometimes though asking questions like that might get one picked on, I don’t know, I’ve never been through Basic.
I get a text today with “Birth control glasses :P” and this picture. It’s like the Army finds the most hideous frames they can get to further break down their newbies. I think the only consolation is that many of the other recruits who wear glasses get the same frames.
Despite his sentiment I still want to kiss him all over.
He’ll be off to Basic this Saturday. They gave him a bit of a cash advance and he went and got some things at the PX so he was packing tonight. I teased him a bit because other than making sure he had some toiletries with him when he left, all he had were the clothes on his back. What do you have to pack? You have like four items to your name.
He also got his ACU clothes today. (Army Combat Uniform) If you didn’t know what that meant until now, well, at least we’re hand in hand aren’t we? I have a lot of abbreviations ahead of me and a poor memory so I imagine this should be fun… or at the very least frustrating. He mentioned it felt really nice to be in uniform again. He seems to be doing better today and other than the picture and the few short texts, he wasn’t able to talk much or for very long. I imagine his time will only get shorter here soon.
I keep badgering him about an address but he doesn’t have it yet and probably won’t until Sunday-ish I think. He said he gets immunizations tomorrow. Yuck.
I decided to send him a picture of something he used to look at daily, yesterday. It’s a fortune cookie fortune which he taped to the top of his monitor. I think it’s always hard to be away from anything familiar; friends, family, even his dog and it was getting him down.
I suppose all of us need a reminder sometimes about what’s important.
I’m doing okay myself. Sleeping a little better finally and I honestly think it’s been helpful that they haven’t taken his phone away from him yet. Being able to say good morning and good night, no matter how brief I think has let us both cope. Sammy, his dog, perks up whenever I have the phone in the mornings and pounces my chest. I think she can hear him talking. She still doesn’t understand what’s going on, why we haven’t gone “home” in a couple of weeks and desperate to know where Christopher is at. However, I think she’s having a blast with a fenced yard where she can roam and do as she pleases when she’s outside. Her and the boxer Boston are becoming friends which I think is helping her confusion and anxiety. My room-mate and adopted brother Mike has been very kind to keep her company when I’m not here. I think they’ve both taken a liking to each other.
Cheers!
He called me tonight, said he was at a Reception Battalion and it sounds like they’ll move him early next week to Basic. Right now a lot of what he’s doing is paperwork and processing. He informed me we have life insurance. This strikes me as kind of funny mostly because it was one of the first things he told me and all I could think was… okay…
He’s pretty out of sorts right now. They didn’t get to their bunks until about midnight last night, but their numbers were wrong and so they were made to stand outside for about an hour right around 1:30am. They then had about another hour of sleep before everyone was up again. I told him he might develop narcolepsy and doze off whenever they have five minutes here or there and he said, “Nnnoooo, they would get in my face if I did that.”
So, I can’t really blame him for rattling off about life insurance. I did a good chunk of the talking while we were on the phone, talking about nothing really, but happy to have spoken with him. It sounds like lights out soon for him so I’m hoping he’ll get some sleep.
He mentioned however there’s a page on Facebook or something where they’ll post his progress, pictures and other things as they go through while there. He sent me a postcard with that info and I’ll probably post it here when it comes in the mail.
Also, if I post pictures and you want high resolution copies, just let me know and I’ll email them to you.
Christopher told me when we were both working at the same place that he had once shaved his head and decided it was not a good look. He seemed surprised that I hadn’t noticed.
1.) I suck at noticing stuff.
He came into the kitchen as I was packing dishes, stood and smiled at me. I looked up at him and said, “What?”
He shrugged, said, “Nothing.”
It wasn’t until about a half an hour later I noticed he had shaved his goatee off, to which I exclaimed, “You shaved off your goatee!”
His reply was, “Took you long enough.”
He plays these games with me because he knows it takes me a while, if I notice at all.
2.) I asked him if his shaved head was during his “black hat” period. There was a time where he wore a hat, always - so I feel like I can’t really be responsible for something he kept hidden all the time. :)
The worst part about this is that I can’t rub his bald head right now. I mean, isn’t that a big part of having no hair? Giving me the ability to rub your head?
My niece had her hair shaved off for Locks of Love and I’m going to see her tonight and pretty much rub her bald head too.
http://kelsmeltingpot.blogspot.com/2011/08/this-is-me-before-and-after.html
Christopher took his oath today.
