Tuesday, April 25, 2006

I've become one of THEM!

Ugh, I never thought I would do this! I have become one of "them." "Them" being the military wives who do nothing but complain. I'm so freakin tired of it all.... We've been sitting here in a house with no furniture and sleeping on the floor for over a week because I had been told by the housing office that they would *not* reissue furniture if we had already turned it in. So they wouldn't give us beds to sleep on for the last month we are here --- we're picking beds up tomorrow.... I heard that someone else had gone in and gotten furniture today, I call and am told "Of course you can come get stuff, we wouldn't want you to have to sleep on the floor for a month." That's not the biggest of my bitches though. We have been told as of today that it looks like he will defnitely be going back to Iraq. I know there is nothing I can do about it but I can lay blame -especially if it makes me feel better!.... LOL, I'm just looking for someone to be pissed off at. I have always been very involved and active with the Key Volunteer Network and also with helping plan and execute stuff around the squadron. I even planned a catered dinner for 400 people while he was on his way home from Iraq with the current squadron. I had already decided to take a break and not be so involved with the new squadron - this made the decision easy for me. I will *not* do jack to help out if this is the way they are going to be. I am soooo going into this with such a negative outlook now. We have to give the Corps two more years as he just pinned on rank on 01Mar - that will put him at 24 years. We had talked about possibly sticking around for a total of 30.... I now feel that this is the "nail in the coffin" - horrible analogy, I know - but if this is the way it is going to be, I can't wait to do the time so we can go on with our lives. I know I sound like a lot of the new wives who are young and didn't seem to know any better - "I didn't know he was going to be gone so much." Oh, how many times have I heard that one? But I've definitely been around long enough to know - over 18 years worth of knowing.... I've earned the right to bitch about it once in a while! The kids don't like it but are okay with it. C has plans to go to North Carolina and visit friends for about a month over the summer. I asked if this will change her plans, if she would go for a shorter time so she could spend time with Dad before he left. Her reply? "No, I think I'll still go for a month. I'm used to Dad being gone all the time." C'est la vie.

Friday, April 21, 2006

Jose Cuervo, You Are a Friend of Mine...


LOL, so I'm not drinking Cuervo, but watermelon vodka and Sprite works! I don't know what's wrong with me tonight. I should be happy, we're out of here in a month. But I'm depressed, home alone tonight, and decided to have a couple of drinks... Wow, I look at that and realize how bad it looks - it's really not!

Since I last wrote we have shipped our household goods. We have no beds, no living room furniture - we're using the rattan patio furniture - and very little else in the house except for a few dishes, linens and, of course, we all four kept our computers. We cleaned up the car and have it up for sale. I'm stressing over that - the money from my car selling here is going to the taxes and registration on the Pacifica. Know anyone in Okinawa who needs a nice car? It's the equivalent of a Lexus in the states. I would love to bring it back with us but it takes too much to get it legal for registration.


I think the two things that are bothering me the most are my impending surgery and S's possible re-deployment to the sandbox. I have my pre-op on the 2nd of May for an endometrial ablation. I was supposed to have a hysterectomy, but of course, since I've been begging them for 8 years to do it, now they agree and there isn't enough time for recovery before we leave here. The ablation should help for a while but I will most likely have to still have the hysterectomy in the future. I'm hopeful that I won't have to go through this whole process again once we get to Balboa. They have assured me that I'll just have to walk in and say "Hi, I'm here for surgery" but I have been around this gun club long enough to know that assurances don't mean shit. Take our new command, for instance. To make a long story short - I want so bad to type it all out but have been around too long... OpSec is drilled into me and I know it's not right to put it all out here on the web. So, we had been assured - there's that "A" word again - that he would NOT have to go back, even though the command is there. Numerous people said "no, you won't go, 'such and such' is going." Well, it seems that while we are 3/4 away around the world it has been decided that it would be better to have S go instead of the guy who is supposed to go. I'm all for him doing his job and his duty - I know there are others who have been 3 or 4 times already - I'm not against him having to go again, it's just that dammit - if I were to total it up, he has been gone at least 6 out of the last 10 years, if not more. Hell, just in the last 3.5 years here on Oki he has been gone a total of over 2 years. Suffice it to say that's the one part of this life that definitely gets old! If he is going to have to go, just let us know so we can prepare for it - both mentally and in other ways. I do not want to wait and find out the 1st of July that he will leave in 4 weeks.....

I would love to stamp but even though that's what I had planned to do tonite now I'm not in the mood for it. Maybe I'll go watch some Gilmore Girls - they always put me in a good mood. :)

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Chula U, Chula U!

Once again I have to say, why they heck do we wait until it's time to leave for us to do things?!?!?!? S, C and I went to Chula U yesterday - man, best Y2100 we have spent in a long time! For approximately $20US the three of us got to sit in natural hot springs and jacuzzis all afternoon. As a society in general, we, as Americans are very prudish... the Japanese think nothing of being nude in a bathhouse - which was a real "eye opener" for C. Although they did have segregated nude areas, we stayed in the clothing mandatory areas. I tried to get her to see the lesson in humility - she didn't understand.

I also got my acrylic nails put back on yesterday. I keep them short and love having nails - my own are just so darn thin I can never get them to grow and stay long without breaking (or without me biting them!). I also treated C and myself to pedicures. What a relaxing day - manicure, pedicure and then the spa!

After the spa we went to CoCo's for dinner - it is going to be sooooo hard leaving all the great authentic food here - and then to Felton's going away party - Futenma Bowling Alley as usual. I sure am going to miss him. I can't begin to describe how I feel about these young guys. I look at them like my sons, or my little brothers. LOL, some of them are so young I really am old enough to be their mother! I remember when we first got here to Okinawa and I was around the guys that I was actually kind of jealous when I would hear them talking to DeDee and I was the outsider. It's so funny to hear a newbie call me "Ma'am" and have someone else say "that's Mom!" I know how difficult it was for S and I to move in our younger years, and that was just in the states. I can't imagine what it's like for these guys to be so far from home and not have anyone - hence the reason we are really more like a big family here and why they are so special to me. It's going to be very hard for me to leave this place and all of them. The closer we get to our departure date (36 and a wakeup!) the harder it is already becoming - I'm excited but also already starting to get a bit depressed.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Family For Sale!

Will I ever make it through this week? I know the answer is "yes," but It's not been fun getting there.... We're all stressed because we have the big pack-out on Monday. We didn't get to go to the Caramas to go snorkeling because of the weather. Gt has been coaching a basketball camp all week, and S, C and I have been working on stuff around the house and trying to do some small trips. It's been raining off and on all week, and we're all getting cabin fever! It's frustrating - we've got to go through all our stuff and figure out what we want to trash, what we want to sell, what will go in the household goods shipment, what will go in express pack, and what we will carry with us....on top of that we're trying to cram all the stuff we have neglected to do and buy in the last 4 years into the 4 weeks we have left on the island. Still haven't gotten the car up for sale... can you say STRESS!!! I know that this too shall pass. C and I are going to get pedicures and manicures tomorrow and then tomorrow afternoon after our pre-inspection we're going to go to the hot springs... I am sooooo looking forward to just relaxing in the hot water!!!

Friday, April 07, 2006

Free at Last

Wow, I'm free of work! Today was my last day at work - besides the fact that I now get to sleep in a little - woohoo!! - this tells me that our time on the island is getting shorter. As much as that excites me, it also depresses me. Okinawa has become home - we have lived here longer than anywhere in our lives with the Marine Corps. Tonight we went to an Izakaya - an all you can eat restaurant - for my going away party. S and G went with me, although I know G only went so he could get free food before going out with his friends! Good food, great friends! It's so hard to say goodbye. I got three bouquets of flowers today, a photo album with group pictures taken of all of us yesterday in the office, a caricature drawing by one of the girls at work that everyone signed their names and good wishes around, and another Norikane print! I do have this print already, but my boss meant well. He wanted it to be one that is truly Okinawan instead of Japanese - this print definitely is... You can see a copy of it here.. Okinawa Roof. I love the print - obviously, or I wouldn't have bought it myself!!! S and I will take it back this weekend to exchange it for something else. We will be in the area tomorrow anyway since we have to take the car to get the windows re-tinted - dang JCI's! - and are going to go to Rose Garden for breakfast. We need to get the car finished and detailed so we can get it sold. I keep saying "we have time, we have time" but I noticed that another friend who leaves here two weeks after us already has her van for sale. I'm sure the car will sell quickly - it's a Toyota Mark II, which in the states is a Lexus.... I would love to bring it back to the states but there is a lot that would have to be done to it to make it legal to register - not worth it!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Don't Tell Me You Love Me

Remember the song by Night Ranger - "Don't Tell Me You Love Me"... That's all that keeps runnin through my head today - different situation though. Tomorrow is my last day at work - WOOHOO!!! I really don't like the job - but it's a job, and it's damn good money - about the most I can find here - and it's not retail! I'm only here for the paycheck. LOL, sound familiar? So anyway, I only work with 5 Americans, the other 40 or so are Okinawan - not a problem. The Okinawans are great, it's the Americans that I have a problem with - go figure. So back to the title of my song.... A couple of the girls I don't have anything to do with - never have. I don't kiss ass like they do, and have never let on that I would even want to. My problem lies with one of the others. She and I have been friendly off and on while I have worked here, but I wouldn't really term her a "friend." I knew her hubby for a couple of months before she started working here, we have all gone out for dinner a couple of times (S, me, and the two of them). She bitches all the time about how she doesn't like the others, but yet she is right there with them... so herein lies my problem. They (my entire office) threw a luncheon for me today, and we are partying tomorrow night too. My "friend" tells me today.... "I don't know why they decided to do this luncheon today, and at this time... we're all going to church." Um, geez, the rest of the year you're not a practicing Catholic, so why now? And um, I'm sorry I didn't check with your schedule before I scheduled my last days at work. "We'll try to come by after church if you're still there." So we sat at lunch for almost 2 hours - they went to church (supposedly, I don't know and don't care), and came straight back to the office - never even tried to stop in. "Don't tell me you love me...." Basically what I'm sayin is - DON'T f#&*'n lie to me! In all honesty, I couldn't give a shit if you want to come or not, but don't tell me one thing because it's what you think I want to hear when you mean something completely different. We all have things that we don't like - I'm not that hard to get along with. I'm fairly easygoing and laid back, I just don't like liars. In fact, I think the one thing that bothers me more than anything else, is lying...

On a different note - I get to go shooopppppin, I get to go shooooppppppin!! AAFES gave me a $250 gift certificate - I was fairly certain they would so have been trying to figure out how I am going to spend it. I have decided I am going to buy myself a new IPod.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Name change

I have been unhappy with the name of my blog - okay, so I love Semper Gumby - so much so that I have been living the life for 18 years and even have a tattoo on my back to prove it! I'm just bummed that I can't have it as my actual blog address - all variations I tried are taken, but it wouldn't bother me so much if they were actually up to date. They're taken by people who haven't even blogged in, like 3 years! The Marine Corps' motto is Semper Fidelis - Semper Fi for short. It means "always faithful." So think gumby, as in the play-doh character from childhood - LOL, did I just date myself? Gumby was able to easily bend and move - he was flexible - hence Semper Gumby - always flexible! It's kind of like the unofficial Marine Corps' motto. I'll have to get a picture of my tattoo and post it on here one of these days. Maybe next week - I'm *hoping* to go get my next one before we get out of here.

Back to my name - my group name with Stampin' Up! is the Semper Fi Stampers - most of us are Marine wives, and if not Marine, military. The name seemed natural. I decided that this is now my semper stampin blog.... the only way I could figure out a way to get the best of both worlds - LOL, suggestions are welcome!

Guess I need to spend more time around here too instead of rushing to do things. Can't believe I was trying to make it so much more difficult than it actually is! Now that I've figured stuff out, pictures to be posted soon!