My Troops

I can not imagine what life must have been like for the families and friends of Soldiers of previous wars when technology was primitive compared to today. This is what has been on my mind lately. Here, let me explain.

I have two friends who are serving this country overseas. One is serving through the United States Navy whom I have known for about 3 years and he is considered my best friend for life and the other is serving through the United States Army whom I have met through my Navy friend and is quickly becoming a close friend as well. Thankfully these men are on the same team at their location so I am very happy that they have each other. Both have become the best of friends and I know the friendship will last a lifetime. They are expected to come back home sometime in September and I am counting down the months until that wonderful time comes.

As far as communication goes, I have had the luxury of keeping contact with my two friends through phone calls, text messaging, e-mails and even traditionally hand written letters. If I were in this situation 50 or even 40 years ago I would not be so fortunate to have such a variety of ways to keep in touch with them. I now realize that I take all of these forms of communication for granted and I should really count my blessings that I am so fortunate to have access to these kinds of technology. I don’t know if I could handle only written letters which takes about a month to reach their location. The anxiety and impatience for a reply to reach back to me I imagine would be unbearable.

I spend many of my hours thinking of these two friends wondering what they are doing, if they are safe and when my next chance to talk to them will be. The most popular choice of communication is through e-mail as it is the most convenient for the three of us. We can communicate without having to take time into account because the time gap between us is large… if it is 10:00pm Wednesday where I am, it is 6:30am Thursday where they are. I have the calculations down fairly well because I usually calculate it every three hours or when I take notice of the time. During this past semester of school, I got extremely spoiled when one of the two sacrificed his minutes and sleeping time to call me during a long break in-between my last two classes. I suppose he did this to keep me company and give me something to keep my spirits up. In all honesty, I got used to having that phone call once a week but now that those classes are over… I don’t get that call anymore, which is okay because I was a little uncertain about him wasting his minutes anyway. The point is that I took the phone calls for granted - I counted on those calls without ever thinking that one day I would stop getting them. I always knew they were special but now I realize just how incredibly special they were. We did text each other a great deal over the course of a few months but they have died down due to technical difficulties and that he is working long and hard hours. The e-mails we send back and forth to each other are more than enough. I am just happy and thankful to have them. I write him multiple e-mails each day to make up for the lack of texts and phone calls. In a way, the mystery behind e-mails make the communication between us a bit more exciting and more special because I can keep them saved on my computer.

For those that read my blog, you may be wondering if this is the same Navy friend from an earlier posting and the answer is yes, I have written about my Navy friend before and I wrote about how we met and how much I appreciated him only to now realize how much I really miss him. He and I share such a unique friendship. We write many e-mails to one another that are long and thoughtful and we tell each other just about everything that goes on in our lives, our thoughts, dreams and past memories. He always sacrifices his free time and the limited time he has to use the internet to write to me and I appreciate each and every e-mail he writes. Most of them are incredibly long e-mails and each time I see that he has written so much, I feel very special and grateful to him. I could write a novel on this incredible friend of mine… there is so much to be noted and appreciated with the friendship we have been blessed with but perhaps I will keep those stories for another time.

I am so very proud of them both, I wish there was something more I could do to make their lives easier… to show them how much I appreciate them for all that they stand for and do. For now, e-mails will have to do but when they return to the States… they should expect the greatest welcome home embrace imaginable.

God Bless Our Troops <3

Love,
Kelly

Happy Birthday Amy!

Today is my sister Amy's birthday! I can remember back when I lived in Charleston South Carolina and Amy would come and visit us. She always brought fun, love and laughter to the house with every visit. In her visits Amy would tan outside, go for a morning jog and take my sister and I to the pool or out shopping in town. Sometimes my brother Matt would come along too and then the crazy awesome fun would begin because once Amy and Matt were reunited, there was no stopping their tradition of trying to put diapers on my sister and I. It was a joke between them, we were far to old for diapers but I can remember running from them because I believed they would actually do it. I remember when she got her first car, it was a cute gold Honda! Haha she loved that car so much. I will always remember Amy for all of the great things she has done in her life up until this point. I remember when she graduated from college, how proud I was of her and how hard she had worked to get that degree, I am still so proud of her for going through all of that school.. she really inspired me. I remember when she moved to Arizona for her teaching. She taught children who spoke Spanish. Amy is so talented. She can speak fluent Spanish and English like it's nothing, create beautiful paintings, take amazing pictures with just one snap and now she has her own business with making monogrammed items and clothing that she does all herself. I am so proud of Amy, I hope she has the best day today and I will be thinking about her all day and of all the memories I have of her and I look forward to the memories I will make in the future. I love you so much Amy! Happy Birthday <3

Getting things done

Today I realized that for the past few days, I have done nothing productive! My room wasn't a complete disaster but it definitely needed some TLC because the dust bunny population decided to claim it as their territory. That's one of the negatives of having hardwood floors, dust collects very easily. I started off by doing laundry which wasn't much at all because I have been keeping up with it, surprisingly. Then I opened my windows (one of which does not have a screen on it because I like to have one completely open to allow free flowing air) Having the windows open, I used the opportunity to dust everything in my room and then vacuum the floor. That was really all that needed to be done. I am cleaning my sheets so they are fresh and clean, I love that feeling. I can remember when my mom would wash my blanket and then right after it was finished being in the dryer, she would come up behind me and wrap it around me =) Haha good memories. I love the way my room feels when it is clean and I have my lamps and candles all lit up. It's kind of like my own apartment... sort of... well, not really haha.

A clean room leaves my fung shui (I can't spell) to be in perfect harmony. =)

Friends across an ocean

Today, I want to talk about my friend Michael. He is a medic in the United States Navy and is currently stationed about 6778.91 miles away in Qal'eh ye Now Afghanistan. I met Mike when I worked at the Quantico Naval Health Clinic as a front desk receptionist and he worked in the Operations Management Department in the warehouse. We would occasionally meet eyes as he passed the desk or asked to pick up incoming packages. I didn't formally become acquainted with him until a few months later when I dropped from being an employee to be a Red Cross Volunteer in the Medical Records Department of the Clinic. At that time Mike was also moved to that department and that is where we first became good friends. Every morning when I would walk into Medical Records, Mike would be fast at work, sitting at his desk going through record checks for Active Duty Military. I don't quite remember how we started talking but I imagine that it had to be something funny and friendly because that is how I remember it being every time I worked with him. As we became better friends, we would occasionally go to lunch together at the Club on base to eat the buffet there. We usually talked about what went on in our lives at the time, what we wanted in the future and what we treasured and learned from our past. I can remember times when I would be done with my work and I would go and help him finish with his because he never seemed to be even close to finishing his work. Records would pile up every hour and eventually there were boxes everywhere full of records that he had to look through and while he did that, he also had actual Active duty come in and speak with him... I'm not exactly sure what for but I always felt so bad for him. One day I noticed that he stayed extra late... when everyone else had left for the day. As I collected my things to leave and said my goodbyes to him, I turned and looked at him once more... sitting there hard at work all by himself. I thought to myself "you have nothing left to do today... if you went home, you'd just be wasting time sleeping!" something that was the opposite of productive. I decided to stay and help him with anything I could. He first looked at me really strangely, a girl who wanted to stay after hours... who wasn't getting paid in the first place, to put away tens of hundreds of records was not something he expected. He thanked me and put me to work. I enjoyed every minute because we would continue our conversations from before. Some were funny, some serious... whatever they were, they were meaningful in some way. That is how I remember Mike, always there to listen to me, always there if I needed a laugh. We stopped talking once I stopped Volunteering but just recently ran into each other on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). We started talking and I found out that he was in Afghanistan and we exchanged emails and we talk every chance we can get either through Email or through AIM. I sent him a care package for Valentines Day yesterday which will hopefully reach him in a week, and I am expecting one from him any day now. I have recently discovered that I never realized how much I valued his company and how much I would miss someone I only spent a few months of my life with. I hope we continue to talk and never let the distance of an ocean get between us. God Bless Our Troops <3

Kelly

Zumba!

Today was dedicated to my best friend Mia. I awoke in the morning, got a shower and then headed up to her college, George Mason University. When I arrived, I met up with her to ride in one car to pick up her friend who would also be our Zumba dance instructor, Sarah. We then went to Sarah's house to choreograph the dance routine that Sarah was going to teach in her first Zumba class! She chose a variety of Spanish and Arabic styles of music with really heavy beats that make dancing fun no matter how difficult the moves =) When we got to the studio, 5 people showed up for the class and we got started. I had a great time trying to keep up! Sarah's moves were so quick and fun that I just wanted to know how to do them already without learning! I certainly had a great workout because by the time the class was over, my face was red, my heart pounding and my muscles sore. She did her job well! The only downside was that I did not eat anything before the class so I felt light headed and I still have a headache from it but it was still fun and I am so glad that I went! Thank you Mia!!

Kelly

It's 4:00am!

Well it is 4:00am and I am still awake! So I decided that I would write an entry =)
Yesterday was a wonderful day. I got to spend time with my friend Frank! The day started off to be a beautiful morning, the sun was shining in my room and what a wonderful feeling I had when I walked down the stairs to be greeted by my adorable dog Mickey. Another surprise was that my dad was home so I got to see him before he headed out for his busy day. On my way to Frank at George Mason University, I was suddenly stopped by crossing dear in broad daylight! This was around 1:15pm and there were probably about 12 deer that ran across the road... all in single file! It was like a Deer family vacation! Anyways when I arrived to George Mason I picked up Frank and we headed over to go bowling at the bowling alley but we later discovered that the alley was closed for renovations. We then decided to go to Tyson's Corner Mall and see a movie called Paul Blart: Mall Cop. The movie was alright, there were some strange moments in the movie but it was overall funny. After the movie we decided that we were hungry so we went to a wonderful restaurant inside the mall called Gordon's Biersch Brewery, at least I think that was the name. It was WONDERFUL! the food tasted great and we had friendly service. After dinner we decided to make our own desert and Brownies was the indulgence of choice but we later discovered that we didn't want to buy eggs and vegetable oil for that one occasion. Frank and his room mates don't cook regularly in their apartment so Ice cream was next on the list. We chose our flavors and then headed back to his apartment whom we happily ran into his room mate Matt playing a video game. As we ate our ice cream we watched him play his video game and then it was time for me to head back home so I said good bye and headed back home! It was a lovely day and I am happy that I got to share it with my friend Frank! I am not sure what is going to happen today but I know the weather is supposed to be really nice so I will be sure to be outside for most of the day. =)

Kelly

It's been awhile!

Yes it has been awhile and all of my readers have my friend Frank to thank for me posting todays blog. I was telling him about the webpages that I have and I was reminded that I should update this one, so here I am! The last time I wrote was on my Birthday! That was back in September so it has been about 4 months. Well two things have changed since then, I no longer work at the Gym but I am trying to get another job there and I am now a sophmore in college. I have about one semester left before I can transfer to a University.

I am happy to report that only one bad event in my life took place during those 4 months. Someone broke the back left window to my car. Nothing was stolen! I guess it must have been an accident, I am not sure. Anyway it was fixed in a few days and my automobile life is now back to normal! =)

Yesterday it snowed a lot! My school cancled for the day and so I was very happy to recieve such news. I enjoyed watching the snow fall and I even played a little outside with my dog Mickey. Today I do not have school, as I only have school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that leaves me with tomorrow to look forward to.... maybe. =)