Birthday week musings

So, since we've moved to the Denver area, you might think that we'd become Broncos fans... HA!

I consider myself an Eagles fans, with a watchful eye on my hometown's team, the Bengals, and another eye on the team of my wife's home town: the Chargers. In fact, if quizzed, I'd probably know more about the Chargers than the Eagles anyway... but one team is AFC West and the other is NFC East, so it's conceivable that I could actually like both teams. Yeah, let's go with that.

Anyway, today is a day off for the kids thanks to Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. As such I don't have much to look forward to other than pushing them to clean their rooms and trying to get the house picked up a little bit more. We spent most of Saturday, before football started, really cleaning the main level and it looks really nice. The trick, of course, will be to keep it that way. Today is clean up the basement and garage day. I'll be getting my uniforms organized and sorted so that I can put them into long term storage.

Oh, did I forget to mention that I'm on terminal leave, awaiting separation from the United States Marine Corps at the conclusion of 20 years of service? Well, there... I just did.

Yep, after snow closed the base on the day my retirement ceremony was originally scheduled for, we were able to get the family and a couple of friends together, along with all of the Marines not on leave for the holidays, and my retirement ceremony went off without any further hitches. To keep the personnel requirements down, I asked for a color guard and a narrator and that was it. Everyone else was in the audience, which was good. I had invited several people to come, and many had planned to be there but the snow delay changed all of that and only one civilian family was able to make it, in addition to my family of course. Oh well... I've had to deal with delays and cancellations throughout my career so I shouldn't have been surprised.

-I was in the Delayed Entry Program for almost a year. I was supposed to go to boot camp in October, but kept getting pushed back until I finally went in February.
-I spent an extra week in boot camp when I failed my IST the first time and was dropped to the Physical Conditioning Platoon until I was able to pass. I took care of that the very next week.
-My graduation from boot camp was rained into the chapel instead of having a huge formation on the parade deck at MCRD.
-It rained for 28 of the 30 days that I was at MCT.
-When we decided to get married, my leave request for the end of June was denied and we had to push our wedding back to the end of July to coincide with the band's scheduled block leave.
-When I checked out of 1st Marine Division, where I'd been promoted twice and added a dependent, they literally asked, "You're who from where?"
-My promotion to SSgt was delayed over the weekend because my OIC at the time didn't want to do a promotion on a Friday. (True story)
-My son was born almost a week late... and that was only a month after the WTC attack.
-My return from Iraq in 2008 was delayed by a couple of weeks because I had asked to be on a flight that would allow me to be home for my son's birthday and was told that it wouldn't be fair for me to be home for a family event that others had to miss. (That's true story too... it was spite that kept me there two extra weeks.)

So when I scheduled my retirement ceremony for the Thursday before Christmas, I should have expected that it would be the one day that week when there would be enough snow to close the base to non-essential personnel. Since the following day was a planned family day for the Air Force, I had no choice but to move my ceremony to the Tuesday after Christmas... which I did.

ANYWAY... everything went well once we got started and now I'm a grizzly faced college student, trying to raise his GPA on one hand, find a post-military career on the other, and maintain the house on the other. (Kinda like the "world's greatest spokesman in the world" I have three hands...)

I just finished my last required Bible class. Well, sort of. I still have to turn in my final paper, but I'll get to that later today. My first class for the spring semester opened yesterday. It's online due to lack of enrollment. Really? A Business 101 class doesn't have three students interested for in-seat but the online section has over 10? (Only one other is from CO as far as I can tell.)

I'm also registered for another psychology class and a statistics class. I'm about ready to start my core classes for my major in HR Management, but the school I'm attending doesn't have a cohort scheduled to start until next year. I figure I have two options. I can switch majors, or I can switch schools. I'm not really crazy about either alternative, but I the latter option opens the prospect of earning a degree from a state school with a solid reputation. Of course, that means I'd have to shop and compare Colorado State versus University of CO. Hmmm... Rams or Buffaloes? That's neither here nor there. I'll finish the spring semester at CCU first and then worry about a new school later.

Anyway, that's what's happening here. Hope your new year is off to a good start.

Happy New Year!

It's that time again... a time to make new promises... or remake the same old tired promises. A time to look forward to the new year with anticipation and to wave a fond (or bittersweet, or just flip a finger) farewell to the year in the rearview... In other words: it's New Year's!

In keeping with tradition, I shall now reissue my usual proclomations of self-betterment... is that a word?

In 2012 I resolve to...
1) read my Bible
2) lose weight
3) post more regularly on blogger

As a new wrinkle for 2012, I have added a few more resolutions. I also resolve to...
4) find a job in the civilian work force
5) complete at least 8 more classes for school... on time
6) run 2 marathons

If you do not know me very well, then none of those resolutions will make much sense. If you know me a little, then they all make sense. If you fall under the former and would like to learn more about me, keep reading. Over the next few weeks I will probably post some memories of my time in the Corps and updates on the job search and school work.

Hope you all had a wonderful New Year's celebration. Now it's time to roll up the sleeves and get to work... as soon as I blow up some stuff on my facebook games. (SMILE!)