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March 08, 2005
Living Out of My Suitcase/Seabag
It seems like forever since I last posted. I typed up an entry on my flight from San Diego back to DC last Thursday night, but I didn't get a chance to post before scooting down to Newport News early Friday morning. I won't back track on all the gory details of last week - quick highlights should do fine. My trip to San Diego for an information technology/security conference was wonderful. I got to meet a lot of the FAA field personnel from around the country, listen to young and accomplished CIOs from various companies, *RUN* every day in beautiful weather, eat at great restaurants with my co-workers, and stay in a decent resort with a mall right behind it (you know I went shopping!). Then, I went from the creature comforts of SoCal to practically hypothermia in Virginia Beach (that doesn't sound right) when my Reserve unit went to the rifle and pistol range. The morning started sunny and warm and suddenly took a turn for the worse - cold, rainy, windy - we were all shivering and numb as we laid on the soggy, damp earth trying to get our shots in the black. We did much better on the pistol range, as we shoot standing and the 20 yard line was covered from the elements. I didn't have the opportunity to run all weekend. Drill weekend always consists of long days, more so on a range weekend, and I needed to read for school. My Operating Systems class this semester is quite challenging because it requires a programming background, which I don't have and which was not advertised in the catalog of courses. This just means that it can take 4-5 hours to read a chapter and complete the exercises. Maybe I'll be a little more OS savvy come May...or so I hope.
That brings me today. I'm still in Newport News wearing the Marine hat because I found out last minute that I need to make up some days before my Battalion gets inspected. As a result, R. so graciously drove here to bring me everything that I would need from home, mostly uniform items and workout gear (swimsuit, reflective vest, hat, long sleeve shirts, MP3 player...you get the picture). I've been coordinating logistical planning for the next couple months drills and a two-week combat skills training evolution this summer for the junior Marines and Sailors. On running? I had an awesome, awesome run on Monday night at Oceana. I warmed up for ~20 minutes, then did 2 x 10 minutes at tempo-ish pace with 3 minutes easy between, and cooled down for 10 minutes. The weather was comfortable, and I had my MP3 player, which was a huge motivating factor in the urge to run harder. Afterward, I did three or four different bicep exercises, my pull up/push up routine, and lifted legs. I wanted to save my arms since I swam this morning at the YMCA, down the street from the Reserve center. And I plan to run an easy 40-60 minutes tonight, with some striders if my sore legs can muster up some speed.
Geez, everything that I just wrote seems all over the place as I read over it, but "all over the place" is an accurate description of my life at this moment. I go home for less than a day on Friday to pack up my Marine field gear for a two-week logistics exercise at Quantico. I hope we have time to PT when we go to 24 hour operations or else I'm going to be one cranky Lieutenant! I definitely miss home, my hubby, and the kitties (and I still haven't caught up on all the Oscar-nominated movies), but as R. said, being only several hundred miles away from home for a month is much better than going back to Iraq for another year. I agree wholeheartedly! On that note, it's time to grab some lunch and get back to work...
Posted by Leilani at March 8, 2005 12:19 PM