Long time no blog!

Hello blog, long time no post!

Wow, school this past month kicked my butt! Between that, working, and trying to spend time with friends and family, my online social life has gone down the drain. But I'm back! Hopefully haha.

Tomorrow is the Nordstrom Half Yearly sale. I am up at nearly 2am making cookies for my coworkers. Why? Who knows haha, aside from them demanding them and me wanting to show them that I make the best cookies everrrr! So two batches (which actually = 1 because I make the cookies big, not tiny) of chocolate chip, and one of toffee. We'll see how long it is before they're demolished tomorrow morning! And I think I'm just making them for my dept, not Women's shoes. Because they're a bunch of jerks and are undeserving of my cookies. LOL.

Anyway. Awesome update! I am gonna have to restart my C25K workouts, but I'm excited to get back on that because 1) my shin splints are gone (as far as I can tell...) and 2) I'm getting a brand new pair of running shoes in the mail. FOR FREE!

We had a tech class on Brooks running shoes Saturday morning... we learned about the shoes, what they're made of, what makes them so great for running, etc. And afterwards I hung around and chatted with the rep Jennifer about my shin splints and what shoe would be best for me? She had a hard time thinking of one that my store carries after watching me walk, because I am bow-legged, supinate (walk on the outside of my foot... only 3% of women do that. Lucky me! Most women walk on the inside of their feet), and already have shin splints so need a supportive shoe. So she pulled me aside, told me that she couldn't do this for my coworkers so we'd keep it a secret, and said that she'd send me a pair for free to see how I like them, because she'd hate for me to buy a $100 pair of running shoes, only to not have them work. SWEET! So now I have my Mizunos for gym work, classes, elliptical, etc. And I'll use my Brooks for everyday running, running on the nature trail, and any 5k's that I happen to sign up for.

In other news... we are at a stand-still trying to figure out what we'd like to do as far as the Marine Corps goes. Chris is like 99% sure he's re-enlisting. It's just a matter of with what job/unit, etc. He doesn't want to stay with his unit. It's a great unit to be with if you want to get prestige, promoted, etc. It's a well known unit for what it did in the Korean War and a lot of people are proud to be with them. But on the other hand, they're hard to be with as well. People are ridiculous, overly moto, just stupid. As soon as Chris gets away from this unit, we think he'd be much happier.

So he's considering Intel, and all things look pretty good for that... except we find out recently that because of Chris' alcohol related offenses, he could go through MOS school and find out at the VERY END that he's not going to be accepted to that MOS. The only way to actually find out whether or not he can move forward without the alcohol related offenses affecting his career is to actually do it. Thanks a lot, Marine Corps. I mean, I'm glad we know now. But do they really have to make it so confusing? Can't they tell him right here and now if the bullshit drunk in public charges (which were dropped in civilian court) and the other stupid charged when he was in MCT will prevent him from moving forward with Intel? Nope. UGH!!!

So we're looking into other options. I&I duty, for one. Chris would re-enlist into his own MOS, we'd move to an area with a base needing someone who does that job to help out in that shop, and he'd be teaching Reserve Marines his job. Okay, awesome. Where can we go? Lots of amazing places like Washington DC, San Francisco area, San Diego. And some not so awesome places that we've already crossed off the list. We're ready to decide on that as well, if the interview with Intel doesn't go well. But we're having issues as far as WHERE. I've always wanted to live in San Francisco. If I hadn't met Chris, I may have moved there to live for a few years. Chris is sick of being away from his family, and there's a position in NJ that we could take. I'm having issues with that because we're already going to end up in NJ, I just know it. Why go now? Why not go somewhere fun where we can just be a couple and do fun things for a few years? I can't help it if there are two fun cities in the same state that we're in now, that I'm from. I would move to the Boston area. I would move to Washington DC. I just don't see what there is for us in New Jersey, aside from his family and friends. If we were to move there, I would know nobody. All his guy friends either haven't met me, haven't made an attempt to get to know me, or don't have girlfriends. We'd still be 2 hours away from them anyway. But, I just know that if I were working or if Chris was just bored and wanted to see his friends, he'd pop on down to South Jersey. What am I supposed to do then? I just feel like we should go to a place where we don't know anyone. So we can enjoy being a couple, without kids, and do fun things while the military is paying for it! San Diego is 3 hours away from my family, not an easy drive to do. San Francisco (my ideal location for us to get stationed for I&I) is 6+ hours away. A plane ride, sure. But he's a plane ride away from his family. And he gets free flights! I think SF is an amazing opportunity we could take, just like San Diego, Boston, or Washington DC. I just would like to delay the inevitable and try to branch out on our options before we end up settling in NJ.

Anyway, Chris is gonna talk to the GySgt in charge of career planning after he gets back from leave and we'll go from there. As soon as he knows his options for Intel vs. I&I we'll be able to sit down, talk about our choices, and actually come up with a game plan.

Anyway, I'm gonna pack my cookies up and head to bed!

Much love,
nik