I'm on TV! And the rest of my week

Chinese jasmine

               

Dogwood

So, last weekend was The Dogwood FESTIVAL at the HUGE and awesome Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta.   My Marine especially loves this park, so when we got here he began holding giant FIELD MEETS where the kids/high schoolers/poolees who are waiting to go to boot camp from all over Georgia are bused in to partake in a fun fitness competition amongst the various cities/recruiting stations.  The prize is a trophy of sorts and bragging rights.  

Some parents and significant others attend to watch these kids work together to CARRY LOGS above their heads, do a formation run (and sing cadence aka military marching chants), and all kinds of calisthenics.  They even get to eat MRE's (the meal ready-to-eat that real Marines eat on deployment).  The finale is a big tug-of-war and all the recruiters and my significant other leave there hoarse from shouting so much encouragement.  It's a big feeling of "esprit de corps" and since there are so many passers-by, it's fun to see all the attention the event draws.  After parking, I can hear them long before I see them!

On recruiting duty, the active-duty recruiting families are spread out and don't see one another much, so it's nice that we communicate through our closed facebook page and some of us were able to attend this event and socialize.  

Last time I joined in by jogging behind the formation, but this time I had to be dressed up since my art class was later in the day.  I wish I had pics of the side French braid I did and the dress that garnered so many compliments that day.  My mom (super shopper) had flagged the dress for my Florida visit and I approved and bought it there.  It's coral with a boatneck, giant white polka dots, and a "mullet" hemline (high in front and low in back).  It's quite unique from a handmade fleamarket place, it flows and had a transparent yellow panel in the back.  Strangers kept complimenting me as I walked through the park.

A gluten free note- as soon as I walked into the festival, I was pleased to see a LARA bar booth offering gluten free samples of nut bars and the like.  Fun!

car covered in pollen.  photo from accuweather.com

POLLEN-  the pollen here in Georgia is a major spring phenomena.  I have never seen anything like it. A yellow blanket covers cars, sidewalks, pets, everything.  The pollen count spiked over 4000 lately and there are big greenish yellow clouds of it floating around.  At the Dogwood festival, I saw people wearing white surgical masks, and I knew exactly why.  It reminded me of once when the fire season was so bad in Southern California, that ash was falling from the brown sky, a burning smell filled the air (even though we were far from the fires), and they handed out masks at my work.  

The pollen was so bad that my boyfriend was sneezing and suffering from post-nasal drip for the first time ever!  So we stayed inside the mall to shop after a lovely brunch (The Cheesecake Factory kale and quinoa salad! gluten free goodness!).  We only SHOP once per season, but when we do, we go big.  The boyfriend found 7 pair of shorts at Macy's.  He has the perfect body, so everything fits like it was sewn for him, but being a redhead/ginger means that many colors wash out his complexion.  We enjoy trying things on and giving each other the yay or nay.  We appreciate each other's honest opinion.  I took part as well, finding many dresses at Dillard's, and a couple my boyfriend liked at New York & Co. where I haven't shopped in years.  I also bought Easter clothes to add to the books I'm sending my 1 year old niece at Baby Gap.  

Two dresses, two skirts and a top.  Watercolor print, sheer polka dot (center blouse), and pleated skirt a la Taylor Swift.

Maxi dress (flourescent), lace backed hippie top, and flowery print dress with boat neck and 3 layers of ruffles on each 3/4 length sleeve.  It looks very "Duchess Kate" to me.  I have avoided flowers since high school, so it's new for me.

Yellow polka dot denim shorts, ruffly top, jean jacket, canvas khaki shoes, etc.  for my baby niece.

Monday, I went to my boyfriend's office (recruiting headquarters) to WELCOME the incoming WIVES.  Every other month, a handful of new families are stationed here for the strenuous and infamous recruiting duty.  It's nothing like living on a military base (which many have gotten used to over many years), the recruiters work 70+ hour weeks, and the families can feel isolated.  There is a slide on the powerpoint presentation for "family readiness" that lists my duties as a "commander's significant other".  There is also a handbook for Officers' other halves.   The welcoming is one way I choose to fulfill that role.  

These USMC families have just undergone a stressful move, have heard nightmare stories about the work stress  on this duty and the high divorce rate during it.  Experienced military wives as well as newbies have a very full 'cup'.  They need to talk and destress about their pcs (move) and adjusting to their new surroundings before they can take anything else in.  Once they feel heard, and emptied their cup a bit, then there is room in their cup to fill it with info on what to expect and how to utilize resources and support on such a difficult independent duty.   Luckily, all of these families happened to choose Georgia because they have family here and they got their choice!

Tuesday, I did chores and 60 minutes on the elliptical trainer at the gym.  Still working out 4-5x per week, in an attempt to look great in a bikini this summer.

Wednesday, I joined the hiking group for a 5 mile hike at Sweetwater Creek.  There is an old Grist mill there and some of the trails go along the river.  It was impressive that a new mom joined us this week, carrying her infant in a front baby carrier for five miles.

This is from another day last year at Sweetwater Creek.  That's the mill ruins.

Wednesday's hike.  Sunny, breezy, great hike!

Also, Wednesday, I got an email notifying me that I am in the running to work as an "extra" (in the background) on a hiking movie being filmed on the Appalachian Trail in Georgia.  Mostly I do these gigs for fun, but this is one I was really excited about, so I'm hoping it all works out!

Where's Waldo?  Vampire Diaries- I made the cut!

Thursday, the first episode I was in of Vampire Diaries aired.  Here I am as a "traveler" with special powers (kind of like a bodysnatcher).  It's cool that I made the cut and am somewhat visible!  

Friday, today it's rainy and my boyfriend has to work late as the guest of honor at a local high school "mess night"  (high school rapport is very important in recruiting).  Here is more info on "dining in" or "mess night" as a Marine Corps tradition.   Realizing he was going to be out late, he called and surprised me with a lunch date invitation.  He is really doing so much better with time management and showing me that our relationship is a priority rather than just lip service.

Lilly Pulitzer dress similiar to mine.  photo from ebay

Tomorrow we have a birthday party to attend where the dress attire is Black and White semi-formal.  It's my first party where the guests have a color requirement.  I'm wearing a hand-me-down white Lilly Pullitzer dress my mom gave me from when she worked at the mall and got great deals.  I'm hoping my tan isn't fading after the rainy days.  I plan to wear it with gold shoes to dress it up.

Easter- being a military family. we are far from family during many holidays.  Our Easter tradition has pretty much been to color eggs, hide them from each other, and then have a picnic.  We have a huge yard here with lots of plants and hiding places.  Last year my Marine never found some and I'd forgotten which hiding spots were still unfound.  Glad it didn't happen indoors (stinky eggs in a few days)!

Hoppy Easter, everybunny!

And...We're Off!

THE WAIT
As a military family, we certainly aren't accustomed to letting the grass grow under our feet.  My previous post established that we were awaiting military orders, and they were taking a long time.  My marine's replacement has known he'll be coming to Atlanta since September.  I was being pretty patient until it got to the point where my pets would have to suffer in quarantine because I wouldn't be able to meet the time required to get them to Hawaii (no rabies there, big pet process to keep it that way) or Japan or Europe if any of those places became our destination.  My marine has put Camp Pendleton as his first choice for 15 years, unsuccessfully.  For recruiting, we got to choose 5 from 18 available cities.  Neither of us wanted Buffalo or Des Moines, so he picked Seattle and Phoenix, while. I picked Chicago and Atlanta, and we both picked Ft. launder dale to be near family.  We were happy it was Atlanta, but annoyed that as a native of Ft. Launderdale he still didn't get it.  As for our current situation, my marine figured we'd find out by. Jan. or Feb.  I'm the pragmatic one who believes there are no promises in life nor in the military, so I didn't expect news until March for our move in June/July.

After mid-March came and went, I began (tongue-in-cheek) asking my marine like an excited child every night, "Did we get orders yet?"at random moments, making both of us chuckle because we know that if he had gotten them, I certainly wouldn't need to ask him to tell me.  Now, I am not keen  on receiving the notice from my marine via a distracted, life-altering, phone call where he drops a  bomb at 7 AM and then has to rush to hang up and get back to work.  Most people do it that way since it's the most intuitive and natural.  I suffered through that once (he was randomly accepted to a school to which he did not apply, which uprooted him a year or two early from 29 Palms several  months after we had met in CA.  He found out when a Colonel shook his hand randomly while passing in a hallway to congratulate him on his acceptance, much to my marine's shock) and prefer to never have it happen like that again, where I'm left to get through the longest day ever, carbonated                   thoughts bubbling up and me trying to tamp them down until we get home and can pop the cork      together.

THE. REVEAL
So, I am not working, since often the timing of my employment 'under-laps' (I try to avoid overlaps!) with our moves.  I have been booking gigs as an extra on Vampire Diaries and teaching an art class to pay for a fancy gym  membership (heated pools in & outside, sauna,jacuzzi, new equipment, classes  galore) and I love it.   Since I make it a point to not let my life revolve around my marine's work hours (no clock-watching, texting when will u b home? Eta?), I was coming home from the gym one night and I opened the front door to darkness, the odor of char/smoke, and Dr.Dre's "California Love"  blaring.  Then, I turned and saw my marine standing next to the dining room table (with lit candles atop gluten free cupcakes from Gluten Free Cutie) with the most enormous, dazzling smile, arms outstretched, wearing a t-shirt with the California state flag on it.  Never one to make assumptions, I broke through the noise of the music to ask if it was 29 Palms (desert, where he was when we met) or Camp Pendleton (beach, his perennial first choice that he never has gotten). His response was to                                                             make a surfing motion and say, "Babe, if it was 29 (Palms), I'd be blowing sand in your face with a hot blow dryer right now."  We hugged and his smile hasn't faded since.  He is on Cloud 9.

MY THOUGHTS
 I'd have preferred Hawaii or Europe (our 2nd and 3rd choices since my choice of Atlanta won out last time so I let him pick the first spot), but am ecstatic that he finally got his dream job in his dream locale.  Having resided in SoCal for 13 years, I was not in a hurry to go back just yet.  I own a home in California, but it's too far from the military base for us to live in it.  Plus, I'm in this life for the adventure of it.  That said, even after all that time, I have never lived by the beach nor been north of San Francisco in that giant, banana-shaped state! So, the relief of not getting Camp Lejeune (North Carolina military town where I probably would have to live in Charleston to keep my sanity, forcing my marine to drive 4 hours to visit me on weekends) coupled with his elation and beach living has  me brimming with excitement for our next  chapter.  Stay tuned...                                                            

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Life...On Pause

Many people sum up military life with the phrase "hurry up, then wait".  After over 4 years of military life, I agree. We are on the last few months of his 36 month B-billet (random job in between deployments/real job assignment).  This means, my marine, who is trained as an infantry officer, was selected by a board of Colonels (and Generals?) to command the Recruiting Station in Georgia for the Marine Corps.  

From billboards to medical processing to the boot camp bus, my marine is in charge of 15 recruiter stations for most of the state of Georgia.  Over 100 marines and over 900 kids waiting to get into the USMC are his responsibility.  His boss is in another state, so the buck stops with him.  While he loves teaching his recruiters how to give presentations to classes of high school kids, giving speeches himself at Glazier Football Coaches Clinics and H.S. Principal Conferences on Leadership and Ethics,

The U.S. Marine Corps is renowned for its leadership and organizational strategies.  This is why my marine has met with Atlanta's Mayor Reed as well as Glazier Football Coaches clinics (!shameless! brag alert:  my marine has been rated #2 speaker in the nation at these clinics, just behind SF 49ers coach Jim Harbough).  He has also been invited to speak at many school and community events, especially around Veteran's Day.

and just helping his wo/men make their mission and fulfill the dreams of young people toward becoming marines and young leaders, his heart belongs in the field/the fleet, training a battalion for deployment or preparing humanitarian missions for disaster relief across the globe.  It kills him to think that the leathernecks he trained are deployed without him.  Marines don't want to be "sitting on the bench", they want to be "in the mix", using their skills and doing what they do best. 

 For more on the often asked question, "Why do they like and want to deploy?" watch Battleground Afghanistan (my grunt would be equivalent to the guy who never sleeps on there, the Captain, since he hasn't deployed as a Major yet) and read the book No Easy Day.  That book is about the Seals, but the writer conveys the attitude about yearning to deploy to a tee.  If you watch Army Wives, as I'm often asked, my equivalent would be closest to Denise, although TV moves their careers much faster, so we are a rank or two below where they were, last I checked.

My marine is what is lovingly and proudly known as a "grunt" in the Corps.  Uber-smart, National Merit Scholars, who earned full college scholarships have a plethora of career opportunities open to them.  But, even as a child, he was often wearing military clothing and running around the woods in Florida with a fake rifle planning battles.  His mother has a Mother's Day mug made by him in 3rd grade that has tanks and big explosions drawn all over it.  His mother was a teacher and his father an artist, so being a marine seemed to have come out of nowhere.  We now know it was his calling.  As an only child, the marines are his true brothers.  He is a charismatic, natural born leader.  I can't imagine him ever working in a cubicle.

So, while recruiting isn't any grunt's first choice of duty station (the 2011 Military Spouse of the Year proclaimed Recruiting Duty as far worse than 4 deployments due to the stress and 70+ hour work weeks), we have made the best of it, and enjoyed living more of a "civilian life", away from military installations.  We have explored and completed a bucket list of activities for the state of Georgia, from hiking the Appalachian Trail, to visiting Martin Luther King's church.  Now, we are ready to say, "Bye, y'all"!

Image courtesy of DigitalArt at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So, we will move in a few months.  And the destination is yet "unknown".  We submitted our geographical preferences.  Any day now, he will come home from work with a present for me to open.  Inside will be some token or trinket symbolic of our next duty station.  It will be our 4th move in 6 years.  Then the pause button will be lifted and a frantic house-hunting, budgeting, and packing mission will begin.  We are on this adventure together.  I had my dream career as a teacher for 13 years.  I'm happy and proud to support him in his 15th year of his dream career.