Mike He = ♥

So I finally finished ISWAK2: They Kiss Again. To fill the empty hole in my heart caused by the end of a fantastic Asian drama, I began the search for another and found Why Why Love. I'm only two episodes in, but I like it so far. Although it does seem to be Devil Beside You combined with a lot more cuteness and sparkliness. O_o;; Haha. The three lead actors are even exactly the same! Playing the exact same type of characters! Heh. But I love it anyway. How can anything with Mike He be bad? For reallies.

Yay!

A letter two days in a row! ^______^ Happiness. He talked about getting my letters about three days after I write them and his more recent physical training with a 2 mile run and King Kong's Q-Tips. Haha. Apparently he finished 5th out of 3 platoons (about 180 recruits) and 2nd in his platoon (about 60 recruits) in the run, so he was feeling good about that. He said his first aid class turned into redneck storytime about all of the incredibly stupid ways certain people in his class have injured themselves. XD He hates waking up to yelling instead of me, and sometimes he wishes he could have one of my hugs.

Time is moving quickly for him. Only ten weeks left. He is already halfway through the 1st phase of boot camp. He said I would hate it there because it is a highly stressful, no privacy environment, and I would have to wear BC glasses. He said as far as he can tell he hasn't morphed into an arse - at least no worse than he already was. He feels like he has redeepened his faith and relationship with God, but that doesn't mean he will come back and treat me like property like some husbands. He still wants us to be a partnership forever, and I quote, "You and me against the WORLD." ^_^;; I love that boy.

Today I finally started putting all of my CD's back on iTunes. It's going to take a while, but I've started packing the DVD's, video games, etc. into the boxes Sarah M brought down last week so I'm going to get the CD's reuploaded and pack them as I do so. I need to get some newspaper so I can start packing the dishes and stuff that I'm not using at the moment. I meant to get some in Greeneville this weekend, but I forgot. Heh.

I Have Returned

I got online a bit in Greeneville, but I never had the time to sit down and write a blog. Saturday was long and hot. I spent the day helping Ryan's mom with a yard sale. Yesterday I saw Baby Mama with my family. It was cute but nowhere near as funny as I expected. Sarah K brought me home last night, and we saw Deception (which was a pretty awesome movie) before crashing at the apartment. She left earlier this morning to get to work in Johnson City on time.

I got a letter from Ryan this weekend. He told me about his average day which pretty much consisted of yelling, marching, and chow in alterations. ^_^ He asked me to send him some stamps, and said he is keeping strong by reading Bible verses and thinking of me/reading my letters. Aw. I miss him a lot, but we've almost made it through the first 3rd! : D Just over two months to go!

G-Vegas

I'm not going to be here for a couple of days. I'm heading to Greeneville for the weekend tonight after work. I'll be spending Saturday helping Ryan's mom with a garage sell and going shopping afterward. Sunday I'm going to the movies with my mom and brother and spending some time with my family before heading back this way with Sarah K. We'll probably spend Sunday night and Monday morning hanging out here in Knoxville before we both have to head to work. So I probably won't be online again until Monday night sometime. Though I am taking the laptop with me so I might be awake enough to post at night from my grandparents' guest bedroom. Thank God for wireless internet connections.

Marine Wife in Training

I got another letter from Ryan today. This one was sadder. Apparently he really misses me, and he asked me for a picture so I'm sending him one of me in my awesome new shirt. : D Today was kind of stressful with all the running around Knoxville in the insane traffic with Sarah M and her boyfriend William. But now her dress is being altered, and it's one less thing we have to worry about. Now I need to go study a bit for my Japanese listening final and write back to Ryan so I can get the picture in the mail. Hopefully having it will help him with the lonliness.

Oops

So tonight I ate my first dinner that didn't consist of rice or noodles eaten with chopsticks. Mistake number one. I felt like poo not five minutes afterward. I think it was because I wasn't used to the portion size. I've been eating a bowl of my fried rice or instant ramen for lunch and dinner every day for the past three weeks. So my stomach rebelled when I fed it mashed potatoes and chicken. Meh.

So I laid down on top of the bed for a second to avoid feeling worse like I do when I eat too much or get too hot in the shower, etc. Mistake number two. That was at 9PM. I woke up twenty minutes ago. Haha. ^_^;; There goes that two hours of Sims 2 playing I was planning on.

So now I'm sitting in bed with Ryan's laptop preforming my internet rounds one last good time for the next hour maybe, and then I'll probably be sleeping again. It's hard for me to be awake now that I've slept that good chunk of time away. My body hates me some days.

Tomorrow Sarah M is coming for her dress alterations fitting, and she's going to be the awesome best friend that she is and take me by ComCast to drop off my cable box and router. No sense paying $140 for another month of cable when I'm not using it. There are plenty of wireless internet networks floating around here in Knoxville with all of the free wifi available at restaurants and the university so I've been using those via Ryan's laptop for the past couple of weeks anyway. My mom is just going to save what shows I'll miss on her DVR for me to catch up when I get to Greeneville. Isn't she nice? : )

Sarah M is also bringing me some boxes from my parents to start packing my stuff up and my awesome T-shirt I talked about the ghettotard UPS man never delivering when I was home that I finally just had sent to my parents'. I promise pictures when I finally get to wear it. Yay!

Why Do I Do This to Myself?

I should really be asleep right now. I should have been asleep at least an hour ago. At least. But the night owl in me finds it really hard to do anymore. Especially with Ryan gone - being cuddle deprived makes sleep less appealing. Haha. Today went by pretty fast. I feel like it should still be afternoon not the wee hours of the morning. Ugh. I have to drag myself to Sociology at 8AM for the last in class assignment. Yay. [/sarcasm]

I miss Ryan like crazy tonight. I had a missed call on my phone while I was out of my office at work. I don't recognize the number, and there was no voicemail. T-T That always makes me so nervous because I know Basic Training recruits don't get phone calls, but every now and then you get lucky and they're rewarded with one. It would be just my luck to miss his call. Eh. But I'm pretty sure, judging by the area code that I think I've seen before, that it was one of those free honeymoon telemarketer people that have called me a lot lately. I can't be for sure because the past calls aren't on my received list in my phone anymore to compare. But unless I hear otherwise in one of his letters, I'll assume it was a telemarketer for my own piece of mind.

Today the Mailman = ♥

I got a letter today! : D *happy dance* He wrote it on Tuesday, April 15th, the first day I was able to mail my letters so he hadn't received any of them yet. (The following is paraphrased to cut out the mushiness that was only intended for me.) He said he misses me and has so much to tell me that he can't write it all down. He mentioned the missed phone call when he arrived and told me about being in one of the first platoons to be in the newly reinstated Quebec Company. (Which I already knew about from a news article on one of the support message boards I'm part of.) He said Forming Day 1 was rough, but it was getting better. Receiving was easy and so was his Initial Strength Test. He did his 1 1/2 mile run in 9 minutes and 34 seconds, 15 pull ups, and 102 crunches. (For those of you who don't know, that's all at the high end - as in awesome.) He said he would write again later, and he loves me. ^__________^ Happiness = Me.

Dreams of Ryan

So I spent pretty much the entire day playing Sims 2. Haha. It was fun. : D I also managed to do a load of laundry somewhere in there. I have a lot less laundry to do when Ryan isn't here. O_o;; Me thinks he changed his clothes more in one day then most teenage girls. Heh. I never could get him to put stuff back if he wore it for less then a few hours. Ugh. Oh well. I'm sure that will be different when he comes home - and so will his bed making skillzerz. XD

I had a dream that I got to go visit Ryan last night. It was nice because it was so realistic that is was like I actually got to see him for a few hours. Hug him and tell him a I miss him and love him. It was really refreshing to wake up this morning feeling like I had really spent time with him and could begin this new segment of time without him with those memories. I love my mind and how it works sometimes. ^_^ Here's hoping it gives me dreams like that every few weeks to break up the loneliness.

Lonely Trip to the Movies

So today I finally had enough of this apartment and took the bus to the mall for a while. It was a crowded mess of middle school kids, though, so I ended up buying the latest Sims 2 expansion pack and sitting in front of the theater for an hour. I saw The Forbidden Kingdom by myself, which was a cute movie but a depressing experience. Then I rode the bus home. The end. : P Haha.

Now I'm attempting to organize my back up files on Flickr from my computer crash earlier this semester. But Flickr is being a ghettotard and not saving 45 minutes worth of photo moving I just did. Ugh! So that's kind of disheartening, but I'll just have to start over again. Doing it in smaller steps might be a good idea this time.

I'm also reinstalling all of my Sims 2 games. Hopefully I can get back into playing it tomorrow. That game will kill entire days if I'm not careful. Haha. I only get up to use the bathroom and make a bowl of ramen/grab a Coke Zero every five hours or so. No lie. I could use that kind of entertainment right now.

Oh, How They Grow Up

My little brother went to his Senior high school prom last night. T-T It's weird to think he'll be in college this fall, and I haven't even figured out what I'm doing as far as my college education is concerned. I've spent the past two and a half years spinning my wheels at two different universities in two different majors. Ugh. I'm kind of hoping I'll be able to take a course or two while I'm in Greeneville depending on how long Ryan's tech school is and how soon they let us know where we're going to be stationed. That way I can figure out what schools are available to me and can take courses at home that will tranfer and count for something instead of just wasting more of my time.

...

So absolutely nothing significant is happening around here. ^_^;; I've been sucked into the hours of staring at the computer screen that occurs when I start watching an Asian TV drama. Haha. I used to watch them a lot more often, but I was looking for something to pass the time when stumbled upon a sequel to a drama I watched in high school. : D I was pretty excited about it.

So the original Taiwanese drama was It Started with a Kiss which was adorable in and of itself. So ISWAK2: They Kiss Again is an adorable sequel about their lives as a married couple and the obstacles they still face in their sometimes crazy relationship. I'm getting close to the end already. -_-;; I'll have to find something else to watch, I suppose. Heh.

I only have a week left of classes. Yay! I'm about to head to work so I don't have time to say much, but there really isn't anything else to say anyways.

EDIT: I got a letter from Ryan today! : D It was just a form letter that he filled in the blanks on. Now I have his correct address for sure, though. and he snuck a little, "I miss you," onto the bottom of the page. ^_^ Made my day. Made my week, actually. I sent him a couple of letters from the past few days after receiving his. Yay!

I'm Over It

So I never got a letter, but it's okay because it's something the USMC prints and he would just address for his next of kin. And I'm not legally his next of kin so Ryan isn't the kind to smudge the lines and send it to me anyway when they tell him to send it to his next of kin. Heh. So I'll live. I did send out two envelopes full of three to four letters each that have been building up since he left. Hopefully he'll get those quickly, and I'll start getting real letters from him soon. I miss him like crazy and half.

I feel ahead of the game tonight. Not only did I get those letters out, but I've finished my final Sociology essay and cleaned up the kitchen dishes and all. : D I usually don't do dishes until I'm waiting for my next meal to cook and I'm in the kitchen anyway. Haha. When it's just me it isn't so bad to do that. There usually aren't more than two or three items in the sink. But it's still lazy.

My t-shirt arrived at my parents' house today so I have that to look forward to. ^_^ I'm going to try and have Sarah M bring it down when she comes for her dress alterations on the 24th. Mom said to ask her to bring some boxes, too, so I can start packing stuff. My dad has boxes to spare with his business. (He sells tractor and farming parts online so he receives and sends many big boxes of stuff every day. I'm going to be helping him out when I return home. Yay!) So I just need to have Sarah go by there sometime before she heads this way.

Think Happy Thoughts

So that t-shirt I ordered is still in UPS limbo. The UPS guy who came by at 2:48 on Friday responded to my note on the door today by saying he only delivers after 5:00. Last time I checked, 2:48 was before 5:00, but whatever. So I called UPS and had the address changed to my parents'. I'll get it later.

On top of that, Ryan's mother got a form letter with his address on it from him today. Some of the other girls online got their's. I didn't get anything. I hope I'm just overreacting, and it'll be in the mailbox tomorrow. Because I'm really hurt that he would do that after promising I would be the first to receive and know anything. T-T I'm kind of depressed at the thought. But I'm trying to get over it in case I'm just being the emotional drama queen that I am when it comes to Ryan.

Oh, the Melancholy of Me

So today wasn't super productive. I did one load of laundry to avoid running out of bath towels and spent the rest of the day watching Army Wives on YouTube and working on another scrapbook page between surfing the internet aimlessly. ^_^ My mom got me hooked on Army Wives by telling me I should watch a couple online and watch the season one reruns on Lifetime when I caught up. But I couldn't wait that long once I got started so now I'm only one episode away from being finished. Haha. Then I'll have to wait until the show airs on Lifetime this summer for the second season. Maybe I'll download a couple of Asian dramas in the meantime to keep me busier for the next four weeks of boring lonliness ahead.

Girls' Day Out

Today was fun even though Kesha couldn't come with everyone else. My mom, grandmother, and June took me to my dress fitting. I about had a heart attack when alterations ended up costing three times what I had estimated in my budget during Ryan's absence so that sucks. I'll make it, but it still sucks. Then they took me to lunch and we searched fruitlessly for wedding shoes.

After that we decided our feet were about to die from hours of walking and took a break to see Nim's Island which was pretty cute although so cheesy at times I had to take it with a grain of salt as the kids' flick it is. Then we made a quick stop at Payless where I ended up finding my shoes in the largest available size...of the kids' department. : D I looked there because the camoflauge flats I bought at Wal-Mart not to long ago were in the kids' size because the smallest adult size wouldn't fit correctly. Haha. Yay for small feet!



Still no address for Ryan, but I don't expect it to arrive until late next week. I ordered a really awesome t-shirt that arrived yesterday...three minutes after I left for work. The note on my front door said they'd try again on Monday after five o'clock, at which time I'll be at work. So I wrote a note on the Customer Comments section asking if they could please deliver it before I leave for work on their third attempt as they had just barely missed me the first time. I don't have a car to drive down to the nearest center, and they aren't open on weekends or I would have had my mother take me today. Ugh. So hopefully the note will suffice. If not I'll have to just have the address changed to my parents' and have it sent there.

I'm really pleased with how quickly the seller got it shipped out to me, though. It's not her fault UPS is difficult. : P According to the estimated ship time online, I didn't expect it to arrive until next week sometime. So it was a nice surprise even if I didn't actually get the package yet. Hopefully they'll surprise me and show up just before I leave for work on Monday like they almost did yesterday since they usually make their stops at around the same time - odd that they marked after five for their attempt to deliver on Monday. Oh well. Just have to wait and see.

P.S. Almost forgot - I picked up my fixed engagement ring today! : D Good as new. No more slamming it in dresser drawers for me. -_-;; Glad I finally have it back. I felt naked without it.

Scrapbooking Mania

So I've been attempting to scrapbook over the past couple of days. I'm not doing my pages in order. I'm just picking events and doing them as I feel inspired until I get everything in a certain time period done. At that point I'll decide where to divide the books. For now I've just been using one of the two books I bought to hold the pages until I get farther in.





I've pretty much finished with the wedding invitations. I have just a couple of addresses left to get, but just about everyone should have gotten their invitation by now or it's in the mail.



Still no address from Ryan, but I'm writing letters and waiting for it. I miss him like crazy, but it seems to be getting easier to be here by myself. I had kind of a rough day yesterday, but today I'm feeling better about things. Tomorrow my mom, grandmother, our friend June, and maybe even my friend Kesha from G-Vegas are coming to my dress fitting and having a girls' day/night out. : D I'm pretty excited about it. I can't wait. Not only that, but I get to put my dress on again and feel all bridal. ^_^ It's going to be fun.

Lonliness

Is already setting in. Ugh. I thought I was going to lose my mind last night. Unfortunately, I missed Ryan's arrival phone call from Parris Island. I picked up right as he was hanging up. T-T But it isn't so bad because that phone call is scripted, and I wouldn't have had a chance to say a word before he hung up. And he wouldn't be able to say, "I love you," or anything so that would have probably upset me more than missing the call altogether. He called his recruiter when I didn't answer so Sgt. West called me and let me know Ryan had arrived there safely.

Between Sarah M and Kesha I was on the phone on and off the entire evening until after midnight. Haha. I told them our phone conversations were going to increase drastically, or I was going to go insane from the lack of human contact. ^_^;; But they don't mind. I can't wait until I get to Greeneville in May and can actually hang out with everyone to keep my mind off counting the days until Ryan graduates. It didn't seem real that he was gone until well into last night. Today I'm starting to feel it. But I'm still not crying or mopey. I haven't slept well, though. I'm not used to being by myself at night so I wake up at least once an hour. Which sucks. So I'm contemplating a nap before work. I haven't decided. Part of me wants to be more productive than that since I accomplished nothing yesterday because I was too busy thinking about missing Ryan.

I need to work on my scrapbooking projects. I told Ryan I was going to try and catch up during all this downtime so that by the time he came home I could just scrapbook as things happened and not have huge totes of pictures and stuffs from ten years ago. Haha. I have my work cut out for me. And I'm trying to decide how to organize my scrapbooks. I don't want to have themes; I want them to be more like fancy photo albums so everything about everyone will be in each book from a certain time period. But I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to divide those time periods or anything. I'm working on it, though. I've been making a list of some of the pages I want to put together so I can kind of assign them to whichever time period and in doing so a certain album. I need to get some photoboxes for the leftover photos or maybe some actual albums to just conicide with the scrapbooks or something. I'll figure it out.

I've already written Ryan two letters - both from yesterday. I have to wait until his address postcard arrives before I can mail them, though, because I'll have no idea which platoon he's in until then. I do know his battalion and company, though, because the official Parris Island website lists which ones are graduating when ahead of time. So I just looked up July 3 and found that part out. I'm also part of a forum and a facebook group for support during my lonliness so hopefully all of this writing will be therapeutic. Writing is my emotional outlet - hence the two letters just yesterday for Ryan already - so I foresee much blogging, forum participation, and letter writing in my future.

Life Without Ryan

Is weird already. ^_^;; I was allowed to accompany him to his hotel last night, and he was allowed to sign out and walk around downtown. So we ended up going to the theater there and seeing Leatherheads which we had wanted to see while in Greeneville over the weekend but didn't. Afterward I walked the couple of blocks home, and he walked back to the hotel. We did, however, take our last pre-basic training pictures together in a photo booth at the theater.



This morning after class his recruiter picked me up to sit with Ryan at MEPS until he left. He shared his free lunch sandwhich, chips, fruit, and a cookie with me. : ) That's love. Then we sat together just holding hands and looking at each other for the last time for a long time. It was hard not to cry when they called for the shippers to line up at the door. Thankfully I was allowed to follow him all the way to the car. (There were only three guys going today so I suppose an entire bus wasn't really necessary. Heh.) I got my last hug and a kiss before he got into the front sit as group leader. (^_^ Already getting ahead, silly man.) We waved and mouthed, "I love you," until the car pulled onto the main road, and we couldn't see each other anymore.

I never cried. Came close to tearing up, but I held back. I cried a few times in the past week, and Ryan asked why I was upset when he hadn't even left yet. I told him it was because I wanted to cry while he was still here to hold me. Because crying without his arms around me would only make me feel worse. So I'm going to be strong. I'm proud of Ryan, and there is no reason for tears. He doesn't want me to be a miserable, mopey mess for the next three months so I'm determined to stay happy. For him if for nothing else.

I wrote my first letter telling him I loved him and missed him already - you know, the generic kind of stuff that doesn't feel generic when you write it - while I was waiting for his recruiter to pick me up. I sat at the recruiting station with him and the other recruiters for a few minutes before he brought me home a few minutes ago. The apartment already feels so empty.

But I have a lot to concentrate on. I have to memorize my final speech for Japanese, finish my last online lab for Astronomy, write my last reaction paper for Sociology, prepare for finals in all three classes at the end of the month as well as a lab final in Astronomy, hunt down the perfect wedding shoes before Saturday so I can wear them for my first fitting, and track down the last couple of addresses so I can wrap up sending wedding invites and concentrate on some other aspect of the wedding. And when all that is done I will be heading to Greeneville for the rest of the summer so I won't be anywhere near as lonely or bored with my family and friends around.

I'm Still Alive

Just trying to get in my last bit of time with Ryan. Things haven't changed much since my last entry. We did end up making a trip to G-Vegas this past weekend which we didn't plan. Also went to Dollywood together on Sunday just for fun since his parents paid for season passes when we went with them last weekend. I have pictures from Dollywood, but they're on disposable cameras that I have to finish using up because I left my digital camera at home over the weekend. This weekend we're going back again before Ryan ships out. You probably won't hear much from me until after he's gone. At which point I will have way too much time on my hands and will be updating much more frequently.

In other news, I shut my hand in my dresser drawer last night and succeeded in bending the setting on my engagement ring. The diamond fell into the drawer, but we found it. Both pieces are in a little bag which we will be taking into the jewelry store along with the receipt and warranty in hopes that they will fix it under wear and tear and not fault me with human error in which case I can't afford to fix it. T-T Hopefully they can fix it, and I won't have to worry about it anymore. I could have kicked myself last night. At least the ring kept my finger from getting broken. Especially since apparently my parents' medical insurance has run out. O-o;; I cannot get hurt or sick for the next two months until my mom's insurance with her new job kicks in. With me that's an accident waiting to happen. Ugh.