Cherry Point, North Carolina

So I went to see belly this past weekend at Cherry Point, NC. I left out of Ft. Riley on a shuttle service that took me to Kansas City. This shuttle service was not all that great, to be honest, but it got me there. Flew out of KC International to Charlotte, and from Charlotte flew into a really tiny airport at Jacksonville, NC (notice, that’s NC not FL).

The Enterprise car rental place in Jacksonville sent a runner in with a van to pick me up from the airport. Now, for plausible deniability, let’s just not say who drove the rented vehicle, which, in this case, was a free upgrade to a Chevy Avalanche pickup truck, because another customer wanted the Nissan Altima so bad that Enterprise was willing to let me have a better vehicle.

The Chevy Avalanche 4 door pickup, an interesting engine, an inline 5 cylinder. White truck, very bland, they didn’t include the automatic lock keychain, and oddly enough there was NO outside keyhole on the passenger side. I’ve never seen that before. Normally I like to unlock belly’s side of the vehicle and let her in, guess I just like being the gentleman. Well, no possibility of doing that, especially without having the automatic keychain to unlock the door. I’m not going to complain much about that, considering the vehicle itself was pretty nice.

The room wasn’t too costly, 25 bucks a night. The rooms themselves were not all that great. The bathroom design was really ridiculous, but hey, for 25 bucks a night, who am I to complain? I find myself looking back at these times as the times I’ll always be fond of though, when we don’t have much money, and it’s mostly just she and I working our way thru the world (of course with our parents’ help), being really thrifty and in all reality enjoying one another’s company so much, doing things that don’t cost much money but are certainly a lot of fun.

I stood out on the balcony of my 3rd floor room and watched belly cross the parking lot after I got into the Marine base. I always find myself smiling like a goofy schoolboy with a crush when I get to see my baby again, which is just fine, because looking at her, she’s just the same way. After a big hug and a smooch just outside the doorway, she showered and we went for a drive around the base and she showed me around, then back and parked the vehicle and walked down to a bar and grill on base (Andy’s? I think? Can’t remember the name haha) where we had some beers and ate a little greasy food, then back to the room for some sleep.

Now, I don’t know if there is anything more wonderful than waking up all groggy, that first few moments of not knowing where you are at, and as everything comes back to you, you realize that one person you would rather be with than any other in the world is laying there right beside you. That’s when you take a deep breath and sink back into the bed, wrap your arms around that person and thank God for every moment you have together.

We went and had breakfast at the chow hall, 4 bucks for me haha. Then off we went to drive around the area. Now, Havelock is a real dump of a town, to be quite honest. The movie theater looked like something out of an early 1980’s era community. Worse yet, there are like 4 communities all within about an hour radius of one another, roughly the same size, and all have really crappy accommodations. We stopped at the Dodge dealership, looked at a few cars. Then off to the Military surplus store, where belly got dog tags. We drove all the way into New Bern, NC, then got in a silly argument because I got lost and I didn’t want to listen to her directions, and later it turned out that she was right, and I was wrong, but I didn’t admit it, I’m still not admitting it, for the record haha!!

We went to the mall, I bought belly some new clothes for her birthday. We ate at the Texas Steakhouse, and it was delicious. We drove by a fair of some sort, with a midway going on, and we had plans to go back but those fell through later on, as we got a few movies and hung out in the room and watched them and snuggled. We again went out to the bar on post, this time playing pool till about 11 or so. Then it was off to good ole’ Taco Bell, to ravage our digestive systems with some real delicious cheap crappy food. Then back to the room and watched another movie and went to sleep.

Sunday we got up late (is 9 all that late? Haha) and watched another movie, then we went off to a little Mexican restaurant and stuffed ourselves silly. Then we went and saw Flight Plan, with Jodie Foster. It was an okay movie, but there were too many inconsistencies in the movie, stuff that was left unexplained. After the movie, we drove down to visit the beach along the Atlantic Ocean, just to the east of Havelock. We went out on the beach for a few minutes, then took a bunch of photos. Afterwards we headed out for a drive up a long lazy highway for a spell, then on the way back I saw a little hole in the wall entry to the public beach, with a long wooden path thru a wooded area. That made for some excellent photos also.

Then we headed to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream, and then drove back to the base and rented a movie and watched it. Being Sunday night, we had to be in bed early, because we had to be up at 0500. It was pretty hard that night, knowing it will likely be more than 6 months before we see one another again. In the morning we headed over to eat breakfast but then never ate, rather just sat in the vehicle and enjoyed that last 45 minutes together. Then she was off to formation and I headed off to deliver the vehicle back to Enterprise and get a ride to the airport.

On the flight from Jacksonville to Charlotte, it got a little hairy. They couldn’t extend the flaps all the way out on one of the wings, so the pilot got on the intercom and had everyone be sure that their seatbelts were really tight, and that we were going to have to land at a little higher speed than normal. Well, yah, like more than twice the normal speed. Talk about your heart in your throat, all three sets of wheels seemed to touch down at the same time, a tiny bounce, then when the pilot hit the reverse thrust on the engines, woah, THAT was why he wanted the seatbelts tight, it was like hitting a wall.

The flight was about 15 minutes late getting in, so I had to truck on down to my connecting flight a good mile away in the terminal. I got there to find out that the flight had been delayed by about a half hour. So I didn’t have to run, but then you never know. So when I got back to Kansas City, it was 10 after 2, and the 2 o’clock shuttle had already left. That stunk, I had to wait till 4 to get a ride back to Riley. And the ride, woah, the guy drove like a complete maniac, tailgating everyone, then spending like 20 minutes at every stop gabbing with everyone. I was worried I wouldn’t make it back on time for the 2000 formation. Thankfully, I walked right in the door at 19:55 and was there to fall in with my platoon.

So basically that was my weekend, I would guess that I’ve dicked up the timeline somewhat, but you get the idea of what we did overall. It was really wonderful to see belly, I hope we get to see one another before I go but I don’t see that happening. But let’s look on the bright side, the sooner I get going, the sooner the clock starts ticking till when I get back.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

If I needed you so desperately
To come to me and talk to me
To take my heart and hand into your comfort zone
Where I'm not alone or lonely
Well would you take the time to be my friend
Cause in the end that's all there is
There's love the eternal bond between us

Would You Be There – Blessed Union Of Souls

More Hollywood Rubbish

This time disguised as a news article. I was catching up a little bit on the news and came across a movie project that Hollywood has decided to work on. It’s going to star Kirsten Dunst, as an American Citizen who went to work in Iraq to get aid to war victims. Now, let’s look beyond the obvious disturbing ignorance in making a film about a war that is STILL GOING ON, with our military members STILL FIGHTING, and visit some of the more idiotic parts of this editorial so thinly disguised as an article.

“The movie, to be made for Paramount Pictures, will tell the remarkable story of Ruzicka, 28, who ran a non-governmental organisation that lobbied for financial compensation for civilian casualties of war, Daily Variety said.”

Ohhh, ‘remarkable story’ now, is that how we describe non biased news these days, with adjectives implying good or bad? Interesting, now let us look at some other parts of this ‘article’ that are misinforming.

“Ruzicka, through her organisation Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, worked extensively in Iraq and in Afghanistan to document the exact number of civilians killed or injured by US forces.” UH, WRONG!!! Way to doctor the facts. This campaign was not aimed at those ‘killed by US forces’ it was aimed to help ANY civilians harmed during this war, by either side. Why do you think she was targeted and killed by a suicide bomber? Well, there are those that believe her investigative work was working against the insurgents by putting exact numbers killed by both sides up from an impartial source. So certainly if it were just ‘civilians killed or injured by US forces’ , that would work FOR their cause. Way to get the facts WRONG. But hey, it’s being produced by MTV films, which should really say a lot. MTV can’t even put music on a stationed named after music, how can you expect them to put up factual information in a serious movie? Oh, and related to editing, something this article obviously didn’t receive, way to misspell organization.

The article goes on to talk about how the Hollywood is lining up films about the ‘three year old conflict in Iraq’, listing several titles, and stupidly includes "Jarhead," starring Jamie Foxx and Jake Gyllenhaal, which is set to open on November 11. Wow, way to do your research, considering Jarhead is about the FIRST Iraqi conflict, Desert Storm, more than 15 years ago.

Interestingly enough, the article is not attributed to any author, instead listed simply as LOS ANGELES (AFP). I wouldn’t want to put my name on this garbage either, considering the inconsistencies and one sided viewpoints that are inferred within. Just another attempt by the half witted non educated Hollywood types to try and sway political opinion concerning topics they know nothing about.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Bend and shape me, I love the way you are
Slow and sweetly, Like never before
Calm and sleeping, We won't stir up the past
So discretely, We won't look back

Doesn’t Remind Me – Audioslave