I meant all week to sit down and write about the great time my roommate and I had in Chicago last Saturday the 22nd, but somehow it's already Saturday again. :)
A lot has happened... On Monday I had to check in with the transfer folks at school to get my paperwork in motion for leaving Tuesday, February 8th for San Diego! Needless to say, now that my date is confirmed (and I would have to replace an unused airline ticket out of pocket) I have to be done with school on schedule. Every moment of liberty this week was used doing extra school... as of last night, it was about 14 hours. So I am keeping up and am a little bit ahead. If I finish the next module today, I will hang out with Robert & Julie one more time tomorrow, Lord willing.
But last Saturday! We left a little later than the week before, since we had to muster and do sweepers at 0800. Caught the next train just in time, got off for breakfast two stops before downtown... The Golden Nugget Pancake House has exceeded my esteem for Denny's. I had a 3-egg omelet with squares of ham & onion cooked in. Lots of cheddar cheese too. Along with that came two of the fluffiest, biggest pancakes I've ever had. Let's just say we didn't have lunch.
We took buses from the transit center to the Planetarium down by the stadium. Admission was free for us, but the shows had an extra cost at discount. First up we saw a "Night Sky" show on a dome screen... Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Polaris and then the circumpolar stars in the north and the constellations and planets we'd see on a given night this season. Narrated live, and it was super fun!
Looked around the museum at the Gemini XII capsule from 1966 (on loan from the Smithsonian) and their featured exhibits on the moon program... and then downstairs I loved their displays on the history of telescopes. They have some neat stuff! Upstairs they had neat facts about the planets and the sun... and then it was time for the 3D movie about 3D technology and using it to observe mars and the sun. But after that it was 3pm or so... :)
So we walked up the pier to the natural history museum across from Soldier Field... the Field Museum. They closed at five, so we didn't have nearly enough time to see everything. I am very glad we decided to go on the Nature Walk, right by the entrance on the north. We saw the "World of Birds", the "World of Mammals" and "Messages from the Wilderness". We didn't have time for the Reptiles & Amphibians because we went upstairs to look at the dinosaur skeletons. I really loved them, but the encompassing displays on evolution sickened me. But I really do need to come back some time to see what we missed! :) Goodness! They had every bird and western animal I could think of, and then some! All of them were real-life specimens... they had every bird, from 15 different species of sparrows to the ostrich and condor. Incredible! And there were mammals in there that I had never heard of before, much less seen.
We caught the bus right out front and went to a famous local pizza place for dinner. "Gino's East" had deep dish pizza, with cheese, pepperoni and tomato sauce on top! We needed our forks! Got a cab for the few blocks back to the transit center and made our way home. Julie and her daughter Lisa picked us up at the train station in Great Lakes, bless them!, and took us back to the barracks (at least a 20 minute walk in snow & in the dark) where they waited for me to get my stuff for the night.
Stayed up really late chatting on Dalnet & talking, but I loved it! Woke up without a wake-up around 8ish, and we went to church. They go straight through books of the Bible there and were just finishing up 1st Kings. There were lots of nice snacks to be had afterwords, including a great rice & bean casserole. And after that we stopped by the house and headed off to enjoy the Packers-Bears playoff game at a local sports bar/restaurant. It was quite an experience to be with so many crazy fans during a game. Pretty loud in there! I had a lamb gyro with rice and coleslaw... and it was the best I've ever had.
What a weekend that was! Today I have duty, so there is no gallivanting around allowed. :)
My roommate is really swell and just offered before muster this morning to switch watches with me. So instead of midnight to 0400 pier sentry (look in people's bags), I'll be Petty Officer of the Watch (allowing people to leave or come in) from 1600 (4pm) to 2000 (8pm). We'll have 2000 muster and sweepers, and then I'll be done! Much better! What a sweetheart!
Jp
PS... and happy 97th birthday to my Gramma Payne today!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
... about today's adventure in Great Lakes.and then a finished post from last week about class in general.
Jp
Monday, January 17, 2011
Of Sunday and Duty
I was so blessed to go to church with the Rosenbergs... another great sermon and good time with them at their tiny church, Sure Foundation. We didn't hang around long afterwords, though. Goodness, the playoff game was starting soon! :) Seattle was being hosted by the Chicago Bears... my host's favorite team, besides the Chicago Cubs. We went out to a breakfast all-you-can-eat and watched the first half. Seattle didn't answer any of the Bear's three touchdowns... so when we got back to the house, I opted for a nap the rest of the game.
When that disaster was over (my hosts were very happy with the outcome) we piled in the car and had a quick stop at the mall before going on to Robert's sister's house. His daughter needed something at the place she works at... so while showing me where the shoe store was (I needed something civilian besides my tennies) he bought me a chocolate-covered frozen banana... wow! That was good! We watched a little more football at his sister's, and then several of them had come back with take-out from a local burger place. I had a delicious chicken sandwich and some of the tons of fries that came with everything. :)
Today is duty day. I began with a three-hour watch starting at 0745. Had Subway with my roommates and then fixed two of my roommate's pants. Why doesn't anyone know how to sew? It's so easy! :) I really should work out sometime soon, but I'm so tired! Maybe I won't be so exhausted if I don't try to do things every minute of the days this week. Last week I did extra class four times... Lord help me just do more in class itself this week!
My weekend was so great! At two different times I completely forgot I was in the Navy, I was having so much fun. It was a good mental break.
Jp
When that disaster was over (my hosts were very happy with the outcome) we piled in the car and had a quick stop at the mall before going on to Robert's sister's house. His daughter needed something at the place she works at... so while showing me where the shoe store was (I needed something civilian besides my tennies) he bought me a chocolate-covered frozen banana... wow! That was good! We watched a little more football at his sister's, and then several of them had come back with take-out from a local burger place. I had a delicious chicken sandwich and some of the tons of fries that came with everything. :)
Today is duty day. I began with a three-hour watch starting at 0745. Had Subway with my roommates and then fixed two of my roommate's pants. Why doesn't anyone know how to sew? It's so easy! :) I really should work out sometime soon, but I'm so tired! Maybe I won't be so exhausted if I don't try to do things every minute of the days this week. Last week I did extra class four times... Lord help me just do more in class itself this week!
My weekend was so great! At two different times I completely forgot I was in the Navy, I was having so much fun. It was a good mental break.
Jp
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Fun in the Windy City
This morning my roommate and I walked over in the frigid wind to the train station. We got there earlier than I thought, and made the earlier train (and only had to wait a half a minute for it). Neither of us had had breakfast, so we got off at the second stop at Lake Forest, a cute little window shop town. The train station there had been renovated to match what it looked like in 1899... it had long wood benches and wooden counters. Stopped at Einstein Bros. Bagels for breakfast and hopped back on the next train.
We arrived at the train station around 11:30, found a cab within seconds for a quick ride to the art museum of Chicago. We spent nearly three hours there, taking in first medieval paintings and suits of armor upstairs, then coming back down through the Chinese and Japanese collections. My roommate is especially interested in Japanese animation, so this particularly interested her. On our way upstairs to see the modern American painters, we walked through a long hallway of Indian and Nepalese statuaries... so many gods and goddesses, most of them were un-named. One incredible part of seeing these and the collections of ancient Egypt and Greece (a little of Rome too) was how old the objects were... ranging from the time of Christ to 4000 BC. I was super surprised that some things were not under glass. If I would have had less self-control I would have touched many of them! Gosh, I mean a statue made 6000 years ago? Wow!
I really loved the paintings upstairs! Hopper's "Nighthawks" was a special treat, and there were a few others I really loved. I'm a fan of realistic paintings, and there were plenty of them. Even though we spent so much time there, we didn't come close to seeing it all. There needs to be a return trip sometime!
Hunger came upon us, though, so we couldn't stay forever. We walked a few blocks south to a Barnes & Noble I saw on Google maps when planning what we'd do the night before. With my gift card from my brother for Christmas, I bought "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith (1942). I had heard a few episodes from the radio drama at the OTR Enthusiast's get together the last two years, so I thought I'd like to get the whole story. Across the street was a Chipotle Mexican Grill, and we enjoyed that heartily. Goodness, we were tired! But there appeared to be time to take in the planetarium, so we got on a bus (free for active duty!) and got there right at closing time. (Oh, well... another day.) There was an incredibly neat sunset behind the big skyline of the city... and the statue of Copernicus. Got on the same bus to take us back and transferred to a line that went right to the transit center. What a day!
My friend Robert and his daughter picked us up at the train station to take us to the barracks. I grabbed stuff for the night and then went home with them. I love chatting from the comfort of a living room! It's just like old times! Their son Chris gave up his bed for me (they are incredibly nice people!) and I slept like a log once I shut my eyes.
Jp
We arrived at the train station around 11:30, found a cab within seconds for a quick ride to the art museum of Chicago. We spent nearly three hours there, taking in first medieval paintings and suits of armor upstairs, then coming back down through the Chinese and Japanese collections. My roommate is especially interested in Japanese animation, so this particularly interested her. On our way upstairs to see the modern American painters, we walked through a long hallway of Indian and Nepalese statuaries... so many gods and goddesses, most of them were un-named. One incredible part of seeing these and the collections of ancient Egypt and Greece (a little of Rome too) was how old the objects were... ranging from the time of Christ to 4000 BC. I was super surprised that some things were not under glass. If I would have had less self-control I would have touched many of them! Gosh, I mean a statue made 6000 years ago? Wow!
I really loved the paintings upstairs! Hopper's "Nighthawks" was a special treat, and there were a few others I really loved. I'm a fan of realistic paintings, and there were plenty of them. Even though we spent so much time there, we didn't come close to seeing it all. There needs to be a return trip sometime!
Hunger came upon us, though, so we couldn't stay forever. We walked a few blocks south to a Barnes & Noble I saw on Google maps when planning what we'd do the night before. With my gift card from my brother for Christmas, I bought "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith (1942). I had heard a few episodes from the radio drama at the OTR Enthusiast's get together the last two years, so I thought I'd like to get the whole story. Across the street was a Chipotle Mexican Grill, and we enjoyed that heartily. Goodness, we were tired! But there appeared to be time to take in the planetarium, so we got on a bus (free for active duty!) and got there right at closing time. (Oh, well... another day.) There was an incredibly neat sunset behind the big skyline of the city... and the statue of Copernicus. Got on the same bus to take us back and transferred to a line that went right to the transit center. What a day!
My friend Robert and his daughter picked us up at the train station to take us to the barracks. I grabbed stuff for the night and then went home with them. I love chatting from the comfort of a living room! It's just like old times! Their son Chris gave up his bed for me (they are incredibly nice people!) and I slept like a log once I shut my eyes.
Jp
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Week In Review
This week has been wonderful, even if it was my first one back from home. :)
Monday morning was crazy though: they woke us up at 0400 in order to do drug testing (like who can be trusted when they're not being supervised by the Navy, right? :) But then they let us go back to sleep for a couple hours before we did lots of cleaning.
I decided to not be so worried about catching up to where they want me to be in class, and boy, did that make everything easier! I've had a better time of it, not being so up-tight. The Lord really answered my prayers about this!
I've also been successful at doing PT three times this week, doing shoulder/arm weights, core and cardio. And that felt really good too.
Basically, I've kept myself really busy, been really tired and enjoyed my Saturday morning by sleeping in. Did extra school on Thursday and today, and that's helped me feel not so rushed as well. Tuesday I made it to the Bible study, and I think I'll try and do all this next week again!
It's hard finding time for the Internet though!
Tonight I had a ball... watched an old movie of my own on one of the flat screens in the Loft, then headed straight over to the Bowling Center for two games with my roommates... we were all so bad I was able to win by a few points. The walk over there was just gorgeous! Had to go across the open field down the center of the base and it was pitch black out. Couldn't see a thing except the stars everywhere (mostly east, over the lake) and then the sliver of the moon and Jupiter burning right above it. The bare trees lined all the edges, and the beautiful clocktower's face was lit up along with the rows of lamp posts along the sidewalks... ahh, me. :)
Jp
Monday morning was crazy though: they woke us up at 0400 in order to do drug testing (like who can be trusted when they're not being supervised by the Navy, right? :) But then they let us go back to sleep for a couple hours before we did lots of cleaning.
I decided to not be so worried about catching up to where they want me to be in class, and boy, did that make everything easier! I've had a better time of it, not being so up-tight. The Lord really answered my prayers about this!
I've also been successful at doing PT three times this week, doing shoulder/arm weights, core and cardio. And that felt really good too.
Basically, I've kept myself really busy, been really tired and enjoyed my Saturday morning by sleeping in. Did extra school on Thursday and today, and that's helped me feel not so rushed as well. Tuesday I made it to the Bible study, and I think I'll try and do all this next week again!
It's hard finding time for the Internet though!
Tonight I had a ball... watched an old movie of my own on one of the flat screens in the Loft, then headed straight over to the Bowling Center for two games with my roommates... we were all so bad I was able to win by a few points. The walk over there was just gorgeous! Had to go across the open field down the center of the base and it was pitch black out. Couldn't see a thing except the stars everywhere (mostly east, over the lake) and then the sliver of the moon and Jupiter burning right above it. The bare trees lined all the edges, and the beautiful clocktower's face was lit up along with the rows of lamp posts along the sidewalks... ahh, me. :)
Jp
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
New Year's, and All That Jazz
A Happy New Year to you!
I'm back on base, getting ready to get into the swing of things tomorrow.
Dec. 30th, I got back later than I was supposed to, due to the 2.5 hour delay of my plane in Seattle... meaning if I hadn't called ahead to the base, I would have been AWOL for an hour and a half. Thank goodness for phones!!! Arrived at 1:30am... saw 5 deer on the field as I walked to check in. It was just after 3 when I laid my head down to sleep. This was my duty day (I found out when checking in), so I had to muster at 7 in the morning, and they gave me a four-hour watch. Whew! That was hard to stay awake for.
However, New Year's Eve was great! I had another quick muster at 7 with a very quick sweepers, then got my stuff ready to go to Robert & Julie's house for the night and next day. Talked to Mike for a super long time (in the morning even!) and enjoyed the incredible absence of snow and the presence of sunshine and warm temps. A couple feet of snow disappeared over night with the heavy rainfall that morning.
Didn't get picked up til around 2 or so... relaxed a bit at their house and then we went out to eat at "Fong's Kitchen" in downtown Waukegan... a favorite of theirs... they had GREAT pork fried rice, along with chicken egg foo yung, sweet & sour chicken, great egg rolls, and beef & onions. It was outstanding. We then went on to Robert's sister's house where we met up with family I had met at Thanksgiving. They were very nice about letting me chat, and I played a few games of pool downstairs with Robert's son and brother-in-law. We went home right after ringing in the new year, and I stayed up with Mike to see Meg into it as well. I had to stay up for Seattle! :)
New Year's itself I slept in long and hard til 11:30! There were various bowl games on, and we enjoyed a hearty breakfast... rather late! :) I spent most of the day writing the last post between watching the Outback and Rose bowls and calling home to talk to mom. From there we headed off to "Bulldog's Grill" a half-hour away. Robert was excited for their 30+ choices of half-pound burgers... and with good reason! They were outstanding! It was an old-fashioned diner place and we all had ice creme afterwords. Good stuff!
There was a small errand to run at Gurnee Mills Mall after dinner, and while we were there I decided to stock up on a civilian winter hat (with ears), gloves & scarf in honor of the freezing wind we had. :) They then dropped me back at the base and I was indebted to a friend for finding me some Internet for chat. What a pal!
Today has been a little wild. We were woken at five, and were able to leave our transient barracks by 8:30 or so. :) Efficiency again, you know. I was the first back to my old room... I unpacked right away, had brunch with Hibbard, stocked up on nice things to eat from the NEX, and did all my laundry... and had a 2-hour "cock block" watch. I've done a lot, and I'm pretty tired.
Jp
I'm back on base, getting ready to get into the swing of things tomorrow.
Dec. 30th, I got back later than I was supposed to, due to the 2.5 hour delay of my plane in Seattle... meaning if I hadn't called ahead to the base, I would have been AWOL for an hour and a half. Thank goodness for phones!!! Arrived at 1:30am... saw 5 deer on the field as I walked to check in. It was just after 3 when I laid my head down to sleep. This was my duty day (I found out when checking in), so I had to muster at 7 in the morning, and they gave me a four-hour watch. Whew! That was hard to stay awake for.
However, New Year's Eve was great! I had another quick muster at 7 with a very quick sweepers, then got my stuff ready to go to Robert & Julie's house for the night and next day. Talked to Mike for a super long time (in the morning even!) and enjoyed the incredible absence of snow and the presence of sunshine and warm temps. A couple feet of snow disappeared over night with the heavy rainfall that morning.
Didn't get picked up til around 2 or so... relaxed a bit at their house and then we went out to eat at "Fong's Kitchen" in downtown Waukegan... a favorite of theirs... they had GREAT pork fried rice, along with chicken egg foo yung, sweet & sour chicken, great egg rolls, and beef & onions. It was outstanding. We then went on to Robert's sister's house where we met up with family I had met at Thanksgiving. They were very nice about letting me chat, and I played a few games of pool downstairs with Robert's son and brother-in-law. We went home right after ringing in the new year, and I stayed up with Mike to see Meg into it as well. I had to stay up for Seattle! :)
New Year's itself I slept in long and hard til 11:30! There were various bowl games on, and we enjoyed a hearty breakfast... rather late! :) I spent most of the day writing the last post between watching the Outback and Rose bowls and calling home to talk to mom. From there we headed off to "Bulldog's Grill" a half-hour away. Robert was excited for their 30+ choices of half-pound burgers... and with good reason! They were outstanding! It was an old-fashioned diner place and we all had ice creme afterwords. Good stuff!
There was a small errand to run at Gurnee Mills Mall after dinner, and while we were there I decided to stock up on a civilian winter hat (with ears), gloves & scarf in honor of the freezing wind we had. :) They then dropped me back at the base and I was indebted to a friend for finding me some Internet for chat. What a pal!Today has been a little wild. We were woken at five, and were able to leave our transient barracks by 8:30 or so. :) Efficiency again, you know. I was the first back to my old room... I unpacked right away, had brunch with Hibbard, stocked up on nice things to eat from the NEX, and did all my laundry... and had a 2-hour "cock block" watch. I've done a lot, and I'm pretty tired.
Jp
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