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