Morning in Chicago

This morning I was in Chicago. I feel very fortunate that my good friend Amanda was able to fly up to Chicago from Kentucky and visit me. I miss her!

We stayed the night at her brother's, it was good to be with people I know. We decided to just stay in and not go out on the town. We ordered Chicago style pizza, which was wonderful, drank wine sat around and talked.

Her brother is the Director of Pilates at the East Bank Club, so I made off with a comfy yoga outfit. Thanks, Tim. Here are some pictures from Tim's apartment, I took this morning while drinking coffee and chilling.

I am so thankful for Amanda and Tim, good friends make the world go around.

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival."

- C. S. Lewis

Okinawa- Oki

Before my journey to my new job began, I spent a few days out in Okinawa. Oki is a southern island off of mainland Japan. Technically, it is a prefecture of Japan, yet Okinawa was only really considered a part of Japan after WWII. In 2007 I spent about a month out there with my good friend Christi. We explored and I learned a lot about the history of Oki when I was there, then.

This trip, I spent the week just chilling out. I ate plenty of Spam Musubi, played on the internet, slept in, napped, drank bubble tea, laid on the seawall and listened to the waves, baked cookies and pondered life.

Oki I will miss you. Thanks for the memories.

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water."

Loran Eisely

Finally an Entry

Really? I have not blogged in months. To be completely truthful, I was pretty burnt out and looking to write my new chapter in this book we call life. So alas, the time is here.

I am sitting on my bed in lodging here at Camp Zama thinking about what to do my last 48 hours here. Do I say goodbye? Do I say see you later?

I will go with see you later. The military is very large, yet anyone who is a part of it (active duty or civilian) will tell you it is actually really small. I know that even though I am headed to a very small base there will be Zama people there and maybe even a few Kwajites.

On Tuesday, I close the Japan chapter of my journey. I leave here changed, thankful, better; for I have lived, loved, and learned here. I would never give back all that I will take with me from Japan.

To the next adventure. Netherlands, here I come!

"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live."

~Flora Whittemore

My leg.. Ouch!

On Friday morning I had to be at work even earlier than usual. So, at about 10 am, I came home to just chill and pick up my house a bit. Or that is that I thought.

I took out the garbage and the step to the platform collapsed. Long sorry short, I ended up with 3 stitches and a super sore leg.

Photo 1- Platform to the garbage
Photo 2- Same thing different angle
Photo 3- Where I fell through
Photo 4- In my room trying to figure out if it looks bad enough to go to medical
Photo 5- Stitches
Photo 6 & 7- It is healing... check out the bruising

So, to make matters worse I woke up on Saturday with a super sore throat, Sunday my throat was even worse, I took Monday and Tuesday off ( I never take sick leave), and back to work tomorrow. I hope the rest of this week goes well.

"What doesn't kill us, makes us strong"

The power of a salute

Everyday, I think about things I want to blog about and rarely do I sit down and do it. So, today I thought of something that I really wanted to write about but I have not.

The military salute. To get on a military installation you have to show your id every time you go through the date. If someone in the car is an officer the gate guards snap to attention and salute the officer, and the officer then returns the gesture. Today, I was behind an officer and I watched it play out like many, many, times before, and I thought of how special the military is. I love this life.

It is a small gesture that means so much, respect, commitment, service, and tradition. I love to watch the different salutes, and all the different situations when soldiers salute superiors.

"If you can't get them to salute when they should salute and wear the clothes you tell them to wear, how are you going to get them to die for their country?"
-General George S. Patton

Homesick

This picture is from the last day I was in China, I was giving Casey that look because I didn't want to leave.

I can truly say that I rarely feel homesick, but lately the feeling has kind of grabbed hold. I know it all will pass and there is light at the end of the tunnel, but I really want to go to America.

Here are some of the things I would do if I actually had an approved leave slip:

Kiss the ground
Pick fresh fruit and veggies and eat them
Hug my family and friends, especially, mom, dad, and sister
Kiss the ground
Drive 55 MPH
Stop by Gma's and bring her an extra hot hazelnut latte
Run outside without humidity
Order a double tall non-fat latte with 2 pumps of vanilla
Drive to the coast
Hop on a combine and work all day (maybe even blow it off, just to remember what it feels like to be dirty)
Hug some more people
Drink a diet Dr. Pepper fountain pop from the machine
Smell everything- summer nights, dust, hay, home... etc.
Drive with the windows open
Fly all over the country and see my friends...SC, KY, West Coast etc..
Walk 3rd street and love it
Drink wine
Have one of Dad's "steaks the size of your head" off the Tragger
Hang out
See my aunts uncles and cousins
Use a turning lane
Go on a "girl" date with the Mac town girls
Go shopping at Goodwill and the mall- probably in that order
Go to Corvallis to see Sister and whoever else is still down there
Go to LG hang with CaSandra reminisce about college days (stop by Sherman on the way home)
Just sit and talk with Corko for hours about nothing and everything
Fly to GA... Hold baby CJ, hug Allison, salute Scott. ha.
Kiss the ground
Visit, eat, and LOVE AMERICA.

Okay don't feel bad if you did not make the list, as anyone who has felt homesickness could relate too this list goes on and on.

"Good is everywhere, but home is better."

Random thoughts

As you all know, I was not raised in a military family, yet I am very comfortable living this life. I attribute that to being raised with a good work ethic and a purpose. When I was growing up I don't remember many written rules or standards in our house. Yet, there are a few things that were rules in our home. "life isn't fair", "do you best and leave the rest; it all will come right some day or night" and lastly, "can't is NOT a word" were all guiding phrases in my childhood. The first two quotes "rules" are pretty self explanatory. The third one may need a little explanation. The word "can't" was not allowed in our house. When ever we used the dirty word we were kindly reminded by our parents to ask for help, try again, or try it a different way. What a lesson.

This past week I have had a hard time with the media. I think my Facebook status over the weekend sums it all up well. On Friday, I wrote the below status:

Julia Sektnan...Is frustrated with the Media. Debbie Rowe wants her kids, OK. I am pretty sure MJ was taking white pills, he is dead, and yes it is sad. Yet, as we approach a weekend to celebrate our country's freedom, why isn't there any news about Korea launching 4 missiles? A bit dangerous. OR maybe the thousands of Marines air lifted and dropped into AFG during President Obama's first offensive of his administration. huh?

To follow up on this comment, I believe that Korea has launched 11 missiles over the last week, 33 service members died in the month of June. 5 of which have died since Micheal Jackson has taken over the media. Did we even hear about these individuals who gave their lives? Nope. Or the soldier that is missing? Nope. Or the 7 more coalition troops that have died since 1 July? Again nope.

All of these service members did not use the word "can't" They DID as many will continue to do. Their families are left with the "life isn't fair" feeling. Yet, I believe if you ask most who serve our country they would agree with the rule mentioned above, "do your best ans leave the rest; it all will come right someday or night." Thank-you to all those who serve OUR country!

In closing, thanks dad and mom for the wonderful lessons! I am a very lucky person, thanks to all who love and support me. You all are the reason I continue to grow as a person, dream and persevere.

This song is old, but it says it so well.


"Roots and Wings, who says you can't have both"

Super size me... Yuck

It is amazing how in over a year and a half my view of portion sizes has changed drastically. I will never forget when I got here to Japan, everything looked so small. A large coke was the size of an American child sized coke. Today, I had a very strange moment that brought this all back to me in a hurry.

Most of you know I workout 6 days a week and have one free day, my free day usually falls on Friday, but today (Saturday), I was craving some Taco Bell. I went to Atsugi and got Taco Bell. First the women in front of me ordered 5 items and ate them all herself. In my opinion quite a task for one person, she made light work of it. Since, I was on a bit of a junk food bender, I decided to go to the "America" McDonald's across the street and get a milkshake. I went through the drive thru and ordered a strawberry milkshake. The lady said, a medium?, I said yes, medium sounded like a good option. I pulled forward and picked up my shake. IT WAS HUGE!! Well, not really, but that was my first thought, holy cow, who needs that much milkshake. I drank it until I was full. Then I opened the top, because it still felt heavy. I had only drank about 1/4 of the milkshake and I was DONE!! Stuffed and full.

All I could think was... man, I have gotten use to Japanese portions.

Below is are some pictures comparing the differences in portion sizes.

I am now thankful, for small portions.

America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail it knocks over a chair.
-Arnold J. Toynbee,

China Pictures

If you would like to see my China pictures, please click on the link below and proceed to the China album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/julia.sektnan

The nice slideshow I made failed to post, so I figured this would suffice.

Have a wonderful day.

J

Finally- China update

I absolutely LOVED China. I did not think I would say that. When I left Japan to go there on vacation, I was a little bit of a skeptic. I spent a vast majority of my time getting pampered, because your money goes so much further in China than it does in Japan. The other thing that made my trip so much fun, is my friend Casey has been teaching there for the last year, so it was great to hang out and have a tour guide.

Casey flew up and met me in Beijing. We stayed in a hostel on the "food street". It was a pretty nice hostel with a very nice staff. The front desk lady was very intense, yet very helpful. We swore she was nocturnal, she was always up at night and we never saw her in the day time. While in Beijing we ate A LOT!! It was a ton of fun. The only negative thing about Beijing was I got a bad sinus infection. The good thing is in China you can get medicines from about every corner pharmacy without going to the doctor.

Casey's friends and fellow teachers, Ruthann and Cort met up with us on Saturday and we did the Great Wall. It was absolutely phenomenal. It was a good workout, but nothing like Mt. Fuji. The Great Wall, was like a never ending stair stepper. To get down from the wall we did the toboggan run. It was so much fun, we paid again and did it twice.

On Sunday, we flew to Shanghai. We arrived to Casey's great apartment and to her friendly roommate Kay. I swear the theme of China was "EAT". That night we ordered in Pizza, the following nights, we ate Korean twice and great food throughout every day. I spent my days getting massages and shopping. I LOVED the market, bartering is so much fun. The massages, waxing, nails, and general pampering filled my days while everyone else worked. I got "cupping" twice. It is when they heat up glass dome things and stick them to your back to suck out the poisons. Below is a picture of the end result of cupping treatment #1.
Cupping was so relaxing. I did it twice dispute the large hickeys it left behind. As I told my co-workers, it felt so good, it is good thing I have never done hard drugs, because I would most likely have a problem. :)

On Thursday, we flew to central Chengu. It is the home of the largest panda reserve in the world. The panda's were so cute. It was a great experience. There we stayed in the Dragon House Hostel again it was really nice and in a historic alley district, with a Starbucks very near. :) Chengdu is in the Sichuan province famous for their spicy food. They were not messing around.

We got home from Chengdu late Saturday, Casey and I went straight to the massage place and I got my second cupping treatment.

The next morning, I got in a taxi at 7am and headed back to Japan.

I have been swamped with work since i got back.

I made a slideshow, but it is having issues load, I will try to post it tomorrow.




J

"Life is either a great adventure or nothing." ~Helen Keller

In Japan

I am at home in Japan. China was wonderful, I will post pictures and stories about the trip later. I need to get to bed, I have a feeling work is going to be LONG tomorrow.

J

The Roppongi Experience

Roppongi is a popular part of Tokyo with a ton of night life. Yesterday, I went into the city with Jenna, Lauren, Quail and Stacie to go to Barbacoa to have a girl's night (all the husband were elsewhere) before Stacie leaves. We went to Barbacoa, as always the food was wonderful. After Barbacoa we decided that we wanted to venture into the Roppongi district to see what it was all about.

The biggest issue with partying in Roppongi is you have to catch the last train home by 12, midnight because the trains don't run again until 5 am. Our original plan was the head home on the train at midnight. At about 11 pm, we all headed to the station, after a short discussion we decided that we were not going to go home, we were going to stay all night.

As you walk down the streets of the district there are many people standing outside of clubs and bars trying like leaches to hook on to you and suck you into their respective establishment. We ended up at club called Flower, after a bit of observation it was confirmed that most likely we had stumbled upon a gay bar with both gay and straight people there. We ended up staying there for the reminder of the night. Believe it or not, I think in hindsight the bar was more comfortable the a typical "straight" bar or club, because quite frankly everyone left us alone, we all danced, people watched, and had a great time.
Should we stay or should we go? Train station debate.
Quail, Lauren, Stacie and Jenna

At about 3 am, we all started to lose steam, needless to say, we were outside the train station wanting for the doors to open at 5 am. Talk about a very fun, but a very long night. Waiting on the train station steps

I am not sure how people go to Roppongi on a regular bases, but it was a great experience.

I have attached a video and a few pictures, note how smokey the bar is in the video, I still feel like I smoked 25 packs of cigarettes and I don't smoke.


Cheers to a wonderful time with good friends.

J
"Friends are treasures." - Horace Burns

Daily Grind

All:

I just wanted to check in on my blog really quick. I am still here and still doing well, but as usual I have been working A LOT! We made it through our inspection and did well on all the findings and recommendations of the inspection team.

But, last Monday I got to work and there was yet another visitor from Headquarters in Hawaii. She was here to look at the programming part of the center. I have worked with her now for many years, so I am use to her constructive criticism.

Bad news and Good News:

Always start with the bad they say... I had been planning on going back to the states for a conference and to see Allison, Scott, Connor, and Baby CJ, unfortunately they will not fund my trip, so I will not be going. It is a huge let down as I really was looking forward to seeing all of them. I will hopefully be making it to see them by the end of the summer, depending on what happens work and job wise.

On a positive note, before my boss leaves I really wanted to get out of here on a vacation. My friend Casey is a teacher in China and will be leaving there in June to go back to kwaj. I am going to go visit her. If all works out as planned I will leave here next Friday the 22nd.

That's all for now,
J

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
-John Lennon

Update? What's that?

I have not updated my blog since 15 April. Yikes! I am still here and everything is going well, except for today when I was going to update this thing. I can't find the USB cord for my camera, talk about aggravating. I found like 24 different USB cords, but not the one to my camera, and of course the card in my camera is different then my old camera, so plan B fell through too. Hopefully I find it soon, a camera without a USB cord is pretty much useless!!


" I used to be lost in the shuffle. Now I just shuffle along with the lost. "
Unknown

Inspection

So, as usual, my work has fully consumed me for the past few weeks. We are currently preparing for a HUGE inspection, one that no one here has ever done before. We have all done inspections, but not one quite like this. I have to admit this is the biggest inspection I have ever had as a director. To say I am not nervous would be a lie, but all things are a learning experience. I just have to remember that although, I want everything to be perfect there is really no way to achieve perfection. Please think positive thoughts for me as I stay late at the office and prepare for next Tuesday's inspection.


"On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow."
Friedrich Nietzsche

The bugs are BACK!!

I know the picture is not in the center and it does bug me (no pun intended), but I cannot figure out how to fix it.

For those of you who were raised in the South or in warmer climates, you know the above bug is a Cicada or as the Japanese call them a Semi. They come out when the weather starts to get warm. Tonight on my way home from the gym I heard them for the first time. For those of you who have never heard them they sound much like a power transformer going out, no joke.

I HATE THEM, I am not scared of bugs in general, but I do not like cicadas.

One positive thing about them is, warm weather is here!!!

The name is a direct derivation of the Latin cicada, meaning "buzzer".

"Unlike the singing cicadas, the silent fireflies burn themselves.
Japanese saying

"Taking Chance" a must see!

Thanks to HBO films there is now a phenomenal moving tribute to all that have served. Especially those who did not make it back alive and those who accompanied them on way home. There were many times during the movie when I had chills and broke out in tears.

I have to say I am usually not a Kevin Bacon fan either, but he did such a great job portraying a Marine Corps Officer.

Below is the movie trailer.



Thank you to all those who serve and have served.

"It is my earnest hope - indeed the hope of all mankind - that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past, a world found upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice."
- General Douglas Macarthur

My poor toe

Well they say your big toes are a major part of your balance. I think that if my big toe could talk it would tell you that is true.

Check out this massive blister.

Running in thin socks is not a good idea, bottom line.

"Running is one of the best solutions to clear a mind"
~Sasha Azevedo

1470 Yen

Yep, that is what I spent at the good beer store for 4 beers. Sounds ridiculous, but $15 dollars for the comfort of a little good beer and the feeling of home is worth it.

The funny thing is when I got home I didn't even have a beer, I was too tired. To be quite honest, I bought them a week ago and have only drank the brown ale so far. They are sitting in my frig, like untouched treasures. Amazing what living overseas does, even to your beer choices.

And I got to use my Pope-ener, Get it Pope opener, Allison brought it back for me from Italy and it was really blessed by the Pope. Whoot Whoot!



"A fine beer may be judges with only one sip, but it's better to be thoroughly sure"
~Czech Proverb

A good sweat

So, as I said in my last entry I have started to run again. Those of you who know me well, know that I work out 6 days a week. I love Fridays because it is my day off the gym and it is also the day I can eat a little junk food. I see it as a reward for making it through the week.

More running equals sore Julia. To combat the soreness I have started to go in the sauna and the stream room at the gym. I am very fortune that our gym has both and just as the gym they are free to use.

Every time I go in the Sauna I think of my mom, she loves saunas and likes them as hot as possible. Yesterday, while I was in there sweating my brains out all I could think was dang it is hot in here, but I didn't want to leave because it felt good.

So, this entry is for my wonderful loving mama, who I wish was here to join me for some relaxing time in the sauna.

Miss you and Love you Mama.

"To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power."
-- Maya Angelou

Steaks as Big as Your Head

I have started running again. I gave it up for a while and replaced it with crossfit. Now for some reason I feel like running again. Tonight when I was done at the gym I wanted a steak. This post is a tribute to my dad and his "steaks as big as your head".
My dinner about a 1/4 of the steak

When I was staying with Dad and Kim before moving here to Japan almost nightly we would have steaks. I was always baffled with the size of the steaks, they were SO good, but most of the time I could only eat like a 1/4 of a steak. The remainder of the steak on the George Foreman (A bit gross looking)

Despite the fact my steak was not nearly as good as dad's, I still managed to eat about a 1/4 of it. I have lunch and dinner tomorrow made. :) Now all I really need is a Trager (smoker bbq), like dad's. Tonight's dinner brought back a little feeling of home, which was nice.


Miss you and Love you Dad!

"Any man can be a father, but it takes a special person to be a dad"
~Proverb

Failed

This sign says it all. The sign was on zero Saturday morning. Boo!! No day off.What happened too "work more harder" People?

"You tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is 'never" try."
~Dan Castellaneta

33 more days!

Those of you who were recipients of my old emails will know that I talked about the DUI laws and being breathalyzed a bunch.

This sign represents how many days we have gone with out a DUI. 67!! Hooray! Remember the legal limit is .03. In the last 2 days, I have been breathalyzed 4 times. I just hope we (the base) can make it 33 more days. If we make it to 100 we get a free day off. Come on people work more harder. (yes I know it is not grammatically correct) :)


"I can't die until the government finds a safe place to bury my liver"
~Phil Harris

Quick update

I haven't been on for a while, so here is a quick run down of what is new in my little world.

Short funny community living tale, funny I say only now, I was not so amused when it happened. A little preface... I try not to complain about where I live because alas, it is free, but I will say you get what you pay for. :) I live in a Bachelor Officers Quarters room, funny thing is all the officers live off base, which just means I live with a bunch of enlisted guys. I have no problem with that, the loud music, video games and Japanese girls wandering down the hall are just the perks of everyday living. Community laundry on the other hand drives me crazy, but again it is free, you get what you pay for. Yesterday, I woke up early and started a load of wash. Transferred it to the dryer etc. When I went in to get it, my laundry was in a huge moist pile on top of the washer. Not a happy camper, so I looked into the dryer, my plan was to remove the persons clothes and continue drying mine. Well, that did not happen... drum roll please... there was one pair of wet whitey tighties rolling around in there... I don't want to know the story behind them... I grabbed my semi-dry clothes and hung them the rest of the way dry in my room.

Work... My favorite four letter word, is getting better. I have an assistant director, she is doing okay. Her story is long and complicated, she came to me from another area within, because she could not get along with her manger there... so, whats the solution, give her to Julia.

Her acclamation period so far has been a bit rough, it is going to take her a while to see that bossing me around is not a good thing, but we will make it though. It is very nice to have an extra set of hands to delegate too.

This weekend, my friends Jeanette and Dave went to a Japanese wedding in the Kyoto area. So, I am currently making sure their three teenage boys stay out of trouble. I forget how funny teenagers are, we are having fun. Last night, we had a wii mario cart marathon (as Scott and Allison can attest, wii is not my strong suit), but last night I was doing well, as a result, we had a victorious Miss Julia and Devin had a semi-smashed ego.

That's about all for here right now.

Please know that my door is always open for visitors, if you are interested in a visit just let me know when and I will be ready.

J

"Do what you can with what you've got wherever you are."~ Theodore Roosevelt ~

Randomness

So, today I am sick, it is no fun to be sick. I got up this morning and opened the center from 5-9 am. Then, I came home put on sweats and fell asleep on my couch until my alarm clock went off. Why, because I needed to go to a meeting. Needless to say I am sick and somehow managed to put in a 6 hour day.

I will get to where I am going with this at some point. After my afternoon meeting there was nothing on TV. So, I was looking on itunes for something to watch. This past Friday, I went out to dinner with Naoko who is a super sweet Japanese lady. I know her because she was one of Allison's students and we like her so much she became a good friend.

I promise, I will tie it all together. Naoko was asking about my blog while we were at the Gyoza house (yay!). She was interested in my story about the clothes drive and asked if I had seen the movie Kite Runner. My answer, no I had not seen the movie, but yes I had picked up the book, got distracted and never finished.

Back to today, I rented Kite Runner on itunes. What a powerful story. Now that I sent so many clothes to AFG, I have a strange connection with the place. I will probably never go there and to tell you the truth I do not even know if I have even met an Afghan person. Random.

For some reason I am compelled to help out...my latest AFG donation. For my birthday my family asked what I would like. Really, I don't need anything, so I told them money. Funny thing is I didn't want the money for me, I wanted it to buy vitamin. Yes, again for the AFG children and expected mothers. I purchased 60 bottles of children's vitamins and 10 bottles of prenatals. I am not sure why but there was a limit of 10 bottles of prenatals per customer? I guess it is like Meth heads and iodine, humanitarians and vitamins...don't know. I just may have sent up a few red flags.

Below I added a video from over the summer of the kindergarten group from work. When the kiddos sing this song it always gives me chills. What a great future they have ahead. My hope is that even a few bottles of vitamins, will give the AFG children hope. In turn making the future better for us all. After all, no matter how good, bad or indifferent a country is the children will grow-up to be the future leaders of the world.




~J

"The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope"

-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

No Coffee

On Monday I decided that I was going to quit drinking coffee cold turkey. Not only coffee, but I am not going to substitute it was anything. NO, soda or tea.

So, why? I was drinking about a pot of coffee a day. Yes, like the 12 cup pot of coffee. I figured that cannot be good for me. Wow, rocket scientist thinking. ha. 2 days into it and I can tell you it is rough, at about 2pm my head is screaming. "Give Me Coffee!!" in the tune of a massive head ache.

Am I going to give up coffee forever? No, just for a bit, when I feel like I can only drink a cup or two a day I will drink my beloved coffee. Yes, I am a caffeine addict. :)

Thankful

I am such a lucky person, I have the best friends and the best family anyone could ever ask for.

Work has been a challenge. I have been working a lot and there does not seem to be much light at the end of the big long tunnel. Even with all that I have to say I am very, very, thankful for all my wonderful friends and family.

Today, I went to my mailbox and there was a Christmas card from Aimee (lives on Kwaj), a birthday card and beautiful necklace from Aunt Weezy and Uncle Joel (they live at home in OR) and a just because card from CaSandra (Lives in WY). Each card was very different from the others, but all I could think was, I am so thankful. That was just one day too, all the cards I get from everyone make me so thankful... and although I am thankful, I am not good at returning the favor of sending cards. oops!

Here are some pictures from lately: Scott's going away at Barbacoa

Scott, Mark, Chris, Patrica, 1Sgt (Rick), Gia (sp?), Lewis (don't know his 1st name) and me. Well on our way to drinking to much wine on a school night.

Weekend at Disney for Jeanette and Dave's sons Deion's 16th birthday.
Me, May, Alex, Maraina, Tony, Jeanette and Dave.

I was the chaperone in a room with 5, 16-18 year old girls... wow I walked away with some information, it was so much fun!

Tulips at Disney

Jeanette and I

That's all from here for now....

J

"It isn't what you have in your pocket that makes you thankful, but what you have in your heart"
-unknown

Ironic Beauty

So, I live in the wooded area of this little base. The other night on the way home from Allison's final farewell, I was walking up the outdoor stairs on the way home. My little BOQ building is pretty much hidden in the brush. I had some tears in my eyes and I was looking down, so I would not trip (me, trip...gasp). ha.

I looked over in the brush and these beautiful flowers were there. I maneuvered myself into the brush and got them. I wiped my tears and all of the sudden I was filled with great joy and peace.

These flowers were a subtle symbol of how beautiful life is and how friendships grow and blossom over time.


~J

"If a great thing can be done, it can be done easily, but this ease is like the ease of a tree blossoming after long years of gathering strength."

- John Ruskin

Good Friends

On Friday my good friend Allison leaves to head back to the states to their next duty station, Scott will follow in a week or so and Mark leaves soon too. In military communities we get "use to" good friends leaving, and we think over time it will get easier to see them go.

I am not sure that it ever gets easy to see good friends leave, but what I do know is it makes you thankful and stronger. You are faced with mixed feelings of sadness, and of happiness with each farewell.

I have come to realize, for me it helps to say see you later, not goodbye. Through this outlook, I am very lucky that I have friends who live throughout the world. With the internet it is amazing how easy it is to keep in touch and how easy it is to pick up where you left off when you meet again.

I am so thankful and blessed that for the past year and three months (but who's counting. ha) Allison, Scott, and Connor (their dog) and Mark (the other member of our "family") have excepted me as part of their family.

Many thanks to Allison for all the wonderful dinners. Thanks you all for the great memories, for the laughs, the inside jokes, the sarcasm, the movie quotes, and the great conversations and the other less than PC conversations... what a crew... I am not going to lie, venting about life just won't be as fulfilling without all of you.

Scott, Allison, and Connor have fun in AMERICA!!! When we meet again you will have baby CJ!! Hooray! Mark, great adventures to you too.

To all my great friends everywhere thanks for EVERYTHING!! I am one lucky girl!

~J

Don't be dismayed at goodbyes, a farewell is necessary before you can meet again and meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.
-- Richard Bach

Giving

Last summer after reading an online post from my friend Rob who was stationed down range (ie the war zone, sandbox, etc), I started a clothes drive at the Child Development Centers here in Japan. The goal of the clothes drive was to send clothes to the less fortunate. So, after jumping through hoops, having the legal dept sign off on papers etc. I began a clothes drive. I put fliers in all the children's cubbies and dropped off donation boxes at all our facilities.

The community went crazy and the project snowballed. I still do not have the final count of how many boxes and pounds I sent but I know it is well over 1000 lbs, close to 2000 lbs. I washed, packed, and sent all the clothes myself except for a day or two of help packing. I will be honest, there were times, I thought, why I am doing this... it was a pain at times. My car was always filled with boxes, and now the people at the post office know me personally.

The Village supported

In November, I checked my work mailbox and there was a flag that had been flown in AFG in honor of all I had done through my humanitarian aid efforts for the people and children of AFG which was very touching. Then, I will never forget, a few weeks after that, I went to my personal mailbox and there was a letter there in a plain white envelope. I was having a bad day and I thought, what the heck... I paid my phone bill (phone bills come in plain white envelopes). My first emotion was anger. I opened the envelope and it was a personal thank you from the base commander in AFG. As I read it tears filled my eyes, it was so moving that something I thought was so small impacted the lives of so many.

I just finished sending boxes in Jan. My friend Rob is now back on safe soil, so I sent them to the humanitarian officer down there. In return I requested some pictures of the drops if possible. She sent the pictures in this blog. Below is the picture that moved me the most.


How many poor American boys wear pink and white striped sweaters to keep warm?

This project makes me thankful and proud, not only for my contributions, but for all men and women that protect our country and impact the lives of the less fortunate in areas of great turmoil in our world.

~J

Sometimes we hold on to our possessions because we fear we might run out- life seems scarce. But when we believe that giving is the way to live, we will produce more in the future- life seems abundant.

- John C. Maxwell

good titles are hard to come by

Hello all:

So I caved. I am finally a member of the blogging community. No promises of keeping it up to date, but I will try. I find that writing a general email to everyone works out, but there is always someone "left out". This way I do not have to worry about that. At any time, anyone can click on the blog and be up to date, that is if the blog is up to date... again no promises there.

Please be patient as I will be slowly working on the blog to bring it up to date.

On Saturday, I went to the city for my birthday with a group of my good friends. I will post pictures and stories soon. Please check back.

Happy lazy MLK Monday to all.

J

Good parents give their children Roots and Wings.
Roots to know where home is, wings to fly away and
exercise what's been taught them.
--Jonas Salk