Things I Miss

My Mom is in town visiting this weekend and she was asking me to list things that I miss about Texas. I thought this was an interesting exercise that I might post here. 

She is definitely one of them, as well as all my family! Lance (brother) will be training at Ft. Eustis in Virginia soon, so hopefully we can see each other more often then.  

I miss my boyfriend! But he is coming to visit in November!

I really miss my little Geordi LaForge. Look at that face!!

I miss not having to worry about driving in the right hand lane and suddenly coming upon a row of cars just parked there. 

I miss having friends who live ten minutes away. You could call them up any time, express your boredom, and have a duet partner, Wii opponent, dubious cooking tester, or just some company to enjoy. 

I miss being able to rent a huge house for half the cost of a small one here. 

I miss Taco Cabana, large parking lots, and SUPER WAL-MARTS! 

But, to be fair, here are some things I love about my new life here in Maryland- 

I love having a job. Not just any job, but THIS job. Which means that I never have to justify getting that third degree any more, now being in school means I'm just motivated instead of desperate, haha. 

I love walking around the city. 

I love the commissary, which is usually cheaper than Wal-Mart, and carries lots of unique items that I tend to like to cook with. 

I love living so close to national monuments and so many other cool things to see and do. 

Things are still settling in. Sometimes my whole life here still feels like I'm on vacation, that it's all just temporary. But I'm sure soon this will be home. I leave for my first big tour on October 10th and I'll have plenty of updates from that adventure.

First Gigs

This weekend was very exciting. I had my first two performances with the Field Band, and they were both really great. The first was in Saratoga Springs, New York.  I have never been to NY, apart from driving through on the Turnpike, so it was nice to see a different part of the country. Saratoga Springs reminded me a lot of Crested Butte, Colorado. Very vacation-esque, lots of shops, and overall just quaint. The concert was in a huge bandshell with an enormous and enthusiastic crowd. It was my first taste of a typical "Field Band" concert. We did this fantastic piece by Philip Sparke that was written for the band called "Weekend in New York." There were several other nice works on the program, and we did lots of things with the Soldier's Chorus. They are awesome, by the way. It is hard to count rests when you really want to listen to them! By the second half of the concert it was really cold! I'm not used to it being cold so early in the year, I had to buy a jacked just to cope! Our second half had lots of patriotic pieces. I have dreamed of being in a military band for so long- when I finally got to play the Armed Forces Salute for the first time as a member of the military it was such a cool moment. 

The next day we had a once in a lifetime performance opportunity. 

We were honored to play at the final game held at Yankee Stadium in New York City. You cannot imagine the crowd. So much history, so many enthusiastic fans. It was great energy and an awesome experience. These two pictures of the band marching were taken by Rob McIver, vocalist and photographer extraordinaire. 

Of course, I have a long history with military marching bands... as you can see :) 

Exploring New York City was an experience. 

Here is one of the many fascinating individuals who adds character to the city. 

Here I am in front of the empty stadium. Every seat was filled by the time we took the field! 

Other than enjoying having the best job on the planet, I have been getting settled nicely in my new place in Baltimore. Here is a cool little table I got from a guy in the band, set up against my cute brick accent wall.

This is the front of my townhouse apartment. It's very Cosby Show, haha. 

I've been taking long walks around the city in the afternoons trying to get to know the area. I never know what I will find. One day I ran into McGruff the crime dog... 

City Girl

Things have been crazy here! I have had tons of orientation stuff to do. Today I sat through hours upon hours of briefings on everything from how to use military healthcare to the civil war history of the area. But things are great, I just love my new job. I've had three rehearsals with the band so far, and it is just so fantastic. Everyone has been beyond nice, and it feels really good to be doing what I love again. I don't know if there was ever a person so excited to be playing Billy Joel medleys! 

My big news is that I finally found a place to live. For the past week I've been on a major search. 

Living in this area is so different from Texas. You have to pay way more money to get a much smaller place. I looked everywhere, but finally decided to go with a good deal that I found in Baltimore. I am living in the middle of the city, pretty close to Johns Hopkins University. It's going to be quite an adventure doing the whole city living thing, but I think that it will be fun and will serve me well until I can find a house that I want to buy. I'm posting a few pictures that I took when I went to view the place. I am moving in tomorrow and will post more soon!

This is the living room. It is much smaller than the house that I moved out of,  so I'm really glad I left my couches! I will have a futon, my recliner, and papasan chair in here. 

This is my kitchen. the living room is open to it, and the appliances are new and nice. Behind the kitchen is a little accent wall that is red brick. It's so cute and trendyish,

haha. 

This is my bathroom. This is like a luxury bathroom compared to some of 

the ones I looked at. Do you Denton people remember my bathroom at the Meadow Ridge house? Hahaha times have changed. :) 

This is the back of the apartment. There is a little yard, but without a fence, so I'm going have to walk little Geordi. The deck is nice though, will be good for sipping coffee and such, which its not freezing cold. 

So one thing I really missed during basic training was cooking. I found this awesome little cookbook on sale for $4.50 at Barnes & Noble and I can't wait to start making stuff. I have been looking forward to having my own little place and starting my life here and it being all nice and cozy and feel like I have a home again. I'll let you know how that goes. :) 

I Survived

On August 28th I graduated Army Basic Combat Training. It was quite an adventure. I cannot even begin to describe all of the crazy things that I did, and it definitely required me to step outside my comfort zone. When life got miserable two things really kept me going- the mail I got from family and friends, and reminding myself of what a great job was awaiting me at the end. 

Here I am at graduation waiting for the ceremony to start. We look like robots, I rock the sitting attention.

 Our three drill sergeants are about to march 4th platoon on to the stage. 

Here I am marching up to get an award. It is simply amazing how bad people are at marching. We march everywhere we go in Basic. It is crazy how bad people's rhythm is and how hard some people find it to stay on the right foot. I do not understand how you can be screaming "LEFT LEFT LEFT RIGHT" and be stepping "RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT LEFT," haha. 

 

This is my friend Wiley, who is from Baltimore, my new hometown. I'll have more pics of BCT friends up later when I get access to a scanner. 

So this tough part is done and now I am ready to jump headfirst into my awesome job! Updates soon! 

Goodbye Blog!

I'm leaving today for the MEPs hotel and will be shipping off to Fort Leonard Wood tomorrow! I'm excited and ready to get this part over with! I haven't updated in a while so I will give a full run down of the past few days.

I spent my last night in Denton hanging out with my wonderful boyfriend. We went to the Greenhouse for dinner. On the way out I noticed this view of the courthouse in the distance and thought it was so pretty. Goodbye Denton!! I will miss the Mini-Mart, the Loophole & 288 traffic!

Earlier in the day Scott and I had a ceremonious final meal at Taco Bell.
That evening my brother got into town and we spent the rest of the night visiting and getting ready for my big move. Of course he is the epitome of Army Strong so he is very useful for moving large objects, such as refrigerators. The next morning Murr & Lance packed the 12 foot U-Haul to the brim. It was completely full in every nook and cranny and with stuff almost spilling out. Hopefully this is the last time my dear brother will have to move all my stuff. I owe him big time!

We set out for Willis around noon. It was a pretty smooth trip, apart from when it started to rain on the uncovered TV in the back of Lance's pickup. He stopped to cover it and locked his keys in his car. He is blaming Geordi, trying to claim she stepped on the lock when he was out.... riiiight. Either way the best part is that after trying with several failed methods, including a ROOT that he dug up from the ground, he was finally able to jimmy it open using a piece of rebar he found laying around. Nice. My brother is MacGuyver.

When I think of home, I think of tomatoes. My Grandmother and my Dad have dueling tomato gardens. They put my measly little tomatoes to shame. This is just one of the piles of tomatoes lying around the house.

It was so nice to be able to spend some time with my amazing family before I leave.

Lance is chowing down on some catfish here while mom is blissfully unaware of the awful face he is making for the camera.

Lots of my family was in town for Father's Day. This is my Dad. He is pretty ridiculously awesome. Did you know he was a Master Sergeant in the Army National Guard? Here he is eating some of the AMAZING food he cooked for us. Notice Buttercup the old fat chihuahua snuggled in his lap. Also notice his shirt. This is where I get my unreasonable love for things with crawfish printed on them.

Here he is with four of his six children. You've already met Lance, plus my brother Billy and my sister Roxie. Clearly the girls are #1.

My birthday is June 25th and since I will be spending it in Basic Training, my family did a touch of celebrating for that this weekend too. Here I am with the amazing snake cake that my aunt Pat brought over for me. A little 11-year old boy she knows made it!! It's in memory of Skeeter!
Here I am with my amazing sister Roxanne. Her husband Dave SAVED MY BUTT because they were here when Lance and I pulled up with the U-Haul. He helped us move all my stuff into my parents house and did most of the heavy lifting with Lance.




My brother Donny had the sweetest hat known to man. Camo UNT!!!

My mom wrapped my birthday present in camo... with grenade balloons, which I thought was really hilarious. Inside was one bodacious gift... CAMO FOR GEORDI!!!! She is so cute. Look at her bone camo bed!!! She loves her new collar and water bowl too. She will be staying with Mom & Dad until I get out of Basic Training and back from my first tour with the band, so I probably won't see her again until November! :(

As you can see she had a nice time schmoozing around with all of my fam.

This morning my Aunt Pat planned a Father's Day/Birthday/Going-away Breakfast. The spread was amazing and it was soo nice to have home-cooking! Look at all the cool decorations! She also made that cake in the middle!!


Well, I'm just about to leave with my Mom to head back to Dallas. It's going to be a wild adventure I'm sure. I can't wait to post some of the more interesting stories from Basic. I'm going to miss everyone lots but I'm very excited about all that is to come. Thanks for being such fantastic friends. I thought this picture of my Grandmother serenading me on my new valve trombone (best birthday gift of all time from my Murr), would be a fitting send off!

Hooah and BYE FOR NOW!

Party

I'm really sleepy now so I'll be brief. I wanted to post a few of the awesome pictures from the going away part that my friends had for me last night! It was so nice to get to see everyone one last time before I leave Denton. 

Busy!

I've been scrambling to get all kinds of stuff done before Saturday, which is the day I'm leaving Denton. I was sooo productive today, I rocked! I bought all the stuff I need to ship out, got all the bills switched out of my name, got my hair cut and that kind of thing. Tonight I am going out with some friends to celebrate my last days in Denton. I will have a more extensive post with pics after that. I'm getting excited and ready to just throw myself into the whole basic training thing. Okay more later!