So many things have passed since I last really updated, but for all intents and purposes, this entry will focus on two recent events.

Wednesday morning I left school around 9:15 to head down to Harrisburg to meet Brian's family to drive down to South Carolina to see Brian. They rented a van so both his parents, his sister Jenn, his ex-gf/gf/friend Becky and I could all go in the same vehicle. I had a late night because of a ceremony followed by a talk with Brooke, so I slept for the first few hours of the drive. We made our first sotp to fill up on gas and grab some food somewhere in Virginia. Boy, the locals sure were interesting. I walked up to get some ketchup and there was someone's food laying right in front of the dispenser, but I figured whatever I'd be done in 2 seconds. As I'm standing there, this guy comes up and says to me in a thick southern accent, "Hey bub, lemme slap this shit outta your way and I'm gone." All I could manage to say in response to that was "...ok." It was certainly amusing, that and the "interesting" employees there (read: most likely inbred). We had our laughs and set out on the road again. We got about 45 minutes away from Columbia, SC and Brian's aunt calls his mom and says there's somehting up at the Travellodge Inn with the rooms. So, she calls and finds out that despite having reserved and paid for three rooms three weeks ago, they gave the rooms away. So, cutting out the intense arguing and whatnot, nothing was being resolved there, so we ended up going two blocks away and staying at the Days Inn, which seemed infinitely better than the other place anyway. Turns out, once the manager was finally at the other place, they gave the rooms away because they were housing soldiers back from Iraq, and didn't know how long they'd be there, so they ended up giving the reserved rooms to the soldiers. That's perfectly fine, but why didn't the retarded front desk girls just say that the night before? They kept saying they overbooked. Then they kept saying the manager wasn't there and they didn't have a number to reach him. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Shitty business there, but oh well, we had a place to stay.

Next morning we got up for breakfast then drove over to Fort Jackson. They showed some non-relevant video/slideshow about soldiers at which we couldn't help but laugh because they chose "Eye of the Tiger" as the background music. After that some commanding officer announced what was going on, basic rules for the day, and they honored the high scoring privates on marksmanship and physical fitness. After the whole presentation, all of the soldiers were waiting outside in formation. We saw Brian, but didn't quite recognize him at first because they gave him standard-issue, nerdy thick-framed glasses and his posture was finally proper. He came over and we talked to him for a while and handed him ridiculous amounts of all of his favorite foods that he didn't have for 9 weeks. Sometimes they say that going through basic training changes people, but other than somehow getting skinnier than before, Brian's still the same. After hanging out there and Brian feeding his face for a while, we drove around the base and stopped by his company barracks and got to see his bunk and whatnot. From then on we basically spent the day going to various places around Fort Jackson, talking/hanging out, and eating a ton of food. We even had a while where we plugged in his mom's laptop and watched most of The Village, though since the sound was low and we were in the activities center, we watched the movie with Elton John's greatest hits as the soundtrack. Around 8:30 we drove back to the lot near his barracks and just sat and talked in the van. A few times throughout the day Brian told us that he really appreciated us coming to see him. I was more than glad to sacrifice my time/couple days of school to travel down and see Brian. He's still a bastard though, he made sure to ask me when I was signing up and reminded me that you enlist as an E-4 specialist when you have a college degree, and could possibly enlist as an officer, not even a private. However, I don't foresee any military involvement from me in the near future, but God only knows what will happen in the years to come.

We went back to the hotel and crashed from the long day, then got up the next morning to go back and see the actual graduation ceremony. I have to say, the weather in SC was amazing. Aside from night when it was kinda chilly, I didn't even need to wear a hoodie. I was actually a bit on the warm side, since I was used to PA weather when I packed, and walked around the base in jeans and a long-sleeve shirt. Oh well, I survived. We got to the field a good hour and a half early, but so did a crapload of other people, so it was worthwhile to be there so early. It was sunny and hot that mornig until the last 20 minutes or so of the ceremony when the clouds rolled in. I actually got a bit sunburned on my neck and had to use my pamphlet to block the sun. After the ceremony we had a mere 10 minutes to find Brian and talk to him before he had to get back in formation and eventually head out and fly to Arizona for AIT. The good news is that after his next phase of training, he was told that he can have his computer and be online when he has time, so in roughly three weeks or so, Brian will be back online.

After our brief time with brian we got back in the van and headed back north to PA. We had another amusing rest stop experience in a different part of Virginia. When we walked into the place, the older clerk was scolding this lady's kid, something about "I saw you knee it", to which the lady got all sorts of pissy and spouted "don't you talk to my son like that, blah blah." The hilarity ensued as this lady went on, saying, "go to hell," and the guy replying "I'll see you there," followed by her flipping him off and saying "shove that up your ass" as she walked out the door and the guy telling her "nice way to talk in front of your kid lady." We were all rather amused by the scene, and I really wanted to go ask the guy what the kid did. After that we got back on the road and made it back to Harrisburg around 10pm or so. It was an exhausting trip, but certainly well worth it. I needed to have my online fix, so I got online and checked mail and whatnot. I was hoping I'd have something to read, but all I had was a ton of junk mail and PMA stuff. I didn't hear anything from Brooke, but read her LJ so I e-mailed her a mammoth e-mail.

That brings up the second event. Things got really odd and weird between us seemingly right after spring break. When we came back things were very turbulent and uneasy and not knowing otherwise I figured it was just the accumulation of a lot of stressful things. Things being really weird and the amount of stress certainly wore on both of us and personally it made me fall into worry mode and that didn't help anything. We had a good talk and we had a really fun weekend, but then things came to a head the night before I left. I wasn't pissed off, despite a comment I did make (which what I really meant was "I don't know what's going on and I'm worrying and it's just easier to say pissed off"), but the oncoming of that conversation combined with other things going on at the same time certainly ruined her night. I won't get into the specific details because I'm not working out this or any issue through my journal, but I did my best to explain I wasn't pissed/angry/whatever and was completely honest with what I felt/wondered about/etc. Because of events happening later on that night, I felt like it was left wide open and needed some sort of resolution, so after Andy and I went to Sheetz for some CM&C, he left me his keys so I could come back to the apt after the ceremony. I came back afterwards and talked to Brooke for about an hour or so, a) to be able to talk personally, and b) to be able to ease the unresolved tension I would've felt still now had we not talked. The gist of our situation is that we started drifting apart, I feel mostly if not completely because of the ridiculous amount of outside stressful things we've both had recently, moreso for Brooke. We both said that we could see us going back to being friends, but the problem is if/when. We both enjoy being around each other and can have a damn good time, so we know we won't have any problems being friends, but I guess the real decision is whether or not to stay together. I am confident in what I feel, but Brooke is not sure and so the hopes of figuring that out lie in this time apart. The positive aspect that definitely pleases me if the fact that a flat deicision wasn't just made without considering taking time the think about things and figure it out. It has certainly been on my mind and will continue to be until we figure things out.

hello
im new to this journal thing but i got interested in ur journal lol well i was wonderin u do believe in god if u do dats great im wonderin wut city do u go to and wut church if u do go to a church did u eva went to Creation?? well it is nice commenting to ur site oh yea i fogot my name is linda and im just an ordinary girl lol
» Transdance24 on 2005-08-26 09:49:05

hello
im new to this journal thing but i got interested in ur journal lol well i was wonderin u do believe in god if u do dats great im wonderin wut city do u go to and wut church if u do go to a church did u eva went to Creation?? well it is nice commenting to ur site oh yea i fogot my name is linda and im just an ordinary girl lol
» Transdance24 on 2005-08-26 09:50:55

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