just a few more hours...

ive got some of your addresses, and others i didn't get. if you want me to send you at least one letter, shoot me an email. i will try to read it in the morning, but i can't make any promises.

scared, nervous, anxious... right about where i should be.

oh, hey. one other thing: all of you had better have a rocking holiday season for me. you know what i'll be doing on hallo/thanks/xmas/year day. training training training.

my life was condensed to a u-haul cargo van (not moving van) earlier today. that was kinda humbling, since i ended up taking a cargo van load and a half to Goodwill and dumping probably another half-load in the trash. so basically, i managed to squeeze 3 cargo vans into a one-bed apartment.

T.L.M.

i found my itinerary for my train trip out to oregon from Texas back in 2004. turns out i arrived on Sunday, August 22, 2004. i was scheduled to arrive on saturday, but the train was so delayed by other rail traffic we were nearly 24 hours late getting to Los Angeles.

kinda neat.

T.L.M.

im starting to get nervous.

im pretty set here. ive got a job, can pay all my bills, and can afford to have fun. i may not get to see my family often, but i can talk to them anytime. im good at my job, one of the best, really.

in less than a week, im going to change all that. im going to serve in the military as an older guy, not know anything about my job or where im going to be, hand over about half of the control of my life over to the USMC, and basically change everything about how i live.

and the second thoughts are starting to get to me. i have less than a week to get all the packing and cleaning done. its all going to sit in storage for the next 8 months, at least. all my books, my computers, my entertainment is all going to be anywhere from 1500 to 8000 miles from where im going to end up.

okay, stopping here. i have to get some of this work done.

T.L.M.

i dug through the tiny storeroom i have here in my apartment and realized most of it is just papers that i kept for no apparent reason. this is a good thing, as it means if i havent looked at them since i put them in there four years ago, then i can just chuck them without feeling bad.

except for the tax paperwork. i probably should hold onto that for another few years.

on a related note, i filled up a 13-gallon bag yesterday with shreddings from my new shredder. yay shredder!

T.L.M.

i just spent probably two hours at the gym. i wasn't exactly planning on that much time, but it was fine because i worked only the muscle groups that hadn't been touched much in recent weeks (chest, abs, shoulders). mixed it up with some Tabata, and i feel alright. after work, i think i'll hit the pavement for 3-4 miles before coming home.

im starting to look around the apartment and thinking of things i can get rid of. the lamp, perhaps, and the vacuum cleaner... almost all my dishes, certainly ($1 dishes, easy to replace down the road), microwave (but not the countertop grill!), folding table, desk, bookcase (also easy to replace, and i need a taller one anyway), futon frames (yes, i have two) but not the mattresses (to the trash!)...

just a few weeks left. im... really not sure how i feel yet.

T.L.M.

http://www.queenofwands.net/d/20050221.html

yeah... that's about how i feel. sucks, since my eyes are all sandy and probably bloodshot, and i really wanted to get some rest after that intense workout yesterday. i barely slept five hours, and i needed closer to eight.

T.L.M.

218 lbs. that's 22 lbs lost since January 31st, and i have no intention of finding them.

T.L.M.

8th kyu from 9th. i double checked, and i received my previous promotion on the 29th of June, so only two and a half months later, Chris feels im ready for this one?

i think this is more of a "you'll grow into it" promotion than a "it's time for your next one" sort of thing.

and, as before, wrist locks are still giving me problems.

T.L.M.

it was poop.

aaallllmost at 220... the scale is wavering right there between 220 and 221. that might be water; that might be new muscle. it might also be poop.

im trying to hit 219-217 by tuesday evening, when i go to the weekly meeting at the recruiter's office.

im still not sure how likely 214 is before Basic, but as long as im under 224, im good to fly out.

T.L.M.

i haven't posted anything about it here yet, but i think all of you know what's going on.

i enlisted. USMC.

i swore in last wednesday after taking the ASVAB (yet again) and going through the medical screening. i am qualified to do just about anything i want to do, which is good, because i don't ever want to wake up and do the same thing that i did the day before.

my ship date is october 18-19. i'll be in san diego for 13 weeks, get a 10-day leave, head to Combat Training for another 29 days, possibly get another leave, then go to school. depending on the job i get, i could be in school from six to eighty weeks. i also get an advanced promotion to Private First Class based on my college degree and placed on the fast track since i've scored so high, meaning i'll get Corporal two years ahead of my recruit class.

i just took the Initial Strength Test and passed, barely. 13:30 is the 1.5 mile run time; i did it in 13:20. 2 pull-ups and 44 crunches later and i qualify. that was the last major hurdle; now it's just marking time, packing my stuff for storage, and learning the general orders until i leave.

i'm not excited yet. i suppose i will be once i get on the plane.

T.L.M.

This is pretty good. not spectacular, but still pretty good. im glad i own it.

the point is made, however, that Jordan's origin story is told in a previous film, the New Frontier. the producers of First Flight didn't want to spend time going over that again, so they skimmed over it before the opening credits. while i think this was a wise choice, i would have taken it a step further and had the story about one of the other three Lanterns, with Jordan providing backup or something.

it makes sense, in that we are still being told the same damn story over and over, but there is so much more to the mythos now. in First Flight, there is no mention of willpower types or that yellow is fear. instead, the two colors are just fancy asteroids. that's no fun.

it was a pretty good story, but the comics have become so much more. it's disheartening to see these icons (Superman: Doomsday, im looking at you) watered down for animation.

T.L.M.

huh.

i went from a couple of really cool nights up north in Austin to a place (metaphysically) where i am just all gnarled up inside.

went up to see gwen and ginger. saw Fastball at the Shady Grove (which sucked because they wouldn't crank the speakers, i don't know Fastball's songs, and most everyone around my area was talking too loud to hear the band), spent a few hours the next day tooling around, scoring a book on Bruce Lee's fighting methods and a black cowboy hat.

im from Texas, and i've never owned a cowboy hat.

gwen handed me off to ginger, who took me down to her church at Casino El Camino (a bar), where we saw Raquel Welch in Fathom (awful movie, really), then we hit up Lovejoy's and ran into Chip and Desirae, two good friends of hers. coincidentally, they lived up in eugene for a short while a few years back, so i actually managed to carry my weight in the conversation.

relaxed, ate an awesome meal back at ginger's place, watched most of the first season of Big Bang and then crashed.

all a good couple of days. then i come back to my mom's for a couple more days, get online, and suddenly im all tense and irritable.

what happened?

T.L.M.

i left Texas because my family insists im always wrong about stuff. anything, if not everything. im apparently the family "drama queen."

of course, this is good training for not beating the crap out of my sister when she gets pissed off that i don't know the menu at schlotzsky's.

T.L.M.

very very hot.

why did i agree to subject myself to 100+ degrees for days on end? i must be a moron.

also, im tired. actually falling asleep right as i type this.

bed.

T.L.M.

i will be hitting South Central Texas sometime on the 14th or 15th of July. i have yet to actually buy tickets or plan an itinerary, but i will be in the area until August 2nd. Ginger, Gwen, let me know when/if I should try to get up to Austin. I have enough time that I can even make two trips, or a few consecutive days, or whatever!

vaaaaaaaaaaakaaaaaaaaaay-shun!

T.L.M.

is it bad that im already plotting my last night at work? i have no idea when it will be, other than in the next couple of months, but i know exactly what im going to do:

stock everything backwards. then take pictures for the internet. or maybe even a video!

"Sometimes you have to burn a bridge. Other times you have to napalm it." - R.K. Milholland

T.L.M.

i got promoted in bujinkan the other day, from white belt to green belt. im pretty darn proud of myself, even if it just means ive learned some of the basics.

wrist locks still give me plenty of trouble, though.

for the interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bujinkan#Grades

T.L.M.

219 lbs sans clothes upon waking up! i even double-checked the scale to make sure it was calibrated.

and that's even after not working out since tuesday night, and eating out at Marie Callender's and Shari's (think Denny's) on wednesday, as well as hitting up sonic and mcdonald's.

i know, i know. not what's on my diet. but clearly something is working.

219 baseline. rawk.

T.L.M.

...other than once a month.  i bet my postal worker would appreciate that.

but i have my diploma.  w00t!

T.L.M.