Posts (page 3)

Some cases have always interested me.  One such case is Ted Bundy.  I remember feeling chills run down my spine as I read Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me a few years ago.  It is a case that has haunted the Seattle area for decades.  So when his name popped up on The Seattle Times website, I was intrigued.

A reality show from Great Britain apparently traces the steps of serial killers and sees of a psychic can feel the presence of the killer haunting the places he used to frequent.  In this case, the show is retracing Bundy's steps through the Seattle area and Florida.  They started at a bar where Bundy liked to frequent and may have selected some of his victims there.  His first known victim was reportedly seen at the bar the night she disappeared.  Not sure if the psychic that walked through the bar felt any presence, but a large white orb appeared when they took pictures.

I have seen those white orbs appear in pictures before.  When I was stationed in England, I accompanied some co-workers on a night trek through Thetford Forest.  We were thrill seeking.  A good portion of the pictures we took in the eerie forest showed small circles of white light dancing through the air.  It was kind of creepy.  Then again, that forest is reportedly among the most haunted in the world, so creepiness should not be a big surprise.

I have recently been informed that I will be deploying to Iraq for six months.  Yes, I know that is not a long time compared to some tour lengths over there, but I am still not looking forward to going.  I am not even sure when I will be leaving, or what I will have to put up with beforehand in regards to training requirements.

And then there are my cats, my stuff, my apartment.  What do I do with all that? I will NOT give up my cats.  I waited too long to have them, and I will not give them up just because of a deployment.  But who do I trust to watch over them and make sure they do not get hurt or get outside? My parents have offered repeatedly to take them while I deploy.  I would prefer to keep them in Oklahoma.  I do not particularly like the idea of flying them all the way to Washington.  But I may not have a choice.  No one has offered to watch them here.

Whenever I am told of a deployment, I look back on previous TDYs or almost deployments.  I say almost because I have yet to deploy.  My time is coming.  I know it.

My first TDY was while I was stationed in England.  I went to another base in England to help provide security from the protesters who were very unhappy about their country's involvement with the war in Iraq.  My second TDY was to a two week training course in Germany.  I do not really count that as a visit because I did not get to see much of Germany while I was there.

In the midst of all this, I was an alternate to deploy at least once.  This reason allowed me to fire my rifle for the first time in a year in a half.  That should not have happened because I am required to fire the rifle twice a year.  How I managed to slip through the cracks was beyond me, but they were not going to let me fire.  They quickly changed their minds when I told them I was an alternate.

When I arrived here in Oklahoma, I had many more opportunities to go TDY.  My first while stationed in Oklahoma was Nebraska for an air show.  I was the team leader, somehow.  I was not happy since I had no idea what was expected of me.  We stayed off base.  The room I got was spectacular.  I have not had a room like that since.  My second was to Alaska.  I spent a week wandering around the base.  The team leader and I went fishing on base.  We caught a lot of fish, irritated the base motor pool (much to my amusement and annoyance), and even went on a sight seeing tour on a water plane to Mount McKinley.  Number three was to Washington.  My parents and brothers were delighted to see me for a little bit.  My fourth was to Florida.  I would have enjoyed that one, and the two that followed later that month, much better if I had gone with a better team.  I do not like to babysit people.  Military members are adults.  They need to start acting like them.  I soon went to Delaware and North Carolina.  Then, I did not go TDY for over a year.  My next TDY was to Florida for two weeks of training.  I did not care much for the training, especially since I did not really learn anything new.  The reason I enjoyed the time there was because my team was a very good one.  People will make or break the TDY or deployment.  Actually, that could be said about any job or place a person may go to.  Last January, I had to drive down to San Antonio for two weeks of training that seemed more like a vacation than anything else, especially since some portions echoed the training I had endured not even two months before.  I learned that San Antonio freaks out about the slightest drop of snow or ice.  Two days of classes were canceled and we ended up having to stay an extra day because of it.  I was not happy about that because I had to drive back here like a bat out of hell to beat the ice storm that was threatening to hit.  Three months later, I went to Delaware twice.  In September, I went back down to Florida for the third time.  This time was considerably more enjoyable than the first time, because I did not have to babysit the team members I went with.

I have nearly gone on three deployments since I got here.  The first was canceled because I asked to go through a course that was required before I sewed on my current rank.  I was pulled from the next one because the Air Force wanted me to retrain into a different career field.  The reason I did not retrain is because I had only two options.  I do not like big dogs, and I am absolutely terrified at the idea of trying to teach people how to shoot their weapons.  I have seen some of the people I work with shoot their weapons.  I do not even want to see how people who have not fired in three or four years do.  So far, I have been on at least one other deployment.  That one got canceled, though.  Another base picked it up, apparently.  However, I do not think this one is going away.

I have not tried to get out of any of them.  I will not try to get out of this one, either.  It is my time to go, and I will go.  I will not like it, but I have little choice.  It has been too long.  It is not fair for others to deploy back to back while I have not gone at least once.  I will make the best of this deployment, and hopefully meet some good people and learn a lot.  I shall see.

More to come.

What do you do with the cards and letters you receive?  Do you keep them all, just keep the photos, throw them away? 
Inspired by jacolily.

I enjoy keeping the cards and letters I have gotten over the years.  I especially have held on to the ones I got while I was in boot camp.  Those cards and letters made a tough mental game easier to handle.  I would not want to be a person who never receives any letters or cards from the people I love.  I hope my letters and cards are held dear to my family's hearts.  I am sure they will be especially priceless here in the next few months when I deploy to Iraq.

Yes, I got the car back.  Everything seems to be working well, but I will be keeping an eye on it for the next foreseeable future.  I just wish I could get the smell of paint out of the interior.  I may have to get one of those air fresheners.

I am enjoying my weekend off for the most part.  My boyfriend and I went out to dinner at a sushi place we both like.  We wanted to invite a friend of his and the friend's wife, but I could not get a hold of them.  I never got a call back, and neither did my boyfriend.  We even went over there and looked to see if they were home, since they live in the apartment complex next door to my boyfriend's.  They were not.  Dinner was good.

I do not understand what some people have against sushi.  When people think of sushi, they automatically think of raw fish.  Well, sushi actually refers to how the rice is prepared.  Yes, some ingredients are raw, but not all of them.  The sushi I had for dinner last night was an example of the cooked variety.  Yum!

My boyfriend is going through a training course in preparation for his next rank, so he was studying when I came back to my apartment.  He is not looking forward to the next few weeks.  I cannot say I blame him.  I did not have much fun going through the course two years ago.  Things have changed a little, but I will see for certain just how much they have changed.

What do you do for fun when you're broke? 
Submitted by Kim. 

I do not usually put myself in that position, but I will generally stay home and snuggle with the kitties with either a good book, needlework, or a movie.  Usually a friend or my boyfriend will invite me to do something, too.

What was your reaction to the results of the Iowa caucuses?  

I was not surprised by the results on the Democratic side.  I have not been paying much attention to the Republican side, admittedly, so I am not sure what to think about that part.  I have been fairly busy with work and personal things, however, and I do not care much for politics, so I have not been focusing on the election progress and that will probably continue for the foreseeable future.

How far from your last home do you live? Why did you move and are you glad you did? 
Submitted by Matthew 25.

I am roughly 2,000 miles from home, and not by choice.  I am in the military, so I do not really have a choice on where I go.  I would prefer to be closer to home.  However, I am glad about the last move I did, which was a little over three years ago.  I moved out of the base dormitories and into an apartment off base.  This allows me to escape the base and go to my own sanctuary of sorts, if only for a few hours.  It works wonders when escaping the stresses of work.

I have felt like I am caught in the midst of a brewing storm for the last few weeks.  I sincerely hope it settles down before it gets worse.  I will not go into specifics, because there is more than one situation, and I have no intention of voicing one of them in such a public forum.  I will say that I am not happy about it, though.  Far from it.

I did get my car back, but ended up having to take it to the shop again.  Transmission fluid is not supposed to leak, and smoke is not supposed to come from the engine compartment.  I will be picking it up again in a few hours and hoping it is fixed completely this time.

Christmas and New Year's were both peaceful.  I was happy about that.  I had to work New Year's, too.  I have a new digital camera to play with.  I bought it with the money I got from my family.  I still have money to spend from my parents and grandmother.  I also got a Chinese snuff box from Nathan and some little cat figurines from my aunt.  Presents appear to still be coming in.  I got the present from my aunt earlier this week.

Work is difficult as always.  It does not seem to be getting any easier.  One of my troops got assaulted in a club on New Year's Eve.  Broken nose and fractured cheekbone.  Luckily, a friend of his was nearby and pulled the other guy off of him.  Another troop is delinquent on payments to his storage area.  I have gotten e-mails and talked to the flight chief about it.  Supposedly, he has made arrangements to pay the amount on the 15th.  We will see.

More to come.

What's your favorite thing to drink when it's cold outside?

I really like hot chocolate or spiced apple cider.  If neither of those two are available, I will usually track down a cappuccino.  This is why I like Starbuck's so much.  They have a variety of different drinks that I like.  My recent favorite there is the peppermint hot chocolate.  Yum! Hot chocolate and apple cider both seem to scare the cold out of my body.  Yum!

If you could easily choose to live in another country without all the red tape and legal stuff, which one would you select and why? 
Submitted by Matthew 25.

I would have to do quite a bit more traveling to actually give a fair answer.  There are several countries I would like to visit.  As for those that I have already visited, if I could stay in any of them, it would be either Great Britain or Spain.  Both countries have a great deal of history, and both have areas that are beautiful.  I was stationed in England for two years and got to wonder around a bit.  The advantage that living in Great Britain has over Spain is that there is not as much of a language barrier.  And yes, there was a bit of a language barrier between American and British English.  We use different terms for different things, and it took a while to get used to all of them.  My knowledge of Spanish is very limited these days, so I would have to learn quite a bit more before I could really comfortably live in that country.  I went to Spain with my family when I was seventeen.  We traveled mostly along the southern cost, also known as Costa del Sol.  It was beautiful, and I would like to go back one of these days.