Ask and you shall receive

Woke up to a voicemail, from an unknown number. Only voicemails I like are from Alyson, or when Tom butt dials me and cant shut his car alarm off. I listen to the voicemail, granted i already know somethings wrong- voicemails are never good ESPECIALLY from unknown numbers. Basically someone yelling at me cuz i wasnt at the check in process for my new command ( C school )- its right down the road for me. I jump up and start making some phone calls, what the heck is this? When i checked in, i knew i had a C school that i had to go to ( C school is a secondary schooling that people go to, to learn about specific aircrafts, mine being the F/A-18 super hornet, did i sound cool there?) and i asked literally every person when i would be going to school, i even showed them in my orders the dates that i was suppose to attend. What did they say? They said dont listen to your orders, those are never correct, the navy will decide when you go to c school, they will let us know and we will let you know. So i immediately put that on the back burner. Didnt even think about it, thinking my command would give me some kind of heads up. Nope. Wake up to a phone call saying im late for school. Oh. okay.And im working night check, so instead of sleeping in, i gotta go run around like a chicken with its head cut off. I get my finest uniform on, cuz i heard they are pretty harsh at the schooling, cuz they deal with mostly new people, coming from A school. Pshh ive been in the fleet for a month and a half- i know everything. So i go over to check in, talk to the guy. Walk in, theyve been waiting for me. This is never good. Everything in the navy youre suppose to be early- i was like 2 hours and a day late. Ignorance is bliss. Talked to the guy- very nice, told him everything. He prepared me by telling me ill be like a ping pong ball today, got a lot of catching up to do. ruh roh. here we go again. Told me to go check out of my command (have to take a bus mind you) and then come back and check in to my new command. Gonne be a long day. I think about everything, like im switching commands, aka everything from my previous command is invalid, and this will be my new command until august 20th.... umm 12 days after when i was suppose to have leave? you gotta be kidding me. At that point my life came crushing down, wasnt going on leave, wasnt gonna see Alyson, no jeep, no road trip, no nothing. I went to my old command via bus, and when i got there, everyone was scrambling getting my paperwork together. They knew something was wrong and working their butts off to get me out of that command. So it took like 2 seconds to leave that command, and i was back on the bus back to my new command. Went to go check in, but the lady was at lunch. Which, at this exact moment was a huge blessing in disguise. wow did not see that one at all. Since she was at lunch, i had to come back at 2:40 to check in before class (night class 330pm-10pm). So frustrated Steven sluggishly walked back to his barracks, thinking of ways to change what was going on. I called American Airlines to try and refund my ticket. HAAAA good one. You paid 300 dollars for the ticket, we are going to take 200 of those dollars, and give you a 100 dollar credit. shucks i bought it like a day ago, give me a break. I expressed my anger with my Mother, and we started brainstorming about how to get my jeep out here, if i should buy a new one, just a lot of things that i didnt even want to think about, cuz i thought i had this all planned out, and i hate when plans take a turn for the worst. I told her i would see what the first day of class was like, and then we can discuss further details. It was about 1:40 pm here (4:40 EST lol) so Alyson called me on her way home from work, and i told her everything, and it was just a horrible day. She simply just said that i should tell someone my situation, and ask them if there is anything that could be done. I'm thinking long shot, but shes right, whats the worst that could happen? everything that already did. I head over to the guy to check in to the command. He says we were gonna wait for another girl to get here so we can go check in together. He continues his everyday tasks leaving me sitting in front of his desk. I say to him, "Can i ask you a question sir?" He politely said yes. And i told him everything. How my old command promised me leave, how i already bought my ticket, had planned everything, Father got work off, etc, heck i almost broke down talking to him. He looked at me disgusted, not that i was disgusting, but like what did these people from the other command tell this kid? They really messed up. He's sighed for a while and then told me options- class comes first, but this is a unique case, you only get one day off from missing classes, still didnt seem like i was getting anywhere. I was trying my best to reason with him, like yeah, maybe ill just take that weekend off and go home for a weekend, and hang out? pshh still doesnt get my jeep out here. He could see that i was trying to meet him halfway, but it wasnt working. He's like yeah know what? let me send you over to my buddy, he's a retired master chief (top of the top enlisted). I was like okay, let me go plead my case to someone whose retired and probably already hates my guts. I went over, told him my whole situation, told him everything. He straight up told me class comes first and that i am part of this command now, then i KNEW there was more. He said 'BUT' at the end of that sentence. Still holding on to this sliver of hope. He said let me talk to your old master chief at your prior command. He said worst case scenario is that i would be dropped from class, and wouldnt have it until next year (february) and i would stay with my other command until then. I was slowely coming out of my shell, i was like really? He said the phones were down, and that they would get the information for tomorrow. Thats all i could ask for. There was still hope. So the other guy brings me and the girl to check in at the new place, it goes swiftly and promptly, and we head on to class. We walk in to class and there were 2 teachers already in there, called me mr popular because my name was already being thrown around at the higher ranks and everywhere in the building. I didnt know what to say and took a seat. The moment my cheeks hit that seat, the retired senior chief came in to the class room and said Frick, get your @$$ out here, youre no longer in this class. My smile grew like a bijillion times, and i even told the guy how happy he made me. hahaha it was such a turn of events. This all happened within like 20 minutes of me telling them my situation, to me getting kicked out of class. Talk about an emotional roller coaster eh? I ran back to the check in place, told them to cancel and was heading to my old command to work a regular night. At this point in the day, the bus schedule was getting sparse, and i needed to get to work. Who do i see walking out of the barracks? Anderson, i asked her if she could give me a ride to work, and she thankfully said yes. I grabbed my stuff and went to work. I arrived at work, and boy let me tell you, i have never missed a group of people so much. It was so great to see all of them, and be back in my comfort zone, knowing everything was going back to the way it was. Even though i was a little tired and cranky- people could tell (whoops, gimme a break ive been running aroudn alls day). So i worked for like 2 hours, and everyone was telling me that i shouldnt have even come to work cuz of their mess up, and ive been running around all day. So Arce could see me frustration and he told me to just ask our supervisor if i could go home early. So i did just that- asked him if i could go home early- like 9 or 10pm i was hoping for. He said yes, and then he said just go home now. Freedom at 6pm. Walked off the line, and waited at the bus stop for my buddy Hopson to pick me up. Easy day, no?

Two situations in which just asking changed my life. Small or large, it meant a lot to me. Prob go to bed meow. rough day LOL

Shootin' some bball outside the school

So, up-to-date meow. Talking in the first person. Fresh. Like fresh cookies out of the oven. but let me rewind and talk about basketball yesterday real quick, cuz it makes me feel good about myself. Get to Physical training a little late, but finish warming up with the squadron. then everyone parts ways- people play soccer, basketball, dodgeball or just run around the track. I was going to play basketball. So everyone gathered around. doing full court. Their were captains, and they were picking teams-  listen this is where it gets good. 5 on 5, and there were like 25 people there. that means 4 on each team ( subtracting the captain from each team) leaves me 8 chances out of 23 to get picked right? hope im doing this right. so each team picks a person. Then I see a cheif and First class petty officer ( 3 and 4 pay grades above me) pointing at me. I was staring off into space cuz i knew like 1 person there. I was the 3rd person picked. granted i was the tallest one there, they must have biased me with my height, so they picked me, and asked if i was good when i ran over to them. I couldnt say no, so i said heck ya! gimme the rock right bowen? Got me going, especially to see like 15 people walk off the court cuz our teams had to play. Take that recess basketball. Youd be so proud Mom. Anyway, we played, i worked my butt off, and play a fantastic game, im like really good, and only getting better. Its super weird, but im lovin it. We ended up going 3-0 for the day, and then i had to get home to shower and go to work. I was so sore. Pretty sure my hip and neck were dislocated, but figured i could sleep it off. Hurt a little at work, but just walked it off, head held high. Came home showered, and passed out. Luckily i woke with just a little pain in my neck. Little did i know this day was going to get much worst. Wayoooooooooooooooooo you have to read the next blog meow.

Review Board/ Leave granted

heyoooooo new week!! fresh out of the 14th of july. smack dab in the middle of the month. That monday i got called unexpectedly- in midst of eating my pb and j (extra j of course, concord grape). Sat down with an officer, and my supervisor to go over how i was doing so far. Fantastic. Everything looked great, and the future was looking great too. My supervisor said that he remembers the first day i came in to the shop, i was looking for something to do, some way to help out (LOL so me). I hate just sitting around and not doing anything, especially if i could help dontcha know. Kind of painful just hanging out and literally doing nothing. uggghhh pffft. So after my head hit the clouds on that subject, i spoke with my supervisor to see how my leave was coming along so i could go home. He said it was out of his hands meow, and that i should go check with someone else. So i marched right upstairs and asked the guy in charge. he had 5 pieces of paper in his hand. Mine was the last one... Approved!!! bam homerun im coming  home. 10 days of leave, leaving on a thursday, driving back on like monday, getting to cali in like 5 or 6 days. perfect. I can start planning my life. No one could wipe that smile off my face. I told everyone and their mother i got these days off. Told Alyson we were gonna hang out erryday i was home, and she willingfully approved, thank goodness. Even hoping she gets that friday off from work, so we get an extra day together!! Anyway, that night i went home and bought my airline ticket. One way all the way into boston, felt good to finally buy it. only 3 hundo bee tee dubs. what a bargain. granted i got a middle seat for the 5 hour flight from LA to boston... YOLO. So its been like cloud 9 already, such a great day, told my pops, he started his process, and i can finally have my jeep out here. Life is good. Easy workload too.

First boat detachment!!! Or so you thought.

The dates were of July 8th through 12th. That week everyone was bustin their butts on the line shack. We were flying a lot, and working really harding, washing jets, just getting ready for our 10 day cruise. It was a rough week, but mannn was it worth it, gonna be a lot of fun on the boat, even though everyone speaks poorly of it, but i was excited for a new experience. So friday comes around, i wake up from a nice sleep to a phone call- boat dets been cancelled. They claimed that our boat had some issues with it, and it wasnt departing, yet another squadron went on the same deployment, and they were already on the boat, heading out to sea. So then the grapevine  produces that we didnt have enough money to go on the boat det. Which makes total sense. Cuz our squadron doesnt have anyyyyy money what so ever. more money more problems though right?!?! omg right?!? I mean its not a bad thing for us though cuz our work schedule is a joke. same thing every day, every night. Like i said in our previous blog, we dont even know what is going to happen tomorrow, its rediculous. We just hold on tight and see where this trip is gonna take us. Lil frustrating cuz we cant really plan anything. But hopefully we hear something soon. No aircraft carrier for this guy :/ They said there is a rain date at the end of august... we'll see about that navy lol.

The letter

So while all of this navy nonsense is going on I've been talking to this chica named Alyson. Shes from the middleofnowhere, Maine. Hi Alyson. We were kinda seeing each other before i was sent off to boot camp, in which i abruptly ended things with her, on extremely bad terms. (i'm sorry) but she is a pretty neat person. I couldnt stop thinking about her throughout all this time after i signed this contract. We talked every meow and then, but it would just be like a hey, or a ho. Ho hey. Needless to say, there was something i needed to do. So I wrote a letter one day- thoughts, feelings, apologies all on paper and sent it her way. Took like 4 days to get to maine, but then again it is in canada. But we started talking on the phone throughout this time, in which i thoroughly enjoyed. Im usually not a phone person, but cant get enough of it lately. So we started talking a lot more, and it was amazing. I question the navy sometimes and what the heck im doing in it, but i feel like there is a bigger picture. One that i may not be able to see yet. It's been helping me work on myself, and better myself, so i can be a better person around people. cuz it always starts with you and radiates out. and ive found a lot of interesting things about myself by doing all of this adventuring. It feels good and right, like im just building a better me. Heart to heart time here- when i was younger, ill admit it, i was a very obese child, didnt have many friends. Wasnt until high school when i started thriving on friendships and held on to them- the good ones with all my might. And by doing this, it didnt make any room for anyone else in my life. Me, not ever having the love and comfort of friends, wanted to keep these friends and never lose them, even if that meant leaving some girl i liked over. And i'm pretty sure this pattern continued over the years. But the turning point for me was the fact that i have a such good relationship with my friends, that ill know theyll always be there for me no matter what, and (sorry chris) i can always make new friends, cuz i just love talking to people and getting to know everyone. By joining the navy, i literally let go of everything, everyone that i have and just peaced out. I think it was a journey to find myself, and yeah it may have been a little bit ugly, i think im beginning to understand. I have learned that i can live a weekend, or two without my friends. I have to, i have no choice at all. Yeah it was rough the first couple weeks here in cali, heck, even bootcamp. But when people go through the same experiences as you, thats when you bond and become friends. Now i have a ton of friends here in cali, and am well liked. it feels great.
Well, dont think ive ever written that down before, but i think i hit the nail on the head on that one. Anyway, now that ive discovered these things about myself, i can focus clearly- on what really matters, like Alyson. Things seem to be looking really nice on the road ahead, so we shall see what the future holds. Hopefully these words dont come back to bite me in the butt. but i said it, so there. #rushitloveit

4th of July Weekend

Hokay. So 4th of July weekend. I had watch that night into the morning hours, so i was running off of like 3 hours of sleep for the camping adventure, but luckily got some starbucks before we headed out to the lake. We had a cooler, tent, sleeping bags, food that could last us like 2 weeks. Seriously we ate pretty well that weekend. But we were en route by nooner to the campsite. It was on a natural forest reservation area. We get there and check in super quick since im awesome at reserving things. The lady asked us if we wanted a lake view or a site by the bathrooms. pshhh lake view. So we got to our site, and it was overlooking the lake, and absolutely just wonderful. Came with a firepit, picnic table, place to put our tent, and a water fountain. What more could you possibly ask for?!?! and the bathrooms were a minute walk up a hill. Things were looking good. So we set up camp there, and went to the store like 15 minutes away to get some firewood, ice and beer. came back, set up the tent, and went swimming!! It was so peaceful, and the water was wicked warm. Too warm for some people in fact. Talk about crazy. youre crazy. So we hung out by the water for a little bit, then eventually went back to make some kebabs with like steak peppers onions mushrooms, man this was like really good. all over the fire too. tastyyyy. Then we just hung aroound the fire the rest of the night, and made some smores. Smore of what? When it was time to go to bed it was 100 degrees out. and the tent made it feel like 150 degrees (Fahrenheit lol) So it was rough trying to get to sleep. Eventually, brace yourself, I grabbed a clean sock from my bag, filled it with ice and just put it on my forehead. ended up falling to sleep real quick after that. Good day. Next day was early to rise, specially with the sun coming in, not like we had walls or AC lol. got up and made some breakfast. Another fantastic meal. Soooo good. Then down to the beach!! Went down to the beach and put my towel down to get muh tan on. It was kind of a secluded spot, so it was nice, not many people. So i ended up passing out on my towel, drooling and alls. And i wake up to some voice saying "should we go to the left or to the right of him?" that him being me. And it was just a couple of asian-americans coming to enjoy, the same beach, as us. My tube was right beside me by the way. I lay back down, and 2 seconds later, there were 45 kids running around me screaming, yelling splashing around, heck they had squirt guns. and me still laying down was getting drenched by the second. I jump up grab my stuff, cept my tube cuz that was already being used, and i moved to a more rocky area of the beach. i sat up and counted every single one of them. had to get this number, cuz it was unbelievable. so then i was a lil angry so Anderson and I went back to the campsite, and decided to get out of nature for a little bit. lol. its tough roughin it in this heat. We ended up taking the car to starbucks in fresno, a good 30 minutes a way. charged my phone a little bit and grabbed a coffee. Threw that coffee out, and went up and got another one.... little did i know that if you stayed in starbucks, they gave you free refills for 50 cents just for like ice coffee. my mind was totally blown. i was super excited. loved every second of it. We returned back to the campsite later and all those people were still there, so we moved to a new beach and just read some books and hung out. Had some dinner that night and got some good rest, saw a couple shooting stars too. a lot cooler this night than the previous. Woke up the next morning, said we had enough, and even though we had one more night, we needed to get outta there. So we packed up our stuff and got the heck outta there. Good weekend.

Side notes: I started growing a mustache at this point, which was phenomenal, cuz i could grow a good one after a long weekend. Mother gave us sparklers too, which were fun, but kinda got old after the 6th one lol sorry Mom!!  

4th of July- Fast Forward

Holyyyy Smokes!! Where do i begin?!?!?! I guess the reasoning behind my blogging less, is: working on night shifts, using my tablet instead of my regular computer, maybe cuz im more busier than usual? wow. Wierd how things have changed!! Okay, so ill try to remember what has happened in the past weeks, bear with me lol. Umm i moved out of my old roommates room? I dno if i told yall that but here we go!! He got promoted to E4, and once you hit E4 you can live by yourself, and if the barracks are full you can live off base and collect BAH, which is money the navy gives you for housing. Another benefit to getting promoted quicker! So after moving out of ARCE's room, thats his name, i moved into BOWIE's room. Same exact setup, cept the ventilation system leads down to a kid with a drum set who likes to practice around 2pm, lol. time to get up anyway!! So bowie and i got moved to night check, where i am the lowest of the low in rank wise. aka the newest person on night check aka i do evvvv verrrr rayyyy thangggg. which i dont mind, these weeks have already passed by so quickly and im hardly sitting on my butt inside. Im constantly moving, doing stuff to help the time go by quicker so we can get out and get home on time or even early!! So things have been going pretty well. Hung around the other weekend, and didnt really do much cuz i had to work that weekend. But last weekend Anderson and I planned a trip to the lake we passed on the way to the Sequoia National Park. We invited people, and ARCE and BOWIE actually said yes, so they came along!! We actually had a pretty fun time. We bought some adult beverages, and some floaties. We just hung out on the river all day (it led into the lake), and drank and became merry. So it was a really fun time, finally clicking with people around here, and making some pretty good friends. They see that i am a hard worker, and i dont complain about anything, i just do it. Thats the way things work around here, and you dont want to be known as the complainer, cuz then you get more work assigned to you. But i tell ya, i work my butt off some nights, and im happy to know it doesnt go unnoticed. Slowely gaining respect around here, i hope. Speaking of, last tuesday we had command PT, where we would all meet at the gym and work out together. Well i usually go and sign the paper and then do my own workout, but i heard people play basketball all the time there. Yes, i get nervous, but doggonit i wanted to play really bad, hadnt played in like a month and a half. So i ran back and grabbed my ankle braces lol. Always gotta have my ankle braces. Surprisingly no one said anything about them. I waited for the next game to begin, and got put on a team, i didnt know a couple kids, but they were in my squadron and ive seen them around, so i just introduced myself-outside of work. We balled hard for 2 straight games. And let me tell you, i have never played that great of basketball in my life. I was getting every rebound, and putting up rediculous shots, and giving amazing assists, the stars were aligned, or maybe its just cuz ive been working out like crazy, i dno. But considering i was the only caucasian there lol, i was doing really well. Would say it was a stepping stone in gaining respect from my co workers, cuz they thought i was really good. I walked away proud that daym which made for a great night, and better relationships with my coworkers. everything was beginning to click.
So the nights would come and the nights would go, We would be getting out around 1am, and i would set an alarm for like 9am, get up, go to the gym, head to starbucks (i order the same thing everyday at the same time, trying to become a regular, but its not working :/) and then come back and take a nap till i have to go to work. Still working on getting some qualifications, and doing well on that. We had a change of command, which basically means we got a new boss. They had a ceremony in the hangar bay, with a pig roast, and chicken and everything, it was so good. They also did a fly by really low to the ground to simulate the transfer of power, it was pretty cool to witness, then once his jet landed, it got sprayed by the fire trucks, LOL you guys!!!! So you. But in other news, we are going on a training mission on like the 10th of July on the carrier to get experience for next year when we deploy. Itll only be like 10 days on the ship, but still, some good training excercises. And i cant wait to experience the ship either! that things gotta be like wickedddd huge!! Anyway, we had a 3 star admiral come in and talk to us about our $$$ problems. We are aiming for going on deployment sometime next year, thats all he could tell us, we dont know much of anything, and cant plan much out cuz we barely have any money. Heck the barracks cant even support air conditioning when the outside temp reaches over 100 degrees, and then the showers stay cold from time to time. Whatever, doesnt really bother me much, builds experience right? maybe ill write that on my resume, perfect.
Other good things are happening as well! Put my request in to leave and go home for a little bit in mid august. Surprisingly it is going very well so far. filled out the paperwork, and all the signatures are working their way up the chain of command. Its amazing how painless and quick the process is going, makes me very excited. So i get to go to the aircraft carrier for a little bit, come back for a week, then leave like a week later, get my jeep out here, and just kick it. umm, sounds perfect to me.
Anyways, Im pretty set on accepting my early promotion, my best friend Tom called the other day (thanks for reading Thomas, althought i could really use a back crack- maybe when i come back? lol) And we were just chit chatting on the phone, and i was telling him about my scenario, cuz he obvs read my blog about it. And he agrees with me that i need to do what is right for me, and i cant be thinking about what my friends are going to be doing, and where they will be by then. It is my life, and i need to do what is best for me, so he is 100% on my side for it, which made me pretty excited. Good to catch up with him, long time no talk on the phone. Probs just see him soon anyway lol.
Heck i got so cocky to the point i even asked about OCS- officer candidate school. Since my GPA wasnt good enough to apply to be an officer before, Its a lot easier once i have already been in, to apply to go to that boot camp. Once news got around that i was doing that in my shop, everyone started making jokes about me having a degree. Never thought i would get made fun of for having one of those lol. But hey why not put it to good use right? So i spoke with my supervisor about it, and he immediatly became super pumped, which in turn made me more pumped. He immediatly got on it, and could see that i was doing my research part of it, so he would do his. Got me an appointment with an officer, but it had to be postponed till after all this settles down with the holidays, and the boat detatchment. But i mean, it is just going alls so fast. The pay for officers too- its outta this world compared to enlisted, and you would get more respect, and bootcamp alls over again- lol which i think would be a lot of fun!!! I know what to expect, and can help others with the experience i already have. Easy ways of getting an application through would be to have a wide array of options for what program (job) i would want to do, which im perfectly fine with. Probably just end up being a paper pusher anyway, making bank. We shall see were this adventure takes me though.
As of right meow: just hanging out, getting ready for the 4th of july celebrations. Anderson and I are going to a lake up north, like an hour away. Got a campsite for 3 nights, rented a tent, probably just hang out, go fishing and relax. Get away to nature for a little bit ya know? Im quite excited about it. Good things are coming, and they are coming quick. Who knows when the next time ill be able to blog. lol. Im excited though. lets do this.