Happy Birthday!

Even though I went to the Marine Birthday Ball a good couple of weeks ago, today is the official birthday of those oh too sexy stud muffins. Of course I think I got the best looking out of all of them and we all know that I am far from biased! Out of all of the Marines I have met to date, I've never met a bad apple. Honestly, they are the sweetest guys (and a few girls) that I have ever met, and it definitely doesn't hurt that they look damn good in uniform. So in honor of the 238th birthday of the United States Marine Corps, here are just a few pictures that either somehow make me giggle or so incredibly proud every time I see them. Semper Fi!

 

 

 

Who Needs Prince Charming When You Have a Marine in Dress Blues :)

You lucky readers get TWO posts in one day since I'm finally sitting down and putting all of my amazing weekend in Jacksonville, North Carolina into words (and some pictures). It was honestly the best weekend I've had in such a long time, which I think is mostly thanks to the fact that I got to see Derek after a very long four months. I think it would probably be easiest to break it up into days.

THURSDAY

As always I had to work from 12am-3am, so as soon as I got off work I ran to my car and plugged in the Swansea Metrolink Station into the usually reliable GPS on my older than dirt Crackberry. It said I should be there at 5:30am. Not saying I'm a rebel or anything, but I got to Swansea at 4:45am. Thank God I had made up all of that extra time, because it had me take a turn at a stop light that I could have sworn was the wrong one, but hey it was what the GPS said so I followed directions. Let's just say I was right. It had me pull into some extremely sketchy abandoned parking lot with some decrepit old building sitting at the edge. As I couldn't just stop in the middle of a highway, I had to pull in. However, after I was off the road I realized that I had no way of turning around other than to follow this little beat down path right into a canopy of dead trees. Let's just say I had to talk myself out of the fact that I was undoubtedly going to experience a real-life Wrong Turn moment. Luckily I just have a flare for dramatics, and found myself back to where I started and sped back onto the highway to retrace my steps. This time, I followed my gut, and since I'm just so smart and all quickly found the station. With my suitcase I made my way to where I bought my very first Metrolink ticket and waited. After boarding, I only had one more hour until I finally made it to the airport. Security was surprisingly quick, so I decided to grab an Iced Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks and work on some homework. The homework didn't work out very well though considering I didn't have a computer to look up anything. People watching it was. Luckily I didn't have to wait too long and we boarded. While I was hoping to take a nap, I was just too excited. In just a few short hours I would finally get to see Derek again. So I sat in my seat and just set my head back and waited. When we landed in Charlotte, I had a good two hours to kill so I grabbed some pizza and a Nicholas Sparks book. I had thought ahead to pack my phone charger in my purse since my GPS always drains my battery and it was beeping red. Found myself a cozy corner and snuggled up with with the book while my phone recharged. Finally it was time to board and I only had one more hour left. I got off of the plane and immediately started stripping off my scarf, coat, and sweater as it was an amazing 75 degrees- amazing considering when I left Carbondale it was 28 degrees. I found Derek when I was waiting for my baggage, and finally felt at home.
We headed straight to the hotel where, like the wonderful girlfriend that I am, I passed out almost immediately. I woke up about 4 hours later and Derek talked a groggy Molly into going to his favorite place to eat- Arbys. I ordered my usual, a Reuben with a small curly fry. Derek on the other hand ordered two of some new sandwich that they had and a large fry. He's lucky I love him considering he ate all of my fries! I won't complain too much because at least I had somebody to eat all of the food that I know I wouldn't have otherwise. We headed across the street to Best Buy where he spoiled me with a brand new camera! Don't ask me the exact kind because I'm not very smart and all I know is that it is a Canon, a DSLR, and I had heard amazing things about it from all of the students in my RT classes.
We went back to the hotel and cuddled up in bed since Derek had to be up at 4:30 so he could make it to work in the morning. Is it me or should they get to take off of work when they have girlfriends in town?

FRIDAY

I woke up to Derek's alarm and him getting ready for work. I didn't mind to much since that was the first night in forever that I remember sleeping so good. I even got a goodbye kiss and wasn't sad because I knew I would see him in a few hours and not weeks. I tried to fall back asleep, but my body wasn't about to let that happen so I decided to lounge in bed and watch Real Housewives of Beverly Hills instead. Brittany was supposed to pick me up when I checked out at 11:00 so I had plenty of time to kill. I pampered myself a bit with a nice steamy shower, took my time on my hair and makeup, and even re-painted my nails. Soon enough it was 11:00 and Brittany and I were off to Panera (or Bread Co if you're from the St. Louis area). Brittany wouldn't let me take any pictures of her because she claims that she didn't get ready that morning even though I thought she looked great! I did get this little dandy though and it made me just that much more excited about my new camera.

We somehow spent two hours just catching up on just about anything that we could catch up on before Derek was texting me that he was off of work and on my way to pick me up so we could head to New Bern for the Ball! It was only an hour drive, but it was the best drive I could have asked for since I was next to my drives-like-a-ninety-year-old-grandma of a boyfriend as he blared his country music. He got irritated with me quickly as I loved to take pictures like this one... and had to resort to selfies.

                  

A trip to Walmart for some last minute makeup essentials, and so Derek could buy a pound of potato wedges, we were off to grab us some drank. We chose to get Apple Pucker since Derek had never had it and I was shocked as that's what used to be my go-to drink. Back at the hotel and it was time to get dressed. And let me tell you, all the hype about Marines in their Dress Blues? It's for a very good reason! My evidence:

I mean just look at him! Anyways we headed to the ball for strong drinks, great friends, and lots and lots of dancing! Sorry I have no pictures of the actual ball, I was having too much fun and was too nervous to take my camera with me as we all know how rowdy those Marines can get. Back to the hotel to curl up with some scary movies and the rest of our Apple Pucker.

SATURDAY

It was a pretty relaxed day, we just laid in bed for most of the day and when it was time to checkout headed back to Jacksonville for our other hotel. Yeah three hotels in three days we're high-ballers like that. Derek went to go get his hairs cut and buy some scratch offs. I sat in bed and watched some more junk tv. About 5:00 we headed out to Cheddar's for dinner with Brittany and Bradley. We were supposed to have a nice romantic night of movies and wine and all that jazz after, but I was once again a horrible girlfriend and fell asleep within the first 30 minutes of the movie. So Derek decided to make himself a bubble bath drank all of the wine and sang to himself. I hate myself for missing that!

SUNDAY

My least favorite day, we went and packed him up for his trip to Virginia for school, stopped by the MCX to buy Carter, Keaton, and Emma their USMC shirts because we all know they have to represent. Then it was off to the airport. Not sure what upset me more, the fact that I had to say goodbye see you soon again so soon or that I'm actually getting really used to it. I was a big girl though and didn't cry. I may have teared up, but I did not cry- until I got home at 2:00am the next morning.

So that is my trip, nothing too spectacular but it was so so so amazing! Now I only have a few shorts weeks until I get to be re-united again. Plus, not to brag or anything, but I should get to see my amazing sister sometime awfully soon as well. I might hate distance, but boy do I love being reunited with everybody! That's all for now.

When Life Throws You For A Loop...

Hey all. I know I promised on Friday that I would write about my trip to North Carolina to see Derek, but there is something that I need to get off of my chest much more right now. I do promise that by the end of the week you will get a post and/or picture overload of my trip.

As a full-time college student, I am pretty used to being broke. Don't get me wrong, working two jobs and not having much of a yearning to go out every night has assisted in not being quite as broke as many college students, but still money is tight about 99.99% more of the time than it's not. I know you have heard me complain again and again about how lousy this Desk Assistant job is on campus, but let's just keep the ball rolling in that court. This weekend we found out that some random from the community is going to get hired full time from 8:00pm-4:00am Friday-Sunday. That's not that big of a deal really for normal people, but for me that is roughly every single one of my shifts. I lost a grand total of 10 hours per week off of my schedule. To make matters worse, there is only one other girl who had this change of hours make any impact on her schedule as she lost roughly 6 hours per week. There was one girl who lost 3 hours per paycheck (which is every other week). In case you aren't very good at math and aren't aware that I get paid a measly $8.25 an hour, that means I'm losing about $160 a paycheck! As I person who likes to be overly dramatic think of my future budgets, that means for the rest of this semester I will lose $640 if my math is correct. Do you know what I could do for $640? Let's make a list why don't we?

• Well for starters, that could probably buy me quite a bit of groceries, which by the way I haven't quite had the funds to do lately. I think it has come quite apparent as I have had cold cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the past 4 days. No worries though, I do still have a few other foods stuck into my little cubby in the pantry I'm just saving them for a really desperate day.
• Other priorities would be the fact that I could buy a whole new plane ticket to see Derek, preferably for my Spring Break? Whether he is in North Carolina or down in Texas/Arizona/New Mexico like he might be, Alyssa and I would love to go see our Marines together considering that our Spring Breaks start the same day. Plus any excuse to get away to somewhere I could rock a bikini and see the love of my life at the same time? Oh you better count me in!
• Or I could make Derek buy my ticket for Spring Break and use that money to buy my plane ticket to go see my sister when she graduates from boot camp for the AIR FORCE! Have I mentioned how much I love this lady? In all seriousness she may be younger than me, but she has done so much in the past two years that just shock and amaze me, not mention make so incredibly proud of her. She is honestly the best sister, wife, aunt, daughter, and just about any other label you can think of that I know. It truly is amazing how much she can make me feel better by a quick message on Facebook, and somehow she always randomly messages me when I most need my sister. Sadly she is all the across the Atlantic Ocean and I'm stuck over here counting the days until I get to see her again (which is really hard considering if you know anything about any military branch… making plans sucks with them!). Which brings me to my last point...

• It could put me more than HALFWAY to being saved up to go to Lakenheath to visit that same sister and my amazing brother-in-law. Lakenheath in case you were wondering is in England, only the one country I have been obsessed with since I discovered Harry Potter and Pride and Prejudice.  As I've already gone on quite the tangent of my sister and how amazing she is, I'll just say that seeing her pictures and hearing about all the fun British things she has been doing the past year just makes me pretty jealous, and I would like to join in on the fun. Ok one more picture to show how absolutely adorable she is! :)

Alrighty, well now I feel much much better! Next post will be of the ball… pinky promise!! :)