Eric and I outside the municipal building in Manville
Well, it has been a little over a week since I graduated from Coast Guard Basic Training as part of Xray-184. While a post or series of posts describing that experience is on the way, it’s not quite ready yet. The week after basic was very busy and eventful. Despite getting plenty of sleep for the last couple nights, the events of this week have still managed to leave me completely exhausted.
I graduated from basic training on Friday, May 20th. That evening found me at David’s Bridal in Maple Shade, NJ, where I looked for and found my wedding dress. This is only an impressive feat because the wedding was Saturday at 2 p.m. So basically, I found a 100% ready to wear dress right after leaving basic, right before my wedding. The dress was a simple strapless ivory dress with a short train. The top had some beautiful detail to the fabric that I’ll share once I have pictures. Add a sheer shaw to cover my arm up (it was looking rather ugly thanks to an allergic reaction to the bandages used to cover my smallpox vaccine), and some ivory heels and I was ready to go. I got my hair cut on Saturday morning, and am now wearing a full pixie cut. I wish I’d cut it this way for basic. I was originally scared to go this short. Now I’m glad I did.
The wedding was very nice. Both Eric and I wanted a very simple ceremony. (We joke that if we could have just signed the paperwork and been done, we would have.) The mayor of Manville was good enough to come in on a Saturday for the ceremony. My parents, sister, and grandmother came, as did Eric’s parents, grandmothers, aunt and uncle, cousin, cousin’s wife and their daughter. The ceremony itself was short, and we took pictures inside and out by a little bridge and flowering dogwood. After the ceremony, we had lunch at Alfonso’s, which is one of our favorite restaurants in Somerville. Rather than try to cater something on such short notice, everyone just ordered what they wanted, which I think was much nicer. Saturday was a whirlwind of a day, but a fun one.
Eric and I had dinner with our friends on Sunday, and went down to see my sister’s new apartment in Brigantine on Monday. Tuesday was our day to run around getting errands done and preparing for Wednesday. What happened on Wednesday? Well, the apartment in Somerville got a lot emptier.
Wednesday was the day our move was scheduled for. The movers came at about 10:30, and by 4:30 we had a virtually empty apartment. We left some things there for Eric, since he isn’t moving up here to Newport until we have a house to live in. The movers were wonderful and handled everything. Our belongings are now in short-term storage until we have an address to have it all delivered to. Wednesday night, we drove down to my grandmother’s house in Pennsauken so I could catch my Rapid Rover ride to Philly International Airport the next morning.
I got to Philly very early, which meant I was through security very quickly, since there were no lines. I then went and relaxed for a few hours at the Liberty USO, had some breakfast, and awaited my flight. The flight to Providence was very fast, and I was back on the ground before I knew it. My Executive Petty Officer was in town for a meeting and picked me up to take me to the station. The station itself is very nice, as are all the people here. I’m looking forward to getting to work.
The first couple days have just been observing the goings-on, and getting some paperwork done. After the holiday weekend, I will assume mess cook duties for a month before I start on my qualifications. (I’ll try to do some work on my quals. while I mess cook, but the hours are pretty long, so I’ll be limited in what I can do.) Thursday and Friday were quiet days, but things are picking up now due to the holiday weekend. I’m off for today and Monday, and Eric is visiting me tomorrow, which I’m looking very forward to.
That’s been life since basic. I’ll work on my entries about basic and get them up soon!
Posted on May 29, 2011
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