Afghanistan Souvenirs

The twelve day wait ended this past friday with a call from Afghanistan. I missed my boyfriends first call that morning, because earlier in the a.m. at about 1, he left me a text saying that all is well over there and that there is about 5 and a half months left to go. So I took that text as being his communication for the week, therefore, not expecting to hear from him hours later.

my phone was charging upstairs on my nightstand next to my bed, where pictures of us are scattered on top of the stand, along with notes from him and cards he has sent over the past year. I went to check my phone, and I saw that a weird number had called me literally a minute before I came to check. To my surprise, it was my boyfriend. And to my sheer dumbness, I tried calling back the unreachable number, in hopes to hear his voice. I'm not going to lie, i started to tear up a bit, because I felt bad that I missed his call. Maybe he called to say something bad happened, or that i missed his call of what he wanted in his next care package.

I calmed down, and said to myself that next time i wont miss it. As soon as I went into the bathroom to take a shower, I heard my phone ringing, and to my surprise, it was my boyfriend trying to get a hold of me once more. I picked it up frantically, and was glad to hear his voice.

He said that this was his first day off, and that he just completed his first 10 day mission. This was also the first call that he actually had details of how his days have been going. He said that he rode shotgun in most of his convoy missions, that he didn't get to see too too much outside the trucks, and to his dismay, didn't get to fire his issued M16.

I was relieved to hear his voice, and found him to sound upbeat and happy, his normal self i remember from back home.

He then told me something very interesting. I guess that on days off, soldiers are allowed to venture into some of the neighboring, safe towns, to shop and look around the environment and meet locals. My boyfriend told me that he stopped at a hajji store and bought a chess set, with the pieces whittled from marble or something like that, from the old man he bought it from. He said that the store and the town is pretty interesting, and that he hopes to find neat collectables for me and his family to take home with him.

Hockey and Marines

Today I went down to tour Consol Energy Center for a piece in my other class. The tourguide was amazing, giving us so many exciting details about the new building, and showing us behind the scenes on the first playoff game played at Consol.

Towards the end of the tour, the guide mentioned how they love doing group parties and special events, and it got me thinking. In between periods at one game I was at in Mellon Arena, they had a soldier that was allowed to ride a zamboni as they congradulated him on his tour overseas for our country.

A light bulb turned on inside my brain, and I instantly thought that it would be an awesome gift to give my boyfriend -- to let him ride on a zamboni!!!

So after the tour, I talked to the guide, and he gave me his card and email contact information so I could get in touch with the right people to make this dream a reality. I could only imagine my boyfriends face if this could actually happen. :) Now, if only I could meet Sid.

Easter Eggs Overseas

So it had been a few weeks, and I decided that I was going to send my boyfriend an early Easter basket, (carepackage style, of course). Last Easter I made him one, full of chocolate eggs and bunnies, and all the kinds of Reeses' candies ever made, alongside a toy of Avatar, since that was our first movie we saw together.

So, since I can't make him a "normal" basket, I made him one for overseas. You can't send chocolate since it melts, so I got plastic easter eggs that are have a camo design.

and then filled them with Lifesaver and Jollyrancher flavored jelly beans. I then sent him a bunch of snacks and two cans of powder Gatorade, and then topped it off with that crappy easter basket fluff you place in an easter basket.

I hope to hear from him soon and that he received this package, because a day after I sent him the package, I watched on the news how a semi-tractor trailer full of mail flipped on some major road. All I could think was that his Easter basket was onboard. :( I'm crossing my fingers it wasn't.

No $ For My Man :(

Throughout the past weeks, where I live, there have been many issues with our states government policies, and bills that may be passed shortly. One issue that seems to hit pretty close to home for my boyfriend is this whole government shutown. The last time it got like this, it was in 1995-6. Back then, workers for the federal government were reimbursed for their lost pay, but there are rumors that this time around, it may not be so. Since my boyfriend is in the military, they are told that they will still be working as usual, yet their next pay may only have one week's worth in it. It may get even worse, and he may not get paid at all, from what I have read. Though, there are other reports I have read that some congressmen are trying to pass a law stating that military men and women will still get paid during the shutdown. Here are two sites with information about this issue. For some reason, I can't get it to be able to be clicked on. Sorry :(

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0408/Government-shutdown-101-What-does-it-mean-for-the-military

AND


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gowgx-LCK1RPT9cdfpmpIE-n7PuQ?docId=2ae9c1d5220c41d485df8cdc98c59f8c




Which brings me to my next point...

...if the people who work for President Obama are not being paid, is his pay frozen as well? Just a question.

Tension

I heard from my boyfriend a few hours ago, and he said all is well. he recieved his care package, and immediately placed his fluffy pens blanket on his bed in his room :) We talked few a few minutes, and I learned about what else I can send over there. I told him the news of our friends that had their baby, and that his good guy friend and his girlfriend are now engaged.

We both feel that so far, his deployment is going pretty fast. He has already been there for a month, and says that everything is going as decent as it can. I did ask him about the troubles on the news dealing with uprisings in Afghanistan, with the people upset about the issue of the Koran being burned in Florida recently. My boyfriend says that these uprisings don't help him and his unit at all, saying that the Afghanistan people are being even more standoff-ish and hostile towards the troops. My boyfriend said he hasn't witnessed any problems with this issue, but members of his unit already has.

I've also heard that Obama wants to send more troopsc over this summer, and is already postponing his date to bring home the troops. Hopefully, things can be sorted out soon.

Coming Home

While my boyfriend is away, I try to remain very busy with classes and finals and papers. Once school is out, I plan on working a lot during the summer to keep myself occupied and not be able to worry as much.

However, I do give myself "down time", to be sad or worry. During this time, it usually falls on a Sunday, when the network Lifetime's new showed aired a few weeks ago about soldiers coming home early and surprising their families.

The one wife I know that is married to a marine in my boyfriend's unit watches it religiously as well. The last episode was about a Navy sailor coming home to surprise his wife with the wedding of her dreams. The other story in the show was about a young wife who had a baby while her husband was away, and Lifetime was there to document the happy reunion and meeting. The show reminded me of this wife, and how her baby boy was born while her husband was down in Quantico. Luckily, my boyfriend's higher-up's allowed this man to come watch his son be born.

The show airs on Sundays, and is called "Coming Home". This is the only time where I will allow myself to cry or get emotional over my boyfriend being away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIqVP6UepBw


It is also a tearjerker, because most of the stories deal with the families with younger kids who miss their daddy's and haven't seen them in over a year. I cry when the kids realize their daddy is home, but the tears are happy tears. I reccommmend this show to anyone who not only has a loved one overseas, but also to anyone who has a heart.

Sending Care Overseas

Today was the first time I have been to my post office a few miles down my road since I was a young girl. I have passed it endless times, and never really thought much of it, that is, until this morning at 8:15 a.m.

My boyfriend called me on Sunday. The first time in 10 days, and the second time since landing in hell. We talked for about 15 minutes, about what has been going on over here, and what all he has been doing. Apparently cleaning big trucks is a 10 day ordeal. When the conversation ended, he told me some things he would like in a care package. A care package. Next to letters and phone calls to home, a soldier loves receiving care packages. Over the weekend I made my first care package of what I expect to be many.

I included the usual suspects that are enclosed: baby wipes, gatorade, toiletries, canned food, and snacks. I tried to make it special though, by placing some things in it that would separate my boyfriends care package from the rest.

I wrote him a letter about how I feel and also about what I placed in the box and why.

I sent movies that I thought he would enjoy.


I placed a box of Flintstones Vitamins,

because even though he is 25, he is still a child at heart, and loves them. I also placed a stress ball, and told him to use it when he is stressed. I gave him a nerf ball, to throw at the guys. I also sent him two books of facts. One was a book about facts of PA and another of just useless stuff. He would look at the fun fact books we have placed in our bathroom at home, take them and read them on our couch. I also put a rubix cube, and a fish bath sponge. The two best things I placed were things that I know he loves and misses back home: A huge, fluffy Pens blanket for the nights when it gets really cold, and a pack of cards, poker chips, and fake money, for when he has the urge to go to the casino.

I know that this is the first of many that I will send, so to not be repetitive of what I send, I found a website that describes different types of themed care packages to send. The site also tells you the rules and regulations as to what you are and are not allowed to send. The website is www.marriedtothearmy.com

The post office man told me that I am lucky he is in the military, because if I was sending it to him if he just lived overseas, the cost would be way more than it was. I just hope that he gets it!

Green Beer, Overseas Calls and Another Book

Last night while I was drinking my green beer for St. Patrick's Day, friends surrounding me and having a good time, I finally got the phone call I have been waiting since learning that my boyfriend had made it to Afghanistan. I constantly have my phone on me at all times, waiting to see his number from either here, in pa, or his new number he has for overseas. It was to my surprise, to see a number that was only 6 digits long call me. I picked it up, and heard my favorite voice :) We talked for a good fifteen minutes, with me filling him in on what he is missing back home, and him telling me about the new land he has seen in the past few days. I asked him whether or not he will be in any serious danger while he is there. I thought he would lie and tell me "no", and that he will be fine for the next 7 months, but my boyfriend being the straight forward guy, told me, "yeah, I'll be in danger sometimes". My heart sank, but I know that he is a strong and smart guy that will whether the storm he will face in the months to come.

We got to talking some more, and I had to stop conversation and remind him that today is not only St. Patrick's Day, but, that one year ago to the day, we had our first kiss :) We talked a little bit more on when I can start sending him care packages and when he will start writing me letters, and then he said he had to go and call his mom and dad. I miss him terribly.



After reading the book I mentioned earlier, I have moved onto the second of the three I have purchased. This new one is called "The Long Road Home". This book is different that the previous read, in that in follows not only the soldiers, but the wives and family of them as well. In this book, the soldiers are faced with an ambush in Sadr City, where many were injured or KIA (killed in action). I have about 100 pages left of this 300 some page book. I am proud to say I have only teared up twice in it. So far, I am up to the point where 4 U.S. soldiers have died, one with expecting his first son back home :( I keep on having to remind myself though, that this book is depicting real life stories, and that it isn't made up. It is sad to read, but something that I feel the need to understand more of what my boyfriend will be facing. I will fill you in on the ending when I am done.

Alrington Has a New Addition

The other day when I was reading the news, trying to update myself with that is all going on overseas where my boyfriends new "home" for the next several months will be, I turned to the local news and found an interesting fact: The last World World I Vet who was living, has died.

His name was Frank Buckles, and was buried within 50 yards of where the man he was under control, Gen. John Pershing.

My New Reads

I know that I will never know what all my boyfriend will witness and go through while he is in the war zone.  However, to try to understand a little more about what he will be going through, I went to Borders recently.  I picked up three books about Afghanistan, all ranging with different ideas and stories about the war and the soldiers that bravely battled through it.  The first book I read I finished within a day.  It is called Greetings From Afghanistan: Send More Ammo.  The author, Benjamin Tupper, was in the Army, and while he was over there, he blogged about his stories and what he all went through. This book is what his blogs consisted of.  It is a very interesting read, one that doesn't hold back what he and his fellow soldiers went through.  It talks about his good friends that made it through, and others that lost their lives.  He also talks about how it was hard for him to come back to the United States after being over there for so long.  In one instance, he states that one of his soldiers e-mailed him, saying to him after both returning home: " I would trade everything I have to be back over there."  Tupper talks about how it was hard to find the adrenaline he had experienced in Afghanistan, here at home.  He also goes into discussing the issue on why so many soldiers act the way they act when returning home.  The book opened my eyes to how I should think my boyfriend may or may not feel while over there and when coming home.  Earlier in the book, Tupper hit home to me in a sentence he said the phrase, "thousand-yard stare".  As soon as I read that sentence, I instantly thought of my boyfriend, who has shown that expression time and time again to me.  And thanks to Tupper, I now know why he would sometimes use it.

Holding Down the Homefront

Hello all.  My name is Jenna, and my blog is about my months without my Marine boyfriend home.  He is currently stationed in Afghanistan.  I know he isn't allowed to tell me much more as to where he is, so that is all I will say about his location, and moreso about how I am feeling, what I am going through, and counting down the long 7 months for his return home to the United States.

Below is a picture of him and I. We have been together for about a year.  He was in the Marine Corps when I met him, but he was on the reserves side. 

Since he wasn't active, there wasn't much thought as to him being deployed. However, this August he found out that his unit would be deploying to Afghanistan in the upcoming months. From October to February, he was more out of state than home.  For half of the month of November, most of all December, all of January, and most of February, he was gone to either Camp Lejeune, and out in California to 29 Palms, which is also known as the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center.  There, him and his unit would train for the upcoming months 8,000 miles away in foreign land.