virginia and jon . com

I’m sure that many of you have seen the classic movie with Bill Murray. If you haven’t check out IMDB for the details on it and I recommend that you watch it. But even if you have seen it, have you ever gone to bed one night, and woke up and it was the morning of the same day that you went to sleep? Well, this morning that happened to me and about 180 other people on my flight. After taking off late out of Guam and falling asleep about halfway through the second in-flight movie, I managed to sleep for a few rough hours. And when I woke up, the pilot was making an announcement about the status of our flight and telling us that it was about 4:15 am, on Monday morning.

At the moment I’m sitting in a terminal on the Air Force base in Hawaii, where they are continuing to prove how efficient our government agencies can be. Our flight has been unexplicably delayed for another 3 hours. Hopefully this will be the last one.

I’ll keep you all posted as much as I can with updates.

~Jon

I’m sitting in a gymnasium at Andersen air force base right now, working on making my way home. It’s about 2:45 in the afternoon on Monday on the island of Guam, which is 17 hours ahead of Seattle time. I am (not really) looking forward to the two 6-8 hour flights to get home, with about a 2 hour layover in Hawaii. So after time changes, crossing the International Date Line, two flights, and about 20 hours of traveling, I should arrive home late on Monday night (Seattle time).

One thing that I had to mention is the complete difference in airport security and general flying procedures that the military uses. I am flying on the airline called Air Mobility Command. They don’t fly regular routes, and you won’t find flight status anywhere except at the terminal for that flight. Before you are allowed to board the flight, you have to assist as a baggage handler in loading the plane. And you and your carry-on baggage will be weighed so that they can get accurate fuel estimates for the flight. Can you imagine the outrage that some commercial airlines would face if they attempted to weigh every passenger before allowing them to board? Also, there are no xrays, metal detectors, or pat downs. Just a short briefing that is read to you by one of the fellow passengers. I found the list of prohibited items so funny that I took a picture of the briefing sheet to share with you.

For your safety, the following items are prohibited on the aircraft.

• Shotguns having a barrel length of less than 18 inches.
• Rifles having a barrel length of less than 16 inches.
• Switchblade knives.
• Automatic weapons.
• Brass knuckles.
• Incendiary devices, such as flares.
• Tear Gas or Mace.
• Matches.
• Gun Powser, Cartridges, or Primers

Also, any person who is under the OBVIOUS influence of intoxicating beverages or narcotics will not be permitted to board the aircraft.

I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to convince TSA that it’s okay for you to have a shotgun because the barrel is longer than 18 inches.

I’m looking forward to being home soon and hope to get back in touch with all of you.

~Jon

By them we mean us!  Sorry for the lack of . . . well. . . everything Jon and Virginia lately.  We have been pretty busy with all kinds of stuff.  Mostly wedding planning.  So in case you did not hear yet out final wedding date is going to be September 13th 2008.  Which is only 6 months away!  Very exciting stuff, but moving on.This past weekend we took a last minute journey to Vancouver British Columbia(Canada).  It was a bit of a celebratory trip for Virginia’s recent job opportunity at KISS Fm in Seattle.  She will be working weekends for now, and hopefully more soon. Back to the trip, we decided that Vancouver would be an interesting place to visit since Jon had never been and well neither had Virginia(obviously).  We made a stop at the Aquarium for the better part of the day.  There we saw a huge frog show which was of course up Virginia’s alley!  They also had cute little sea otters which Virginia didn’t want to stop watching(it was feeding time and they eat off their cute little chests!)  After leaving there we hit up a comedy and dinner show called the giggle dam.  One word. . . AMAZING.  The name of the show was “Diapers to Depends” so you can kind of get the humor there.  I don’t think we stopped laughing the whole time, especially when they called us out and told everyone we were Americans, further more they said to be nice, we were probably packing.  The whole night was great.The next day we were on our way back to the states and somehow Jon had left our birth certificates and social security cards back at the hotel, and hour away.  We ended up figuring out a bit later where they were and were on our way back to get them.  We were just happy to have them since we need to apply for our passports for the honeymoon!

Even though I spent the past couple months in a time capsule, the rest of the world kept moving at its regular pace. One thing that Virginia has noticed since she’s been out on the west coast is that life is a lot slower out here than it was in the northeast. It’s not that we don’t keep ourselves busy, it’s just that people out here have a more relaxed (and less stressful) outlook on life. I must say that it has been very nice to get back home.

About a week ago I spent the day packing and getting ready to leave Guam, and about midnight (Guam time) we left the area where we were staying and went to the airport. About 8 hours later we took off to fly home and landed at around 3am (Washington time). After about 22 hours of traveling and an 18 hour time shift, I was pretty wiped out… and even today I’m still a bit jet lagged.

Since I’ve been home I’m working on getting back into some sort of a routine. Much of my time has been catching up on the routine maintenance for our home network and media systems. Installing updates, downloading new versions of software, and reading about the new products and rumors that have come out since November. I must say that I’m quite glad I sold my Apple stock (AAPL) before I left as it has dropped about $60/share from it’s peak.

Tomorrow we are leaving at about 2:30am to head back to the airport for a trip to NY to work on wedding plans. We are looking forward to getting back to visit friends and family. We will only be back for a week, and it will likely be the last chance we have to do any planning in person vice over the phone. If we don’t find time to see everyone while we’re back, we ask that you don’t take it personally. Our schedule is going to be quite full.

~Jon

Well hello everyone. I just wanted to let you know that I am alive and doing well. Some of you have heard from me in the few days that I’ve been back in port and some of you have heard that I’m okay from Virginia. I have to say that I don’t really have much to tell you all. Living in a submarine is very much like a cramped time capsul. Nine people share a bunkroom between two missile tubes and your own personal space is limited to about 30 cubic feet. That may sound like a lot, but it’s actually smaller than a decently priced coffin, and not quite as comfortable. I can’t complain too much because while I was always busy, the work wasn’t usually very labor intensive. And the food was almost always good. I’m very much looking forward to being back in the States however. For those of you that have gotten my Guam cell phone number, if you call me I plan to let it ring through and then call you back. I got a great deal at 4 cents a minute outgoing, but it’s 27 cents a minute incoming.

Missing you all,
~Jon

Well the good news is I did in-fact hear from Jon the bad news it was at 5 am our time.  He is sounding very good and very much looking forward to coming home soon.  Though it is still going to be a while before I see him, it is kind of nice to know that he can call me now!

Update on the happenings of this week. I went tot Seattle to go to a bridal show and Church with out friend Adrien(who is also getting married in September).  I worked a bunch.  Lastly I received a call from KISS fm out here(top 40 station).  They like my stuff and want to meet me.  So I have an interview on Monday morning!  I could not be more excited about it either!  Wish me luck.

~V~

Seriously not knowing when Jon is coming home is killing me!  The fact that I have had the last 4 days off isn’t helping much either. Luckily I was able to go to dinner with some navy wives(which was very helpful) and went to a bridal show with our friend Adrien.  That helped to take up a few days, but now I am home alone with nothing to do.  Every time the phone rings I pray that it is him.  I check my email about 40 times a day, no lie!  It is quite pathetic.  This morning I got lucky with my first email in about 4 days.  Apparently the system has become very slow so it takes 2-3 days before he gets my messages and vica versa.

He seemed to be in good spirits, although he did mention that the food he once thought was so wonderful is starting to get old and he is quite sick of it.  He was asking about some of his friends back in Washington as well as in NY, I think you all know who you are. I am sure he is dying to hear all of our voices.

~V~

Yup until Jon gets home.  I am totally missing him and he is always on my mind.  It seems like even if he was coming home tomorrow it would be too long to wait.  I received another email from him and again he sounds like his spirits are up.  He still isn’t getting enough sleep and is finding it hard to get time to write me or anyone for that matter.  Tomorrow night I am attending what the wives call the “Final Fling” which is the last get together until he comes home.  That right there tells me that he must be coming soon, just don’t exactly know when.  Which is killing me.  Best to just carry on and try not to think about it though.  Just be expecting him to start blogging sooner or later(hopefully sooner)

~V~

I just heard from Jon for the first time in a month!  He said all is well and he is looking very forward to coming home.  Duh I think we all are!  Hopefully he will be home by the end of the month.

~V~

Yup the end of a HUGE year for me.  At the beginning of last year I was single, working full time as a waitress at chilis in NY.  Now at the end of the year I am in Washington state, attempting to pursue radio again and working in a fine dining restaurant.  Oh did I forget to mention I am engaged? Yea a huge year.

Tonight I will be working at midnight in the restaurant, which is fine because if Jon is not here I would rather be at work than home alone.  I hope that everyone important to us East coast and west coast alike has a wonderful night and New Year!

~V~