... I even got the T-shirt. Well, since so many people keep asking me where I've been and what I've been up to since the Corps, I decided to use this page to answer those questions. So without further ado, let us begin:

One fine day in the tropical paradise of Hawaii I got a call from my mommy. She wanted to know what my plans were for when I got out of the Marine Corps. It would only be in a few more months, and it was time to start making decisions. She wanted to know what I thought about coming to England and sort of hanging out, once my brother got out of the Army in December. It sounded great to me. We could tour about and just soak up Europe at our leisure. Then journey back to the States with our parents in April, when they are due to return. And my brother and I would have an invite to stay at the old house in Georgia and help out fixing it up and such. Then head off to Europe for a summer of backpacking... before returning again to U.S. to get serious with the beginning of the rest of our lives.

It sounded like a pretty sweet deal to me. The only problem was that I was scheduled to depart from the United States Marine Corps on the 20th of June 1998 after a 5-year enlistment. This would leave a gap of a few months in my plans. So I decided to submit for an extension of my contract. Understand of course that the Marine Corps will only extend one for it's own convenience, not that of the individual where the individual could otherwise re-enlist, as I could. But one of the criteria for establishing the "convenience of the Marine Corps", was deployments and operations. Wouldn't you know it, there was just such a deployment happening at the exact time that I need. My shop was short handed and my MOS has always been short handed. My replacement was not due for several months and we were scheduled to lose 2871's and 74's from our section for a variety of reasons over that particular time frame. Nothing could be more convenient for the Marine Corps than to keep me around for a few more months. So with the reassurance of several of the senior staff, I submitted my request.

But there was no response. As time began ticking down I became concerned. Attempts to speed things up or at least check on the current status of my request through the career planner failed. But I was running out of time. And even though I was assured that my request should be approved, that there was no reason to deny it, I was still a little leery. When one gets out of the Marine Corps there is a lot of stuff to do. Not simply the checking out procedures when you run around base getting signatures from various departments verifying that you had turned in everything that you were supposed to and that you owed no fines, but other things, that take a little more time. Things like getting a final physical, ensuring that all your dental work is current, shipping all your household goods and worldly possessions. You know things of that nature and many more. So as the time begins to run down I make my concerns know to the career planner. And he, SSGT Babbs, tells me that even if they (Headquarters, Marine Corps) don't extend me, he (my local command) will extend me for 30 days so that I will have enough time to take care of all the things I would need to.

This put me at ease. I knew that my request should be approved, however long it may take them to do it. And that if it took them too long (i.e. past me EAS) or if for some reason it came back disapproved, I would still be given at least 30 more days to check out. And then on Monday at 1600 I find out that I will be flying out at 2100. You see, my request for extension had been approved... for re-enlistment!! Lucky me! No, this was a bad thing. I did not want to re-enlist. The single person that was responsible for approving or disapproving my request, MSGT Funk, had spoken with my boss, Bill the Jackass (SSGT McKeon or big dick willy as he's know to the rest of the shop). And B the J told him (and everyone else he ever spoke with) to make me either commit, and re-enlist, or to leave on my EAS. Nothing but love right there.

This then began the great rush. After one has complete all the big-ticket items like medical, dental, travel, and TMO, it doesn't take more than 3 days or so to check out. I now had 2 days, and I still had to do all the big-ticket items. Thanks to the help of my girlfriend at the time, April, I managed to get most everything done. My friends all really stepped up and helped out. Particularly Matt, Jeff, Sean, Dino, Nathan and of course April (and there is more to say about all that). But even with everyone's help I managed to miss the goodbye celebration at Hooters (where else), that was for my roommate an me. That really pains me to this day. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to all my friends. So packing the last few things that I almost forgot and making a mad dash for the airport (thanks Nathan, sorry you missed Hooters) I ran down the terminal to catch my plain that was already boarding. Brook (my roommate) and Matt (his best friend) were exchanging tear-filled good byes.

One girl that was on our flight was so awestruck bye the display of emotions that she spent the whole flight to California making out with Brook. He was a pimp to the end. But getting back to the story.... Since on such short notice I really hadn't made plans on what to do, Brook invited me to hang out with him in Santa Maria, California until I figured it out. I readily accepted his offer.

But Brook did have a few plans. First we visited his cousin Kamala in Beverly Hills. That was an eye-popping experience. Brook had always told us fascinating and unbelievable stories about his trips home. The people he met and the places he had been. And suddenly I realized that all the stories were true. I have never seen such a collection of beautiful people in one place as the club Kamala took us too. It was so unbelievable. They weren't even going to let Brook and me (yes that's proper) in if it hadn't been for both Kamala and companies beauty and tenacity. Awesome. It was... very L.A.

From there we went to Colorado to visit Brook's dad and the rest of his incredibly large family. I am convinced that he is related to every third person in Glenwood Springs. And here again I learned that all the stories were true. His dad is known as Crazy Dave, with good reason. That man has broken almost every bone in his body. He's done some wild stuff and almost gotten himself killed in more ways than you could possibly imagine. But he's a great guy. As a matter of fact, Glenwood is a great town. All the people are so nice and friendly.

Eventually it was time to depart. And after many long hours of driving we ended up "home", in Santa Maria (thug central). It's on the coast about an hour North of Santa Barbara and an hour South of San Louis Obispo. This town is nothing but drama. And if ever someone doesn't think so they'll say or do whatever it takes to create more [drama]. That really wouldn't be so bad if this town wasn't full of hoodlums and thugs. Santa Maria is a great place to die. Everybody has a friend that it about to get out of prison and there is always a party every Friday night for the latest jail-bird. Drama I can handle, tragedy is another story. This town is not for me. Yet here now I am, collecting unemployment while I most diligently search for work, and plotting my escape from this hell-hole.

And finally we did manage to get free. We managed to catch a ride with Jenn to Las Vegas. We had just enough money to get bus tickets from Vegas to Colorado and a hotel room for a night. But wouldn'y you know it we ended up gambling our hotel money away. And so we spend a good chunk of time wandering the streets trying not to fall asleep.

Amazingly enough we made it. We stayed awake long enough to catch a our bus to Glenwood (thank God we had purchased our tickets in advance and couldn't turn them in for gambling money). And oh what a wonderful bus ride it was. Every time I ride the bus I, at the end of my journey, vow never to ride the bus again. But then I find myself with very little cash and a long distance to travel so....

We arrived in glenwood (again). This time it was much colder. Brooks dad picked us up from the bus station early that cold mourning and took us to breakfast. From there we went over to Brook's uncle's house... our new home. So there we stayed for a very reasonable rent. The days were spent playing pool and drinking beer a many of the local bars, while the nights were filled with the local club scene (one of the bars with a few pool tables pushed aside and only on the weekends). Brook all the while professing his love for only the second time in his life all the while soiling the hell out of his oats. While granted I do think guys are capable of having sex without emotional attachment, I think it is a stretch to say that are in love with one woman while your knocking the bottom out of another. Maybe it's just me but I prefer to be monogomous one woman at a time.

Thankfully about this time my mommy was coming back to the States. To Colorado even. So I left Glenwood for Aurora (the city where I grew up). I picked my mommy up at the airport and spent the next two weeks with her visiting old friends before she flew to California for Christmas with the grandparents. Any guesses on how I got there? Oh you gotta love greyhound. Or not. Cali was definitely cool. I got to see my brother again for the first time in years. Brother Ted had up and joined the army just four years prior and was just now on terminal leave. My how he had changed. What a scrub. The weather was a bit cooler in California than when I left. But I was with my family and old friends now. So there we spent the next two or three weeks until my parents had to go back to England. Now it was just Ted and me left to figure out what to do until april (when we would have a house in Georgia) and where to go. We opted to head back to Colorado (yes again) and lounge there till we figured something more out.

But no sooner had we arrived (by plane thank God) in Colorado, than did we hear of British Airways new year special on flights to England from Denver. Oh what luck. Ted, unfortunitely, had neither his passport nor his birth certificate with which to get a passport. But the special was for a limited time only. We had to act fast before the ticket supply ran out. Ted called back to (can you guess) California and ordered a copy of his birth certificate sent poste haste. Three days later when it arrived he was off to the post office to get his picture and to turn in his paperwork to be sent, ug, to the passport office for 3 day expidited proccessing. The only problem was that our flight was leaving in two. But never fear, a well timed phone call with the proper amount of begging and pleading sped up the process just enough to deliver the passport just in time. We packed our bags and headed out of Colorado... again.

To beautiful England. Well, maybe not. Talk about a cold, foggy, and generally dismally dreary place to be in the winter, yuk. But hey, it was england. Since we ha nothing better to do than kill time we toured the countryside. We went to Wales and Scotland, and even managed to take a trip on the Eurostar (very fast) over to Paris for a few days and nights. It's here that Ted and I realized that our parents were possessed. It was as if some really nice (you know, June and Ward Cleaver type) people had stolen our parents bodies. They were way to nice. It left me think that all the memories of my childhood were really just a bunch of bad dreams. Who were these people?! Who cares? I'm keeping them! Live was pretty good over there. But, as you well know, all good things must come to and end (thoughs rotten bastards at British Airways would only make that special offer on trips lasting 30 days or less). So we loaded up on another plane (thank God, once again, that greyhound doesn't cross the pond) and head back to Colorado.

This time around Ted and I manage to locate a friend that we went to school with, Bakari. He was a year ahead of me and a year behind Ted but we somehow all ended up in the same math class, go figure. At anyrate, Ted stayed over at Bakari and Jaloni's (his younger brother's) house while I split my time between there and Swish's pad. Swish one of his best friends from Hawaii, Kas, rented a three bedroom house together. Yet neither of them has a working vehicle. What a strange and twisted world.

errr, ahh, ooops? Yeah well I was supposed to go to Georgia. I really wanted to. I still do even! But i was faced with a job offer here in Colorado that I just couldn't say no to. Really. So I will be staying here with Swish for he next few months working to do my part on Y2k bug fix. It's a nice little contract job to bring a certain cable companies systems up to compliance. It's pretty easy work, good experience, and great pay. The hours however are insanely long with lots of travel all over the country... but did I mention the pay? And well that's it for now. So to everyone in georgia: I miss you. I want to get back there as soon as possible. Just give me a couple months to scape to gether a heap o' cash and I'll be there lickity split!! Shaka bra.