Plans for April...

It's been while since I last posted something, I guess things have been busy for me even though I don't feel that it's been productive. Anywho, I suppose the 2 readers that check this out don't mind the wait.

Although it is very good to say that I will finally be going home in April! It'll be very nice to get off Okinawa for more than a few days at a time and actually be able to "legally" be without a liberty buddy since apparently we are not capable of being trusted to being alone here. Waking up without an alarm clock or very early for PT, and having some real breakfast instead of relying on Calorie Mate or whatever the shoppette has to offer. I can almost cry just thinking about my temporary freedom from the tentacles from the marines is going to happen very soon.

So the leave is going to be from the 2nd week in April until the 1st week in May, just in time to see Iron Man 3 open in theaters. At least with this new Marvel movie, there wont be a full week's wait until the following Saturday and waiting for 3-4 hours outside a small base theater with mediocre sound and picture quality like how life is here. Or on the next day after outside a bigger theater with the same wait time, picture, and sound quality. Either way, it sucks seeing Facebook blow up about the newest movie and how epic it is while I have to wait 8 days to see it (waiting for The Avengers almost killed me).

I defend that freedom! 

As soon as the leave was approved, the first 2 weeks home have already been planned. It's going to be so much fun to be so tired and it wont involve work. So the plan is to land in LAX and then drive about 2 1/2-3 hours north to Visalia to see my family and catch up with them. From there it'll be about a full day of being in town until having to then drive to Tucson, Arizona that weekend for the wedding of a friend who's in the command. It's a great idea since it's been years when I was last in Tucson, and that was during my mission back in 2007-2009. Although my stay will be short there, I do hope to meet up with some of the families that I've met on the south and west side...if they remember me.

After the wedding it's driving back home to spend a couple days there until it's time to leave yet again and drive to Las Vegas. The closer to leaving home is when I'll start looking into the shows and things to do for the 5 day stay. I really look forward to Vegas as this is going to be the way I'd like to unwind from the stresses of work, but nothing more than the hotel has been booked. There's already plenty of things in mind to there, but I'm keeping as quiet as possible so not to spoil any details to Nicole...

Once the Vegas trip is over with, then it's finally going to be spent at home until it's time to fly back to Japan. That's pretty much what's in mind, and it's really going to hurt my wallet. It'll be worth it since being with my family and loved ones is extremely important to me. There's a lot more to fit in the short month back in the States, like mountain biking with my mission president, going to Six Flags, and seeing Sequoia National Park, but that's for later to worry about. I'm just very happy that this will all be able to happen, and it WILL happen :D

'Merica! 

The cold, hard reality is that April isn't for another 2 months. So my suffering will have to continue for a little bit longer before I get to see my loved ones again. Although I'm hoping it'll come quickly :)