One of the statues outside of Quantico. We visited there for Emily's brothers graduation. Many of the families posed for pictures in front of it.

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Many Many Many things to write about, not enough time as of late.

Emily came to visit! (YAY!)

Her Brother graduated from OCS!

It was GREAT fun!

Christmas!

Andrew got grounded!

I got an Xbox 360

I went a little overboard with said Xbox 360.

I am going to visit Emily in January.

Can I go home now?

There is a chance that I may expand on some of these things in the future.

A chance

Maybe.

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No kidding, I did! As a special occasion for Lee’s visit we went out to a really really really nice Japanese restaurant. This was just the three of us, Doc, Me and Lee. We had a blast! I had close to 2 Carafes of Sake, along with the others. By the end of dinner, we were all kind of toasty. The dinner was amazing. I am not sure entirely what I ate, but I know there were assorted sushi as well as other things. I ate everything! Both of them were amazed. It wasn’t bad at all, but I think that’s party due to the quality of the place. Regardless, it was a great night!

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So, I am sure that some of you are a tad curious about the whole Emily thing. I realize that some of it may be a bit sudden but remember, I don't always write out everything in my blog. A lot of things in my life I leave out of print because it would adversely affect others or it's just no ones business. For a while this was both cases when it came to Emily. I think it's time to give a little bit of back story now though. So, without further ado, I give you the Emily history (as best remembered by me, and keep in mind, I have had a good quantity of alcohol since this began)


Sherman set the way back machine for 11 years ago. Welcome to Okinawa Japan. This was my first assignment fresh out of tech school for the Air Force. 21 years old and thrown to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It took a while to get adjusted but before long I was able to find a good group of friends who were like minded and shared many of the same interests. One of those interests was gaming of course. We had the best gaming group on the face of the planet there and I have never been able to find a group that could match it. One of the members of that group happened to be a (very) young girl who was the daughter of one of the local Chaplains. Fresh eyes and a mounting curiosity and she was surrounded by a bunch of gamer geeks. What could go wrong? Absolutely nothing of course! (Dirty minds the bunch of you!). She had an amazing personality and it wasn't just confined to gaming or geek-dom. We spent some time together out around the island and considered each other as very good friends. Given that we were both quite young still, any encounter we had was fleeting. I left the island in 1998 and it would be a long while until I saw her again.


Now flash forward to a little over 1 and ½ years ago. I get a random e-mail from this girl who had browsed into my website. Turns out she heard about my site when a friend of hers was looking for Doc. Of course I remember her and we talk off and on. She tells me about her current marriage and such, I tell her about what’s going on here. She really didn’t need all that much info though as she was hooked as a reader on the blog. So this continues through out the year. She made plans to go to DragonCon 05, but of course that would be the year that I was picking up Andrew and, sorry, he takes a tad more precedence than the con. Regardless, the friendship keeps up over the next year with e-mails. That is until a few months ago.


Lee and I finally convinced her to use a form of IM so that we would be able to chat more actively, even though our e-mails had picked up and become more frequent. If you recall, a few months ago was the point where things started to go downhill with Amy. As much as I tried to withdraw, my friends were there to help me out with support. Of course, Emily would be dating someone back in Jacksonville at the time so the thought hadn’t crossed my mind yet. She was still there to talk and helped me out a lot. How was I to know that the pendulum would swing both ways. Turns out she now was in the process of a break up as well. Given the shared pain, we commensurated together. That’s when it happened.


It had been a long time waiting, but for the first time since all those years ago, we were both single at the same time. Here is a girl that shares nearly all of the same interests as me. She is smart, beautiful, incredible personality, and the most surprising part, she likes me! (really, it’s a lot harder to find than you would think!) It’s amazing how much we think alike. You know how, in some relationships, two people would finish each others sentences? Well, take heart people, we aren’t doing that. No, we start each others sentences. Far too many times have we said “Damn, I was just going to say that!” (Very silly, yes I know)


So that brings me to the most important part. She makes me happy! I wake up in the morning and just the thought of her brings a smile to my face. During the day my mind will drift back to something she said and I will giggle. I count down the time till I see her again. Even Andrew has noticed a dramatic change in my mood (and a skip in my step). I know it sounds like a lot of this happened all of a sudden, but it really didn’t. A friendship grew over many years and a relationship grew out of that over the last few months.


That brings us to some of the difficulties. She lives in Florida. Granted, Jacksonville is not all that far away (just about as far as Nashville), it does mean that casual meet ups are a tad problematic. She has family and friends up here so she does tend to visit quite a bit, and travel to Jacksonville isn’t as expensive as one would think. We also have a lot going on in our lives that, while it doesn’t impede on the relationship, it does interfere with the whole getting together thing. This means that we get to talk……..A lot. Personally I think that part is great. We always have something to talk about and I really feel like it’s an important part of the relationship. Granted I miss the cuddling and such, but it makes the time we do spend together that much more special.


There you have it then. Friend for 11 years, good friend for over a year and a half, close confidant for the last 4-5 months, and girlfriend for the last month. She really is one of the most special people in my life and as we are now, it would be hard without her in it.


Sorry if there has been too much lovey dovey stuff in the latest few posts, but it’s really how I have been feeling as of late. Lighter than air, walking on clouds, song in my heart, and smile on my face. I will try and bring the blog back down from the clouds over the next few posts.

Until next time, CAIO!

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