mightstone2k answers the call of the wild

[mightstone2k]

On 6/3/2017 at 1:25 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

I've never really been interested in going to Japan until right now.

 

On 6/3/2017 at 2:37 PM, Elastigirl said:

That sounds like such fun! So cool that it is all street legal, that makes it even more fun. Japan sounds like a really neat place.

 

17 hours ago, Oramac said:

QFT.  Now I want to go specifically for that! 

Well, I seem to have inspired people  let me know when y'all are coming and I'll make arrangements for MariCar:  Nerd Fitness Edition.

 

I flipped the crazy switch on Sunday and knocked out 57 two-handed swings with 24 kg.  My power dropped off sharply around that point, which was my cue to stop.  I did not go to absolute failure.  The burn set in around 25 reps and it got no more fun from there.  I rested and proceeded to do 5x32R/L TGU.  Today was normal.  5x32L/R OHS and 5x32R/L TGU.  Nothin' special.  In retrospect, I did not focus very well today.  I can't recall if I was bracing and clenching or not, which makes me suspect I wasn't.  Eh.  Lesson learned.

 

I didn't get out much this weekend.  Went to see Wonder Woman - which was good and hurt, simultaneously - but that was about it.  The West African chicken stew was delicious, but barely filled a third of my big pot despite me doubling the recipe.  I made some rice to up the volume.  Today I threw the curry in the crockpot before leaving for work.  It released a lot of liquid, and came out really tasty.  And thank God I did, because I would not have had the energy to cook after work today.  Eleven hour days are starting to be the norm, between my new job in Adverse Actions, the end-of-season surge in tax appointments, and my commitment to the Air Force Academy summer experiential learning program.  And in the next month or so, I will end up as acting Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for a couple weeks while running both Justice and Adverse Actions.  Nothing like keeping busy.

[starpuck]

I totally want to go to Japan once I think.    It feels so cliche to say that, like, my only real connection to it is all the things I've seen in anime.    But it just seems like such a neat place, so full of history and culture, and neatness!    With any luck, I'd manage to get out there while you're still there.   I'd be terrified without a local guide! 

 

Also thanks for that mention and link of the recipe.   True story, I was at the grocery store today, wondering which veggie to roast up for my mid morning snack, and I wanted to snag the cauliflower, but had no idea what I'd do with it.  I opted to go one more week with the usual, and do some digging.  Well the African Chicken Stew page, also has a link for oven roasted cauliflower rice, yes!  

 

[mightstone2k]

I totally want to go to Japan once I think.    It feels so cliche to say that, like, my only real connection to it is all the things I've seen in anime.    But it just seems like such a neat place, so full of history and culture, and neatness!    With any luck, I'd manage to get out there while you're still there.   I'd be terrified without a local guide!  [emoji3]

 

Also thanks for that mention and link of the recipe.   True story, I was at the grocery store today, wondering which veggie to roast up for my mid morning snack, and I wanted to snag the cauliflower, but had no idea what I'd do with it.  I opted to go one more week with the usual, and do some digging.  Well the African Chicken Stew page, also has a link for oven roasted cauliflower rice, yes!  

 

If that's your timeframe, you've got a year to do it [emoji1] otherwise you'll have to find a different guide.

 

Links to other recipes on one recipe's page are my downfall. I start clicking and an hour later realize I still haven't settled on what I want to cook that weekend.

[mightstone2k]

I have a problem. Well, several problems, but this is the most location/time sensitive of them. I need to start prioritizing things. Either I focus on hiking the Three Holy Mountains, or finishing the J1 League tour.

 

I may have done something stupid, but I started a group chat with the JAG officers about soccer games on Fourth of July weekends. Really, I should take the long weekend to hike a mountain. Those are seasonal, and opportunities limited. And I need to actually put in the time and effort to research those and plan trips. Labor Day weekend will be a hiking weekend. But I need to make Fuji happen in July or August, which are horribly busy times.

 

Rambling. Just rambling.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mightstone2k]

I should recap the last few days, huh?  Monday, Tuesday, and today were all normal training days:  5x32L/R OHS and 5x32R/L TGU.  Yesterday I took a light day for shadow swings and lighter TGU with 10-second pauses at each phase.  I've been going to the gym, going to work, leaving around 18:00, and coming home to eat and read.  Not much by way of actually doing stuff.  I don't care too much.  I went out for a walk this evening.  It is beautiful out.  Perfect temperature to roam around in flip-flops and a t-shirt, fairly quiet, and overall a deep feeling of both peace and loneliness.  Not the good kind of loneliness, which is a comforting, battery-recharging solitude (ye introverts, thou shalt know the feels).  The deep and aching kind of loneliness.

 

Personal stuff behind spoiler.  Read at your own peril.

Spoiler

I have been really struggling with my relationship.  I'm not inclined to tell the whole story - yet - because I don't want to spiral into the rabbit hole of melancholy tonight.  I'll cut right to the quick of what's bothering me.  I want to get married.  Not for the sake of being married, but because I feel called to be a husband and a father (God willing on the latter).  Let's skip the philosophical discussion of why and just stick with the bottom line for now.  Cassie does not like long distance dating (me neither), really does not like the idea of a long distance engagement (but is willing to do it), and refuses to do a long distance marriage (which I can empathize with).

 

Problem is this.  She told me recently she wants to do a fellowship after residency.  That's another year, which means she won't go on active duty until summer 2020, three years from now.  The logical conclusion from the above is that we will have three more years of long distance dating before we have the chance of being in the same area, which is a prerequisite for getting hitched.  I say that because I am at the mercy of the Air Force next summer as far as my location.  January 2020 is when my service commitment expires.  She will also be at the mercy of the Air Force in early 2020 when her functional group sets her assignment.

 

And now we get to the nub of the issue.  We will be going into the 2020 relocation/assignment season without any reason for the Air Force to assign us to the same place (no join-spouse preference without being spouses).  So realistically, we have two options to end up in the same place:  (1) hope the Air Force gives us what we want on our separate dream sheets, assuming that she racks and stacks things the same way I do, or (2) I leave the Air Force and move to where she is.

 

So we either surrender our agency to a government entity or I take action to abandon what my hard work and sacrifice through law school got me, for the possibility that she will be ready to get married.  Three years from now.  She hasn't proposed a course of action other than "let's hope the Air Force assigns us together" or "we'll figure it out when that comes."  There is none that involves her taking any real action other than saying yes when I present a ring.  Doesn't say much for her level of commitment to the idea.

 

I don't know that I'm willing to wait three years to figure out if the Air Force is going to give us what we (allegedly) both want.  Especially not when it looks like that will be three years wasted.  I'm committed to wanting to marry her; heck, I had plans for a proposal when she was out here two weeks ago.  When I commit to something, I don't see the point in waiting to act; certainly not for years on end.  In this case, I recognized and accepted that waiting until she was done with residency was the prudent thing (and something she wanted).  But now she's saying that she doesn't want to get married until we're in the same place, which requires playing very long odds.  And if we don't get assigned together, I either quit my job or we wait two or three more years until one of us is reassigned again.

 

Basically, she's not giving any indication that she's as committed to getting married as I am, if at all.  It's one thing to say that you want something.  But talk is cheap.  What you do is more revealing than what you say.  And I do not think I can stand three years of long distance loneliness on the chance of being stationed in the same place, followed by the further chance that she will back up what she's saying.  I'm not trying to cast shade on her or make her out to be a bad person.  I know why she would be very leery of getting married (we have different family backgrounds).  But I don't think I can gamble three years of my life on that when there's a very good chance that those three years will be wasted in the end.

 

Summary?  I want to get married to a woman who wants to marry me and also wants to raise a strong, Catholic family together.  Not because getting married is the thing to do or it will make us feel good.  But because she's as called to be a wife and mother as I am to be a husband and father.  Someone who isn't going to agonize over or be paralyzed by the what ifs and maybes about what could go wrong, but who has faith that we can make it work no matter what comes our way.

 

But I'm not pulling the trigger because Cassie has said I'm her only support right now.  And because I'm not entirely sure that this isn't just a voice tempting me to take a supposedly easier path when really I should be demonstrating that I will stick by Cassie and be her rock even through the trying times.  Because love is a choice, not a feeling.  It's not all sunshine and rainbows.  Would I just be running because things aren't going the way I want, or would I be making the right call?  And, frankly, I'm not pulling the trigger because I still care about her, and I don't want to hurt her.  I don't want to be just another male in a long line of males who have abandoned her, hurt her, and caused her to build such damn strong armor around herself.  It's deeply saddening, honestly.  She deserves better than that.

 

Long.  Feels.  May sound whiny.  Eh.  I warned you that it was perilous.  What did you expect?

 

[Oramac]

42 minutes ago, mightstone2k said:

Personal stuff behind spoiler.  Read at your own peril.

  Hide contents

Basically, she's not giving any indication that she's as committed to getting married as I am, if at all.  It's one thing to say that you want something.  But talk is cheap.  What you do is more revealing than what you say.  And I do not think I can stand three years of long distance loneliness on the chance of being stationed in the same place, followed by the further chance that she will back up what she's saying.  I'm not trying to cast shade on her or make her out to be a bad person.  I know why she would be very leery of getting married (we have different family backgrounds).  But I don't think I can gamble three years of my life on that when there's a very good chance that those three years will be wasted in the end.

 

 

Have you told her the above?  Not danced around the subject, but just straight up told her you don't feel like she's on the same page?  I don't know her (or you, for that matter), so I can't say for sure if that's the right move, but it sounds like this is something that needs to be said in no uncertain terms.  Also,

@Tanktimus the Encourager would probably have better advice than I.  This is what he does.

[The Most Loathed]

I was dating my wife when she lived in Nebraska and then Colorado while I was in Iowa. Not at all the same scale that you're working on but I get it, at least some. We got engaged when I formalized that I would be moving to Colorado to join her. We got married a couple years after. We haven't tried being married while living apart.

 

While I was dating her one of my managers and had been talking about how I was thinking about getting engaged but didn't want to until we were together. He asked me if either of us was dating anyone else. I said "no". He then asked how it was different. I thought he had a good point. I mentioned it to Laura and she didn't think it held water and didn't want to get engaged or married until we were together.

 

As I've aged/matured/gotten more liberal my definition of marriage has become more loose. I know a couple where one of them is free to have sex outside of marriage, I do know couples who live apart 80% of the time, I also know couples who go everywhere and do everything together. So, to each of you I would ask "how is this different?" I would point out that Cassie probably has an idealized vision of marriage that won't ever be true for you guys, you may get stationed separately and she may work nights while you work days. To you though, while you have  very good logistical point regarding assignment requests, what would you be doing differently if you were married? I'd say that if you can treat her with the love and respect of your wife then be happy in knowing that you are effectively married. Be the husband that you are called to be, right now, without excuses.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Spoiler

TML and Oramac have given great advice. Communication is the biggest, most important step in resolving this. Honestly stating what you think marriage is, what you want to happen in the relationship, and how you feel is first, then asking what she thinks is step #2. Then you either work together to come to the same page or realize it isn't going to happen, and then you take stock of what you want to do. Easy to write but hard to do. Good communication is always a healthy choice, even if the results of that communication aren't what you want.

 

[Oramac]

3 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

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Good communication is always a healthy choice, even if the results of that communication aren't what you want.

 

 

Yes.  This.  100% this.  If there's one thing I've learned from the lifestyle, it's just how important complete, open, 100% honest, hold-nothing-back communication is.  Sounds counter intuitive, I know, but it's so true.

[Elastigirl]

Spoiler

Praying for you for wisdom. Agreeing with others about communication. You wrote very clearly about how you view marriage and what you desire, tell her those thoughts. Then you guys can decide what is next. Sounds like a very tough position. That is a lot of time apart, and as you've seen already, that is really tough. Not saying you couldn't make it work, but I think you are right to consider it deeply. 

 

[Kishi]

Spoiler

I'll echo the above as someone who didn't have a happy ending to his last attempt at communication. It hurts and it sucks, but it's better to have it over and done with as opposed to dying slow. Have faith. If it's meant to live, it will live. If it isn't, then waiting in the shadow of this death won't help you or her.

 

[mightstone2k]

Recap.  Last week's Rule of Three:

1.  Read to page 391 in volume 3 of the Civil War.  I forget where I actually read to.  Not much farther beyond this.

2.  Identify the missing parts for the light drive ring.  Done.  Sent email to the company as well.

3.  Get measured for the tux.  Fail.  I did not do this thing, and my friend pinged me to ask if I could do it this week pretty please.  So...

 

Rule of Three for 11-17 June

1.  Get measured for the tux.

2 & 3.  I've got nothin'.  See spoiler to understand.

 

Yesterday I cooked a red curry that was a riff on the Thai chicken curry I did a few weeks back.  I switched the chicken thighs for boneless beef ribs, used frozen peas and onions as additional veggies (to go with the whole kabocha squash I put in), and added a can's worth of apple juice to go with the can of coconut milk + can of water for liquid.  It was tasty.  Right now I have chicken bacon ranch casserole going in the oven.  I made my own ranch dressing for this.  It was super simple.  Honestly, the biggest worry I had was about accidentally remixing the coconut cream and water when I tried to scoop it out.  No issues.  Refrigerating coconut milk really does make separation easy.  I have high hopes for this recipe.

 

Training was ... I don't remember.  What sticks out is Friday morning, where I did my normal S&S session, followed by unit PT.  The boss-lady got the Zumba instructor to give us a class.  I have no rhythm, but spent the time moving in a pseudo-fight stance.  I do recall being professionally offended when we started throwing punches.  Old habits die hard, I guess.  It wasn't a bad time, and my hamstrings were sore as heck Saturday morning.  I took Saturday as a rest day.  I notice that I appear to be falling into a rhythm of one rest day and one light day (shadow swings and paused TGU) per week, and five normal days.

 

More personal stuff behind spoiler.  Again, read at own peril.

Spoiler

We communicated.  We both cried.  We're single.  Two hours ago.  I do not want to go into it.

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Spoiler

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Oh. I'm sorry.

[Oramac]

That's tough man.  I'm sorry.  I know it can't have been easy. Take your time.

[The Most Loathed]

Feeling for you. Patience. Single isn't forever, neither is apart.

[Elastigirl]

That Chicken Ranch Casserole looks amazing!

Spoiler

Sorry. Praying for you for comfort and peace

 

[mightstone2k]

I suppose I should update and let y'all know that I am, in fact, not dead.  The most important thing to note is the chicken bacon ranch casserole is as delicious as it appears.  Training has been going swimmingly.  This week I knocked out a normal S&S session every day except one (I forget which day).  That day, I did 2x32L/R on swings, then switched to 6x32T.  Tomorrow I will flip the crazy switch.

 

Spoiler

And now for the real update.  I can't say why I'm spoilering things, because it's not really private.  Anyone can click in.  Silly.

 

Thank you all for the positive vibes.  Unsurprisingly, I woke up to a text from Cassie Monday morning, asking how we went from me being ready to propose when she was here (which I told her during the big talk) to ending it.  I was set against responding because I didn't want to get drawn into a conversation.  It had hurt enough to pull the trigger, so why get sucked into the vortex of talking about it ad nauseum?  Clean break.  Especially when I thought I had explained myself fairly well Sunday night.

 

Thankfully, my mother gave me the best advice.  If I really and truly thought that this was it, then don't respond and let us both move on.  But if I thought there was a chance to fix it and I wanted to get over the impasse and keep the relationship going, then respond.  So I responded.  Because I didn't want it to be over.  I pulled the trigger because I thought we were at an impasse after the events of the two prior months and our inability to do anything but talk past each other Sunday night.  So I laid out exactly what I was feeling.  Which, for your benefit, is that I felt like she had gone from invested in us to not caring and not putting forth the effort to get us to the same place in the future.  Essentially, that she was throwing up her hands and letting either the Air Force or I make all the moves to get us into the same place because she didn't care about life any more, just about doing her job.  And I told her I still believed that we could make it work at a distance for the next few years, but only if we were both invested in it.

 

I'm skipping a lot and simply summarizing what I perceived.  I freely admit that there's room for me to have perceived things incorrectly or to have been flat wrong.  I'm neither going to recount the entire conversation nor analyze whether I was right, wrong, or somewhere in the middle.  That's not to be a dick, but because I don't want to dive back into it.  I'm still ... in shock?  A bit? ... from the whole thing.  From the fact that I actually broke up with her and that we were able to talk it out, repair things, and move on.

 

Oh, yeah... we're still together (back together?).  When we talked on Tuesday, she said that she is going to pretend that we never broke up, and leave it at that.  But that I should never do that again as a means of getting us to really talk.  Because we actually did talk, and I said some things that I wouldn't have said normally because I thought that she would hear them as me blaming her or trying to be just another domineering tool of a boyfriend who wants a pretty trophy who sits quietly in a corner (she has dated some real winners in the past).  But I said the hard things because I had nothing to lose at that point.  I figured there was no going back from the break-up because I figured she would pull the armor around her after that shock to her system and never let me back in.  I was wrong on that point.  But I think I got some very important points across.  Namely, that I really do love her, that I really am not trying to change her, that I really do support her in her career choices, and that I really do plan to do everything in my power to get us to the same place so we can start building a home and a family together.  Even if that means doing the first year of our marriage at a distance.  Both of us think that's a suboptimal choice, but I've read the assignments reg.  That's the only way to get join spouse consideration.  The Air Force doesn't give weight to future or planned marriages, even if you are engaged and have a date certain.  And join spouse is the only way to get our functional assignment chains to talk and work to find a place where we can be stationed together.

 

Summary:  I wish I hadn't said we should go our separate ways, because I ripped both our hearts out.  But I think I needed to.  Those two months were brutal as hell, and I suspect - knowing both of us - that everything would have been swept under the rug, where it would have festered.  So lesson learned, for both of us.  Communicate more better.  And for me, don't do that again unless I'm absolutely certain that it's over, because that will be irrevocable.

 

[Kishi]

Spoiler

I mean, communication... it's a skill. It takes time to develop. But more importantly, it takes guts just to do it in the first place. It can be incredibly painful, but it's the difference between running through and getting it all done at once and letting a hurt gnaw and fester over time.

 

In any event, you learned a lot, and you even got to keep your relationship if I'm reading it right. But this is a pyrrhic victory if you don't take the lesson to heart.

 

[Oramac]

7 hours ago, mightstone2k said:

 

  Hide contents

I said some things that I wouldn't have said normally because I thought that she would hear them as me blaming her or trying to be just another domineering tool of a boyfriend 

 

 

 

This.  This right here is the important thing, imo.  If a thing needs to be said, it needs to be said (and heard!) in no uncertain terms. This is where each person setting their ego aside and allowing the other person to speak candidly is SOOOOOO important.  You should 

NEVER be afraid to say something to her, especially those things you think might hurt her feelings.  The flip side is, you should never be upset with her when she says those kind of things to you.  

IMO, this kind of communication, where you can literally say anything to each other, is the absolute best kind of communication.

[mightstone2k]

Hey, a post entirely without spoilers.  It's time for the weekly roundup, starting with whether I accomplished my Rule of 3 1 last week.  Which I did.  I was almost tempted to say f*** it and wear my mess dress (the brides wouldn't mind), but common sense got the better of me.  There is no way I want to pack that ensemble for an international flight unless I am required to do so.

 

The week itself was fine.  Training was solid all week.  I flipped the crazy switch yesterday and cranked out 65 nonstop two-handed swings with the 24 kg bell.  That's an improvement of eight reps over two weeks ago.  I took today off to go work some grills.  The Special Olympics is held on base, and the Knights of Columbus volunteer as the grillmasters.  We cooked an unholy amount of hot dogs and hamburgers for the volunteers in only two short hours.  I was there from 0730 to 1100 setting up, waiting while the three monster grills heated up - charcoal, of course - and then went back and forth loading the grills and tending dogs and all of that.  By the time I left, I think I was done medium well, between the grills and the June sun (both directly and off the asphalt).  Yikes.  After that, I went to the office to work on a friend's taxes.  He didn't claim his wife's self-employment income because it was all foreign earned income (and thus would be excluded), but the IRS found out.  About this year AND last year.  Oops.  This year was an easy fix because we did his return at the tax center, so it was in the system.  2015 is not in the system, so I have two choices:  create a 2015 return in the system, then amend it, or do it "longhand" (that is, on paper).  I think I'm going to do it longhand.  It shouldn't be too hard.  I just fill out a Schedule C, Schedule SE, and Form 2555, then import the necessary numbers to a 1040X.  Easy peasy.

 

Rule of 3 for 18-24 June

1. Complete my quarterly awards package.  Awards and recognition are a big part of military life.  It's a way of boosting morale by recognizing achievement.  The next quarterly awards package is due to our deputy SJA by 30 June, but I want to get it done earlier.  Between the tax center, helping my friend out with this $30K+ tax liability, and the adverse actions numbers, I have a plausible shot at being looked at favorably.  Really, my goal is more to show my boss that I'm putting forth a good-faith effort.  Winning a quarterly award is neither high on my list of goals nor something I think I'll do.  I'd rather be a good lawyer than an award-winner, if that makes any sense.  But I'm going to put in a package and let other people make decisions about it.
2. Finalize my research for Fourth of July weekend's Hakusan hike.  The Lt and I are taking advantage of the long weekend to go to Kanazawa and hike the first of the Three Holy Mountains.  I decided that the mountains are a higher priority than the soccer tour.  This long weekend I will tackle Hakusan, 11 August is a morale hike of Fujisan, and Labor Day weekend I'm going to complete the tour with Tateyama.  We are going out Saturday, hiking Sunday, and returning Monday.  We already have an Airbnb, and figuring out the train is not hard at all.  What I need to look into is (1) the weather, (2) transportation to the trailhead, and (3) things to do in Kanazawa.  That should be sufficient knowledge.  I'm comfortable with playing the rest by ear.
3. Complete my friend's amended 2015 tax return.  This should be an easy kill, but I'm making it a goal so I make it a priority.  It's easy for me to let work get away from me because it doesn't seem urgent.  This is something I can't let get away.

Speaking of work, I volunteered to be the PTL.  I'm required to plan something every other week for group PT, and that's about it.  Fairly sure I need to be CPR-certified too, but they will send me to that.  My first planned event is a 5K on 30 June.  My SJA's goal is to get everyone doing something as a group to decompress and try something new.  So I'll keep my eye out for runs and such, plan some sporting events, and such.  I don't intend to turn this into a StrongFirst-style group training class.  Not by a long shot.  I know how limited my experience is, and I don't want to break anyone (and if they aren't interested, I will be hated in the office).  Some of my ideas are:  (1) do a session of nothing but crawls; (2) get the CrossFit instructor that I always see in the mornings to do a one-off on-ramp class; (3) ... if anyone has any ideas, I'd be much obliged.

 

Jumping tracks on the train of thought to food.  I have noticed - and been disappointed to notice - that I have a snacking problem.  I snack and don't write it down, because I train hard enough that a couple fun size Crunch bars won't matter (or so I tell myself).  This is a bad trend and needs to stop.  Now for good food thoughts.  The no bake nut butter bars have been good for preworkout, but I want to mix it up a bit.  So I baked these sweet potato protein bars today.  The batter is delicious, so I have high hopes for the bars themselves.  This recipe makes 8, not 12, so I get less yield out of them.  But they have some vegetable matter in them and more protein powder.  Probably more overall, but I don't crunch the numbers to know.  Anyway, the batter tasted like pumpkin pie.

 

As for meals, I'm doubling up on crockpot recipes.  Tomorrow I had planned to make chili using ground beef, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, butternut squash, and the extra mashed sweet potato from the protein bars.  Then I was digging through my cabinet and found jarred banana pepper rings and Mrs. Dash garlic & herb seasoning.  So instead of adding liberal amounts of chili powder, I'm going to use liberal amounts of Mrs. Dash.  Slightly different jam and entirely off the cuff, but we'll see how it turns out.  Garlic is always a good choice.  Monday I'm going to make Brazilian curry chicken.  Double recipe, and served over my favorite of all vegetables, the mighty spaghetti squash.  High volume, low calorie vegetation.  Go team.

 

And tonight is going to be a Civil War night.  I can't decide whether I'll continue reading or watch Free State of Jones.  Either way, I feel like it's a waste of my time to just loll about at home all night.  I dunno.  Been having some angst recently about whether I'm living to the full or just going to the gym -> work -> eat -> laze.  Living to work, train, and eat, in other words.  I haven't been out on a mountain since Cassie was here, nor have I really gone out into Japan to do anything.  Just slummed around Fussa.  I have a hankering to create a life plan, but that means carving out a weekend to sit and think deep thoughts about my life, where I want it to go, and how I plan to get there.  That's a discomfiting proposition, and I admit that I'm shying away from it so I can avoid direct self-assessment.  It's easy to just slide through life for a while, and it feels like that's what I'm doing.  I'm making a lot of "when I'm back in the US" plans, which is a sign of kicking the can further down the road.  When I get there, will I really act on those plans?  That's rhetorical, really.  I either will or I won't.  But putting conditions on when I'm going to do something has always been a sign that I'm making excuses to avoid actually doing.

 

Here are some of the "when XX happens" or "in the future" plans I've made:

• Write a law review article
• Take up handgun shooting (this, at least, absolutely cannot happen in Japan)
• Get SFB/SFG certified
• Go camping or multiday backpacking
• Learn to hunt (also cannot happen in Japan, due to the weapon laws)
• Learn more about Catholicism
• Get involved with the Knights of Columbus

That's too long a list of "when I get there" plans.  I'm here.  Life is going on around me.  I need to live it.  But I'm probably still going to watch a movie tonight.

[mightstone2k]

And after posting about how I struggle with feeling like I'm accomplishing anything, I had a day where I:

 

1. Started garlic beef stew in the crockpot;

2. Had a five hour (!!) conversation with my brother, mostly about movies and Magic: the Gathering (got some good ideas for my tribal cat deck);

3. Did S&S;

4. Started prepping ingredients for tomorrow's crockpot bonanza;

5. Read the Air Force Instruction on marriage in overseas commands (law review article idea; has potential, must actually research (that's the hard part)); and

6. Finished the amended taxes (longhand, nonetheless)

 

Still must go to church, cube chicken, and eat stew. And will probably read more Civil War. Atlanta fell last night, and General Grant is still trying to crack the nut that is Petersburg.

[The Most Loathed]

On 6/17/2017 at 4:59 AM, mightstone2k said:

• Take up handgun shooting (this, at least, absolutely cannot happen in Japan)

I assumed that as a JAG you came in as an officer. Do they make you qualify on rifle instead of pistol? It's been close to 20 years but my memory is that all my officers (Army mind you) had to qualify on pistol and probably rifle too. I just always wanted to qualify with a SAW.

[mightstone2k]

I assumed that as a JAG you came in as an officer. Do they make you qualify on rifle instead of pistol? It's been close to 20 years but my memory is that all my officers (Army mind you) had to qualify on pistol and probably rifle too. I just always wanted to qualify with a SAW.

Funny story, but they didn't make us qualify on anything. The commandant at COT said there was no time in the course schedule to carve out for that. I know, it's going to sound bizarre. But it's a true story.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Oramac]

5 hours ago, mightstone2k said:

Funny story, but they didn't make us qualify on anything. The commandant at COT said there was no time in the course schedule to carve out for that. I know, it's going to sound bizarre. But it's a true story.

 

Where's the Dislike button.