Update first year of culinary school and future plans.

They finally let me in July of 2012 after five years, eleven months and seventeen days of military service.  The ending was anti-climatic.  I signed out from my unit at midnight, spent a couple days doing last minute paperwork and packing our things into a moving van, signed one more piece of paper and that was it.  It was harder to move when in the Army than to leave it.

I have seldom felt so happy as I did driving off of Ft Sill and leaving Oklahoma.  I cannot accurately describe the joy I felt leaving the Army.  My kids and wife where just as excited as I was.  This feeling of excitement did not diminish during our four day journey to Vermont.  We encountered very little problems driving and unloading our stuff.  I think we have too much stuff however.

I started school as soon as we got here instead of waiting until October for the next term.  I was way too excited to sit at home and wait.  School has been for the most part great and I feel good.  I think I am just starting to become a normal person again.  I don't have the room to describe all the subtle changes one goes through during military service and during the transition after.  Everyday I or my wife notices something else that makes us laugh or grimace.

We are currently discussing where we might go after my studies are over in 2015.  We are leaning toward going back to Michigan but the economy is still scary.

Still waiting...(but almost done)

I received my orders to separate form the Army recently.  I have about three weeks left and we will be moving to Vermont.  Because this took so long I'll have to start school in October instead of July, but at least we are finally on our way.

Still waiting.....

I received my compensation rating from the VA and now I'm just waiting for orders to separate from the service.  Shouldn't be much longer now, looks like early June.  That gives us 2-3 weeks before classes start.  Everything is set up in Vermont.  We have secured housing, my financial aid and GI Bill is ready all that is missing is me.

A Song of Ice and Fire

Just finished the last published book in the A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, you know the Game of Thrones books. If you've seen the HBO series or read any of the books you'll know they are full of characters with great depth, violence and sex of all sorts. I think my mistake was reading them all in order by the 5th book some of the plot elements used over and over where wearing on me. I think the only good person in all of Westros was Ned Stark who was killed in the first book. Everyone else is a scoundrel at best and a monster at worst. The plot goes like this: bad person does bad things, the reader hates that character and wants them to get what they deserve, something happens that makes you think like they are finally going to "get it" and then something happens that saves the bad person at the last second denying the reader satisfaction. Good examples are Tyrion at the Eyrie, The Mountain with Prince Oberyn and Cersei at the Sept. The worst example is the Mountain. Oberyn has wounded him mortally several times and instead of finishing him Clegane manages to punch Oberyn in the face which kills him. Clegane dies of poison later and then when Cersei needs a champion a new member of the Kingsguard appears who happens to be 7 feet tall and won't open his visor. Come on! One punch, albeit from a huge mailed fist and Oberyn dies, Clegane takes 3 wounds that should have killed him instantly and then they raise him form the dead as "Ser Robert the Strong", sorry Mr Martin, kinda weak.

Storage Auction

Went to our first storage auction last weekend. It was pretty fun, we won a unit that we thought had some antiques in it. Unfortunately, it had mostly old junk of no value. I think we got our money's worth and we did get a piece of furniture we needed. The auction was silent so it was not as much fun as we thought it was going to be. The baby was great and the kids helped out. We found a great recycler to come and pick up the crap and we loaded the rest the next day. The facility was really shabby, i'd like to see what the units look like at a nicer place.

Still waiting.....

We are now into our 11th week of waiting for the VA to finish my compensation claim. A March or even April discharge looks unlikely at this point.

Still waiting.....

I've been found unfit for duty which means they are going to discharge me for sure. I found out I was unfit at the end of December after Christmas. Now we are waiting for my disability rating to come back from the VA. I thought I'd have it already so my timeline of mid-March is not going to happen. Maybe today is the day! We've decided that I will pursue a culinary career instead of engineering. It came down to doing what I love as opposed to what makes more. So I've been accepted at New England Culinary and I'm supposed to start in July. We'll be moving up to Vermont whenever my discharge come through. It's a 1600 mile drive, should be fun! We've found a place to rent from a wonderful sounding landlord looking to move on after her kids have grown up and moved out. We are real excited about moving and starting a new chapter in our lives. Chanda is excited because from what she can see on the internet there are more job opportunities for her in VT than there are here in Lawton. She's considering a pastry certification for herself. Maybe we'll work together someday or open a place. I'd love to work for myself but my first goal is to excel in school and trying to stay on as an instructor for a while.