Josh and Emily Quellet's Wedding Reception

It was a long drive over to Lake Michigan, and I regret leaving late, but the reception was definitely a lot of fun. It was nice to hang out with a slightly different crowd, I knew some of the guys from playing airsoft but not great because of the geographic distance. If there's one thing I guess that's kind of amusing about airsoft, it's the nicknames and handles that people associate themselves with, and I got a chance to catch up with some people who I haven't seen in a while. "BoredKender" is in basic training for field artillery but his wife and kids were there, "Cover" was the best man, "Crazyrabbit" just got back from Afghanistan, etc. Most of us used to be on the same "team" but several of us ended up joining the military so we really don't play anymore.

Favorite picture from the night, the groom Josh "Lucky" Quellet with one of BoredKender's kids:


I'm sure whoever reads my blog also views my flickr page, but here's the rest of the set that I've posted so far.

Sunrise

I see the sunrise a lot when I'm doing Army stuff because I'm actually required to get up earlier, but I've been doing some thinking about it this week.

When the sun first cracks over the horizon, there's a certain period of time as it's rising in the sky where you can still look at it with the naked eye, and the sky is all these different hues of orange, pink, and light blue. Then 20 minutes later it's bright enough for you to put your sunglasses on! It's kind of nice to look at every morning - even on rainy days sometimes you'll still catch a glimpse of the sun rising.

Here we go!

Crazy! Leaving Michigan in October! I'm glad that plans got sorted out for now, and I'm sure every soldier who's never deployed before goes through this, but I just have the full spectrum of emotion going on - excitement, caution, contentment, cynicism, regret, etc.

First week of Fort Dix

Quick summary:

Two weekends ago I was at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis, got to go to the Mall of America which was pretty cool. Got to Fort Dix on Monday. Been doing some miscellaneous Army classes, haven't really gotten to the fun part yet. It's been hot.

Avenged Sevenfold - Gunslinger

I just found this song courtesy of one of my Army buddies, I don't really like heavy rock that much, but it's quite relevant I think. Some guy made a music video of this song to clips from Jarhead, I think it's decently well done.

"I reach towards the sky, I've said my goodbyes
My heart's always with you now
I won't question why so many have died
My prayers have made it through yeah
Cause with all these things we do
It don't matter when I'm coming home to you"

And really, I think that was my attitude last summer, making it through training to return to the people I care about most. It kind of sucked when I didn't get to see them until towards the end of the year, but that's life - you don't always get what you want and things fade away, so I try to count the blessings I do have.

I feel like this Army thing has been going along in slow motion, but it's about to speed up dramatically. It'll be fine, I'm not complaining and I'm looking forward to the challenges and rewards, it's just interesting/weird how the tempo has been and how lengthy a period of time I have to set my personal business in order.