Thank You for a Happy Birthday

So yeah, just in case you didn't know. I'm out in Maine working at my new ship USS Sampson (DDG 102). I would love to tell you the story of how I got out here and what the last week and a half of work have been like, but for the most part it was pretty stressful and boring, so I will save you, and myself the trouble.

Instead I have a little story about how my Birthday turned out pretty sweet.

I had a really busy day at work and didn't really think about my birthday or celebrate it. Birthdays and celebrating them is not very big deal in the Navy. Probably for a lot of reasons.
So when I came back to my BOQ (Bachelor Officer Quarters) room and got a bunch voice mails, messages and calls wishing me a Happy Birthday it was a really nice surprise.

Its hard to think much about how many great friends and family members I have when I am up here in my secluded little bubble in Maine. My life is pretty much eat/sleep/work during the week right now.
So it is always nice to get messages from all of my friends and family wishing me well.
So thank you very much.
(side note: I know some many of you have asked what my job is. The simplest response is I am an officer in the Navy, pretty much anything after that it starts to get really complicated because, as I am learning, this job is very multifaceted.)

I guess I can say I'm 23 now, but other than that not too much has really changed. I will say I don't really feel like I am getting old ( a couple of girls told me when they turned 22 that they felt like they were getting old, What the heck!?), but I am kind of missing being a kid.

I hope to have time to send many of you messages, but I know I will not get to all of you for a little while because I am really swamped with stuff to do out here right now.

I will likely have a new shipboard address soon, but for anyone that would like to contact me the old fashioned way (aka Snail Mail, aka "a lost art", aka USPS) this is my mailing address:

ENS James Last Name
MPDIVO ENG
USS Sampson (DDG 102)
FPO AP 96678-1303

for clarification MP Divo means: Main Propulsion Division Officer, That's my position on the ship.
ENG means: Engineering

For now I will still have my u.washington address readily available to me on occasion, but I should have a shipboard email soon.



PS. For those of you that had questions about logging into Blogger.com , My best recommendation would be to get a gmail email address by going to gmail.com and clicking on register. With a Gmail address you will not only be able to log into blogger.com with ease, but you will also have access to a plethora of great applications, tools, and websites that google makes for it's users. I could go on talking about them for awhile, but I have a lot
things I should be doing.

Hope to talk to you soon.
I'm hitting the rack.

Keep on Moving

Last week Jon, Matt and I moved into our sweet new house about four blocks from Pacific Beach in San Diego. After settling in we spent sometime chilling on the beach, catching up on sleep, and seeing what the PB night life had to offer.
San Diego is a really fun town and from what I got to see of it I am really going to enjoy it. Sadly almost as soon as I got used to it I had to head on. On Monday I left California and flew to Maine where my ship is currently located.
After a long day of flying I arrived in Portland and rode up to Brunswick where the barracks is. My ship is just down the road in Bath. That's where the shipyard she was built in is located. The ship pretty much all ready to go, they just keep her close to the shipyard so that that they can work out any little kinks or problems that may arise.
In a few months we will be departing Maine and going underway to drive down the east coast, through the Panama Canal and on up to San Diego, where she will be homeported.
So for now I get to spend sometime on the east coast while we get ready to go underway.
Tomorrow is the Fourth of July so I will have that off I am thinking I may try to make it into Portland.
Then I will check in and start working on Thursday.