I just reread my last real time update {August 18, 2013}
and had to chuckle at how much of that “plan” changed! So, I’ll first update
from that point--- the timeline remained the same— in August, we attended the
somewhat-informative Transition Assistance (TAMP) which gave us the opportunity
to update resumes and get some info for what to somewhat expect for “life after
Active Duty.” Then, March 1 did mark our official separation from Active Duty
military and our Oki household goods did go to Waco. But, other than that, very
little of our planned road ahead came to be. But, it’s really ok, and having a
road ahead at that time made things a bit easier to deal with. So, here’s what
has actually happened over that last few months after receiving those papers
stating in black and white “honorably discharged”…………….
(Keep in mind, there were WWWAAAAYYYY more details
involved in the story than I could possibly put here, but this will give you a
good idea of how things went…..)
First and foremost, we realized we had a few more Oki
Bucket List items to attend to AND Rodney had some leave on the books he was
going to lose if he didn’t use, SO we took a couple of off-island trips (pics
will come later!!)! Our first was to mainland Japan to visit Osaka and Kyoto in
October, just as the leaves were beginning to change. The Osaka stop had a dual
purpose—Rodney was able to take the GRE there. He could have taken it
on-island, but it was a paper/pencil test and would have taken 2-3 months to
get the results, but Osaka has a testing center which allowed him to take the
test online, walk out with unofficial results, and receive official scores in
just a couple of weeks which really worked best with graduate school (Doctorate
of Audiology) application deadlines. Our next off-island trip was a December
week in Hong Kong!! Which included Hong Kong Disney and a fast ferry to Macau
(again, pics WILL come)!!
We had been in a holding pattern for the previous 12
months waiting for his second chance for promotion. Once that ball dropped, it
began to snowball!!!! We could not believe how quickly time started flying by;
yet, our to-do list just kept growing!!! Anyway, just before Christmas we had
our pack-out date scheduled—January 14. Then our departure day was booked --
January 18. Actually, if memory serves, we had a departure date BEFORE we had a
pack-out date!! We knew we were looking at potentially 3-4 months of being
dislocated while awaiting word on graduate school, so we needed to have
clothes, etc. for that time frame, PLUS knowing we’d be in San Diego weather,
then Houston weather, then Missouri weather, we needed to have a variety of
items with us. Thankfully, the airlines allowed us extra baggage since we were
moving, so we began our suitcase living life and moved into the hotel on base
on January 14 with four footlockers and four suitcases, plus our backpack
carry-ons!! We had moved Truman and his kennel to a friend’s house during our
pack-out to make things a little easier on him. Then, on the said “see ya
later” to our house hold goods, then “see ya later” to our Oki friends and made the
jump back over the pond…………
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