239th USMC Birthday Ball





Pardon the weird quality, it is a picture of a picture after all.



This past weekend we attended the 239th USMC Birthday Ball for SOI in Wilmington, NC. Even though Ryan is still in student status we decided to go to the SOI Ball rather than the ball his old unit was having (and the fact that one was on Saturday and one was Sunday had nothing to do with that decision!). Last year, Ryan was deployed during the ball season so we were pretty excited to go this year. I love seeing my husband in his dress blues and I love having an excuse to dress up. This year I wore my bridesmaid's dress from my best friend's wedding this past May... military spouses are definitely some of the few people in this world that wear them again!

 

We decided to make a weekend of it and get a hotel in Wilmington so we didn't have an hour drive home that night. We get to the hotel, grab some hot drinks since it got cold literally overnight, and then Ryan realized he hadn't gotten a hair cut! So he went off to do that while I got ready.

 

Naturally the day of the ball I had a huge breakout on my face, I cut my leg badly in the shower for the first time in months, and for good measure I wacked myself in the neck with a hot curling iron as I was doing my own hair. Geeze. Top that off with still feeling off from my gall bladder I barely ate all day. At least from far away you can't tell that I felt like a walking hot mess.

 

Obligatory mirror selfie

We took a cab to the Convention Center (all $4 it cost us) since it was chilly and got there with time to mingle. We got our Professional pictures taken early on since I knew Ryan has zero patience for such things and once we got going it would never happen. This year's picture (seen at the top of this post) is probably hands down our best one to date! We were both pretty stoked. I know it was good because my non social media using husband switched his facebook profile picture for the first time since 2011.... seriously.

 

Another new thing, we had to all get stamps inside our wrists if we were over 21 and wanted to drink, that was diferent for sure, but we were definitely buying us some overpriced alcohol so we obliged. It was nice to meet Ryan's other fellow students I had heard so much about. For the first time since we went to a ball in DC years ago I was pretty thrown by all the "brass" in the room. So many officers and higher ranking enlisted, it was a tad bit intimidating truth be told!

Ceremony

The itty bitty PFC that was the youngest Marine this year must have really felt it. She was born in 1996, the same year as my baby brother who is still in high school! Oy! Ryan and I bet on the year they'd be born, I sadly lost.

 

We had a decent view of the ceremony and the video, which dorky me absolutely loves every single year. This year got me teary (not a first) because the battles they mentioned in the video I know my Poppy fought in during WW2. Seeing some of the footage, especially talk of the bloodiest battles of the war at Peilalu and Guadalcanal, and knowing my Poppy was there was hard to wrap my brain around.

Our guest speaker

Our guest speaker was very good (they usually are!) and I am ashamed to say I forgot his name. I will have to edit this when I get home. My favorite part of his speech was that he ended with the following poem:

"The wonderful love of a beautiful maid,
The love of a staunch, true man,
The love of a baby, unafraid,
Have existed since time began.
But the greatest of loves,
The quintessence of loves,
Even greater than that of a mother,
Is the tender, passionate, infinite love,
of one drunken Marine for another."

Now even though my stomach stinks I nibbled on some delicious food, the highlight being this chocolate cake. It was hands down some of the best chocolate cake I have had in my life. Seriously. I wanted to take what I could not finish home with me to eat later. If it could have fit in my purse I probably would have!

 

 

Proof I am getting old. I cannot take a selfie to save my life. Or a ussie? Whatever you want to call it! I cut myself out when I try to do it and when you turn it around the quality is pretty awful...

Thankfully one of my husband's fellow students was nice enough to take a picture for us... that one thankfully came out nice too! The large red carpet they had leading to the dance floor was a nice touch if you ask me.

 

 

We danced and hung out for awhile, had a few drinks, before everyone decided they wanted to go out. Any of you who know me know I am not a big partier by any means... but I did my best. We went back to our hotel to change because, well, really it was too cold for most of us! We started at City Limits, a country western bar that I was more than happy to stay in, especially since our cover fee was waived, but we were in the minority. Instead we ended up at Sputnik, another nightclub. Definitely not my typical scene, give me a quiet pub with trivia any day, but I made it a good three or four hours before I begged my husband to have us leave! Aside from a drunken pizza detour (for the Marines sadly, not me) we eventually collapsed into bed way past my bedtime.

Someone stole the VIP sign from another table after we managed to snag one... we aren't that cool, I promise!

 

All in all, another succesful Marine Corps birthday in my book! Happy birthday Marines!

 

Time Spent

Exhibit D (for Dup)

Lately I have been working a lot, our normal library Reference staff of four is now down to two temporarily. Because of this my schedule is all over the place (especially nights and weekends, sigh) to fill in the gaps... hello working every other weekend again. I had not missed you these past few months! Ryan is in school for his B-Billet so he tends to also have a weird schedule too, so our weird schedules coinciding has been a rarity. When they finally do line up we are usually too tired to do much of anything, especially with me still getting over being as sick as I was. We usually are like this (see Exhibit D).

 

But this past weekend, even though I had work, we both knew we HAD to get out of the house and do something. Even better, get out of J-ville. So we did. We went to one of my favorite nearby little towns, Swansboro, for dinner. Ryan looked up a few places and we decided on an Irish Pub that was rumored to have some delicious sandwiches. They did not disappoint. Our timing was interesting because we wandered into town during their Swansboro by Candlelight night, so most streets were closed to cars and it was packed as the small town lit their Christmas tree. Luminaries lined the streets and the historic district was gorgeous. We managed to find a place to park, find the pub AND get a table. Talk about a lucky break! It was packed too.

 

 

They had one of my favorite ciders and even though I need to watch my alcohol intake with my gallbladder I could not resist having one! I also had a yummy turkey and avocado sandwich with some pasta salad. Ryan naturally had a reuben which I was drooling over (and risked a bite of!) and we had a really nice time. I used to love going to Irish Pubs when we lived in DC and there are a depressing lack of them around here. I usually just love the atmosphere they have. This pub even had a "wall of regulars" where they each have a numbered cup that they come in and use! We thought it was just a display but then number 26 came in, said excuse me, grabbed his cup from over our heads and went to the bar! We were both instantly jealous and wanted to be regulars with our own numbered cups. Some day my friends, some day.

 

I also had Granny Smith Caramel Apple Pie for dessert that made my tastebuds dance for joy.

 

After we ate I grabbed a hot chocolate to go and we strolled through the town looking at the Christmas lights and window displays. Yes, it was a little early, but it was a really nice much needed night out for the two of us. We came home and sleepily watched some Big Bang Theory reruns before I went to bed since I had work the next day. Hopefully our schedules will match a little more often in the coming weeks and we can do some more of this "spending time together" notion! ;)

Date Night

This is one of the weekends I am working unfortunately. It hasn't been too bad for the most part except for a few angry base dress code violators... NOTE: There is a base dress code. Look it up if you're not familiar with it. Camp Lejeune's is pretty clear... if you want to wear a tank top it must have a two inch strap. No spaghetti straps, not halters, no tube tops, no rips or stains or tears or profanity. Period. You need to look classy and perhaps a little more covered than the 95 plus degree heat wants. I hate enforcing it but there is no need to yell at me because I am informing you and offering you a free clean tshirt to boot. /endrant.

 

Sorry. I got away from myself there!

 

Anyways.

 

I got a text from Ryan as soon as the library closed at 6. Normally when I get a Hey sweetie...? text he wants me to stop and pick up something on my way home or anything of that nature. Hence my very simple reply. But I was stunned at what followed.

 

 

A date??? Heck yes! He even asked what time he should pick me up. I told him 7:30. When I got home he was cleaning out the truck (!!) and in a suit. Wow! He promptly gave me a kiss then drove away saying he'd be back in a little more than an hour. I took a quick shower, did my hair and make up, painted my toes and threw on a little black dress I have been dying to have an excuse to wear for over a year now (it's from eShakti for all those who asked) and was ready just as the door bell rang.

 

I hurried out trying to avoid getting Dup Dup hair on my dress and was shocked to see Ryan standing there with flowers! Seriously!!

 

 

I put them in water and we got into the truck to head for our date. I asked him where we were going.

 

Ryan: I am taking you to the best Italian Restaurant in town.

*pause*
Me: Ryan.... are you taking me to Olive Garden dressed like this!?

 

Yes. Yes he was.

 

I had to laugh! I told him we may be a tad overdressed for Olive Garden but he shrugged it off. He said it is better to be overdressed than underdressed and I agreed, but I was a little self conscious for sure! We didn't have a long wait and when the waitress asked our special occassion we simply responded, Date Night.

 

We had a nice dinner and a drink or so and Ryan revealed he had movie tickets for us, already purchased. He said he wanted to get Jersey Boys tickets but the only later movie available was the new Transformers at 9:05. We had seen all the previous ones so that was fine by me! We enjoyed our dinner a little too much because I checked the time and it was 9:15! Oops.

I literally had to make him laugh to get him to give a real smile instead of his I'm smiling for a picture smile. Sad it came out blurry! But he looked so handsome!

We get into the movie at 9:25... and caught the last preview for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Wow. Talk about long previews! We were nearly 20 minutes late for our movie and missed nothing.I snuggled under Ryan's suit jacket (I get cold in movies) and enjoyed the non stop action that was Transformers. The one review I saw of it said, "Within ten minutes the action starts and it is both stupidly epic and epically stupid and continues until the movie ends."

 

Truth.

 

Action action action humans are bad action action action redemption slightly action over.

 

In the form of about 2 and a half hours!

 

Ryan wanted us to walk around the fountain in the park but with my shoes it was just not happening, plus it was late and I had work today! We went home and walked around our cul-du-sac a bit before crashing in to bed around 1am.

 

It was a perfect date night (: