Vacations again

Where I last left off, I had just gotten home from Florida. Lo and behold, 2 days later it was time for me to run off and go play Army in Virginia for 2 weeks. This training was the final training for my Warrant Officer promotion. It was supposed to give me the basics of management within my field, and teach me supervisor functions on several computer systems that we'd normally use. The normal Active Duty Army course is 8 weeks long, but since I'm a Reservist I only got a 2 week course. So they took 8 weeks worth of material and condensed it down to a 2 week version. You'd think that it'd be a very "go go go" type class, starting early and ending late, lots of learning the whole time, right? Wrong. I should never underestimate the Army's ability to screw things up. Of the 13 days that I was there (rather, supposed to be there, due to a misunderstanding I showed up a day early, and I left a day late, to be explained later) we probably only had 6 days worth of classes. The rest of the time was spent in the classroom, but we were sitting around doing nothing. They would have us get up at 3 am for most of the first week, for random things that would only take an hour or two to do, and then they'd let us go till 8. We couldn't go back to sleep, it was pointless to go back to the hotel that we were staying in (oh, I found a dead roach every morning in my room, great way to wake up). It was frustrating the amount of time that we could have either been learning something useful or doing something that we wanted to do.
But anyway, the class was useless, I didn't learn anything. Scary considering how I'm going to be expected to do my job without problems or bumps here in about 3 weeks, just because I checked the box that said I got the proper training. Kinda reminds me of how I feel about a high school diploma or a college degree!
On to the fun stuff though! While most of my classmates were leaving on the Friday that we graduated (yet another waste of time that nobody cared to do yet had to checked off in order to justify our instructors' jobs.) I wasn't scheduled to leave until the following day. And it just so happened that some people were headed to Myrtle Beach, SC that week for a vacation. I was lucky enough to be invited down to hang out till my flight left. So right after the graduation I drove the 5 hours to the beach, and within a half hour of me arriving I was in the water! It was so nice, the water was warm, the company was amazing and the weather was perfect. We swam for about an hour, then went back to the room to change. We had tickets to go to a show called Medieval Times. I had never heard of it before, but it's dinner and a show, set in the 11th Century. I understand that the story varies from place to place, but our section had a knight to cheer for, and we watched horses do tricks, and some really good riding and sword fighting. I thought that my sister Kelly should go work there, she'd love it. We ate dinner with our hands, and our wrench (waitress) was really fun to interact with. When we got back to the hotel, which I might add, I'm very grateful to my friend for letting me crash on the extra bed for free, and I'm glad that it wasn't a King sized bed, cause that might have been a bit awkward at times! But anyway, after dinner we walked around on the beach for hours and hours just talking and catching up. It was warm, and we walked in the surf watching the heat lightening over the ocean. It could have been considered romantic by some, I was just enjoying the view and people watching. It's odd how many people were out and about as late as we were, but I guess we were out too... We got ice cream and watched a guy tap dance, talked about the various types and groups of people that were around us, and just enjoyed being there. I don't think we got to bed till 3 or so, but it's going to be a long time till I see anyone from there again, if ever, so I wanted to make it last.
The next morning I knew I'd have to leave sooner than I wanted to, so we got up and walked the beach again, looking at shells and letting the moments linger. We finished conversations from the night before, ate breakfast and packed up. I really enjoyed my time out there, and it made the previous two weeks of pain and suffering totally worth it. I'm glad that I went, and I hope that we all keep in touch and know that if they ever come out to Utah for any reason they have a place to stay and a friend to hang out with. Some really amazing people...
But all good things must come to an end, and this one ended way too soon for my liking. I could have gone another week, easily. I left with enough time to get to the airport and sit around for an hour or two, just in case. And it was a good thing I did, cause due to backed up traffic coming out of Myrtle Beach and an accident along the way, I lost about 2 hours. So I had to go 85-90 (in a 65!) the times that I wasn't sitting still in traffic, and thanks to some good driving and some blessings from Heaven, I made it safely, with about 10 minutes to spare before the plane took off.
It felt good to be home, though I longed to be back at the beach in the company of good friends, no cares and amazing weather. I was able to see my sister Laura and her husband Shane last Sunday for dinner. They made me pancakes and bacon, it was so good to not have Army food at last! We played an expansion version of Settlers, and I came in dead last, but not by much. At least I will always have the satisfaction of beating Shane the first time I played him. Probably a very good thing on his part that he lost. It may not have been a good thing beating your future brother in law in a game he's good at the first time you meet him. I totally felt like the Alpha male. Yes yes, my ego was massaged, still is.