Reporting for Duty

(Mike Post)

Monday was my first day of work. At the end of the day I was given no homework nor syllabus explaining an exam or paper schedule. This was a first. Instead, I got checked in as much as I could (I need to wait for my email address and that is required to do most of the checking in), looked at what everyone told me would be my office, sat in on a meeting about the upcoming trials on our team, and was told to come back in ten days.

So far, so good!

As I was going home, a guy asked to take a picture with me (I was wearing my dress blues). I said sure. Turns out he thought I was an airline pilot and he wanted to send a picture of him and me to his friends so that they would think he had chartered a private plane somewhere.

Anyway, it is great to be back in my home with my wife and my things, and it will be nice to have a few days off before the "real" work gets started. 

Blogs That Helped Me Get Through Last Week

I had a rough week. It kinda started out rough and then never got back on track. And apparently Murphy's Law decided it was going to be an overachiever this time because I could handle it? Well, I mean I guess I kind of handled it in that I have a newly-patched tire that I'm pretty proud of.

This week will be better because it has to be. And at least last week wasn't show week. Also Mike gets back this weekend and I'm very excited to see him again.

Here are some new blogs on my reading list and some posts I might have read more than once this week. If you know my taste in blogs/writers, you're going to read these and instantly be overwhelmed with how much they scream Kelsey..... but if anyone needs some readings on grace or being brave, I thought I would pass them along.

Momastery

I'm pretty sure I've stumbled across Glennon's blog a few times and was all "Nope, not a mom. Don't care." Such regrets! When I read this post on grace, I bawled over the broccoli part. Glennon is amazing. Read her story!

Balance in the 'Burbs

My yoga blog of the moment. So I love yoga, but I've never been that into expanding my own practice in my free time until reading Cara's blog. She has me actually interested in pushing myself on my own time outside of a class and simply for fun. I love following her journey. This post is basically how I feel about this week....


Erin Brown

I found Cara through her sister Erin's blog. I'm such a nerd. Anyway, Erin is so awesome that I basically forward everything she writes to Mike so that he can have a little peek into my heart. Erin is all about self-care and setting a great example for her daughter. I really enjoy her facebook posts about her adventures with her daughter:

Having a kid makes me live my values all the time. Yesterday we were at the pool and she was eyeing the lily pad thing (again). So I was talking to her about being brave and trying something new when she said, "Will you show me Mama?" She meant how to do the lily pads, but it also meant being brave and trying something new. It was covered in tweens and really not something I wanted to take my grown behind over to try. But of course my response was, "Of course baby!" It was ugly. I did it all in a squat of sorts. Slipping around, no finesse. I'm sure I could get the hang of it with some practice. It was actually kind of fun. And Lola was excited to watch me. When I got back I said, "You know, I've never done that before." "Since you were little?" she asked. "Nope, never," (I would have been too shy and afraid then). She stood up really proud of herself and said, "Well Mommy, I'm so glad I could encourage you to try something new."

In life, but so clearly with our kids, it matters less what we say and more what we DO. I couldn't give her a speech about going for it and then not go for it. Nothing makes me better than being the woman I want my daughter to look up to. ‪#‎canililypad‬ ‪#‎yesican‬

My kid is working on a creating a club. Everyone is invited. The club is for "feeling good about yourself, karate, princesses and whatever else people are interested in. Mostly I want the kids who don't have many friends to feel welcome and included." More of this in the world, please.

Three Words to Describe Me

Last year I helped out with a mock trial tournament hosted by Georgetown. I was the timer for a case, which just meant I ran a stopwatch. One of the participants in that particular trial was an acquaintance from the Office of Special Counsel, where we had both interned the previous summer. I remember her co-counsel giving a gutsy closing argument that basically asked the jury to ignore the law at issue. Well, one year later I met my acquaintance's co-counsel again at ODS. Small world.

And we have since bonded over our love of food.

He reported that after he got into JAG, he told his friend and she told him that she knew someone else (me) who would be there. She then deployed the following three descriptors: "short, funny, and plays the bagpipes." I took issue with one of those. 

These past weeks have gone by fast. We've had something major to do every week, and that has been a lot of work. This past Thursday I did my final mock trial - all future trials will be real. Scary to think about, but I comforted by the knowledge that I will not be allowed to speak in a courtroom for at least my first two years because of the first tour judge advocate program. 

Though it has been snowy and I haven't gotten to visit anyone in Boston as I had intended (mostly due to snow, also occasionally due to work) I have still had a good time. The other week Lauren and Justin and I went to see Ben's new show. Lauren and Justin were two of the people who Ben cooked for during my ODS experience and they had been looking forward to being able to support him in return. 

A ticket to the show also got you stew, so it was a no-brainer.

He was very funny as a self-centered 20-something actor and the rest of the cast was delightful. It has been great having Ben around to help everything around here feel a little less foreign. Would have been better to have him in my class with me, but ever since he got his commission he has been able to get on base with no problem and the base is between his work and his home so I've been seeing a fair amount of him. 

Assuming I pass a test tomorrow, next Friday I will be driving a rental car back down to DC and will be checking in to the Navy Yard on Monday. My contacts at the Yard have been extremely friendly and helpful and I'm excited to meet all of them. 

Melting

It has been mild and warm and Spring-like since our last big snow last week! There is still one stubborn pile of snow in our complex parking lot, but I don't think it will last long. And now it is light enough to run outside when I get home from work, so I am grateful to the time change for that!

Unfortunately, I think I've really missed that hour of sleep this week. I've been a little more tired than normal even though I don't have rehearsal this week because the law students are on Spring Break. 

Hoping to catch up on some sleep this weekend, although I might have to nap because I'm leaving early Saturday to go see my family. I probably won't get to see them again for a while, so I'm planning on getting in lots of quality time.

Now, here's what I've been up to lately:

Of course, things I've been eating

• MJ and I officially signed up for our first half marathon together. Kelly and Alex are also running it with us and perhaps a couple of other JAGs who will be stationed with Mike in DC...possibly some other people. It will be my 3rd half marathon, but I will be honest and say that I didn't run over 10 miles in training for either one, so I'm really going to try to be better about that. It's Mike and Kelly and Alex's first and I want it to be a good experience where we can all go out brunching after instead of me passing out with flu-like symptoms for 3 hours as has been the case after my past half marathons. WILL TRAIN FOR BRUNCH. Also, it's a Navy-affiliated half in the DC area so 1) I think I get an anchor medal just for running (yay anchors!) and 2) get to run past the monuments!

• If, like me, you've always been curious about Siggi's brand yogurt, but haven't tried it because it's way too expensive, I'm here to vouch that it is totally worth it. I impulsively bought it the other day because I was hungry and discovered that it puts Fage to shame. I will probably wait until I'm in a yogurt mood to buy it and when I can combine it with other baked goods.

Coconut Siggi's + quinoa bake + banana.

• I went to Coco Sala for brunch the other day and, because I was definitely getting chocolate for dessert, I ordered three a la carte items to keep it simple for the main course. (I even ordered a fruit cup not on the menu (Mike would have sighed) and it was incredible.) I think their chef was really into chives.

I could not finish it all, as I prioritized the chocolate.

Something else I made my throwing stuff in a pot. Mike, hurry up and come home as this is the only way I know how to cook the meatz!!

People I've been seeing

My brunch buddy/coworker, Becca! I love getting brunch with other tea drinkers so we can share a french press:)

Brian and Kayface had a layover in DC and Josh made dinner for all of us! This was the "Too Many Cooks" picture we sent to Mike to make him all jealous:P

Things I've been doing

Some modern art in the American Art Museum! (One of my favorite places to walk off downtown meals / feel cultured)

A lot of getting swarmed by this guy. Every tim.

Rupert also has a new trick he'd like to share with you. This is for real, guys.

MARCH: A Pirate's Life For Me

March is HERE and it's a big month.

It's when everyone starts getting super antsy for Spring. Winter doesn't ACTUALLY start until after the New Year, but we definitely make up for it in snow days. By the time March rolls around, everyone is just begging for warmer weather and clear skies. They are coming, but March makes you wait for it. I think I remember us having a huge storm last St. Patrick's Day around here, but the cherry blossoms were still out in full force by early April. You just have to be patient:)

March is also my busiest month at work. We call it "March Madness" for our own reasons. We have the hardest of the higher education and high school cycles simultaneously. We are continuing our work with college students and assessing mid-semester academic status while also recruiting graduating high school seniors into the program. Competing with spring break and graduation excitement for attention is a challenge, but we will be on-site at multiple schools per day to try to do just that. 

March is also the beginning of prep for the Spring GGSS show! This year the show is "Pirates of Penzance" which is incredibly hilarious and fun. My decision to audition for the show felt a little silly at the time given "March Madness" at work, but everyone I talked to (including my boss) was fully supportive of me auditioning. I was super nervous (even for Cabaret, I didn't do a solo voice audition), but I made it through the vocal and dance portions and found out that I will be playing a pirate in the show! Although Cabaret was a year and a half ago, there are many alumni I already know in the show and also many fresh faces. I'm SO excited to be a part of such a fun group. The show dates are April 15th-18th, Wednesday thru Saturday. Save the dates in case you can make it!

At the end of this month, Mike gets home! I can't even wait. I'm already making a list of things we have to do and catch up on. Although I will miss moments like these:

Facetiming while watching Netflix together (House of Cards woot!) and whenever I say something that makes Mike make this face....it is one of my favorites.

When I send Mike pictures of how red my face is (my face was actually burning up) after auditions and he tells me how proud he is of me.

Finally, March is the middle of the Lenten season. This Lent I'm doing a daily devotional app through #SheReadsTruth and also working to get rid of negative talk (self-talk included). As someone who has an overactive analytical mind, I can fall into negativity spirals pretty quickly, but I also thing that positive speech is contagious. During the audition process, I did fall into a lot of negative self-talk traps, but I'm trying to surround myself with afffirmations and positivity during the rehearsal process! #workinprogress

New running shoes! (Altras, obviously...for my special feet) I love them and am thinking of signing up for a half in the Fall

NJS, Part 2

The first five weeks at NJS are considered to be the difficult weeks, and so now we are through those. All in all, they were not really that difficult. Yes, I stayed up late a few nights to finish an investigation manual or to prepare for a guilty plea or to write a will, and I always had SOMETHING to work on, but it's not like I would be able to do much else up here anyway what with being buried under snow and never wanting to go outside.

We have not had a Pain Before Breakfast run since the first week due to ice and snow on the sidewalks. Instead we just do individual workouts on Wednesday mornings (though we are going to attempt a run on-base on Thursday). We get a pretty good workout in trying to get to or from the school, though, as the quickest path goes over a bridge that we call "The Bridge of Death" because it has been nothing but ice since the first snowfall. Minus five points for military bearing every time you cross it.

The classes have been very interesting. Military criminal justice is MUCH more scripted than civilian criminal justice. There is an actual script that we use- it's like a choose-your-own-adventure book for everything that can possibly happen at a court-martial. Pleading guilty? Turn to page 18. Pleading guilty to some charges but not to others? Page 31. Judge-only trial? Page 43. Etc.... Then you literally just read off of the script, inserting the appropriate words in blank spaces. Yes, you still get to do all of the normal trial things, but the script adds a good chunk of time to what I remember from mock trial.

I have learned that my first rotation once I get back to DC will likely be in the trial counsel department. I won't be allowed to do a whole lot, from what I have heard, but it will be fun to jump into something that I am at least sort of familiar with from my mock trial days.

The people continue to be one of the best parts of being a part of the JAG Corps. While my normal plan is always to go back to my hotel room after class and crank up the heat and never leave, they have consistently coaxed me out of my warm cocoon in order to go out to do one thing or another, and it is always worth it.

Oh, and one of my fellow Marine JAGs is a Woodberry grad. We were assigned to be opposing counsel for a guilty plea and got along very well.  After we had hammered out a pre-trial agreement we started talking about where we were from. When I told him I was from Burlington, he said he knew someone from there and asked where I went to high school. I told him not in Burlington. He again asked where. I told him in Virginia. He again asked where. I told him a small boarding school. He again asked where. I said Woodberry. He said "me too!" And then we discovered that he had been in the class of 2006 and I actually knew who he was but just didn't recognize him or his name since we call each other by last names up here. His father was visiting this weekend and took us out to dinner where we talked all about Woodberry and the good times we had there.

A Weekend of Firsts

This past weekend was the first of many things for me:

• My first Amtrak ride.
• I rode overnight so I had to try to get some sleep. Luckily, I got a window seat. Unfortunately, we were also a full train that night so people random get sleeping in my seat and getting off. I was kind of asleep, but also kind of not asleep for most of the night. Things that helped: eye mask, neck pillow, blanket, spotify's sleepytime playlists.

• My first time in Rhode Island.
• As soon as I got there, we went out for breakfast as a cute little spot in downtown Newport. Mike got something marvelous with eggs and chorizo and I got french toast made with Puerto Rican sweet bread and spiced apples.
• We also exchanged cards (I was blown away by Mike's (really)...see below) before heading back to base.

A picture of the sunrise in Providence on Valentine's Day. MJ was driving.

Only the best Valentine's Day card ever.

• My first time on a Navy base.
• The base felt a little bit like a university to me. It's a little mini-town that is completely self-sufficient. We went to the gym where I geeked out over the group fitness class offerings (it would have only cost me $3.00 for a barre class) and the fact that they have a bar attached to the wall in their abs room that holds your feet (to practice sit-ups). 
• Mike lives in a hotel on the base with the other JAGs and we got to hang out with some of them one night while there. Ben (also Georgetown grad and JAG..who Mike just commissioned) came out and showed us a wonderful drink spot.

Still not used to the New England temps, I went with two cinnamon vanilla hot toddy's. I think I need to have cinnamon-infused simple syrup on hand just for everyday life, right?

• While I couldn't fathom drinking anything that wasn't hot, our group was apparently completely fine with the idea of getting ice cream after drinks. It was about 11pm in Rhode Island on a Sunday, so I guess we didn't think through the idea of what kind of place would be open with ice cream that late. Some women at the bar overheard our dilemma and really tried to help us problem solve. One of them finally exclaimed: "I got it. I got it! I know what you have to do. Here's what you need to do: go outside, walk across the street, you will see a building with a mermaid on it, you need to go into that building and up the stairs until you see a fire place. You sit by that fireplace, and then you ask them for the Snowball. It has ice cream and fudge and brownie al mixed together. You should get the snowball and you tell them I sent you." She basically repeated these directions 5 times before we left, adding that you can also get a sparkler in your snowball if you say it's your birthday.

• When we went outside, Ben said he had no clue where she was talking about and that maybe she meant across a street that was kinda far away. Right as he said that, we saw "the mermaid" outside a place that did not appear open, but whatever. It was a sign. We went in and all had desserts and tea together. We even told them it was Mike's birthday to get a sparkler in our snowball. Apparently, at one point when I was in the bathroom, the lady we met at the other bar had walked in to talk to the wait staff and ensure that they took good care of us...because apparently she knows everyone on a first-name basis there.

MJ and Collins tickled over the sparkler.

The whole group! LtoR: Maggie, Justine, Ben, Lauren, me, Mike.

• DC's first legit snowstorm of the winter + My first solo flight + My first Uber ride.
• My flight left Monday around 5pm out of Boston. I was worried it would be cancelled, but glad when it was on time. It seemed to be about the last flight they were letting go to DC, so I guessed they thought it could beat out the worst of the storm that was scheduled to hit DC. Things did not go as planned because although my flight left at 5:30pm, I didn't get home in my bed until 2am. Here's what happened.
• Left Boston at 5:30pm. 
• Arrived in DC area around 7ish, but destination airport (Reagan) is "closed" for snow removal. Basically we aren't allowed to land there. We hang out in the air for a while doing circles until it becomes apparent Reagan is not reopening anytime soon. Our pilot tells us we're going to land at Dulles (way out in VA) instead. I am frustrated because my car is at King Street metro (a few stops from Reagan) and Dulles is not metro accessible.
• Land at Dulles around 8pm. We sit for a while because we were not expected at Dulles and no one knows what to do with us. When we finally get up to the airport, some people get off and the pilot tells us the plan is to eventually go to Reagan once they reopen. We're going to refuel in the meantime. I decide to stay on the plane because I don't want to have to figure out the bus system to the Silver line and because I am trusting and because my baggage still would have been sent to Reagan.
• Around 10pm: Reagan reopened a while ago so we headed back out to the tarmac. The airports are crazy with planes, so we had to wait a really long time to take off. We wait so long to take off that our pilot tells us Reagan has actually closed again and we are going to just turn around and 'drive' back to Dulles so people can leave if they want.
• Around 10:30pm: We are back near airport. We are told that actually people are not allowed to get off because there is no room at Dulles for us to "park" so we're just going to wait until Reagan reopens. Pilot has no idea when that will be.
• Around 11pm/11:30pm: Spot opens at Dulles to park so pilot says we are actually going to park and let people off. I call Mike and Kelly for advice and tell them I'm getting off the plane because NO MORE. The plan is for the plane to refuel and still go to Reagan, but as soon as I get off the plane and am trying to bargain for taxi fare or something home (because the metro was closing at midnight), our flight is officially "cancelled". This is good because it means JetBlue will take some responsibility for helping us get home. 
• 12pm: We get our baggage at the terminal. I charge my cell.
• 12:30pm: JetBlue has arranged for a charter bus to take us to Reagan. The roads are horrible, but we make it in about an hour.
• 1:30pm: I go inside at Reagan and there is a taxi line the length of the airport. The roads are so bad that there are no taxis picking people up. I wonder if I'm going to have to make a bed for myself at the airport and realize I left my pillow and blanket at Mike's place. It was a sad moment.



The taxi line at Reagan. 



This was a time when we had landed, but weren't allowed to get off of the plane yet.

• 1:35pm: I start playing with my phone and find the Uber app Mike downloaded for me. I've never used the app and I figured there weren't any cars out if there weren't taxis either, but magically I manage to get a car after refreshing the app like 10 times. My angel uber comes to take me home.

Even though the trip back was a nightmare, I had such an amazing time hanging out with Mike and his friends for the weekend. Even though our Valentine's Day dinner consisted of pizza because a snowstorm in Rhode Island messed with our plans, it was the exact weekend I needed. We bought and watched The Last Five Years on iTunes which was INCREDIBLE. If you are into musicals or know anything about the show, you should definitely see it.

Because of our schedules, I'm not sure if we're going to have the opportunity to see each other again before Mike gets back last weekend in March, but I'm counting down the days. Coincidentally, tomorrow's sermon is on Patience (we're going through the fruit of the spirit) so I'll try to take some good notes.

TL;DR: Great weekend. Made it home safely. Of course you want a sparkler in your snowball.