Belated Birthday notes

This overseas crap is getting old

Another year come and gone. The fifth birthday since joining the Marines that I have spent overseas, and the seventh away from home and family. This crap is getting old. I think yesterday's little get-together pegged out the surreality meter:

-In lieu of a birthday cake I had a ribeye that some smartass stuck a birthday candle in while I was inside getting a beer.

-Mark strumming open strings on his guitar maniacally while bellowing "Happy Birthday to You" at the top of his lungs

I shouldn't complain. I know I'm going to miss the camaraderie once I'm out, to say nothing of flight. I think I'm finished flying, logging my last 1.2 hours last week on 573. Gonna miss her. A plane with that history is bound to be a museum piece some day, instead of being relegated to the arid boneyard at Davis-Monthan.

Today my final orders were signed, clearing me to return to the States to prepare for discharge; my terminal leave request was approved as well. Happy Birthday to me. If all goes well, I will be in California in a month, and then hey for home a week later. Having been a military brat, immediately entering service the instant I was out of school, I have never known civilian life. This is going to be truly new ground for me.