Sunday Recovery

So it’s been a while, yet again, since I last posted on here.

These past few days I’ve been busy spending time with my mom, cleaning up the place, and getting ready for the Marine Corps Ball (which happened yesterday).

For those of you who don’t know the Marine Corps Ball is the celebration of the birth of the Marine Corps. Although the Marine Corps Birthday isn’t until November 10th the hotel which we reserved the banquet room didn’t have anything available near that day. So we had our celebration on the 1st.

239 years of service. Best way to celebrate? Beer! Lots and lots of beer.

So this is how my drunk Marine day started.

I woke up at 6AM. Went to my reserve station and met with a few of my buddies. We all talked about our dates and what we are doing afterwards. Everyone was shocked to find out that I wasn’t bringing my girl.

The Marine Corps ball is the equivalent to… Prom I guess. Everyone gets dressed up and does stupid drunk things with their friends. The only difference is that Marines don’t really pay attention to their dates and kind of leave them to sit at the table with other Marine’s dates as we all mingle with each other. It’s not that we are rude or selfish, its just that its our celebration day. Not theirs.

I told them that my girl would definitely not have fun just hanging out at a table watching me and my other friends having fun because she would know no one there. I guess what I said to them made sense, but they all brought dates for after the event (use your imagination on that one).

And then we got bored…

Stating the obvious

“Gran Torino” Reference

 

So after we got sent home from the reserve station we all went out to town to get things ready for the evening event. What was on my mind? Surprising my lady while she was at work in my dress blues with flower (I know… I’m a softy…).

I drove around town trying to find the flower that she likes (called chrysanthemums or something). She texted me a picture a long time ago of the flower but for the life of me I couldn’t find them anywhere (2 hours of driving…)

After no luck I did what any guys does in a crisis like that. Buys a generic “sweetheart” flower bundle from the bucket at a flower store and pray that she will like it.

It had two giant white flowers, a few pink ones, and the garnish green stuff around it (I’m a guy, remember?).

So off I went to a local hot dog restaurant with my team in our squad (all in our dress blues). Nothing like chili cheese dogs with an ice cold water sets in the mood for drinking.

Once we were all full we went out, got some beers, and pre-gamed in our team leaders hotel room. We were all staying in a very nice historic hotel in the down town area of the city. Nothing like Marines going back and forth down the hallways with 24 packs of beer offering it to other Marines down the hall.

The thing is that we didn’t exactly reserve floors or anything like that. The hotel just gave us rooms that were available. I felt bad for the families just trying to enjoy their vacation. Nothing like Marines walking around in their underpants offering beer to set the example of the city these people are visiting.

Finally we made it to the main event.

I’m not going to put this lightly. I got hammered a little too early. It wasn’t a buzz and stumble moment. It was a “hey quit tilting the room on me!” moment.

Apparently there are a few videos floating around of me on my drunken rants.

And a lot of them are about me saying how more beautiful my girl is compared to any one in the room. I guess the point that one of my buddies made is that even when completely blitzed out of my mind I will still choose her over any girl so I guess that’s good.

So I went to my friends hotel room (cause I was not able to drive) and just ate a crap ton of food and drank a lot of water to flush out my system. I also took a nap on a very uncomfortable couch.

I knew my lady was working till midnight-thirty (12:30AM) so I went to go surprise her at her work.

I woke up, splashed water on my face, and put my blues back on.

When I finally got to her work place I drove around for what felt like forever trying to find her car. I placed the flowers I got for her on top of the trunk of her car and headed inside.

I stood in the hallway between the building and the parking ramp. After being awkwardly stared at (and awkwardly staring back at them) I decided it was time to head into the office where she worked to surprise her.

I walked in to the Emergency Department of the hospital and walked into her office. She was not there and two people I had never met before just stared at me. There is no way to play it cool when you’re in a formal military uniform.

But I looked to my left and down the hall she was there. Red in the face with a huge smile. A nurse came up to me and said “can I help you?”

I said “Yeah I’m actually here for her (pointing to my girl)”

The nurse just went “You’re here for her? Okay…”

(B*tch move).

I could immediately tell that my girl was upset. But I quickly settled that by holding her hand and saying how beautiful she looked. She quickly brushed off the nurses negative comment and smiled and called me a liar.

She told me she had to finish up some paper work so I said I would meet her at the hallway by the parking ramp. She quickly took off to finish whatever she had to do to get back to me as soon as possible.

Once she clocked out I extended my left arm and said I could escort her to her car. She smiled, looked at me, and said “you just look so formal in that”.

When we walked out the door to her car she suddenly stopped talking. I looked over and said “is something wrong?” Her face was super red.

She spotted the flowers on her trunk.

I said “hey that’s weird. Do you have like other boyfriends?” in a joking manner.

She said “Yeah like 13 of them. Weirdo…”

I watched her pick up the flowers and give them a quick smell. I quickly gave her the story of “Yeah I searched all around town and couldn’t find the flowers you liked. I really did try but I just don’t think the flower shops had them at the time, but I hope you really like these”.

She then points to the two big white flowers and says “These right here. These are chrysanthemums. These are my favorite flowers. I love them!”

We walked to my car and we just talked for thirty minutes. We didn’t hold each other, didn’t kiss, didn’t do any of that. Just talked and laughed in a cold basement level parking lot around 1 in the morning. Her in her work clothes and me in my dress blues.

I realized that we aren’t normal people…

The night couldn’t of been more perfect. I got to have fun with friends, surprise my girl, surprised myself that I got the right flowers, walk her to her car in uniform, and got to see her big beautiful smile while being as red as a rose.

It was a great day.

Now its time to recover. Nothing but lots and lots of water for me today.

Far right, buddy doing the Gatsby