I fully recognize that I have been slacking in the blog department over the last few months.  There are a few reasons for this, and I won’t get into all of them, but I do ask your patience and hope myself that I get back on track and posting regularly again.

Although I haven’t been posting too much lately, that’s not to say that there hasn’t been a lot going on.  One of the reasons I haven’t been posting is because they’ve been the kinds of things that go on over a long period of time and aren’t this-is-the-day-to-blog-about-this kind of  events.

Probably the biggest thing that’s happened lately was my selection as the Sailor of the Year for my command.   This is a very big achievement for me, something that I’m very proud of, but my family had to sacrifice a lot in order to me to be able to do the things that I did last year.  In some ways, this last year it was harder being gone than when I was in Iraq.  There, at least I knew I was gone for 6 months and then would be home.  Last year, starting in February (I got back from Iraq in December), I went out of the country at least a half dozen times.   However, I got some fantastic opportunities from my command that helped me grow and develop professionally and was recognized for it.  It is a major career accomplishment for me and hopefully will help me next time I’m up for promotion to Chief.

Speaking of that, I’m waiting on pins and needles to find out the results.  Last year I fell under a provision that allowed those of us who were in Iraq during a certain period of time to be automatically allowed in front of the selection board.  This year, I don’t have that and I am stressed because of that.  I’ve been a decent test-taker so far in the military but I’m not a good test-taker anywhere else.  The results were supposed to have been out last Friday but are still not out as of 30 seconds ago.

There  have been some other things going on for me that are big and time consuming but aren’t of much interest to the non-military, so I’ll just say that I’m involved in an organization on the base that has the potential to do great things.

Not all stress is bad stress, but all stress is stress, and I’ve been feeling it lately.  I am home from work today after coming down with strep throat.  It’s been a while since I’ve been sick but I think that so many things lately have added up inside of me and I finally came down with something.  The weekend was horrible, a fever of 102°, chills, body aches, headaches, and then today the sore throat got out of control.  I got a bag full of medication and am home trying to relax and hopefully feel better by tomorrow.