Stage Three: Strange City, Strange People, Strange Noodles.

“Hillary, when are you coming back?” started the adventure of moving to the east coast. We had originally planned on me living in Sitka for the duration of his rehab to work and make us some money so that when he is discharged completely from the hospital we will have a good financial start. A week later, I got this call from Joe. Everything I had planned was completely turned 360 degrees. My response to him was, “ well hon, when do you want me to come back?” “ Yesterday”, is what he told me. HOLY F***. I told him that I would the best I could and hung up. My mind went racing, what am I going to do with Trigger? What about your car? WHAT ABOUT YOUR JOB? How am I going to manage to pack my whole entire life in the matter of days?  Then after about 20 minutes of my heart pounding out of my chest, I stopped. My mind stopped. I gazed out of my office window and thought of nothing at all. I hit a WALL. For a straight month, my life had been in complete chaos. I forgot what day it was, what month it was; my life consisted of waking up, anxiety pills, trying to get through a work day and actually get something accomplished, and going to bed sometimes as early as 7:45 at night.

 From the time I got home to the time I left again from Maryland, I watched Kung Fu Panda 2 every…. single…. night. Don’t ask me why, but I did. That is where I got the title of this blog. Po, the main character who is a warrior panda, sets out on an adventure to save China and all of Kung Fu because an evil peacock is threating to take it all. Po comes across his father (a goose) and the father tells me to stay home because he is going to “ a strange city, with strange people, and strange noodles.” I feel like Po, the confused panda that has no idea what he is doing, but knows he has to do it. His parent is scared and nervous for him, but he lets his son go out on a big, scary, full of the unknown adventure to do the right thing. I really could relate to that chubby little panda in the movie, so maybe that is why I watched it so much. If that panda can do it, so can I. Granted I’m not saving the world from a evil peacock, but I am going into a world full of strange noodles to do what I need to, the right thing to do.

That weekend, I went into full get sh** done mode. I managed to pack and load up all the boxes I need in the matter of a day. I labeled them and sent them to New Jersey to meet up with Joe’s family where they will soon be reunited with me :) I found a wonderful home for Trigger with two fantastic people that will love him so much, I sold my car, and I was able to keep my job by working remotely on a laptop. Things seemed so chaotic, but in the end it all worked out.

The part that pissed me off the most was waiting for the people who arrange my tickets to do their job. I was supposed to be on my way to Maryland the weekend of the 18^th, but they didn’t get their paperwork done, so I had to wait to the following Tuesday because Monday was President’s Day and nobody would be in their office. When I got the call on Friday the 17^th that I would make it out, I was told, NO PROMISED, that I would be flying out on Tuesday. I told my boss, co-workers, family members and friends that I would be leaving Tuesday.

The weekend passed, Monday passed, and I was ecstatic about my early morning phone call on Tuesday to get my tickets arranged. People over the east coast tend to forget that Alaska if 4 hours behind them, so most of my military calls come between 4 am and 6 am my time. 4 passes, 5 passed, 6 passed, F***!!! So, I decided to call them. “Hello ma’am, my name is Hillary Martin, CPL Joe Mille’s fiancé and I was told on Friday that I would be getting a call this morning to set up my tickets to fly over to Maryland today and I still haven’t gotten a call.” I explained. “uhhhh, ummmm, well, I don’t know what you are talking about Hillary, I have no paperwork of you here.” My jaw hit the floor and I wanted to pick a flight with the girl. After getting a call or text almost every day asking when I’m going to be there and saying, “I will be there Tuesday or Wednesday morning at the latest”, hearing that not only let me down, but would in turn let Joe down. “But the girl on Friday told me that it would all be done TODAY, I have been packed and ready to go for a week to leave today.” I told her. “Well, let me make some phone calls and send out some e-mails and let you know what I find out.”

I get ready for work, even though I told everyone that I wouldn’t be there, and waited for my call. I got to work, explained to everyone what was going on, and started working. Three hours passed and I still did not get my call. NOTE: For those of you that are new to the military as a girlfriend, wife, significant other, etc., get used to HURRYING UP AND WAITING! It sucks huge ones, but you can’t really get them to do things any other way, but their own. So, I took things into my own hands and called her back, “Hi, this is Hillary again, I wanted to know what the status was of my travel.” “Well, Hillary, I called around and talked to some people and no body has seen your orders and I don’t’ know where they are. You might have to wait until THURSDAY”. Again, my jaw hit the floor and I was full or rage. “Well thank you and I will try again tomorrow to see if that changes.”

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! WTF!!!!!!!!!!! JOE WANTS ME THERE NOW AND THEY ARE MESSING UP MY STUFF SO BAD!!!! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO??????

Back to composer. I let my and his family know what is going on and his dad decides to take this into his own hands the next morning. He called multiple people and only got message machines, and then he FINALLY got one gal to answer. He explained my situation. She told him that a majority of the nurse case managers were out of the office at a conference and many wouldn’t be back until later in the week because my information was more than likely just sitting on one of their desks. She told him that she would get things figured out and get the ball rolling.

Our new kitchen

Wednesday in the late morning, I finally got my call and was set to fly out of Sitka that night. My family had signed up to work the basketball game against our biggest rival and were not able to see me off at the airport because we had spent the entire last week thinking that I was leaving that prior weekend. I felt bad because not only had I confused my entire work crew, but also my family which directly affected them seeing me off at the airport, but my grandma, older sister and niece (who were visiting Sitka at the time) came to see me off. I got on the plane and thought to myself “this is really for real happening. I am getting off the rock, I’m going to be living in the continental US, I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m going to have to figure it out fast."

I took an unusual route to get here. Usually, to get down south, we fly through Seattle, this time I flew through Anchorage. My route went: Sitka to Anchorage (2 hours), Anchorage to Chicago (5 hours), Chicago to DC (2 hours). LONG A** DAY. I finally got to DC, but had to take a shuttle to get to Walter Reed. What usually takes about a half hour to get to the hospital from the airport took us almost 2 hours because we had to drop off other random people. I finally got to the hospital and waddled my 4 bags up to his room, since nobody told me where I would stay. One person told me that I would be staying in the apartment they would put Joe and I or that I would be staying in a hotel room. I had no clue and I don’t think that they did either.

our new bathroom :)

            After all the stress, hard work, chaos, confusion, and anxiety attacks; seeing him made all those feelings vanish. I was so happy to see him and finally be there. Even though I didn’t have a place to put my stuff, I didn’t care. I was with my honey and I could really care less about anything else, but I did have things I needed to take care of. I went up to the Family Center (SFAC) and asked about my rooming and financial situation (I get paid daily per diem for being Joe’s NMA). That turned into a mess because I couldn’t be in the apartment without Joe being discharged. I was on the wrong orders at the time because you can only be on NMA orders if the soldier is out of the hospital, and they ended up telling me just to come back the following Monday to figure things out because they didn’t even know what was going on. FUN STUFF!

            Luckily they got me a little room to shower and put my bags for the night and I would be able to put my things in the apartment the next day when Joe got on weekend pass. I dropped my luggage off, showered, and rolled out back to Joe.

Hillary and Joseph's new bed

            Joe’s sister, Marissa, and her friend, Rachel came down from Jersey to help Joe move his stuff to and from his hospital room and get everything situated in the new apartment. It was so nice to have a few extra hands to help him out of the hospital room. I am so thankful that they were there to help him because there is no way I would have been able to do everything all on my own.            

             We needed a lot of things from our apartment. Everything was very blah and not very cozy. The girls and I went to Target and went all out. I got kitchen supplies, food, new bedding, and other nice things to make this apartment feel like home. So far, I enjoy our new little abode, its cozy and perfect for the two of us.

            This strange city, with strange people and strange noodles is going to open my eyes to the world of down south and independence. Leaving the rock is something I have always wanted to do, but never had the courage to. I hope that I have what it takes to not only take care of myself on my own, but to take care of the most important person in my life when he needs it the most.