Well, here I am...  Hiding from the end of summer finally caught up to me.  It's all surreal:  sitting here on the downstairs computer because my laptop is finally packed up with all the rest of my stuff to go to Scotland.  We're leaving for New Jersey in 2 hours.  Summer was a blur.  Life itself is becoming a blur.  And so you are treated (or subjected) to a very cerebral Xanga entry.

I forgot I had updated this during the summer, actually.  Sure enough, there are some Naval Academy posts.  All in all, that went well.  Working at St. Francis was boring and pointless.  Encampment kicked too much ass.  Chillin' at home was muuuch needed.  And now here I am.  I summed up my entire summer in just a few words.  Life is whizzing past me like that, and I hate it.  I want to hold on to every second that slips through my fingers - especially the ones I don't realize I miss until they're gone.  Being at home in particular gets me all sentimental like this when I realize I'm not the little boy Frederick anymore.  People are growing up, getting married, and leaving home (most notably Jen leaving for the Navy soon... Best of luck, sailor, I'll be right behind you soon enough), and it sucks.  And even when I'm back at school, it's the same story - people change, and the grim reality hits me that college is more than half over.  I hate letting go and watching time fly by.  But the bitch of it is that I don't have a choice.

This is all perfectly depressing, isn't it?  Oh well.  It's been on my mind for a while.  Plus it's raining outside.  In other news, I went up to school this past weekend to visit the gang before I depart for Scotland.  I'm anything but conceited, so I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and really touched when I kinda realized how much I have apparently secured my place in my little group and how it was conveyed to me that I would be missed - if only for a semester - more heartfelt than I would have expected.  People like Kendra, Dave, who I've spent every school year with for 6 years now, and shit - Neil said not rooming with me was "killing him on the inside."  I mean, it's only for a semester... but still.  So thank you guys.  Group hug, anyone?

I'll do my very best to stay in touch.  For now, e-mail's the best bet until I find out how regular my internet access will be.  There's no guarantee of having it in the rooms, so we'll see.  Depending on how that goes, I'll also be on AIM hopefully and also on Skype for those of you with microphones.  I'll also post pictures as often as I can, and keep this thing up too.  Mass e-mails will also ensue.

Better get going now.  Take care, everyone.  See you next year.

Week 3!

Yeah, last week was pretty sparce on the updates.  My bad.  It was a pretty calm week, though, so I couldn't justify daily updates.  Still, there was cool and crazy stuff last week, ranging from Tramaine saying the Navy can suck his dick when he gets out, to the graduation ceremony itself with Dick Cheney giving the speech and me being like 10 feet away with the Secret Service taking me around as I was taking pictures (he's fatter in person).  The Academy's Drum and Bugle corps played the one day outside Bancroft Hall.  They played music from Pirates of the Caribbean (anyone else see the irony?), so now that's stuck in my head lately.  I finally have pictures on my computer, so those will go up on the Webshots relatively soon.

Then home for the weekend, where I got Cheese Whiz in my ear and a gay man asked for my number.  Not all in the same night, thankfully.

I'm getting really good at this concise entry business.  Who knew I could be concise?  Actually I could be quite un-concise right now if I wanted to.  Been thinking a lot lately.  Who knew that one, either?  Oh well.  Right now, I'm quite the tired boy, compounded by my delightful cousins being all over me once again now that I'm back here.

So it's bed time for me, cause it's back to work in the morning.

Until we meet once more, here's wishing you a happy voyage home!

We're gonna try something new and make a post relatively earlier in the evening (I almost wrote day... my perceptions of time are so messed up now) so I can get to bed when I want to.

Day four!  End of week one!  Exclamation points!!1!1one 

Not a moment too soon, either.  I made the executive decision to forego showering today in favor of 30 more minutes of sleep.  Still shaved though.

First, the Tramaine quotes (finally found out how to spell it).

We went to lunch - Tramaine, Matt, and I - in downtown Annapolis, what with all the scenic shops and such.  Passing all the gift stores, he said how he watches the Home and Garden channel a lot (pretty random) and how he could make "all that stupid shit that people buy from those stores" for much cheaper.  That, and talking about how he might go into the Army after his time in the Navy is up:  "Cause in the Army, they test you on a time scale and on your PT tests... In the Navy, you could be the fattest muthafucka in the world, but if you can take a good test, you'll move up."

Good thing for us lazy senior members who have aspirations of joining the Navy.

Another thing that made me laugh was - since I'm finally figuring out how writing Navy enlisted ranks work - I realized that Tramaine was a Lithographer Seaman Apprentice.. properly abbreviated as LISA.  So he's LISA Wilkes.  When I realized this and started making fun of him for it, he said yeah, he gets all kinds of calls asking for a Miss Lisa Wilkes.  And in his deep black voice, he answers them, "Yeah, this is him."

Tramaine was supposed to put his own name on one of the layouts for having made it.  He at first just put LISA Wilkes, and then Martha wanted his first name, so he somehow put it on there in bold print.  And since the layout was done in Photoshop and not Quark, when we realized he did this, he couldn't change it cause he had already merged the layers (as Vicky becomes the only one who understands me talking shop at this point).  Anyway, the bottom of the page says "LISA Tramaine Wilkes."  Matt, in a rare display of being funny, wrote on the rough copy, "Why bold?  We know your love yourself Tramaine, but we have a paper to put out."

Finally, I asked what they were doing this weekend, to see if they were going to the Ring Dance (more on that in a sec).  Matt said he wasn't going, and Tramaine's respone was, "Naw, I'm goin' to be in something wet and warm this weekend."  It took a second, then it set in.  What have you. 

Go Navy.

Anyway, Ring Dance:  a formal ball Saturday evening where the second-class midshipmen get their class rings for the first time.  The Trident wasn't invited to cover it, but Martha asked if we wanted to, saying she'd call and set it up if that was the case.  Rather, if I wanted to... being the only one with a car.  I'm thinking... chance to bust out the mess dress uniform, ne c'est pas?  I mused over it all day, but ultimately decided against it.  I'd still have to go to Pennsylvania tomorrow either way, and Sunday, so it'd just be another trip down to Maryland and back.  Besides, the Trident was invited to the pre-reception kind of thing, but not the actual ball itself.  So if they would have wanted us at both, they would have invited us, so it probably wouldn't have worked.

No worries.  There'll probably be other fancy things going on before my internship is up.

So I sorta wish I had more contact with Media Relations in this internship.  That is, the people who put the pictures on navy.mil.  This chief petty officer, Chief Trent, who I guess is Matt and Tramaine's immediate (military) supervisor, sorta came by and asked for some good pictures that Matt and I had taken.  And goddammit, I had some good ones taken too (which, I know, I know, I'll post them once I get my paws on them).  It was weird about my pictures though, cause you have to label them a certain way with your branch of service and your SSN for navy.mil to take them.  And since I don't have a branch of service, and they wouldn't have any reason to know my SSN, I don't know if they'll use mine.  I'll have to bug the chief about that next week if I see her to be sure I can get some put up on there (and/or that they don't credit Matt with any ones that I take... which I think there's one up already that's like that.  Sheet).

Interestingly (and with all modesty... I just find it ironic), of the events Matt and I covered the past couple days and took pictures for, nearly all the ones we wound up using were by me... who has never had a photography class or anything.  Me, over a photographer's mate airman recruit in the Navy.  Oh well.  Lucky bastard, I guess.

Speaking of covering events, the Herndon was today.  Translation:  there's this obelisk monument in the courtyard at the academy.  At the top, they put a "dixie cup" first-year midshipman's hat.  Then they cover the monument with 200 pounds of lard (and it smelled like ass).  Then the freshmen have to scale this thing and replace the plebe hat with an upperclassman's combination cap.  Last year's class did it in 1 hour, 16 minutes... and there was a sophomore behind me anxiously looking at his watch to be sure this year's class didn't top last year's record.  Which they did, by 2 minutes.  Some plebe got his eyebrow cut up real bad, and instantly all the press cameras (mine included) went over to his bleeding face.  I felt like a total prick - the essence of the annoying reporter - but dammit it looked kinda cool and hard core and all that jazz.  Couldn't get a good shot though; the other upperclassmen and the medics sorta stood around him to block us.

Anyway, the Herndon was Matt's story, technically (but guess whose photos got used).  Guess who else spotted Matt with the questions and interview information later on with the guy who actually got up and did the hat switching.  You're fucking welcome, you jerk... macho-man Randy Savage.

That aside, the paper comes out tomorrow, so I'll have to pick up a copy.  Tramaine made up a really cool layout for it, and I supplied most of the pictures on it, and the story.  I think it'll be online?  But it'll just be the text online; no cool layout.  So I gotsta pick up a few copies of it to pretend I have something to brag about.

Let me clarify, while I'm thinking about it, that I'm not really "Currently Watching Annapolis," the moderately-sucky-but-still-worthwhile boxing/coming-of-age movie (though I do want to buy it).  But I haven't watched much of anything lately...except American Idol last night... But anyway, I figured it was the closest thing for the moment to describe what I've been "watching" everyday.

Saturday, I finally get to suit up in my own uniform.  Been realizing how much I miss it... ghetto as it is with its blue tapes and retarded TFO insignia.  But dammit, I hate feeling and looking like such a civilian everyday in my shirt and tie.  And the occasional pants (though I'm trying to cut back).  Anyway, Armed Forces Day in Harrisburg.  w00t?  We'll see.  Hope I don't kick myself later for not going to this Ring Dance.  But it'd be like 700 black, white, and gold mess dress uniforms... and one blue one.  Out of place?  Little bit.  Oh well.  Such is my lot in life at times.

One last Tramaine thing I just remembered before I sign off.  As I was taking them back, we were listening to the Don and Mike show on the radio (something I found by accident one day and have become moderately hooked on.  I think it's nationally syndicated?)  Anyway, they're talking about Christina Aguilera, and how she's (apparently) an example of "face down, ass up."  At which we all laughed, then Tramaine added, "I ain't never heard a white person say that before!"

Again, Go Navy.

That's it for now.  Later days.