SURPRISE

Last Monday (October 26, 2009) I get to work and I am told that on the next underway I will be the underway ELT so I can get some experience and get proficient at the day to day duties of my job. About an hour later my LELT came in and said "Hey how much leave do you have." I have about a 0 leave balance maybe -2 days. He said oh well, you need to write a leave chit for the next underway because we don't have room for you. I was a little shocked.

Normally the Navy is a pain in the butt when you request leave. You ask and they say maybe and you ask again and they say maybe and eventually they let you know for sure. However, this time they are telling me to go! WEIRD! So I said ok, and wrote out my leave chit.

I had duty that night so I couldn't leave the boat.

Tuesday I asked if I can really go ahead and buy a plane ticket. He said yes. I had also decided that my plane ticket will be going to Charleston, SC to visit Alexandra, but I'm not going to tell her I am coming. She still believes I am going underway. So I made the flight and hotel reservations with <1 weeks notice. (The Navy is so considerate...)

My plane landed in Charleston on Tuesday morning (November 3, 2009) I arrived at my hotel around 1100 and waited for her to get out of her class. I had a pizza for lunch and took the leftovers to the dorm front desk because I know a lot of the people that work at the desk they would probably let me leave it there to pick up later. Also I asked what route she would take to go from the building Alex's class was in to the building she was going to next. I had about 45 min until her class was scheduled to be over and she would be making her move.

As I turned to go out the door, there she was just walking in the door. We both stopped for a second. Alexandra turned really red and was speechless so I gave her a BIG HUG and picked her up! She was still speechless. I'm pretty sure she thought she was dreaming. She never asked how or why I was there, she said she didn't care. She was just super happy to see me and I was super happy to see her!

I love you sweetheart!

MWAH

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