robinchartier

The best part of our beach vacation was being right on the sand. A few steps from our cottage door brought waves lapping at our toes. And the heat wave the week before made the water enjoyable all day and into the evening. (Yes, it was even warm enough for me.)

Riding waves on day one and sticking close to shore.

By day 2 and beyond Camille was confident enough to hang with her brothers and cousins. We had a few gray days, but it was still warm all week.

Reading and knitting all day under an umbrella. 

Wake up, eat, go to the beach, body surf, boogie board, dig in the sand, eat, and bed. Repeat.
riding tandem — one catches a wave and the other jumps on as they head toward shore
buried up to his neck

San Onofre, 2018

We’ve finished our time in Southern California and are headed back north to the Santa Cruz/Monterey area. I’m writing from the air, killing time. I’ve been doing my last few (short) flights drug free — maybe I’m trying to prove something to myself? Since they don’t make me feel any different, maybe I think they might not be doing anything for me? Hello to my future flying self, just take your medicine whether you think you need it or not. 

Because without it I feel a bit restless and fidgety. Like right now: checking how long until we land, looking at the ground, noticing microscopic bumps in the air. Much more aware that I’m in the sky. I’m not anxious, but not relaxed. When I take pre-flight medicine I feel like how I would presume a normal, non fearing person feels on a plane. I’m sitting on a couch in front of the tv — oh wait, I’m actually in a metal tube in the sky, but no big deal since it feels the same as being at home. Let me just finish this book or this TV show and I don’t care how much longer the flight is because I’m occupied with my entertainment. I don’t ever feel them beginning to work . . . they just do.
So I write to distract myself from my thoughts. I’m not anxious, just uncomfortable — a bit unsettled in my own skin. Of course I could take it now, but there’s only 20 minutes until we land and I don’t really need it (and thus, the circle continues). I do roll my eyes at myself. Especially since “taking it” means I bite one of my 1/2 mg tablets into thirds or halves, depending on how they break apart under my front teeth. Ooh, I should get a few more of those before I go back. I think I got 10 a year ago and still have 7, but … if I can barely get Zoloft in UAE, I’m probably not going to be able to get clonazapam.

A friend asked for an update on my scheme to get Mexican Prozac for the dog. I’ve decided to skip it because it’s classified as a controlled substance by the UAE government and a person isn’t allowed to import more than a 3 month supply and it is supposed to be accompanied by a signed statement from the doctor, etc. (and probably has to be stamped and authenticated too!) I’ll have to save my pill efforts for my own supply. I’ll start googling to find an herbal or vitamin supplement for dogs that could act as a stand in instead.

So what’s next for us? Today we fly back to N California and spend the next 2 weeks in Santa Cruz. We will see Calvin a teeny bit and renew our drivers licenses. Inshallah — I better start studying for the test. We have to test because they expired years ago, but were still legal as long as we were stationed overseas and he was active duty. That will be a fun day as there are no appointments until the end of August so we’ll have to line up with the masses.

Josh flies to Texas at the end of July to start work. He’ll be there for about a week, then will fly to DC for a few days for meetings at the embassies of the various Middle East countries he’ll be working with. The 3 kids will fly to visit their grandparents in South Carolina and I will fly back to Abu Dhabi to start work mid August. Josh and I should arrive back in AD at the same time and we’ll have about a week to get a jump start on our residency and house hunting before the kids join us.

And . . . we’re almost on the ground. The next time I’m on a plane will be when I’m headed back to AD. Just under a month from today. I’ll be taking my meds for sure.

I’m not doing a full count back up, but I wanted to mark the beginning of retirement. Josh picked up his DD-214 (discharge paper) which means that no one controls him anymore (unless you count me, lol).

He doesn’t have to shave anymore (see above — that part will be a Robin demand now, but we’ll compromise with not having to shave every day. No one can call him and tell him that he has to cancel his plans because of an unexpected deployment and he can travel anywhere in the world that his passport allows without asking for permission first. He now has free speech and can say anything he wants publicly, though wise people always speak with restraint so I don’t foresee much difference in behavior there. 

We celebrated last night with a BBQ at our beach cottage with family and local friends. Not surprisingly for anyone who has been stationed there, almost everyone was from the group of friends we made when we lived in Bahrain. That network is tight and those friendships are deep.

It’s a great first day for all of us.

We are one week into our 2 weeks at Camp Pendleton and I have a great view for reading, writing, researching, and relaxing.Last week we were at an Air B&B in San Clemente, but yesterday we moved over to the beach cottages on base. It was a Herculean effort to reserve them: only by phone, and 12 weeks from the date we want to check in, but after a week of daily calling right at 7pm we managed to grab 2 cottages for the week. It was like trying to buy concert tickets, call, call, call starting at 6:55 — get the answering machine, try again and then hope we were one of the first on hold once the phones opened. Thankfully both Josh and I had phones with international minutes and we would both dial until one of us got through.

This week Josh finishes the checkout process and picks up his DD214, the paper that says his service is complete, finished, khalas. (autocorrect keeps insisting that I must be wanting to type ‘koalas.’ STOP IT.) Then he’ll be free to start working elsewhere, even though he’s technically still an Active Duty Marine until September 1st. He has what they call “terminal leave,” vacation days that have built up so he finishes work, but then will continued to be paid through the end of August. By that point he’ll be getting paid from his next job so we won’t have to worry about a gap in paychecks.

This past week we’ve:

Met favorite footballer in the San Jose airport when the LA Galaxy team happened to be flying out at the same time as us (Zlatan Ibrahimović).

Celebrated Camille’s 8th birthday with a candy coated cake (and dark chocolate ganache filling . . . I still dream of that cake).

Made many visits to Trader Joe’s. It’s as if they knew we were coming.

Shared sleepovers and adventures with the cousins.

Set out on foot to eat all of our local favorites: Mexican, bacon, and coffee (though not all at the same time).

Celebrated the 4th of July with this hopping sprite who cheered for each explosion of light and declared that the show was put on “just for me!”

And now that I’ve finally figured out how to get photos from my updated phone to my blog, I should be able to post more easily. (It took days and much googling, but once I upgraded my laptop software it all started working again.)

The waves are perfect so I’m off to sit and watch them while the kids go in them. If it wasn’t so cold . . . I’m a 90 degree water kind of person.

It’s not bothering them a bit!

That’s not a deep statement — just a celebration that my refill of contacts arrived! For the last 6 weeks in Abu Dhabi I was down to one good contact and one of my old (weaker) prescription and was hoping I didn’t have a lens failure before returning to the US. Of course ever since my fresh supply arrived, my left eye has been problematic and refuses to cooperate (it feels like there’s sand in it every time I put a contact in) so I’m struggling along with only one contact anyway.

ProTip: put your contacts in before flossing your teeth unless you enjoy minty fresh tears. I always forget until the burning begins. Next time I’m buying the non-mint floss . . .

I’m also seeing clearly on my brand new computer screen. I was trying to figure out how to clean it since it always looked dirty and I discovered (thanks Internet) that there was a known problem with the non-glare coating on my model and that Apple would replace it for free. While I was in the Apple store I asked about my busted iPhone camera and the guy said, “Oh that’s an easy fix. $59 and I can do it right now.” Yes, please!

Now I can take beautiful, non-fuzzy photos of anything I want. Like of my oldest baby at camp with his cabin of kids.
and with his sisterand of us walking (impossible before)and of our trek to the beach to watch my mom play ukulele with 90 of her friends.Caleb playing along with her. They do this every Saturday. It started out sunny, but then the fog rolled inand my kids can’t handle it — Caleb trying to get warm.

Tomorrow is the day! The beginning of retired life. We fly to Orange County to meet up with Josh, start our vacation, and figure out what grownups do.