Life in the Lodge

Well as some of you may already know, Jordan and I have been living in the lodge on base for the last 2 and half weeks since arriving. The lodge is a basic hotel on base, with a small kitchnette (a refrigerator, sink, and microwave).  After researching homes in the area before we left California, we had decided early on that we would live on base. The houses on MCBH (Marine Corps Base Hawaii) are all relatively new, built within the last 5 years, and are all approximately 1700-2100 square feet with amenities such as central a/c and 2 car garages. And while those amenities may seem extremely basic in the majority of the country, even in back-woods Milton and hotter-than-heck Corpus, they are extremely hard to come by here in Oahu within a reasonable budget. You wouldn't believe how little $3,000/month gets you here, and believe us, we have checked.

Example of on-base housing

While waiting for on-base housing, the housing office will give us up to 60 days Temporary Lodging Allowance (TLA) that covers a room at the lodge on base, as well as provides a stipend for food per day because of the lack of a full kitchen for cooking in the lodge. However, because the military is paying for your lodging on top of your regular base pay, you have to show proof of an active house hunt in town for either a short-term lease while you continue to wait for housing to become available on base, or a long-term lease in which case you would sign in replacement of waiting for on-base housing. So for every 10 days, you must provide 10 houses you visited and the reason why they were unsuitable. It has become a full-time job! So as it is now day 16, we have seen our fair share of houses, and I honestly do not know what people in Oahu do for a living to afford homes here. It's ridiculous!!!!!!!! Jordan and I are not particularly looking for a long-term rental, because as I said, we would like to move into the beautiful base housing, which is also walking distance to two beaches I might add; however, we are actively searching for a short-term lease while we wait out our time on the wait- list for the base.

Oh, did I forget to mention the wait-list? How could I forget considering it is only approximately 6-12 months long! Upon checking in, we found out that we were #71 on the list! Oy! Well apparently we are in the beginning of "PCS season." If you remember, PCS stands for Permanent Change of Station. It is official orders we receive every time we are ordered to move to a new duty station. I had no idea until now there was an official season for this, but apparently there is, and hopefully it will work in our favor! Instead of the normal 6-12 months, it looks like we should get a home around the 5 month mark if the current trend continues. Which means, after our 60 days of TLA in the lodge, we will need to find a place to live, preferably furnished, 3 more months. However, there is also military housing available on the other side of the island at Pearl Harbor. Because the military is paying for your TLA while waiting for base housing, if a house becomes available there, a nearly 60 minute commute, you will be offered that as well. If you refuse that offer, you are taken off of the TLA funding, while still remaining on the waitlist for housing at MCBH, and are on your own as far as paying for temporary lodging while you wait.

Finding a place that is both furnished and short term has been incredibly difficult. First, we need a furnished home because the military only pays for one move. So if we have our household goods unloaded and moved into this temporary housing, we will be paying for or moving ourselves back on base when our on-base housing offer finally comes through. Secondly, finding a month-to-month lease, or anything under 6 months is extremely rare.  To further complicate the issue, Jordan is scheduled to go back to San Diego for 3 weeks of training in either June or July. For this reason, we are trying to have our living situation squared away before he goes so that I do not have to worry about being uprooted, finding a place, and moving 7 suitcases, a dog, and 2 cars on my own. Secondly, the security and safety of the temporary home is extremely important, as I will be spending those 3 weeks alone, in a completely new place and city. I do not sleep well when Jordan is gone in general, mostly because Gunnar thinks he has to become the man of the house when Jordan is gone and proceeds to bark at every pin drop or faint noise he hears. Waking up in the middle of the night to a howling dog is not exactly comforting, and even if I sit up and listen, and then proceed to check the entire house completely, and even then don't hear any further noises or see any disturbances, I still can't help but feel unsettled.

I guess this brings me to my next bit of news. The reason Jordan will be returning to San Diego for 3 weeks is for legal training. For those of you that don't already know, Jordan is officially the legal officer of his new squadron. Yes, you read that right: Jordan Lippincott, Legal Officer. Jordan's primary job remains to be that of pilot; however, pilots in the Marine Corps have secondary ground jobs in order to run their various squadrons. At Jordan's last squadron, he was the PR Representative as well as the snack shop officer. I mean those jobs were a perfect fit if there ever was one for Jordan. First, he is a GREAT b.s.'er. And I mean great. Just ask his mom and I, we can vouch for that! Right Liisa? I can already see her nodding her head in agreement as she reads this! Secondly, that man LOVES to eat. During his time at the snack shop, he implemented new ideas and introduced various new options that are currently in place today and are greatly increasing sales. The money raised in this squadron snack shop goes towards the ticket prices for the enlisted Marines at the annual Marine Corps Birthday Ball, and because of Jordan and his most recent introduction, the taquito and hot-dog machine he ordered off amazon and installed in the shop, they are currently on budget to allow these enlisted Marines to attend the ball for free! I mean if that wasn't the most perfect fit, I don't know what is haha.

So, upon arriving to Hawaii and finding out Jordan was assigned to be the legal officer, we both looked at each other and laughed. We laughed, and laughed, and laughed. I mean, have they met the guy?!?! There's that classic theory that opposite's attract. And with that theory in mind, I have always been the rule follower, so it would follow and is 100%, completely accurate that Jordan has been the polar opposite. He despises rules, just merely for the fact that these rules exist. We have LITERALLY gotten into fights over jay-walking, because I refuse to walk across a street not in a cross walk and that obviously infuriates the adventurous, non-conformist Jordan. Jay-walking. Seriously. Let's not re-hash it!

Jordan also once went to court over running over a cop's foot...yep, I am serious here again. However, it is important to note, that this, in particular, was untrue. Jordan did not, in fact, run over the cop's foot, and the cop got a major chewing out by the judge after they reviewed the dash-cam video. The cop was demoted and the next year he was working a recruiting table at our high school job fair. While this may have been merely a stroke of bad-luck, the majority of Jordan's speeding violations on record over the years, on the other hand, were very much, in fact, valid. Point being, if you know Jordan and his personality, you know why we found this new ground job as legal officer quite entertaining.

Furthermore, one of Jordan's best friends is actually a lawyer. After working his butt off during his undergrad years at UCSB, he was accepted to the USC law program. After more years of hard-work, dedication, and lots of money, learning the practice of law and passing the bar, he became a lawyer. Jordan on the other hand, showed up for his first official day on Monday, and by the power invested in him by the USMC, he started signing Power of Attorneys and Notarizations that day. His second day, he dealt with two court cases where Marines were facing NJP (Non Judicial Punishment) and had to attend court martial proceedings.

I am absolutely devastated that Jordan cannot divulge any information to me regarding his legal work, because I absolutely love anything to do with law. Business Law was my favorite class I ever took in college, and I am sucker for any Law and Order or NICS marathon on TV. I desperately want to find a button for Jordan's office that, every time you push it, makes the "don, donnnnnnn" noise from Law and Order SVU. Jordan conversely is completely annoyed by this secondary job and the paperwork that distracts him from his primary job of flying. The other day he jokingly said (or at least I think he was joking), "I am going to go to every single person in my squadron and tell them I have worked my butt off to get here today and be a pilot, and if any of you take me away from my primary responsibilities of studying and practicing to be the best pilot I can be, in order to do bullsh*t legal paperwork because you are a bunch of knuckleheads who can't keep your sh*t together, you better believe I will be pissed, and that will not work in your favor." Hahahahahaha.

Wow anyway, it seems this post is off on a completely perpetual tangent, but as you can see, our tourist vacation days have come to an end, and reality has started to set in. We still only have one car, the Rhino, as the Audi we shipped from California has not yet arrived. So while Jordan is off at work, I am in the lodge, which thankfully is on base. Yesterday I found myself in a complete funk as I spent most of the day reading and watching tv, with only a few breaks for working out and walking the dog. So today I decided to rent a bike from the lodge, head to the exchange (which is comparable to a small department store) on base to purchase another book, and head to the beach. I was excited...until...this happened. As I already mentioned, I am a rule follower...but this...this, I could not handle...


Really? I was required to wear a mountain biking bike helmet, while riding a beach crusier, on the designated sidewalks on base? Apparently, in case I was hit by a rogue tank, that decided to run up off the 15-25mph road, across the lawn, through a few palm trees, and onto the protected and distant sidewalk to take me out, my head was going to be protected. Or perhaps, I just looked completely uncoordinated, and they thought I was going to fall over and hit my head all on my own without training wheels? I pretty much felt like people were pointing and laughing at me as I looked like something out of the movie Dumb and Dumber...

Well I made it to the beach, all in one piece! And enjoyed reading my new book, and watching the Cobras fly overhead. One of these days, when Jordan gets through his legal paperwork obligations, he will be back up in the air flying one of those!

In other news, the Rhino got a roof on Sunday...well sort of...

We thought we were just the cutest little family, paddle-boards strapped to the roof, dog in the back-seat, ready to take off on our SUP (stand up paddle-boarding) adventure! Jordan and I have paddle-boarded before on a few occasions and have greatly enjoyed it. During those times, we have come across people with their dogs, contently laying on the paddle-board, as their owners effortlessly paddled through the ocean. Well Gunnnar was not so content and refused to lay still on the paddle-board. Balancing amongst the tides and waves is difficult enough, without a second body throwing off your equilibrium. Poor Jordan had an absolute miserable time as he tried to convince Gunnar to lie in one spot. However, every time Gunnar spotted me on the second paddle-board, he would attempt to jump and swim towards me, rocking Jordan's paddle-board and ruining his balance. Add to that, the wind randomly picked up to a strength and speed that we have yet to see in our two weeks there. Frustrated and beyond irritated (with the weather, with the dog, and with eachother) we ended up getting stranded on a random, and extremely rocky, peninsula, unable to fight the wind and the tideback in the direction in which we came, and therefore unable to paddle back to where our car was parked. Jordan had to run barefoot back to the car, while I stayed with dog and the paddle-boards on this coral reef peninsula we ran ourselves in to. How cute did we think we were then? Not so much.

 Oh really? Somebody is exhausted from his ocean adventure! This little prince thinks the second queen bed in our hotel room is all his!

 We eventually did make it back, and had our routine dinner of coconut water, poke (this time Marlin poke), and ocean seaweed salad.

And on a completely unrelated side note, since that is basically the theme of this blog post, check out how expensive REGULAR, non-organic, milk is here in town? But don't worry, you can get it on sale for $8.98 instead of the regular $9.29. Phew!

Well to conclude this completely random and disorganized update, we found out today that Jordan has officially been selected to promote to Captain! Woohoo! Congrats to Jordan on his next promotion, which is projected to take place in July. Once again...have they met this guy?!?!?! Just kidding! It is much deserved and all of his hard work and dedication is being recognized and paying off! I am so proud of him!