Allowed excitement.. gushy warning!

Teh Bear is COMING TO BAHRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm impressed with what I can do in paint sometimes.

The tickets have been purchased, Americans are still currently being allowed in the country (which was something we've been monitoring due to political climate issues), dates are set... AND WE ARE UNDER 30 DAYS!

It took a VERY long time to finally get to this point.  As in, when I left in September, it was like, well, see you in a year, deuces.  Maybe a lot sadder than that and we actually already knew that his vacation time was in July (standby for the reasons on why that was a bad decision), but not the point..

It has been over 250 days since I've been in Bahrain.  I mean, its not in the 300s yet, but damn if we aren't getting close!  Let me break down 250 days for you, in case you're bad at math like me..  Got here Sept 23rd, its now almost mid-June, so for estimation sake, we'll say June is 1/2 a month and the Sept time was 1/2 a month, so that equals 1 month.  Add the rest of the full months, which is Nov-May (7).  7+1=8.  By the time July gets here, add one more month... 8+1=9.

Side Note: I know I have spring fever when anytime anyone mentions 9 months, I immediately think, that is a human gestation period, exact inner monologue quote.

There was a lot of debate about vacation.  Mostly was the cost.  Lesson of the year: vacationing during the summer is EXPENSIVE.  Vacationing during the summer after bin Laden was killed, which caused gas prices to rise for some reason = even MORE expensive.  Good time to vacation?  Late Jan-April.  Hello birthday trips!  (that may or may not be a hint hint for Teh Bear.........)

ITALIA!!!

Originally, I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to finally get to the destination of my dreams..  ITALY!!!!  We looked at several package options, but it was very complicated to deal with one person needing airfare and one person not (if I hadn't flushed R&R down the toilet by taking leave in Feb/Mar if I were to use R&R).  It was also expensive, and we made the mistake of comparing the July price with prices at different times of the year.  It was quickly decided that we weren't ever taking vacation in the summer evar again.  The estimates were around $4k, then add food/touristy things/extra incurred vacation costs, and I had a feeling we were looking at more money than I was wanting to spend.. and by feeling I mean, deep depression over the fact that I was looking at the trip of my dreams and telling myself no because of the price tag.  Siiiiigh, one day, Italy, one day we will be together.

Then we looked at other places that could be potentially cheaper.  My 2nd choice?  Scotland.  Mmmmm, love those accents.  Again, July prices weren't giving me any warm and fuzzies, and any flight through the UK is ridiculously expensive, not really sure why the Heathrow airport has to rape people with their extra taxes, but I wasn't a fan.  And the same issues for price were coming up with all vacation costs not being nice to ze pocketbook.

YAY YAY USA!

At the time, my R&R was still available, and there was consideration of coming back stateside, but that would still include hotel costs if I was in FL for any period of time, along with food and etc costs (my ridiculous love of shopping in America?).  And that would have also included a flight to NC, and coordinating my flight back to Bahrain, because R&R flights are usually arrive and depart from the same place (yay for military inflexibility!).  And lastly, it would mean split time.

So then the thought occurred to Teh Bear, why not just fly him to Bahrain?  Well, thats so damn clever!  Why didn't I think of that?  Well, because its the Middle East in the middle of the freakin summer (which is why we shut down that idea of going to Egypt and doing a Nile River tour, and add political hot mess to that list).  And because Bahrain isn't a vacation for me, its the place I live (and it sure as hell ain't a vacation).  But it is 2 weeks of no work, and I mean, people take 2 weeks off of work and sit at home, right?  Right.  Good.

So now the cost is just the plane ticket (thank you Osama for getting killed and making the prices of tickets rise) and groceries and whatever Teh Bear decided to buy while he's here.  For a while, the biggest concern was the political situation in the Middle East, but particularly Bahrain.  The Saudi's rolled over the Causeway (very long bridge between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain) in March and they've been parked roadside the hot protest areas since they arrived.  Its a fun time to go to the mall and see the APCs and tanks just chillin beside the road, blocking the exit to what used to be the Pearl Roundabout (/tear).  We were quite worried about him actually being able to enter the country, cause to waste spend $2k on a plane ticket to arrive at your destination almost 20 hours later and be told, sorry you can't stay....  My reaction to that is probably something I shouldn't think about.

Its like Where's Bahrain instead of Waldo...

We projected that in May we would make the final decision on vacation.  May has passed.  Bahrain is currently letting Americans enter (and the base has even lifted the dependent ban).  Italy is still expensive.  My R&R is no longer available because I took leave with Teh Sister visited in Feb/Mar and taking leave makes you ineligible for R&R benefits (dumb rule, but I don't make them, and I'm a peon who's opinion doesn't matter).  I've also been talking about Teh Bear visiting to my Bahrain Peeps (since the idea of him visiting first was discussed) and they are interested in meeting him or in the case of a few, wanting to meet the person who puts up with me, harhar.

I made myself wait until the tickets were purchased and we had less than month to count down till I got excited (because honestly, I've been counting down since I knew Teh Bear's vacation dates almost a year ago, but I've been keeping it on the DL).  I know how crushed I get, and how easily it happens, so I knew that this painful delayed gratification would be worth it in the end, just in case something didn't work out... or in the case that everything worked out, I could be ridiculously excited and giddy and my "tail" could wag uncontrollably (don't judge me, I get really excited sometimes, people are lucky I don't pee a little on the floor).

Tangent:  Hello NAVCENT.

One of the only pics of a building on base that I've ever found on the internet.  Not even searching NSA Bahrain yielded good results to show my family where I work..  But this is it.  Being in the Navy has given me a deeper appreciation of windows...

YYYYAAAYYYYYY TEH BEAR IS COMING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

was that amount of !'s excessive?  good.  I'm that excited.