Surprise. Part 2.

Okay so where was I.

Oh that's right. The most warmest bestest hug ever.

Let me teach you about today's word of the day boys and girls. It's called "reciprocation." That is to say "a) a mutual exchange b) a return in kind or of like value." This boys and girls, is the coolest thing EVer.

You'd actually think I'd be somewhat familiar with this feeling, through prior relationships or whatnot. Maybe it has just been a long time, but I really don't recall it being anywhere near as great as this. I truly felt when we hugged that she missed me as much as I missed her.

I wish I could describe her face when she saw me but it's pretty tough. I can do a pretty good impression of it though, ask me sometime. I guess it's a bit of a shock to see someone who you think is several thousand miles away suddenly several feet away. She really did seem happy though. And boy, I was too.

So we bid adieu to the best friend who must now go to work rather than the spa as was previously claimed, and we end up wandering around the base for a bit while she finishes up a few things and introduces me to various officemates. Kind of funny meeting people who recognize you upon sight, even though you've never seen them before. I guess various pictures had been passed around or whatnot. Eventually we meandered our way back to her place, and I got to see the infamous apartment. Only about five times the size of mine, at least. More like eight actually. I have no clue what I would do with all that space, that's for sure. By this time my body finally figured out that it was very far into the wee hours of the morning my time, and I eventually crashed for a while. That evening we got a pretty late start thanks to my snoozing and headed out to a German restaurant which I definitely wouldn't be able to pronounce even if I remembered the name. There I found out how to translate apple juice, as well as different kinds of meat before eventually handling the rumbly in my tumbly. It was fun hearing the gf converse with the waiter, at one point they used a bit of Spanish and I was able to follow along. But for the majority of the weekend I was helpless as can be when it came to speaking, and would just sort of look at her and smile and she'd handle it.

I also will admit to a gross cultural error when we were trying to find somewhere to park at the restaurant... Basically cars were all over the place, in the town there was no real curb or sidewalk or anything so cars were sideways and backwards and on the wrong side facing the wrong way, and we ended up just parking over near some bushes in what didn't look like a spot, so without thinking I said "What, they don't have any parking nazi's over here?" and then as soon as it came out was glad I was in the car and not anywhere where someone was within earshot. Just goes to show even I who claim to be politically correct do still ocassionally use terms such as that or "gestapo tactics." Pot calling the kettle black at times I guess.

I should say something about the weather, it really was quite nice the whole time I was there, somewhere in the 60s probably, and not below 40 at night, sunny both days. Wandering around at night was thus quite peaceful, rather than bone jarringly cold. I had hoped to see it snow, which I've still never in my life witnessed, but alas that will have to wait for another trip. After dinner we headed to downtown Frankfurt, which was actually quite surprisingly big. A really nice river flowing through it, I guess that's a common theme in Europe which is kind of neat. Some seriously tall buildings, and the usual parking strangeness although on a lesser scale. Our destination for the evening was called "O'Reilly's Irish Pub" which as you can probably guess isn't my typical fare. Alas I was not on my home turf and thus I was the tagalong to wherever she desired.

This is apparently her typical Friday night experience, and thus the most important reason for me to accompany her was so that she could flaunt me in front of various other regulars who continuously hit on her previously, and thus advertise that she isn't available. In my experience being unavailable just tends to make people want you even more, but what can ya do. There was much socializing and whatnot, and eventually she and her best friend took over the stage for a rendition of "I Need A Hero" off the Footloose soundtrack, quite a good choice for Karaoke. I'm not quite sure how but at some point I also ended up stage for an encore performance of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" with a few other people, I guess I got caught up in the moment. Been a while since I've held a mic, that's for sure. If you remember "Gotta Getaway" then you remember the last time I sang with a mic on stage, and I'm impressed. Pretty sure we still have video of that one, which luckily didn't get busted out when the girlfriend visited. Phew. I bet my mom will be sorry she didn't think of that.

At some point she and the best friend headed into the dancing section and I was reaching the point I could barely breathe because of the smoke, so I went outside for some fresh air. Enjoyed the downtown Frankfurt scenery for a bit, was pretty dead given it was 3 in the morning or so. But then through the night I heard the familiar rhythm of Usher's "Yeah" which was somewhat of a theme for us during ASBC. Like a wildebeest to a mating call I responded, immediately moving towards the dance floor. Conveniently she'd just left it looking for me, so we walked in a circle opposite of each other for the first minute of the song, before finally she stopped long enough for me to catch up. I've never claimed to be a hotshot when it comes to dancing with those of the opposite sex, but I feel about eighty times more comfortable in public with her than I do anyone else. Whether we're dancing or just being affectionate without being totally gross, it really seems like we're the only two people in the world at times. The next song up was "Get Busy" by Sean Paul, and yeah, there was a whole lot of bootyshakin goin on. Mostly by me mind you. Eventually the heat of too many bodies in too enclosed a space forced us to take our leave, and we made our way out of the place.

More riding on the freeway came next, which mostly consisted of me trying to pronounce place names, and her laughing extensively. I was particularly entertained by their word for the freeway exits, or "ausfahrts" as they're called, assuming I'm spelling that right. I was sure to announce every one I saw. Definitely seems like a cool place to have a fast car. Don't think I saw any going over 150mph or so though, I've heard it gets pretty crazy.

K now she was pretty dead by the time we got home but of course having slept some of the day away I was wide awake, so as is almost always the case when we're together one of us is always tired. Mass laziness ensued, and we didn't actually end up getting out to see more of Germany until around 4 in the afternoon. Out we went a bunch of clicks (kilometers for all you miler people) to a place where I've also forgot the name, to see a castle that was pronounced "Schloss" or something. I asked her where the "Schwinners" were who must have beaten the "Schlossers" in a major battle or something, but she just kind of stared like she does sometimes when I try to be funny, so I guess that one was sub par. I had actually never been to a castle before, so it was quite neat. It was up basically on a cliff overlooking a village and a river, and had a beautiful view all across the river valley. While we shared a hug looking out of the expanse I mentioned that although this view was pretty neat, I could only imagine how many more neater ones we'd see in the future. I must have been in a gushy mood because as we wandered around through the castle grounds we came up with another gross couple idea... We both love hugs, and she especially loves being squeezed and the affection it shows, so at some point I mentioned the idea that she should always try to stay freshly squeezed, and found my own pun quite hilarious. Strangely enough she is almost as big a dork as I am, and so we decided that she should definitely remain freshly squeezed, and if for some reason that isn't the case she should draw my attention to it with an exclamation like "I'm not feeling very Tropicana..." Aw doesn't that just make you want to vomit. Then again you might think we're soooo cute. I can probably guess which is more likely.

Oops skipped the fact that we ate prior to going to the castle, at a nice little restaurant in the area. I ordered pepperoni something or other as an appetizer, thinking pizza bread or something of the sort, and boy was I wrong. That would translate as PEPPERoni, meaning a plateful of jalapenos with a huge glob of garlic. Mmmm. Actually they weren't too bad, I guess I'm not as sensitive to spicy foods as I used to be, after all I love a good bowl of jambalaya, we all know that. They had a couple mirrors in the place, and I did my usual fool the girlfriend trick when I say "WOAH check out that girl, dang she's definitely worth a second look" and in a huff she turns around with an irritated glare only to see her own reflection...

On the way back we stopped at a gas station type thing and they had all the typical candy bars, but they were all in totally differently desigend wrappers, which I found strange. Different tastes on different continents maybe? A long overdue trip to the bowling alley was the next stop, where due to some temporary chemical imbalance in my body or a skewing of the polarity of the earth during the first game she managed to win. I recovered during the next two miraculously, including three strikes in a row that she pretended to not be impressed by. We're both competitve, but she's nicer about it than I am, which makes me feel bad sometimes. Something I'll have to work on. Later that night we went over to her office just to hang out for several hours since I was going to have to leave the following morning. Basically just did lots of cutesy things like reading blogs to each other, since these things tend to take on new life when spoken by the author. Her office is pretty nice, very large, two captain's chairs and a couch, and a nice leather chair for herself, although it's too tall for her and too short for me. Tried to eat all the candy she had but failed, she probably had some stashed away where I wouldn't be able to find it anyway. At some point after the clock struck four times, we were even more tired than before and we took a short nap for a couple hours, eventually having to get up and go home to pack and head to the airport.

I tend to get quite sad at this point of our times together, I guess that's understandable. There's always a question mark as to when we'll see each other again, but it's never quickly. Time passes so fast at times, and so slow at others. We just stood there outside the security area for about a half hour, since I'd gotten there well in advance of the flight. It's amazing how I can get lost just staring at her. There could be hundreds of people passing by, and I wouldn't be able to tell you what any of them looked like, or even tell you that they passed by at all. I could go on and on, but I guess you wouldn't really understand unless you experienced it. Eventually I did go through the security checkpoint, although I turned back to wave at least eight times. Even as I walked away out of view, she was hopping along between the gaps of the conveyor belts and screening machines waving and smiling through the several glass windows separating us. At the last one I paused and we signed I love you repeatedly, but alas, no matter how we try to stretch, our time together eventually ends.

It was a long trip home, alone. I had a chatty person next to me, which kept me busy for an hour or so along with the movie, but then I got so bored of a stewardness blocking my view to talk to someone for literally at least five full minutes I fell asleep, and missed the rest of the movie and the entire second one which was Lost in Translation which I wouldn't have minded seeing. Oh well. Obviously the first one wasn't that good I don't even remember what it was. I did see the Steve Martin one about having twelve kids on the way over, but I can't remember the name of that one either and I'm too lazy too look it up. It was only decent anyway, a little laugh now and then, 3Ms for whatever it was. They did have good TV on for both directions, Trading Spaces, West Wing, JAG, Whose Line Is It Anyway? to name a few, the latter with Whoopi Goldberg which was quite hilarious. I also almost completely completed (good english there) the crossword puzzle in the Delta magazine which was pretty difficult, and busied me for like an hour. Overall the trip back wasn't nearly as bad, although I was much more sad. Uneventful trip back to pick up my car from the economy lot and drive home, although as usual the songs that remind me of her seemed like they were on repeat on the radio. Jet lag wasn't really an issue since I wasn't there that long, I just always regret sleeping so much when I'm with her, if I could just stay conscious longer we could spend more time together. After all I can sleep any time.

The next time I'll see her is probably the end of May if a trip she's planning works out, and I'll get to show her where I work and sleep. If not it'll be sometime in July when she comes out to Ohio for training and will probably be able to pop down on the weekends. Meanwhile we'll keep doing what we're doing, and it'll all work out.

Ever travelled between continents to surprise someone? I highly recommend it. The trip was well worth it, and if money and getting permission to take leave wasn't an issue, I'd sit on a plane for twenty four hours in a weekend, every weekend, just to spend the time in between, together.

Surprise.

Yes, there was a reason I wasn't blogging for a few days. Alas, the general readership of this blog consists of people whom I was unable to include on the inside of a surprise I'd been planning for quite a while. It actually was quite annoying because I was wanting to blog about all the complicated steps taken as preparation, and I wasn't able to as it would have spoiled it.

I really outdid myself this time. Those who know me know that spontaneity is the name of the game, and I've been known to do some VERY crazy things for people, from spur of the moment road trips, to jacking the father's car in the middle of the night and driving several hundred miles to spend a few hours with someone and immediately come back, to blowing gambling winnings on a totally random trip to New York City to see RENT. I love surprises, even though I somehow always manage to spoil the ones aimed at me. The one's that people have managed to put over me though always blow me away.

But seriously, this just crushes everything I've done in the past. There's only one person I would have done something this grandiose for, and you can guess who that is. To quote an earlier blog around the time we first met: "Germany. It?s a country in Europe quite far away."

As of last Thursday, I had been all over the United States, but had never left the country other than Canada. I'd never been on a plane longer than about five hours. I'd never been somewhere I didn't speak the language. These are just a few of the firsts that took place over the weekend. And there were a lot.

Due to JSUNT starting in the next few weeks, I will be unable to take basically any leave at all other than Thanksgiving and Christmas and thus will be unable to do any sort of travelling to see my girlfriend during that time. That pretty much left these last few weekends as my only real chances to ever visit her where she lives and works at Rhein Main Air Base, Germany. She had been led to believe that taking international leave was basically impossible, but in reality it just requires a bunch of extra paperwork and legwork. Basically the last thing she would have ever expected is that I'd actually just show up on her doorstep in person. She'd mentioned it once or twice, and I'd just told her that "she knew what the situation was" and not told the truth without really lying. Just sort of skirting the issue as they say. I have a new motto when it comes to life in our relationship. With me, ANYTHING is possible.

I researched plane ticket prices and after consultation with the father it was decided that the trip was worth cashing in some frequent flyer miles for. The next problem was the lack of a passport. Having not ever gone anywhere, I'd never needed one. Now all of a sudden I needed one in a hurry. The only place that did them in an expedient manner was Houston, a few hundred miles away. Better yet they only did them by appointment, and closed by 3pm each day. Thus I had to make the latest possible appointment, and then haul ass over there from San Antonio after my morning muster to make sure I got there on time. Funniest thing that happened that day was coming out of the elevator and opening the door of suite 1600 where I thought the passport center was, and finding absolutely nothing. A completely bare suite, no furniture or anything. Beautiful views of downtown Houston in all directions, but just a bunch of totally empty rooms. As I stood by a floor to ceiling window looking out over the city I called my dad to double check the address, thinking to myself that it was April 1st, and someone might have played a really horrible April Fools Day joke and I'd driven all this way for nothing. Turns out it was suite 1400, and I was soon on my way in the right direction. Was pretty funny though. As it was I made it in plenty of time, but was lacking passport photos, thinking they did them onsite. Paid some ridiculous amount to have them done at one of the little places sprinkled around the building, and headed back upstairs. The whole passport process was pretty painless, just had to make sure you had all the right documentation. They ended up getting it done within about an hour, so I only had to go down and refill the meter at the sweet parking spot I snagged once. Sucks to have like four cars fighting through the lot to get to where you're headed to see you put more money in and walk away, but that's the way it goes. So yeah eventually I get the little blue booklet called a passport with my interesting looking mug on the front page. Then came the sitting in traffic for hours ride back to San Antonio, during which she called a couple times, but I had to make up lame excuses so she wouldn't figure out I had been driving continuously for several hours and want to know why.

Passport in hand, I then began the lengthy process of getting my leave approved through the squadron. I'll spare you the gory details, but basically multiple safety briefings were required, anti-terrorism training, signatures from various higher-ups, and a multitude of forms and paperwork. Somehow this all got squared away a couple days before my expected departure. During this time I'd managed to get the e-mail of her best friend from her, she of course thinking that it was so I could send her flowers or something.

We developed quite an elaborate plan on various levels to get me there unannounced. She actually took it further than even I expected, even from what I hear making a "scoresheet" for their "apartment cleaning competition" so that my girlfriend wouldn't be embarassed by the state of the place when I just appeared out of nowhere. She also planned various events throughout the weekend so there was no chance of my girlfriend trying to skip town or whatnot.

So finally everything was set, and I left around 10am for the airport, happy as a clam. I packed light and thus had a carryon for the few days I'd be there, which made things quite easy along the way when it came to not having to check luggage or send it through customs. Totally overestimating the time it would take to get to the gate, I checked in with no line whatsover at the Delta counter, then basically walked through security without ever stopping, and was at the gate a while before 11, with my flight not departing until 12:30. Ordered one of the covered pizza things you usually see somewhere like Sbarro from the italian place inside the airport, since the guy said it had like four kinds of meat in it or something and it sounded good. As it turns out I'm pretty convinced he must have said four kinds of BEET or something, because there were way too many vegetables for my liking. I eat veggies, but not on my pizza. Of course this was only the first of many food orders gone wrong during the weekend.

I was a bit apprehensive as I finally boarded the plane, as it was a 767 and I was on the aisle of the middle section, and with someone large next to me would not be able to sleep in any sort of comfortable position as I tend to need something to lean on. Of course someone was in my seat, when they were assigned to the middle one, so I had to bump them over, and sadly as expected my row was a full one. It was only several minutes later when the stewardesses came by with papers that they said the flight was far from full and we were welcome to move to a more spacious area if we liked. I asked the guy in the middle if he wanted to move, and he responded in gibberish, which was the first time I realized the language thing was going to be an issue during the trip at times. Through hand signals we communicated somewhat and I decided to take over the row in front of us while he moved into my seat. This put me about two rows from the big screen, prime viewing for the movie and tv shows that were to come. My strategy was to tilt the center seat back all the way and leave the other two upright, so I could use them to lean on with a pillow on either side of my head to compensate for shifting back and forth. This would have been a really good strategy, had I not been so nervous. I maybe got two hours total sleep on the trip over, which pretty much sucked. There was only one movie, then an hour or two of tv, and then they shut everything down for the night and the last four hours were pretty much boredom. Too nervous to read AF literature that I'd brought with me, I amused myself with the crossword puzzle and read USA today cover to cover, and basically just did a lot of lying there with my eyes closed thinking about the hundreds of possibilities that might come up when I tried to surprise her and how each of them might result. Eleven or twelve hours of flight later I touched down in Frankfurt, Germany, at around 8am the next morning. Unfortunately we'd been circling for the previous half hour due to traffic in the pattern, lengthening the already lengthy flight some more. Nothing like watching the little airplane on the compass tracker on the big screen soooo close to getting there and then turn around and go the opposite direction. Depressing. Out I popped eventually, into what I thought would be bitter cold, but turned out to be nothing I wasn't used to. Customs consisted of showing my passport to someone and having them stamp away, and then off I went to wander the airport following the exit signs. Luckily they had everything in English too, so it was pretty straightforward, although my gate was as usual about a half mile from the main area of the terminal. I eventually made it there and the best friend found me, with a big grin on her face that brought a big grin to mine as we giggled about what was to come. She then made a beeline right through the place to where she was parked, as I did a lot of neck craning and staring like a typical tourist. Was my first time in a Porsche, wasn't brand new or anything, but hey I can't complain.

The Air Base actually shares a runway with Frankfurt International, so it was a very short trip over to her place from there. We made a quick stop to pick up a couple roses that would signify two months together, and then went over to the best friend's place to call my girlfriend and see what she was up to. Turns out she was still over at work finishing up a few things even though she had the day off, and said she'd be over in about ten. We developed a hide in the kitchen and pop up behind her as she walked in strategy, which was foiled as ten min later we called again, and she was still there fiddling around, so we made up an excuse and said we'd meet her over there. So over to one of the office buildings we went, as my pulse started to double and triple as usual when she's in the general vicinity. I just kept smiling thinking about the possibilities, and knowing I'd come so far, and I was almost there. We had her best friend go in first, and tell her to "close her eyes and count to eight." Now this is what I had planned for LAX back a couple weeks ago when I was going to surprise her but instead messed up her surprise so I expected the number eight would tip her off right away. As it was though after some rebuttal she just closed her eyes and began to count.

As she finished I strode in from the other room, the last few steps of a several thousand mile journey, duffle bag and roses in hand, smiling as bigly as ever. After opening her eyes, my girlfriend followed her best friend's gaze towards the doorway, and as soon as she saw me...

Sounds like a good place to pause. Wouldn't want to make this post too long.