Whoa.

Whoa!  I can't believe its been four weeks since I arrived here from boot camp!  Its been quite a whirlwind since the last time I've blogged....

So I have been officially approved for acceleration at the school, which means I'll be graduating on October 28th.  I ended up having crazy fast turnaround time for approval apparently, it took only one day!  So now I'm on a self paced individual study program for my academics, and an accelerated schedule for my performance assessments.  I'm hoping to finish my academics by the end of September so that I can spend the last month focusing on my playing.

I also found out another very important piece of information!  I found out where I'm going to be stationed...drumroll please...I'll be part of the U.S. Fleet Forces Band in Norfolk, VA.  So that means I'll be staying right here in Virginia!  I will be living in the same area, because the Norfolk base is only 20 minutes away from where I am living now!  Definitely not how I had originally planned, but I think I'm OK with it.  I'm excited because they have an actual wind ensemble in addition to the ceremonial band (most of the Navy fleet bands only have a ceremonial band because there isn't enough players for a concert band).

So my days are filled with practicing, studying, cleaning, being on watch, and obsessing about my uniform (because its necessary!  They are super picky with us because we are the "face" of the Navy and we have to look gooooood.)  This past week, I just changed rooms in the barracks because my room was so messed up!  But it looks like I'll be moving out of the barracks in a few weeks anyway, because Ben's going to be moving down (since I'll be stationed in Norfolk) soon, so I'll get to live off base!  Being married in the military definitely has its perks.  He is coming to visit this coming weekend and I am so excited to see him!  But we may end up spending most of our weekend looking for a place to live.  I think I'm ok with that though :)