CLAY CHASTAIN

Well, it’s been a pretty long time since I updated this, largely because I’ve been having a great time spending my days with Carissa. On September 21, I took her to Pearlz and proposed. It was simple, but pretty romantic. I was so nervous that I was pounding beers and I even ate two dinners. Yep, might as well go big! One of the other guests there even picked up our tab, which was pretty nice. Overall, it was a good day.

Since then, Carissa is living at our new house in Ladson, SC. It’s been really enjoyable, especially now that I’ve got all my furniture from Texas and we’re not sleeping (or living) on air mattresses as the only furniture in the house. Besides Carissa, I’m living with Lim, Ngo, and Ryals. We’re a pretty good mixture of people for one house (though no one puts the clean dishes away except us).

Next door to us our other Navy buddies, Reff, his wife, Berg, Haynes, and now a guy called Hollander and his girl have moved in — making our house a central hub for people to come over and hang out. Not a bad set up at all.

So, back in South Carolina, I’m on prefill (another hold division) waiting to class up for Prototype where I will pretend operate a nuclear plant. It’s scary to think I may be on hold for a couple of months longer — I already forgot basically every single thing I’ve learned. I crammed it all before, so it didn’t stick with me long term. The good news is that I officially have what I consider to be the easiest job in the Navy: I drive the 44 passenger bus in a big circle from a parking lot to Prototype from 4 AM to 7 AM. This has given me so much free time with Carissa, which is great. She’s trying to get a job so that’s probably about to change. I guess I’ll just use the free time to sleep or use Reddit. Not sure.

It’s weird to think of me as a “grown up”. The Navy itself treats most of its lower ranking Sailors as children, and we tend to live up to this hype for the most part. But, I’m finally settling down and thinking about my future. I have a career, a house, and a beautiful girl. I guess everything does work out. We’re waiting until around June for the actual marriage, but I don’t want anything too big. I’d rather spend it on a really, really awesome honeymoon. We’ll see how that works out!

Otherwise it’s been nice being back in Charleston. The city isn’t all bad, especially up in the Summerville area where we’re close to. Right now my life is actually more laid back than in Kings Bay — but that’s just for a couple more months!