The great Nate update!

Do you see a pattern? : )

Nathan has been back in Cordova since December 31 after experiencing, in his words, "the best Christmas ever." Cordova has been enjoying a very temperate winter. Nathan's been taking advantage of his new ice skates at the gravel pit in Cordova and has even played some ice hockey with Coast Guard friends.

Today Nathan is officially reinlisting, a formality that has to be done before the CG goes through the expense of moving him all the way to Los Angeles.

In preperation for the move and his new duty station, Nathan has been going through all his stuff with a fine-tooth comb and donating books and clothes to the Good Will. His goal is to have all his belongings fit in his car for the move. His car's not that big.... and he will (hopefully) be traveling with his very best friend Alex. Speaking of his car, he got the car registered in Alaska and the title is now in his name. Phew. I'm so glad that's all taken care of, and now he can turn around and do it again when he moves to LA.

Also in preparation for his new duty station, Nathan is trying to learn California's second official language. He purchased Rosetta Stone and is using it to become fluent in Spanish. One of his superiors told him that if he could speak Spanish in LA he'd likely get promoted faster, as your coxswain qualificaiton is based, among other things, on how many boat trips you've made, and if you can speak Spanish fluently you'll get chosen to go on boat trips. Kudos to him; hopefully he remembers some of what I tried to teach him in Grade 8.

He hasn't been snowboarding yet this year, mostly because of the weather and his work schedule. And because it costs money to snowboard, but he can ice skate for free : ) He's on a basketball team with his shipmates and they're currently playing in a tournament in Cordova. Last night didn't go so well for them, but they're hopeful to get the #2 spot in the tournament.

Nathan mailed off his application for the CG Academy last week. Now we wait to hear whether he'll be moving to LA or to Connecticut. He'll know by April 15.

The only other thing I can think in the area of "Nathan News" is that his ship will be drydocked for three months, but they're not sure of the location. They better figure it out soon, though, as they're going to be underway for 12 days starting Monday, and when they get back from that trip they'll start transitting to the drydock port. Nathan is still hoping for Alameda, but he is hearing rumors of being in Seward, which is supposed to be worse than Cordova in terms of "things to do."