As a few of you know, I'm the quiet half of the roommates that log in from the same house.  Morgan5318 is always out there where everyone can talk to her, it's the way she is.  I tend to hide behind the artwork, videos, or on rare occasion, posts that I do.  I've had a few of you try and change that on me: Vels, Xwarp, Point4Zero, Openminded1, PARanger to name a few.

I have the odd pleasure of growing up in a Navy family.  My grandfather was career Air Force (I could say when it really was, but let's face it that's just the rivalry speaking since I support all the armed forces), starting in the Army Air Corps.  My great-uncle was career Army.  My father was career Navy, divorced my mom when I was one.  My dad was career Navy, he and my mom celebrated their twenty-sixth anniversary this year.  I have two younger sisters I don't know with my biological father and the woman he married, this despite our living one mile from him on every base that we were stationed at.  The youngest turned nineteen this year and is going into the Air Force.  The oldest I'm not sure how old is, but married into the Army.  My baby sister has thought better of this, this being the sister I grew up with from my mom and dad, and has decided college and a full time career as a bartender and model was better than military service.  For the record, she's a size 0 and on regular occasion I tell her she sucks, despite her getting this genetically from our dad who after twenty six years has gained two pounds on my mom's cooking.

A lot of people have asked me over the past month how I know so much about survival, herbalism, etc.  The answer to that is rather silly, but in some cases amusing.  There are no boys in the family.  To be honest, short of us girls marrying, no boy has been born into the direct line in four generations.  So my grandfather improvised and I grew up the tomboy.  Which in some ways has been great.  He refused to let any of us girls have a driver's license until we could change the oil, spark plugs, change the tires, check fluid levels, and give an idea to poor mechanic what was wrong.  I was also the person he talked to about Korea, Vietnam, how to survive in the wild if I was lost.  He taught me how to shoot, how to make fire with sticks (you don't rub them together :P), who to get relatively clean and filtered water in a stream, and neat stuff like that.  He was a Kentucky mountain boy, go figure.  I also had a wonderful grandmother who insisted I learn how to cook by scratch, what herbs did what and where to  find them, and she tried to teach me to sew but... Not my forte unless I work slowly with it.  That was the Native American in her.  Joy of our family having Apache and Cherokee blood mixed in with the Irish, Scottish and Welsh.  My mom is terrified of any kid my husband and I have since he's Cajun Sicilian.  I also had the pleasure from my freshman to my senior year of being a part of the Sea Cadets.  It's the Navy version of the Civil Air Patrol, but instead they teach kids how to do the jobs of active duty Navy personnel.  This includes going to bootcamp, going temporary duty to ships and stations, and even going overseas during the summer.  Neat program and well worth it.

I have the pleasure of celebrating my eleventh year of marriage this year with my husband who is in the Navy.  Thankfully, we have three and a half years left before we hit the big twenty.  I say thankfully, not because I don't believe in the military, but after this long of seeing politicians screw them over, I'd prefer to have my husband alive than have a flag on the wall.  They keep trying to kill every year when they make him go back to the Gulf.  I've seen him a year and a half of our entire marriage.  People ask me how I handle it.  I really don't.  I smile in public, listen to him when he calls or email him when he writes, and I cry a lot.  It's easier than telling him that I don't want him to leave, that I don't want to be alone, that I'm sorry that I have all these cats that he's allergic to when he comes home.  At least I understand why my mom was the way she was with dad gone six months of the year.

I volunteered about halfway into the first week here at JRP.  It's had its ups and down, highs and lows.  Trying to keep up with one of the most verbose fan groups has been a challenge, but an enjoyable one. Anyone who tells you that modding is easy, either has no life offline or is a masochist.  Especially when emotions run high, text meanings get missed, or people have just had bad days.  It gets harder when decisions are made because tempers are flared.  It causes things to spiral out of control, and in some cases. makes things worst.  It's why text environments are the worst creators of miscommunications.  There's no inflection, so you don't know if someone is upset or not.  If you think someone means something a bad way, don't hesitate to PM them. It's better than creating hurt feelings where there were none.

Now, some of you may be asking why I put living without escape from the fandom.  Realitiy is, for some time it's been a major topic here at the house.  I love Jericho dearly, it's been a great escape.  My yard that I take care of, nor the flowers and the wild birds/etc I doubt do.  Given where I live, the lack of television within this house, the computer is my escape.  It's how I pretend the world isn't always as bad as it is, or that the closest bar/club for me to go to is in another state because I'm a goth and there are no country goth bars here in Oklahoma.  So, I guess what I'm saying is, while continuing the fight, try to remember there is a world out there.  Even if you unplug and go for a walk in your yard, it's well worth it.  The scenery DOES change.