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This time of year is strange for me, for so many reasons. I’ll break them down for you.

1. Day light savings time. Yes when we “fall” back we technically gain an hour which is great for us people who love to sleep and curse alarm clocks to the deepest part of hell. The problem I have with falling back is that it now gets dark entirely too early. 6 o’clock hits and I am ready for bed. If I do go to sleep early then I get up early and it starts this vicious cycle of napping during the day and being up all night, needless to say, it sucks. I am way more down with spring ahead!

2. Deployment. It was around this time 5 years ago that I headed to Afghanistan. It is a strangely emotional time for me. It’s funny because the actual journey and entry in to Afghanistan was uneventful. In fact, on the way there our plane broke down and we got to spend almost a week in Germany! For whatever reason though, I start reliving a lot of what I dealt with over there around this time of the year.

3. Marine Corps birthday. Happy 239th Marines! I love our birthday. I probably celebrate this occasion more than I do my own birthday, or Thanksgiving, or Christmas… This holiday means so much to me. I love how every Marine on Facebook changes his profile picture to a shot of them in uniform, I love that EVERYONE gets tagged in celebratory statuses. But, with the good comes the not so good. This is also a day I think about the fallen Marines who I had the absolute privilege of knowing. It can be quite sobering but I also know that my fallen brothers probably want me toasting to 300 more years of Marine ass whooping.

4. Veterans Day. I am all about Veterans Day. I am not one to go out to every single place that is offering a deal and take advantage of it. Instead, I choose to relax, maybe even throwing on a good war movie and taking time out to honor those who are no longer with us. I suppose I should be grateful that the Marine’s birthday and Veterans Day are side by side. I do not celebrate Veterans Day like I do the birthday, but I definitely appreciate what this holiday stands for and although I don’t exploit every Veteran’s day bargain, I am happy that certain businesses offer so much to those that have risked everything and stood up for our country.

I will be sad and also happy when I go to bed tomorrow night. At least I know when I drift off to sleep on Tuesday that I will only have to wake up Wednesday and white knuckle it through New Years!