Author: Nick

It’s official, we’re staying here! I’m getting stationed at the 55th Combat Camera company, Signals Brigade stationed on Fort George G. Meade (the picture above is just a picture I took at a training day, seemed appropriate since I’m blogging about the Army). That means another couple years of living near the nations capitol. We’re both excited and disappointed (some of the people in my class got Germany and some got South Korea), but overall I think it’s a really good assignment.

Anyway, Jen already posted about all the fun stuff going on in our lives so I’ll just leave you with a picture I took a little while back at the natural bridge.

This weekend Jen and I took the plunge. Spending A LOT of money we purchased most of the professional photography equipment I need to really get into the field. If you know anything about photography you might understand when I say I got a Nikon D300 with a Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5 lens, a Nikkor fixed 85mm f/1.8 lens, a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens, a Nikkon SB 800 flash, a 72mm polarizor and some standards like a tripod and a bag. The reasoning is three fold: A. I can’t shoot anything for personal use on government equipment. B. I’m a professional photographer, I may as well have the gear to act like one. C. The army won’t make a foolish man rich, but a wise man can use the army to make himself rich. By this I mean that although my salary in the service will never provide much in the way of comfort, I can use the skills the army has trained me on to help myself. I intend to start shooting jobs (most likely weddings) as soon as possible. The going rates in this area for photography are high and I’m hoping to pay off the gear and start making some decent scratch.

Jen has been absolutely incredible by patiently (and a bit timidly) allowing me to film her every waking moment and has even allowed me to drag her into the woods and onto a running track in makeup and interesting costumes to help me build my portfolio of work. For your viewing pleasure I’ve included some of the shots. Stay tuned to our Flickr account to see more in the coming weeks, months, and years. Let me know what you think, the more feedback the better.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY from the nation’s capitol! What better place to commemorate our nations birthday than Washington DC? Yesterday Jen and I saw the Parade and then waited six and a half hours to see A Capitol Fourth, which is an annual concert of the West lawn of the Capitol Building facing the National Monument. After waiting about four hours, mother Nature decided to spit on our endeavor and rain quite a bit. It rained so much people decided to go home even though they’d waited so long to see the concert.

WE on the other hand stuck it out, and well worth our efforts proved the show. We saw such talents as Jerry Lee Lewis (amazingly still alive and more amazingly still able to play the piano and sing), Huey Lewis and the News, and American Idols Taylor Hicks. Lastly the National Symphony Orchestra played the 1812 Overture while the biggest fireworks show in the country went off right over the National Monument. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Afterward, the Metro was so crowded that we had to stand huddled together in a corner of the train all the way back to our car. Check out our flickr account for lots of pictures of the parade and the Capitol Building.

Jen and I spent an amazing weekend in Ocean City and Assateague Island. Ocean City Maryland is about a three hour drive away from us and it was absolutely gorgeous. It’s a big long island but it’s only long one direction, so if you go a few blocks east or west of the main road you’re at the beach. It was pretty crowded, and the visibility wasn’t great because of what looked like wispy fog. We stayed for a bit and then decided that a hotel for the night would be too expensive. Luckily Jen had thought ahead and looked up camp sites. One in particular stood out, a national park called Assateague Island. It was just a few minutes from Ocean City and it was AMAZING!!!!!

At Assateague Island they have wild horses and ponies all over the place (take a look at our flickr site for pictures of wild horses on the beach, right next to the water). The camp site was a three mile walk down the beautiful beach and was pretty much right next to the water! The only down side was that in the middle of the night the mosquitoes sneak attacked us. Jen left the tent to get some air and a blitzkrieg attack ensued. Luckily she managed to make it back into the tent while only letting in a few of them. In between the rain flap and the tent was another story. Check out the flickr pics (which don’t really do justice to the thousands of enemy attackers that congregated above our heads).

Since we were so close to the ocean, we decided to partake of the seafood that was EVERYWHERE! We ended up at a little place called Assateague Crab Shack where Jen got the Fish and Chips and I got the all you can eat snow crab legs, shrimp, and corn on the cob. It was great!

Anyway, it was a great little vacation for our weekend. We truly enjoyed the beach and each others company. It was one of the funnest times of my whole life!

It’s been awhile since I’ve written and Jen’s been so good about writing frequently so I thought I better throw in some Nicsdom (kind of a cross between Nick and wisdom, just roll with it). Jen and I didn’t do too much today. It’s the weekend so we’ve had some extra time. We took some pictures of ourselves (albeit impromptu ones) like this one:

We went to the movies today. We saw the movie Baby Mama. Jen didn’t care for it much. I thought it was mildly funny. It was kind of a weak plot but oh well.
It’s been kind of a rough weekend for us. Jen’s still getting adjusted and I’ve been pretty sick. I have a fever and I’ve been unhappy all day. Jen starts her new job on Monday I think it will really help her.
I graduated Basic Photography earlier this week. It was nice to be recognized for working hard in the course, but it seems a little meaningless to have a graduation from one class into the next. I guess they have to do it because for the Air Force and Marines just have the one class before they head off for their duty stations.
Anyway, I’ll write more when I get a chance!

My beautiful wife Jen and I are less than a week away from reuniting! Friday morning she’s going to start the long car trip here with my mom at her side. I can’t wait to see her. We’ve been waiting SO long and now we’ll finally get to be together again.

Today marks the end of my performance exam in the Basic Still Photography course for this functional area (kind of like the last test on a chapter). I have already turned in my “perf” and am waiting for the grade. I hope I did well! Tomorrow is the written exam and so I’m going to study hard tonight so I can do well. Hopefully I’ll be able to bring my grade into the high 90s so that I can graduate with honors from the course.

Life at the detachment is ridiculous as usual. There are a lot of very stupid people who live in close proximity and unfortunately their actions often reflect on me even if I have nothing to do with them. I have a rising fear that everyone’s going to be on phaseback this coming weekend because of some very stupid actions from this last weekend. I hope and pray this doesn’t happen because I have a lot riding on my being able to leave on Sunday and see my wife and mother. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail at the detachment and the cadre will realize that isolated and individual incidents do not represent the whole of student company. Overall we are trying to follow the rules and do the right thing. We have a very intelligent and level headed 1st Sergeant and I hope that he will see that mass punishment will only exacerbate the situation. One of the main problems which is creating these incidents is overcrowding and poor living conditions, perhaps this will be taken into account. We are all making the best of a difficult situation. I realize that more problems make life difficult for the cadre, but I hope they realize that the privates at student company are trying their best.

Well, I hope things go well this week and that I won’t have any negative news to report when I blog next. As long as I get to see my wife and mother on Sunday I think I’ll live.

It’s getting closer and closer to the time that my beautiful wife Jen will get here, and I for one am more excited than a ten year old on Christmas Eve! I miss my wife so much and being apart from her these last five months has been incredibly difficult. I love her with all my heart and when she gets here I’m going to be the happiest man alive!

My mother Julie Lloyd is also going to be coming to Fort Meade. She’s going to be driving with Jen to keep her company on the extremely long drive. I’m excited to see her, especially since I missed her birthday and I’ll miss Mothers Day too, but I’ll only miss Mothers Day by about 17 hours so I think I can still say “Happy Mothers Day!!” when I see her. Jen and I are extremely grateful for my moms willingness to drive with Jen.

School here at Fort Meade is getting a little tougher. I scored a 75% on today’s quiz, the lowest quiz score I’ve received, but my average is still in the 90s so I think I’m ok. The army is being ridiculous as usual in that I have not received my Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) as of yet, so they owe me for about 2 months of housing! Hopefully the BAH situation will be resolved before my wife gets here and our housing office starts demanding rent!

Anyway, I love my wife and I can’t wait to see her. Less than two weeks now!

This is me and my gorgeous new wife Jen! We’re smiling but in all actuality this captured moment is rather bitter sweet. It’s the day after our marriage, so we’re happy as can be about that, but this is also the last time we’re going to see each other for three months. The bulk of that three months is now over and at the time of this post we’ll only be two and a half weeks from being in each others arms again! We’ve been through so much to get to where we are, and more than likely we will have to endure much more, but through our adversity our marriage has found a strength I feel is uncommon for the short length of time it’s existed. We are so desperately in love and so incredibly committed to one another.

As you can see, I married a stone cold fox. Jen is ridiculously beautiful, and what’s more she’s got a brain to match. In many ways she’s more intelligent than I (i.e. she didn’t drop out of college to join the army) and I love her for it. I’ve been trying to get her to pursue a masters degree because in my opinion a mind is a terrible thing to waste and she’s certainly got the intellect to continue on in school, but we’ll see how it goes.

It’s been so spectacularly difficult to be away from Jen these last few months, especially because we haven’t been able to spend a single night together since our marriage on the day I graduated basic training. The day Jen gets here will be one of the happiest of my life, I can’t wait to see her! I have so many wonderful things planned for us like trips to Washington D.C. and Baltimore, candlelight dinners, romantic carriage rides and many other activities. Knowing that I might deploy sometime within the next year has really made me think about how precious the time is we’re going to have together while I’m stationed here in Maryland.

This blog will be a good way for Jen and I to let our friends and family know how we’re doing, as well as record the ups and downs and terribly romantic day to day happenings of newly wed life. Log in every once in a while to see what’s going on in the life of the Lloyds!