Fair winds and following seas, Angelo Villagomez!

So this post is kinda late, as I had intended to post it earlier in the week but a lot of things came up so i never finished it..... better late than never, I suppose.

By the end of the week, the island of Saipan will be bidding farewell to one of the greatest public figures that it has ever seen. Angelo Villagomez, whom we all know and have come to love in the past four years, is moving on to the next chapter of his life and leaving Saipan for Florida. In the past four years that he has been on Saipan, he has done so much for the community; a lot more than many other public figures have ever done. No, he never loaned out picnic tables or tents for those big parties that we all love so much. What he did, and what he will be leaving us with, is so much more valuable. Just the establishment of Beautify CNMI alone is enough to write pages upon pages about. With Beautify CNMI, he managed to create a nonpartisan organization that united our people, regardless of which political party they belonged to, under the common goal of beautifying our islands. Together, we have successfully cleaned, and will continue to clean many areas on island in our mission to rid the islands of the various eyesores that pollute our image. While I cannot be there in person, I fully support the mission of Beautify CNMI. In a politically divided CNMI, it is the one thing that unites us under one vision, the vision of a beautiful and tourist-friendly vacation destination. We have Angelo to thank for that.

He has inspired so many of us to take action and speak out for what we believe in. The amount of participation by my peers in political and environmental discussions has skyrocketed thanks to all of his efforts. He truly was an inspiration to us all and the catalyst for change in many. He has paved the way for all of us to go, and now it is our job to continue on with what he started. He may not be on island anymore, but we can continue carrying out his (and our) dream of creating and sustaining another beautiful and prosperous CNMI. I have spoken to a lot of my friends and former classmates from home, and they have all expressed an interest in returning home someday to try to help our islands rise up from the ashes, when those very same people had once picked up their bags and left saying that they would never return because there was no hope left. Angelo has brought that spark of hope back for many of us, and I will be forever grateful for that. As for me, I never gave up hope. I kept trying to convince my peers that there would always be hope as long as we never gave up on our islands, but many of them didn't see that hope until Angelo came into the picture and showed us all what was possible with hard work, dedication, and a little bit of faith.

And so, it is now up to us, CNMI, to carry on with his vision. Let's all continue to work together to help make our dreams a reality. We can do it. Just look at everything we have accomplished in the last couple of years. Think about how much more we can accomplish if we just keep on with it for the next couple of years and into the future! Thank you so much for everything you have done for us and our home, Angelo. Your presence on island will truly be missed, and the day of your return someday in the future will be a greatly anticipated event. May you have a safe journey to Florida and may you continue to be successful where ever your life takes you. We hope to see you again someday.

The New Routine.

So I spent the weekend moving into Denyale's house.... I am now living with Denyale and Dylan out in town, and it's pretty sweet. I am not going to move all my stuff out of my barracks room, obviously, but just the stuff that's taking up a lot of space here. I'm only gonna be using my room for the nights that I have to come in to work on the messdecks. The weekend was alright, I went over to Mango's pad for a little BBQ with other people from the shop and everyone got wild and crazy and drunk. I drank a few drinks, but I knew that Den and Dylan would get way too trashed that night, so I eventually cut myself off so that I could drive us home when everyone was ready to leave. It was quite an experience, the drive home. It was dark and it was raining pretty hard so I was kinda on edge already, and then Den, being absorbed into her phone and reacting to it with "oh my god" and "gasp" from time to time, would really freak me out. I'm not usually a jumpy driver, but keep in mind that I haven't driven a vehicle in over 8 months (probably even longer), and I have never driven in Washington, AND it was dark and rainy.... all of that makes the perfect recipe for a nerve-racking night.

So anyway, we got home and the absolutely wasted Dylan went to bed eventually, after a couple of embarrassing moments with Den and quite possibly some hidden truths that came out unintentionally. The next morning we were gonna drop Dylan off to work, but when I woke up to my alarm I was so tired that I passed out again and they left. I woke up when Den came back and I couldn't sleep after that. I ended up watching the second half of Heroes Season 3, because there was a marathon running on G4. Den and I stayed in our own little worlds pretty much all day, except for the times when she would cook us a meal, and then later on in the night she had decided that enough was enough and we couldn't stay in the house any longer. She said we needed to go out and do something or she would go insane, so that's just what we did. We went over to Silverdale Mall and hung out for a while, and then on our way back she said she was too lazy to cook again so we decided to go get some pizza from LIttle Caesar's.

We ate the pizza and watched ghost shows on TV, and then she and I went to bed because she said she had to go fishing early in the morning the next day. She ended up not going because she had ended up staying up so late (she said she didn't get to sleep till around 5:30), and I woke up to the sound of Dylan entering the house. We all hung out for a couple of hours, and then Wolf and Connor came over and chilled for a while and we all got drunk at the house and all that shit.

IDK, it was a pretty boring and uneventful weekend for me, but it was good down time spent with Den and Dylan. We have accepted that the three of us are all we have for the next year and a half (I, unfortunately, have longer on the boat than that, but Den and Dylan are getting out before I do) and that this was our family until then. It's cool, though, because I really do see Den as a sister and Dylan as a brother. They're the ony two people in the shop that I actually do trust fully and wholeheartedly and I know won't fuck me over on anything.