Weird day
I have been doing nothing at work for the last two weeks but collecting projects. So, I was happy to have everyone out of the office so I could actually get some work done. I get to work at my usual time of 8:43, check and reply to email, field a call from a headhunter, work on excel for a while (that's what I do all day), hit save, and THE POWER GOES OUT. Auxillary generators turn on but my computer doesn't. But, some people are working, so I sit there for an hour reading back issues of Footwear News, and more power goes out. Crap.
So, I decide I'm gonna go home and work from there since the network is still working but the power isn't. Take a short TJ Maxx break on my way home and there I am, back on line.
At 3:30 I finish up two projects I wanted to complete. Yay for me. Two down and 5 to go.
Then I get in the car to see my friend Carolyn. Have known her for 21 yrs now, since my first day at UMass Amherst in 1986. Our friendship is old enough to drink., even if we weren't at the time. She's been in the service for 17 yrs, partly active and partly in the reserves, and her husband even longer. Uncle Sam has paid for the majority of her education and now he's calling in the favor.
Carolyn is being deployed to Iraq. She leaves tomorrow.
Andy's been deployed several times, but oddly enough Carolyn has never had to go overseas. She's been stationed all over the country, and we've gone several months to a couple years between times seeing each other. But boy is it weird when a friend you've had for more than half your life is heading into the danger zone.
I watched her pack more beige teeshirts than anyone should have (15) and enough feminine products for 4 people and the angel coin her best friend from girlhood had just stopped by the church to have blessed and brought by to give her while I was there tonight. Weird.
Fortunately she's not a soldier, she's a nurse. Currently a nurse anesthetist. She's worked ERs in prior lives and has worked in surgery and on trauma cases and stuff like that, but now it's mostly elective surgery like nosejobs and other stuff like that. But now she's gonna see some crazy unthinkable things in a place where they use IEDs on a daily basis and blow up cars and stuff. Very weird to think about that. She'll do great at her job though and learn a lot and be home in February with all sorts of wild things to talk about, but I'm still worried about my friend going to a dangerous place where I don't think we should be in the first place, and at the same time proud of her for her bravery and her service. And crossing fingers that the roads to and from the base are safe and clean the day she gets there and the day she leaves.
9/3/07 at the Willie Nelson concert
So, I decide I'm gonna go home and work from there since the network is still working but the power isn't. Take a short TJ Maxx break on my way home and there I am, back on line.
At 3:30 I finish up two projects I wanted to complete. Yay for me. Two down and 5 to go.
Then I get in the car to see my friend Carolyn. Have known her for 21 yrs now, since my first day at UMass Amherst in 1986. Our friendship is old enough to drink., even if we weren't at the time. She's been in the service for 17 yrs, partly active and partly in the reserves, and her husband even longer. Uncle Sam has paid for the majority of her education and now he's calling in the favor.
Carolyn is being deployed to Iraq. She leaves tomorrow.
Andy's been deployed several times, but oddly enough Carolyn has never had to go overseas. She's been stationed all over the country, and we've gone several months to a couple years between times seeing each other. But boy is it weird when a friend you've had for more than half your life is heading into the danger zone.
I watched her pack more beige teeshirts than anyone should have (15) and enough feminine products for 4 people and the angel coin her best friend from girlhood had just stopped by the church to have blessed and brought by to give her while I was there tonight. Weird.
Fortunately she's not a soldier, she's a nurse. Currently a nurse anesthetist. She's worked ERs in prior lives and has worked in surgery and on trauma cases and stuff like that, but now it's mostly elective surgery like nosejobs and other stuff like that. But now she's gonna see some crazy unthinkable things in a place where they use IEDs on a daily basis and blow up cars and stuff. Very weird to think about that. She'll do great at her job though and learn a lot and be home in February with all sorts of wild things to talk about, but I'm still worried about my friend going to a dangerous place where I don't think we should be in the first place, and at the same time proud of her for her bravery and her service. And crossing fingers that the roads to and from the base are safe and clean the day she gets there and the day she leaves.
9/3/07 at the Willie Nelson concert
Comments
It must be completely overwhelming to have such a close friend deployed.
I was going to ask you if you still were in touch with her.
Several friends and parents of our daughter's friends have been called up. It is probably too late, but see if you can get an email address, several people we know have been able to get infrequent emails out.
Also, write her as often as you can. One of Deb's friends commented that the letters were one of the best things to receive.
Chris
You get to WORK by 8:45? That means you get up at what, 3 am? (ducking)
Wow, things have changed. I remember coming back from classes and you were still in bed at 10 ;-)
Um, maybe a little history would help here huh? We were roommates with a couple of other ladies. Hmm, wait, um, that doesn't sound much better. Maybe you should explain it!?
Chris