For the first 7 months of our tour in Korea, I’ve spent my weekdays alone.

Alone to clean house. Alone to throw myself into work. Alone to blog about the dog, the husband or life in general.

At first it was really hard…I mean massively hard. Harder than any other Army move.

It was a huge adjustment that took a good couple of months, lots of kleenex & a steady stream of chocolate.

So I found solace in routine. Scheduled tasks to do over & over each week became a comfort – a way of making it through the week without losing my sanity.

Oh, it didn’t always work…sometimes it still doesn’t. But for the most part, it’s what’s kept me going. That whole, ‘Time to make the donuts’ mentality.

Ok, really dating myself there with that obscure Dunkin’ Donuts commercial reference - sorry about that. It’s getting late here & I’m waxing nostalgic.

But if you’d like to take a trip down my memory lane, here you go…

And of course, the trip’s not complete without my favorite one of all.

 

But in the past 2 weeks things have changed.

I now have a neighbor who’s my age, my speed & has my same predicament.

And this week she walked me to the local bakery - which I didn’t even know existed about 5 blocks North of us, I think.

I stared at all the bread, all the muffins…thinking of home & the last time I ate at Panera.

And while a Korean bakery is not quite a Panera, I’ll smile & be happy for they have fresh bread.

Bread that won’t expire in 2 days. Bread that won’t mold in 3…on the outside 4.

I had enough won on me to buy a loaf of bread & a couple of scone-like muffins for Eric for breakfast.

Now if they could only make a really great crunchy bread or dark Russian rye.