This was Libby Blue back in mid-April at 5 months.
It’s one of the ways I want to remember her.
This is another.
And yes, that’s what I said…remember.
It’s been a hard, hard emotional day to cap the end of a terribly emotional week & I just don’t think I can bring myself to tell you everything tonight without totally losing it.
But yes, Libby’s light has left this world & I just can’t stop crying about it.
Even now.
Ok….I want you to think hard.
[giving you a sec to put your thinking caps on]
At some point in your life, you hated your boss. Or maybe it was your direct supervisor, or a co-worker you couldn’t stand.
Do you remember wishing you could just quit & go somewhere else? But you needed the income, or the health benefits, or didn’t want to give up such a short commute.
Regardless of what it was, you were stuck. Stuck in a job working for a:
____________.
[enter your choice of words here]
*For example: tyrant, witch, dictator, bastard, or my favorite - blood-sucking-vampire-who-drained-the-life-out-of-everything-&-everyone-and-made-my-life-a-living-Hell. But, you know, feel free to use something else if you like.
And you would find yourself in mundane staff meetings or on God-awful long conference calls imagining how much better your work life would be if that ____________ [again, your word]
just quit & went somewhere else. Oh how you wished it would come true.
Well in Korea….you get your wish.
Because unaccompanied tours are only one year, bosses and co-workers fly in & out in a flash. Giving you just enough time to meet the new guy, get used to “his way of doing things”, only to turn around & say farewell – ushering in another new guy & yet another new way of doing things.
Unaccompanied Tour: A year of your life spent working away from your spouse & kiddos. Depending on your current situation, that’s either a good thing or a bad thing. I’m just sayin’.
When I arrived in Korea last year, a new Brigade Commander was brought in within weeks of my arrival. And that (look up top) was him.
So now lo & behold, in just a little over a week he’s saying goodbye & a new commander is coming in.
In & out.
And just earlier this week, they said goodbye to the Battalion Commander.
Two new guys…two top new guys…in a year’s time & within weeks of each other.
Can you say “whiplash”?
How about “pink polka-dotted parasol”?
Yeah, trying sitting behind that in the bleachers.
Life in Korea has come full circle….the boy scouts are coming back.
Ok, so yeah…that whole “oh look! They’re planting the rice again!”…is more of a full circle of life kinda thing. But hey, it’s late. I’m tired.
Work with me.
Because if you, like me, had no life back in June of 2009 then you’ll remember one of my initial posts about the boy scouts arrival.
I was still adjusting to life in Korea – I’d been here all of a month & a half and in my absolute & total ignorance I blamed the early morning reveille on the boy scouts.
Yeah…the sound wasn’t so much from the boy scouts as it was from the base…wafting over & across the rice fields straight into our open bedroom windows.
Turns out, if we listen hard enough, you can always hear reveille in the morning…and then retreat in the afternoon…and taps at night.
Reveille: The Army’s way of saying “rise & shine” at 0600 every morning & to signal they’re raising the flag, aka colors.
Retreat: A bugle call to signal the end of the official duty day when the colors come down. There’s a pre-warning blast that plays out at 1655. This is so that come 1700 when the full song plays every soldier – whether they’re in uniform or not, in a taxi cab or outside the commissary knows to face the direction of the flag, stand at attention & salute. And yes, if you’re in a car you stop & get out. The taxi driver will wait for you.
Taps: While it’s played at the end of a military funeral, it’s also played every night as a way to signal “lights out”.
So now you know…don’t you feel smarter already?
I mean, c’mon…that topic is bound to come up in a trivial pursuit question at some point in your life.
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