Frenemy

By the very nature of his designation, my favorite frenemy, Don, excels at cloaking his soft-hearted side in sarcasm and verbal ribbing. I was only fooled for about the first six months of our friendship. (During that time I did wonder how in the world he snagged someone as compassionate and kind as Deb.) That was about twenty years ago, however. Now I know the real Don, the Don of dual personalities. The Don that doesn't really care about football but stays up late watching my beloved Patriots get creamed just so he can irritate me with his happy texts about it but then shows up at the house the next day with Dunkin' Donuts coffee to cheer me up after their wretched defeat. Frenemies only come around once in a blue moon. I'm thankful for mine and the coffee he brings.



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The Quick and the Loud

It's been about 24 hours since his arrival and I'm guessing by now, that the culture shock of life on Parris Island has set in for Jubal.

Quick and loud is the way to blend in and bring as little attention to yourself as possible during training. This applies even to phone calls apparently.

Upon arrival, the new recruits process through many stations. such as hair cut, gear issue and of course, the "safe arrival" phone call. I was prepared for the scripted words and the short 10 second duration but I hadn't realized that Jubal would be YELLING all his information into the phone. "This is Recruit Gilbert! I have arrived safely at Parris Island..." rang quite loudly in my ear at 3:10 AM. It was a little unusual and I think I was still chuckling as my head hit the pillow once again.

Now the only means of communication will be letters for the next 12 weeks.

I think some personalized stationery is in order.




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Phases

A new phase of life began for Jim and I today as we watched Jubal being sworn in as a Recruit in the Marine Corp.








Jubal's training on Parris Island will consist of three Phases over the course of 13 very tough weeks. The most brutal weeks are the first ones.
He will be arriving very soon as I write this, and at some point in the middle of the night, I will receive the " I am here" call, read from a script on a 3x5 card above the phone. His head recruiter, who did an extremely thorough job of briefing us on the 13 weeks yesterday, told me to talk right over Jubal as he reads the script or there will be no time for him to hear what I say. So, Jubal has his script and I have mine ready to go.

There were no tears from me today. I'm actually doing very well and excited for what he will accomplish in the next 3 months. My general crying schedule is an annual one and I suspect the tears will arrive in time for the Graduation on December 19 when Jubal earns the title of Marine.

I have always said that because of my easy-going, go with the flow nature, I would have made a good military wife. I'll just apply those qualities to being a great Marine Mom.


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Mansfield Park

I finished reading Jane Austen's Mansfield Park recently and wrote a couple of my favorite quotes from the book on the chalkboard in the kitchen. One was a humorous observation from a character about a less than adequate suitor. "What a difference a vowel makes! If his rents were but equal to his rants!"
The other was simply what I thought to be a bit of wisdom and ended up being quite relevant this week as our Pastor buried one of his sons on Sunday and our Woolwich-Wiscasset church family participated in a service for Pat Dighton on Friday. "There is nothing like employment, active indispensable employment, for relieving sorrow."


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Sand Painting

School has begun and our first art project of the year was sand painting. Atira and I are always up for any art and we enjoyed taking the basic rose in two different directions. We are still not quite sure what Tell's painting actually IS...(maybe people driving in a car with the sun shining and a clouds in the sky?)...but he enjoyed creating it and that was the main purpose.










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