Remembering, Honoring and Thanking Them

Today is Memorial Day, a day to remember all our fallen service men and women, those who have served, and those who serve today. I think it's even more than just thinking of them -- I think this is a day to be grateful, and to express that gratitude.

I'm a dyed-in-the-wool, pacifist, peacenik. I abhor the violence of war. But I am quite conscious of the fact that the Bill of Rights and the Constitution that allow me to express these feelings are only possible through the sacrifice of those in the US Military. I am deeply grateful to those who have served our country, and to those in service right now.

If you'd asked me before I met Fearless Husband if I could see myself married to someone in the military, I would have fallen over laughing. But that was then, and this is now. This is for Fearless Husband.

Thank you for your service. For being an American Sailor, with all that entails.

Thank you for having the courage and the determination and the endurance to float around inside a big, hot, iron box in the middle of the ocean. For knowing that at any moment, you could be sent somewhere dangerous, or be in danger where you are, but doing it anyway. For putting up with the crap and the bureaucracy and the uniforms and the goobers who shouldn’t have been promoted, but were.

Thank you for following the rules, for standing tall, for barking out “yes, Chief!” and “yes, sir!” even those times when you must have felt like saying “up yours!” instead. For dealing with mountains of paperwork, even when you knew it would just mean more mountains of contradictory paperwork when someone changed the rules.

Thank you for being a leader, even when it just feels like thankless middle management. For taking care of your Junior Sailors regardless of their ingratitude and poor attitudes. For doing your best for them, even when you know that some of them will blow any opportunities you give them, and some of them will take all the credit for any advancements, but blame you for any setbacks. For caring enough to speak out and work against injustice and bigotry, even when it might harm your own career plans.

Thank you for giving your time, your thoughts, your energy, your courage, your dedication and your body in service to the United States of America.

You are appreciated.

And you are loved.

I'd Like to Thank the Academy...

Lookit what I got! I actually received the award for a post I wrote over two years ago about Japanese garbage collection and disposal, oddly enough. It wasn't even a post with photos.

I was shocked, and surprised, and all-out-of-proportion excited to receive this award...and grateful. Very grateful.

Do visit The Rising Blogger by clicking on the image, and check out some of the other recipents. I'm in awfully good company!

You like me! You really like me! (Hee hee hee, I couldn't resist!)

Suddenly the Internet Feels Like Summer Camp

Time for a break in our less-than-regularly-scheduled programming. I have a list of blogs I really enjoy reading -- a very long list. I couldn't possibly read them every day, although there are a few, like Mary's blog, that I check almost daily. However, I do eventually visit them all. Imagine my surprise to visit DaMomma's blog today and see my name! Seems my cousin Susie posted a meme on her blog, and tagged me...and tagged DaMomma, too.

The Internet is beginning to feel a little like summer camp. Here I am in Japan, and I discover from my friend in Massachusetts (who I've never met in person, but for whom I designed and typeset DaBook) that my cousin in Wisconsin tagged me for a meme. Suddenly, we're not thousands of miles away from each other...it's as if we're all in the same cabin, whispering and giggling after lights out.

So, without further ado (or any more parenthetical remarks), here's the meme, via Susie and DaMomma.

The Rules:

• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share five random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
  Share the five top places on your “want to see or want to see again” list.
• Tag a minimum of five random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment in their blog.

The Meme:

• I was tagged by SusieQ.
• Five Random/Weird Facts About Me:
• I was the wardrobe mistress for the Big Apple Circus and shared one of six "bunk rooms" in a semi-truck's trailer with a roommate. When one of us was standing, the other had to stay on her own bunk, as there wasn't room for two of us to stand at the same time.
• I have really surprisingly straight teeth naturally, no braces. For most of my life, dentists and hygenists have assumed I had braces and have been very surprised when I've told them I haven't. Of course, now, at almost 42 years old, it seems that one of my front teeth has decided to turn sideways just in the past year or so, and I may have to get braces after all!
• I don't particularly care for cake, just the frosting. If I could get away with it, I'd lick all the icing from cupcakes and leave the cake part.
• The best New Year's Eve I've ever spent was the year I was part of the overnight team for Room in the Inn. Area churches take turns providing meals and shelter for the homeless during the colder months, and teams of volunteers work the various shifts (set-up, cooking, clean-up, laundry, spending the night with the guests, etc.) That evening, I was one of the two "spend-the-night" crew for our downtown church. I escorted three of our guests to the front lawn of the church for a cigarette break and to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks. We watched the fireworks and the passing revelers, and talked for over an hour. I learned more that night about humanity, compassion, loss and grief than I'd ever known, just from talking to those three men. It was life changing.
• When I was in first grade, our school was still being constructed. A group of us went to the newest girls' lavatory. Before we left, we knew we were supposed to wash our hands, but there was no soap dispenser. I saw a large tin of soft, gooey, brown stuff. "It's soft soap!" I told the other little girls. "Just like Laura Ingalls Wilder used in the little house on the prairie!" They all nodded, impressed with my knowledge, and we all lathered up. It wasn't soft soap -- it was that disgusting waterproof stuff used to make a water-tight seal when installing a toilet. Getting the gunk off was a nightmare, and to this day, if my family thinks I am making something up or guessing with no real knowledge, they'll roll their eyes and say "yeah, soft soap!"
• Top five places I want to visit or visit again:
  • Greece
  • Prague
  • Peru
  • India
  • Space
• Tag at least five friends:
• Resident Alien (Mary)
• Ei's Eyes
• From the Planet of Janet
• I Left My Heart in Okinawa (cousin Emily)
• Rock the Cradle (Paula)

Now I have an inexplicable desire to make a lanyard, or sing a song with hand gestures while sitting on a log by a campfire...

How to Succeed in Blogland (Without Really Trying)

I do not do memes.

Let me repeat, I do NOT do memes. However, one of my very favorite people (and fellow blogger) Mary at Resident Alien tagged me with this meme, so I find I can't help myself. She flattered me as well, telling me she was hoping to prod me into posting more adventures. What she doesn't realize is that posting this relieves some of the guilt and pressure I was feeling to post, so now I can relax for a few days! HA!

Roolz 4 R33ly Gr8 Blogging:

1. Use L33T-speak whenever possible (see above). Everyone will then realize you are uber-cool and not just a bored, middle-aged military wife.
   
2. When you really want to emphasize something, make each word its Own. Fragmentary. Sentence. For example: "I may not post often, but I think about posting All. The. Time."
   
3. White text on a black background shows that you are uber-hip, and also that you are very serious about writing just for yourself. Your audience will feel special if they think you are blogging for Serious Reasons, not just for popularity. This -- despite the headaches caused by trying to read the tiny white letters on the heavy black background -- should make you more popular which is, after all, the reason you blog in the first place!
   
4. Use as many acronyms as pseduonyms as possible. Readers love to feel "in the know" as they read your blog, smug in the knowledge that they are part of the priviledged few who've been around long enough to know that LexHBBS is actually "Loser Ex-Husband's Bitchy Boss' Secretary." This technique has the added benefit of forcing new readers to sift through your archives, trying to decipher your current posts.
   
5. Fill your blogroll with the coolest of the cool, as if they were all close personal friends. Forget your real friends -- no one knows who they are! If your blogroll doesn't start with Dooce, Amalah and Perez Hilton, you're a loser. (Edited to add: I don't hate these A-listers. I enjoy reading Amalah occasionally, though I'm not much of a Dooce fan. I'm just speaking to the practice of filling one's blogroll with ONLY A-list bloggers, as if you never read any other blogs, or as if you are trying to prove you are one of them by association.)
   
6. Never write long blog posts. Only nerds and mouthbreathing eggheads want to read actual text in the first place, so you can rest assured that no one wants to make the effort to read more than a paragraph or two. But post every day, even if you have nothing to say except whining about how unfair life is (to you, of course) or describing your child's gastrointestinal processes in graphic detail.
   
7. Beg for comments. Whine for comments. Plead for comments. After all, comments are how you know if you are popular. But...if anyone ever leaves you less than absolute and fawning praise in a comment, take big offense and ensure that your next post is a snarky and sarcastic diatribe against the offender.

There, with tongue firmly in cheek. How's that, Mary? Actually, I had fun! I tag...umm...Liz and Lori.

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programming...

..to bring you this news bulletin. For now, my domain (www.wordmagix.com) points here, to Adventures in Japan. But eventually, though this blog will continue to exist, the domain itself will be for my freelance graphic design business. In the meantime, you might get momentary breaks from Adventures in Japan for announcements like this one.

The big news--drumroll please! The Book is at the publishers!

For those of you who don't know, I've been helping a blogging friend with her new book. She trusted me with her witty, hysterically funny, occasionally poignant, brilliantly written words, and I put together a layout and book cover. Yes, she's in New England and I'm in Japan. The cover photography was done in North Carolina (by Dad, a professional photographer), the illustrations were done in California, and the proofreading was done in Colorado. Truly an international (and electronic!) project. Perhaps one day, we can all meet face to face--other than Dad and me (of course), the rest of us have never met except via cyberspace. Hey, maybe can meet on Oprah!

Motherhood is Not for Wimps is at the publisher now, and should be available (we hope!) on Amazon.com and via Liz's website by December 1st. Visit Liz's blog at www.damomma.com and bookmark it-- you won't be sorry! To see the book cover, click here.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled Adventures.