Preseason

I picked up some tickets to a preseason game and wish I'd just decided to buy them last week as there were better seats then... oh well.

Caps-Canes....

In honor of the new season coming up, a few throwback photos.

Some time in Atlanta

For the long weekend, Jonathon and I flew to Atlanta from DC, and Nicholas flew from Jax NC, and we all met up with Rebecca. Katherine had work over the weekend so didn't join us, and of course Ian is still in parts far away.

On Saturday we arrived and immediately had a great lunch at The Flying Biscuit Cafe, followed by an inside tour of CNN Center, then hung out at Piedmont Park with Mokka, cooled off at the Park Tavern, walked some of the Beltline, and visited Ponce City Market. Since we'd gotten up at 5:30 that morning to catch our early flight, we were absolutely done by the evening time, but it was fantastic to hang out with my younger three.

Sunday was just as busy with several hours at the Aquarium followed by a visit to Rebecca's work place complete with an amazing tour she gave of her workspace and projects.  It was good to check on the Jeep as well even as it's still waiting to get registered.  It's actually good because Becca is getting some driving practice in around the lot without worrying about traffic Atlanta has so much of. After the studio tour, we went for an escape room, and intro for one of Becca's friends.  It was an OK room, not that complicated, and opened up the plan to do another one on Monday.

Monday brunch was at Egg Harbor Cafe, and we spent the hot afternoon playing Jackbox and Settlers of Catan.  Ah, Settlers, it brings out the worst in people sometimes.  Not like Monopoly, but it definitely can bring out a different side to players, and this was no exception.  We did survive with Nicholas as victor, but unfortunately made it to the escape room late.  You'd think being the only players at the facility and the last game of the day that the owner would make an executive decision to let us finish, especially as we had only another 5-10 minutes to the exit, but no.  We ended close after 30 minutes but unsuccessful. Yes, we were late, but every other individually owned place we've been to the owners have been really accommodating with us as relatively seasoned players (we're not tardy people, but usually they'll take quite a bit of time with us especially going through the room after and not watching the clock). Not so the Ultimate Escape Game Atlanta. Which is really too bad because on the whole it was a pretty good room and we would have enjoyed finishing it.

Tuesday was our day to depart.  With the hurricane coming, Nicholas was told to stay out of Jacksonville NC until Sunday so he's staying with Becca the rest of the week. J and I returned to VA and back to our waiting game.  His passport with visa has still not shown up.  My plans are still in limbo.  Nothing has changed here.  But we had such a great time in Atlanta and I'm so glad we went.

Limbo still bites

I'm not just sitting around doing nothing.  OK, cards on the table, I do take a lot of naps.  And I do sit around quite a bit.  I'm usually working a crossword puzzle or a cross stitch to not be a total lump. I also made a crocheted blanket, because why not. And I've seen a number of people:

Coffee with Donna.
Dinner with Anne.
Lunch with Alaina.
Dinner with Kelly.
Dinner with Alaina and Lisa and their families.
An Amman reunion that celebrated a retirement with Sue, Ro/Ragini, Annie, Peter/Paivi, Susanna/Sean, Sandra/Aaron, Eric, Manju, and Adnan/Claire.
And a lunch with another Amman group of Jenna, Shawn, Annie, and Beth.

I've made dinner once a week here in my parents' home (butter chicken, enchiladas, dinner salad, brunch for dinner, thai curry, orange chicken). Jonathon and I had a LotR extended-version marathon at the Alamo Drafthouse (12.5 hours in the front row....).  I go to Jazzercise once a week with my mom. Then there is laundry, tea and coffee drinking, book reading, packing and sending boxes of stuff to the kids who I don't see.  All under the haze of worry about things I can't control, so I make do.

The kids seem to be chugging along. Becca decided to skip her fall quarter and continue working for a few more months. She's promised she'll go back and finish her degree afterwards.  Katherine is working more and I'm glad I get to see her every month or so, most recently for Jonathon's birthday dinner. Nicholas is out in the field a lot so I don't hear as much as I'd like, but he got his first tattoo so now it's only Jonathon in the family without any ink (my guess is it'll stay that way). Jonathon has almost completed his required hours for his learner's permit and has an appointment for his visa, so we finally have baby steps forward on those fronts. Ian is at post and doing OK.  The highlight this week is he's opened his section for some working dog training.  Each day packs of pups come through and look for whatever it is they look for, and then the team gets to pet them all.  Sounds like a perfect match.

So nothing is ideal.  We all miss each other (except for J, who is just about sick of me right now - this is not how most 18yo want to spend their super long summer) and aside from me everyone has structure in their day in places far away which is great yet makes it hard to see each other. It heartens me to know they are all doing as well as they can under their various circumstances.

But yeah.  I miss them.

We're half way through August.

There's so much running through my head, and at the same time so little.  The broken record is well past getting old.  My husband is still in Baghdad.  I am still in VA.  Jonathon still doesn't have a visa for school (he made it into Essex! But that apparently was the "easy" part).  The car still isn't registered in GA.  There's a lot of "still....".  The past 6 weeks have felt like taking painful slow steps through a river of molasses, then turning around and seeing you can still touch the departed shore.  It's mind-numbing, it's frustrating, it's exhausting. Some days I'm cool with it - it is what it is, keep your chin up - and other days I curl up in the twin bed in the room I slept in in high school and try to remember to be grateful that I have a bed in a bedroom where I can stay as long as I need to while I wait.

Maybe we'll hear something positive today.  Maybe I can take a giant step forward in something. Anything. Maybe one part of all this will be finished/settled/decided one way or the other.  Because that's the thing.  Tell me hard truths.  Tell me what I need to do.  Tell me there is a decision point somewhere and once it's past, it is done.

This limbo bites.

Today is my birthday. I'm half way to 90.

Ian left on the 28th and arrived on the 30th at his new post.  I'm still in Virginia, hoping I'll get to join him.  His birthday was last week, mine is today.

While we're apart I'm doing what I can reasonably do to see the kids and friends and keep myself busy.  Nicholas flew up on the 4th for his long weekend.  We met Katherine for ice skating.  I took the boys to the Marine Corps Museum and to see Spiderman: Far From Home. And then he went back to NC, and Katherine went back to MD, Becca is still in GA, and Jonathon went back to his summer job (which thankfully is right here so he's still with me, I just don't see him all day).

A friend invited me out for a birthday dinner, which was awesome. We went to Zinburger and I had a Beyond Burger aka an impossible burger, with vegan cheese, vegan mayo, and pretzel bun. It's my first one and was actually pretty good. The catch was that I had a milkshake with it.  For those who don't know, I'm pretty sure I have some level of lactose intolerance. Took a while to put the clues together, but by eliminating most dairy and carrying lactaid for the times I forget, I've felt so much better.  Problem... forgot the lactaid with the milkshake. Not a great way to end my birthday, that's for sure.

This morning I was supposed to go out for coffee with another friend and the rains of the century fell (or was it two centuries?) with 4 inches coming down in about 45 minutes. Flash floods hit and generally flooding went on for hours, so it didn't seem wise to take on the roads.  We rescheduled for tomorrow, which is good because she's leaving to her next post soon.

I'll be out of town for a few days, but then free again.  I don't have a car, but if you're in town let's talk.

All preparations have been made.

The past two weeks were busy for me with a week-long course about Iraq (its history, relationship with Iran, economic problems, our presence, customs, living in the diplomatic quarter, etc), followed by a week of "how not to die at post" training. Yesterday we finished up as much paperwork as we could, got my state.gov account working again, picked up our visas, and Ian received his flights from Amman to Baghdad.  So yes, he's going and going on time.  I am all set to go on time, which won't happen, but anything after that will require more hoop jumping and paperwork to change dates - and if I leave anytime after early August then my visa expires and I'll have to resubmit and then wait for the new visa which can take a couple months.

It's funny, right?  For our entire married life we've had kids.  We planned this for now precisely because all the kids would be where they need to be, and we'd get our first year just us really together.  In Baghdad, yes, but us.  And now we're potentially facing a year even more separated than we've ever been.

Weird.

Frankfurt... a lifetime ago already

Graduation was wonderful, primarily because we watched our fourth, our baby, our not-so-little young one hit that stage-walking milestone.  The venue was nothing special, the speakers were fine, our seats were off to the side, and the tears came anyway.  As much as it was a completion for him, it was for us. In another 6 weeks he'll be 18.  Then he'll be off to university. And it'll be Ian and me for the first time since before we were married.

That's the plan of course.  It looks like Ian will head to post on time and I'll hunker in limbo stateside until I'm allowed to join him, or until some point where we decide that Baghdad just isn't going to happen for me and I find a place to settle in and wait for his return.  It's not what we imagined, it's not what we wanted, but this lifestyle, like any one really, is full of twists and there's no amount of planning that can arrange for every potential upset.  I'm super lucky I have parents who will welcome my 44 (nearly 45) year old self back, and loads of friends in the area who are all in some form of transition themselves. My parents raised me overseas in Embassies far and wide, so they get it, and so do all my Foreign Affairs family folks.

The kids are all on their paths, Ian has an idea for what's in store, it's just me in limbo.  And that's fine. I'm not alone.

We left Frankfurt on a beautiful and warm Sunday morning and after some time I know I will miss being there.  To be honest, I do miss the roads and drivers already. The street lights and turn lanes in Northern Virginia make no sense. Ian drives everywhere (I drive at post, he drives on vacations) and I've been doing a spectacular job of backseat commentary and making him crazy, but the folks behind the wheel here just aren't very nice and they have some reason for it... the traffic patterns make no sense and are geared to leave people stranded in the middle of intersections or stuck at lights.  I'm annoyed and I've been here a week.

Though I may not go to Baghdad - but all the paperwork has already been processed - this past week I spent in Iraq Familiarization class. Suffice to say that it could easily be a 1-day class with required online lectures for the other 24 hours. There were days that my backside went numb from all the sitting, and jetlag is not your friend when the job is to quietly listen for 6 hours a day. Next week's training is FACT (Foreign Affairs Counter Threat) or Crash Bang.  There's noise and running around and hands-on programming.  I've been told it's fun.  They've fully phased in the requirement for all direct hires in all regions to take FACT (someone realized that accidents, emergencies, and terrorism don't just happen in war-torn nations) and it's good for 5 years. Completing it now isn't a waste, for when we do go abroad again it'll still be valid for me.

That's not to say I'm all that excited about heading to West Virginia for a week.  If Ian does go to post on time it tacks on another week apart.

*sigh*

But today is a day to visit Katherine.  So we're off and making the most of June that we can.