My Side of the Story

My wife is a phenomenal writer.  In case you do not know this, she is a published poet...twice.  She has a knack for making sense of the English language in ways that I'm not really envious of.  I read and speak the language.  I'd like to think I have pretty advanced skills at both.  When it comes to English Heidi has a certain geekness that is extremely easy to make fun of.  A little over two months ago she told me that she was going to start blogging her thoughts and feelings she's having in regards to my mobilization and subsequent deployment to Afghanistan.  Being the ever supportive husband that I am, I encouraged her in her new endeavor.  Little did I know she's on her way to blogging stardom.

As Heidi began blogging I kept hearing from several of her fans how much they appreciated reading her posts.  I am sorry to say that I did not know what they were enjoying because I had not yet made the time to find out what it was all about.  Tonight on the phone Heidi made mention of how many people had read her blog and I felt it had gone on long enough.  I am worn out, not because I did anything today, just from waking earlier than most humans should.  I finally read Heidi's entire blog.

I must admit, she almost had me a few times.  I am not easily moved to tears.  Over the last decade I've learned to harden my heart when it comes to shedding tears.  It has a certain time and a place.  It's not a macho Marine thing...it's an Aaron thing.  I'd tell you more about it, but it's sort of just my thing.

I don't think it would be fair for Heidi to tell her story without attempting to share mine.  She has unknowingly inspired me.  From here on out I will to write about my side of the story.  Please do not hold me to the same writing standards as my published poet, English teacher wife.  My grammar or punctuation my not always be the best.  I could care less what a participial phrase is.  I will simply attempt to tell you about my days as they go by.

I will start with the most exciting part of my day.  It's not every day that a gunnery sergeant is chewed out by a sergeant major.  Certainly hasn't happened to this guy.  That is till today.  Not for anything I did or said.  To me the details leading up to the one sided discussion are rather humorous, but not important.  What is important is that apparently my arms are longer than I thought.  When I packed to come out here to Camp Lejeune I packed the cammie blouse that was small-long in size.  In retrospect I should've grabbed the small-xlongs.  It never ceases to amaze me how silly the Marine Corps can be.  What made the whole thing even better was that the sergeant major felt that the best place to this was in the hallway with everyone from just somewhere around a half dozen lance corporals to a few junior officers and staff NCOs.  My buddy, another gunny, was a mere two feet away stifling giggles with his back turned to me.  I have yet to hear the end of it today how I was locked on by the battalion sergeant major.  Guess you had to be there.

An hour and a half into this, I need to wrap it up.  I have droned on without saying a whole lot.  I have been interrupted I don't know how many times by my old buddy TK.  He likes to knock on the door of my hotel room and run back to his before I open mine.  I am beyond exhausted and I have to get up before most humans are supposed to be awake.

For now, that's my side of the story.