Things I’ve learned on deployment (in no particular order)

1. How to distinguish between what people say and what they mean

2. That you really do find out who your friends are through tough times and you’ll always be surprised by some and disappointed by others

3. That sometimes 5 shots, a margarita, and a group of girls make all your problems go away

4. That crying never happens at an opportune moment

5. The ache in your heart never really goes away

6. How to function on very little sleep

7. Time zones and geography

8. The inability to calm your mind

9. The fear of watching or listening to the news

10. Being strong may not be necessary but it’s the only way to survive

11. That you are not as strong as you think, you just don’t have any other choice

12. How to live being only a shadow of yourself, incomplete

13. How to wait

14. How to fill out a customs form

15. That going to bed angry is less fulfilling if the other person doesn’t know you are and doesn’t suffer your wrath (this just leads to more anger and frustration, by the way)

16. Being upset in an email doesn’t work out because then you just end up feeling guilty

17. Instant communication is awesome

18. No matter how hard you try, you will never forget that you’re missing someone

19. Even though you’re in a relationship, you have to know that you are still alone

20. Planning anything in advance becomes insanely difficult

21. You laugh to stop yourself from crying

22. You’re afraid to slow down and be alone with your thoughts

23. Time does strange, strange things – drags on and speeds up in weird ways

24. Letter writing is an art form

25. How to stuff as much into a 15 minute conversation as possible (a phone call that happens maaayyyybbee once a week, I’m lucky to say - updates, questions, reminders, and any other tidbits that have happened since the last time you were able to talk and hoping that you don’t forget anything because you don’t know when you’ll be able to talk again)

Bit #4

So I'm not happy with this bit. I've been holding off on posting it for awhile now... it doesn't have the same tone as before... =( It makes me unhappy.

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Knowing that Everett had flown Pearl to safety (which, as it turns out, was the name of this particular trout), Bill made sure the boat was tethered, gathered up their fishing poles and lemonade (because you just can’t leave good lemonade behind), and headed back to the cabin without a hurry or a worry in the world. In fact, he was already quite proud (and a wee bit amused) at the heroic action he’d performed today.

Everett, however, was in a bit of a fix.What DO you do with a fish! He couldn’t think of a place to put her, and he’d never been in such a fluster. He’d tried to put her in the sink, but they had dishes soaking. He’d tried to put her in a bucket, but it was just a little too small for her. He’d thought about trying to put her in a bowl, a vase, a hat, a shoe, a jar, a jug, a ANYTHING! Just to get her out of his mouth! He had to think bigger!

The bathtub!!! And away he rushed!

He got the water started and when it was a good portion full, he gently laid her down inside. He hurried to get some plants and things for her to rest on and be more comfortable. He propped her up on a green leaf marsh weed and watched her. She was alive. She was breathing. Everett never could understand how a fish breathed under water. It just seemed so wrong. But there are a lot of curious things in nature, he guessed.  He closed the curtains in the bathroom window and let her rest.

Poor Everett! It had been quite the day for him too, and here, all he’d wanted to do was spend a quiet day by the lake! He trudged his way into the living room and collapsed onto a chair. When Bill came home, he found a much passed out fish and fowl.

Bill stood there for a little while, eyeing his bedraggled friend. He and Everett had been friends for a very long time and he hoped they would always be. But these were very serious thoughts for a moose, so he soon forgot them.

Bit #3

What made Delilah mean was that she didn’t use her fangs. She much preferred sneaking up on her prey, cornering them, and coiling.

Having been lulled by the beauty and peace of the day, this now unlucky fish had done a very foolish thing. Now, everybody knew that you wanted to stay out of Delilah’s way, and everybody knew that in order to stay out of her way, you had to stick to deeper waters. Even then, you weren’t always safe. But today, near the edge of the lake, a particularly delectable worm under a log had caught the eye of this childish trout. By the time she saw the shadow moving in behind her, it was too late.

But youthful stubbornness was on her side. All the splashing and thrashing attracted two very unlikely heroes.

Everett took to the air and Bill paddled as fast as he could, which is very fast for a moose. They were there in no time. Bill jumped out and did a little jig on Delilah with his big, moose hooves, making her let go of her catch, and Everett scooped up the poor, faint little fish, flying her off to safety.

It was rather strange for Everett, to have a fish in his mouth. But he’d reacted so quickly and it seemed, well, natural. So was the urge to swallow but he resisted that. He didn’t understand it. Who would want to swallow a fish?!? It just seemed so… well, he couldn’t decide how it seemed. So he shook off the feeling and continued on his way back to the cabin he shared with Bill.

Meanwhile, Bill had sufficiently taught Delilah a lesson. At least for now. And the water moccasin went slithering through the water with not just one hitch in her giddy-up, to the other end of the lake where she lived. It would take a bit for her to heal, to straighten out all of the kinks that Bill’s dance had left in her back, but she vowed that when she was better, she’d have her revenge. Funny enough, revenge didn’t quite work out the way she had planned, but that’s for another story.

Bit #2

Everett dropped the tip of his wing into the water, trailing it there. He always loved the feel of water and came out to the lake nearly every day. He didn’t need the boat. He’d just float, with his wings tucked in, and be swayed to sleep by the water and the wind. There wasn’t anything like it.

But he did need a boat whenever he went fishing with Bill. It turns out a moose doesn’t float very well. They’d tried.

Just as Bill and Everett were drifting off to sleep in the boat, there was a great commotion towards the shore. Splashing and thrashing and bubbled cries for help. At first, they didn’t know what to make of it. It seemed such a sudden and strange juxtaposition to the quiet a few seconds ago. They lurched up and caught sight of what was going on.

It was Delilah, the biggest, meanest water moccasin in these parts and she’d grabbed ahold of a very feisty lake trout who was determined not to go down without a fight. 

Everett the Pelican part 1

This story begins in the general fashion, but doesn’t necessarily begin at the beginning. A setting, a scene, and some characters sprinkled in there mostly.

Everett and Bill lived in a cabin in the woods. A great, big woods filled with a great, big, many things.

Bill was right at home in the woods, being a moose and all, but if you looked at Everett, you’d think something wasn’t quite right. You see, Everett’s a pelican.

No one quite remembers how Everett ended up in the great, big woods, and the fact is, no one really cared. They all liked him and they were glad that he was there. No one even noticed he was a pelican anymore. Well, nobody except the fish but fish are skittish sorts of creatures, anyway.

This adventure happens one lazy, summer Sunday. It was the kind of Sunday that you’d want to spend down by the lake and that’s exactly what Everett and Bill decided to do. They grabbed up their fishing poles and a jug of Bev the Badger’s finest lemonade and headed up towards where the creek opened up into a great, big lake.

They made quite a pair in their overalls and straw hats, like something straight outta Huck Finn, but they were the kindliest two creatures you’d ever come across.

“It’s a mighty fine day, wouldn’t ya say, Bill?” asked Everett in his slow, Southern drawl, not befitting his sea-worthy appearance.

“That it is,” said Bill, “that it is,” closing his big, brown moose eyes and lifting his head towards the bright, blue sky.

The lines of their fishing poles were drifting through the water and it was so quiet you could hear the conversations the wind was having with all of the trees and with the water in the lake. It was a gossipy sort of wind, talking in whispers and whatnot.

Now Everett and Bill weren’t really expectin’ to catch anything that day or any other day for that matter and if they happened to, they’d go ahead and throw the fish back. You see, to them, fishing was more for relaxing than getting anything to eat. In fact, neither one of them had even tasted fish. Funny, for a pelican, you might say, to have never tasted fish. But like I said, Everett wasn’t your normal type of pelican.  

But something happened on this day that made it not quite like any other that came before it. Today a fish made friends with a pelican in the woods.