But it's been an entire month since the Dining Out and I'm just now getting a chance to show this little beauty of mine off because the Dining Out just so happened to be in the month of May, and we all know that May is the worst month of the whole entire year.
I can't help that I'm an emotional mess and can only barely handle anything outside of what life gives me on a normal basis. It is what it is, y'all. I am who I am. I'm basically on survival mode until May and all of it's emotional shenanigans are over with and I can just slide right into the sweet beginnings of summer break.
Except not this year. Because... of course not. This is me we're talking about.
No, this year the Universe decided that my dog had to die right as the gosh damned month was beginning, and then take Isabelle's appendix all willy-nilly like and out of no where as I was in the home stretch and actually starting to think I was getting the whole month licked.
We've been at Fort Bliss for almost a year and it's been a little bit tough meeting the people Eric works with. I'm not all that social. I'm shy and very much dependent on my extrovert friends who lovingly, but forcefully, pull me out of my shell to get my ass out of my house (you know who you are, and man-oh-man do I miss you guys) so I can't be sure that the reason it's been tough isn't all my fault.
To be fair, Isabelle's schedule is insanely busy, so she's been almost my sole focus since we've moved here. But no matter how obsessed I may be with my daughter, or how happy I am to be her personal chauffeur (only until she gets her actual drivers license and can drive without a parent, which I may or may not be counting down the days until that happens), she is growing up finding her feet on her very own path, and I need to back off a bit. Eric is almost completely consumed with work right now, and Isabelle with school, so travelling just isn't going to be what it was when we lived in Europe so I can't sit around planning trips like I used to. But to be honest, I was tired of sitting around. It was time that I pull up my boot straps and go out do something. So believe it or not, I started working out at a local gym 5 days every week! And, I have found a joy so big when Isabelle and I started volunteering at the Rescue Mission of El Paso 2-3 days every evening. While my body and soul have never been happier, I did think it might be nice, and probably way past time, to put a few faces to the names my husband has been talking about for the last year.
So when Eric told me that there was a Dining Out coming up, I got a little bit excited! Who doesn't love getting all dressed up, dancing with their Soldier, and feeling all fancy in a hot pink dress?!? And I knew this was the opportunity I needed to meet the people that will make up our El Paso Army family.
When you buy sunglasses to match your dress because you're "extra" like that.
I did not take an actual camera with me to the Dining Out. Since this was our very first social experience with the people Eric works with here at Fort Bliss, I wasn't sure what to expect. The people here don't know me, and they don't know that I LOVE to take pictures.... as in... obnoxiously taking a gazillion pictures of every single thing these blue eyes of mine see. So instead, I tried to play it cool (who was I kidding, though) and only took a few pictures with my cell phone, and concentrated on making conversation, relaxing my resting bitch face, and not being awkward.
It took a bunch of wine and a bunch of concentration to make all of that happen. What can I say.... I am who I am.
I won't lie and tell you that I didn't compare this Dining Out to the ones we went to in Germany.
I did. I totally did.
You guys, it was hard not to.
It's just that I miss our 39th Trans Battalion family so so much and I got "homesick" thinking of them. But Eric and I did have a great time with the 1st Armored Division Sustainment Brigade, and we know that our chapter here will write itself in however it's supposed to the same way it did in Germany. And I promise that I won't go around comparing everywhere the Army might send us to our time in a magical land across the ocean, it was just this once that I couldn't help it.
But seriously though, don't you just love my dress?? {giggly shimmy dancing in my seat bashful face}
And don't worry y'all, Isabelle came through emergency appendix surgery like a champ! Everyone at William Beaumont Army Medical Center took AMAZING care of her and made the entire experience as stress free as possible on her parents who get a bit neurotic of their only child. She is still a teeny bit sore in one spot but is otherwise back to her normal self!
And now that I've got May behind me for a good long while, I think I can finally slide right into the sweet beginnings of summer break! You might even catch a glimpse of me sunbathing in this dress of mine.
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