Preamble (No Pun Intended)

Ok. It is Thursday night. June 3, 2010 @ 7:12pm. Mom and I are leaving tomorrow (June 4, 2010) at noon (as soon as we get the wee man on the bus). Mom is at work as I type this, and I just got home and am sitting in front of the TV while Dad cooks fajitas for dinner. Yum. Love me some fajitas. I have not prepared one bit for the trip. I have to pack everything later. I need to do laundry (I am sure) and yet, here I sit on the couch. Oh well.

I had my last day of the spring term today. Since we are leaving, I arranged with my teachers that I would take my finals this week. I had two papers due Tuesday (one for publishing and one for film studies), and today I had a written and oral exam in Spanish 103 and a presentation for my mock publishing company in publishing. Last night was one of those nights where you go to bed at a decent time but don’t sleep for hours because your brain is just churning away up there in your head. Not fun. So I am tired today, which is why I am not moving yet.

So, I suppose I should explain the reason Mom and I are leaving town tomorrow at noon (for those of you who do not know).

My brother Josh is three years younger than me. I love the kid, but he and I have never been able to get along for longer than about an hour, yet we have always been rather close (weird I know). Bub (one of his many nicknames) has ADHD pretty bad. Always has. He struggled with social skills throughout primary and high school. He almost did not graduate high school, but we basically chained him to the computer and made him finish his stuff. Then he got a great opportunity from his employer. He was working at Fischer’s Implement, a local John Deere dealership about a mile from our house out here in Gresham. His boss came to him and told him that there was a John Deere mechanics program at Walla Walla Community College (in Walla Walla, WA) and that a dealership has to sponsor the students, and that they wanted to sponsor him. They don’t pay for the education, but the kids have to have a job at a dealership somewhere to work at during their internships. So he went up there to do that, and flunked out by the end of the first year. So he moved back to Gresham and started the welding program here at Mt. Hood Community College. He was failing out of that within a term. Mom and dad told him that he was changing his address on his 20th birthday, whether it be on the street, living with someone else, or joining the military. He opted for the Army.

My now ex-boyfriend is a Cavalry Scout in the Army National Guard based out of Lebanon, near Corvallis. We sat him and Josh down so that JD (yet another nickname) could ask questions and actually have real answers, not just the selected spun info that a recruiter would give him. Mike sold him on it. So Josh shipped out for Ft. Knox, Kentucky only a few days before his 20th birthday (February 14, 2010).



The Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) that Josh picked (Cav Scout like Mike, apparently Mike made it sound cool) does Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training (AIT) all in one go, instead of breaking it up into two separate stints. So Josh had a three day “Family Weekend” in April, and we all flew out there and spent five days in Kentucky. We got to do a lot with and without him (he was off base Friday morning to Sunday afternoon, we were in KY from Wednesday till Monday). Now, seven weeks later, Josh is graduating from AIT on June 10th. Instead of just letting him fly home when he is done, we want to show him our support, because frankly he is thriving in the Army and it’s the first thing he has ever been exceptional at. So Mom and I are driving out there (because I did not want to fly again, not such a fan, and it would be more expensive to fly) to attend his graduation. We decided to have a little fun with it though.

Stay tuned for pictures and tales from the adventures that we are planning and that will pop up (as Mom and I are “winging it” something unexpected will happen I am sure).

Sean