Adventure at Waller Hall

Where to begin...

Tuesday I drove to Fort Lewis so I could set up an appointment to take an overseas moving briefing-a requirement for anyone who is moving to an 'overseas' post (Hawaii, Alaska, Korea, Germany, etc). According to the online schedule, the briefing started at 15:00. So I arrived at 1, pretty pleased with myself-I had arrived early, had all my paperwork in order and was ready to sign up for that day's class.

Turns out, I'm slightly dyslexic because the actual time of the briefing was 13:00-15:30. I read 15:30 and my brain went-oh, the class starts at 3. Totally wrong. So I signed up for today (Thursday's) class and drove back home.

Today I got up early and got ready to go. I printed the extra 5 copies of Ben's orders to Hawaii that I needed (9 are needed for any overseas moving), made sure I had every scrap of important paper I thought I needed (and some I didn't but you never know with the military), a full tank of gas, a book in case I got there really early (I did-11:30-stupid traffic, why can't it be consistent???) and a bottle of water for the briefing. Things were looking good.

I made it to the briefing on time-there were only four of us in the class-thank God or else it would have taken much longer than it did. Ten minutes into the class, the counselor asks to see Ben's orders. I showed him what I had.

Turns out, they're not the correct orders. I need current orders, and to get those, I have to call the Rear detachment left behind in Hawaii and get them to write out and send me the new orders. Once I have those, I have to drive back to Fort Lewis and then I can get my household goods stuff picked up. What a pain. I'm sick of driving all the way out there...on the other hand, I now know my way to Waller Hall through two different gates.

It wasn't all wasted, though. I filled out the paperwork as much as I could. I learned I'm allowed 8,000 pounds to move...which I don't think Ben and I have, considering we have next to no furniture...of course, I have more books than the normal person, and those suckers do weigh a ton. Someone mentioned that I should get rid of some, but that idea really makes me sad. It's like parting with a part of my soul. I can't do that. So instead I'm going through everything I have in my bedroom-if I don't need it, I'm getting rid of it. It might help a little. Because between my books and Ben's audio equipment...yikes.

Besides that, not much else going on. My friend is back from Korea for a while, and I'm anxious to see her. I'm going to a picnic/BBQ thing on Saturday with the cast of our last Easter play. Next Saturday there's a family gathering at my Aunt Piper's for all birthdays in our family from May to August (we usually have a gathering at least once a month...I guess we missed a few). I thought about asking them to add September birthdays, since it's just me and Ben, but Ben's still in Iraq and besides birthdays, there's also two graduations and an engagement party. Let's not add another birthday to that list. that's a lot of cards for people to buy. I'll just have my mom throw the September birthday. Maybe I should have the theme be Indian...mom can make curry and Perri can bring her Tandoori chicken...yum!