Friday, July 30, 2010

The Commissary

I read this lady's blog (Boots in the doorway http://bootsinthedoorway.blogspot.com/2010/02/commiscary.html) and saw her story on her first experience with the commissary. I thought this was hilarious, and decided to write about my own. Now it isn't my "first experience" story, but it IS my firt HORROR experience story, lol.

My first horror was on the day before Christmas! My husband and I were spending it alone, it was his first Christmas not furnished by the DFAC and our first being married. I had never cooked a Christmas dinner ever before and wanted it to be just perfect for my hubby who had just returned from Iraq and hadn't been in a "home" for Christmas since he was in the Army(he went straight to Germany and never really got to come home much during the holidays due to deployments). I wanted everything to be perfect for him, I was scared to death because I had never cooked a meal to this caliber before.


One word of advice, don't ever go to the commissary on days like this. Heck, don't go on paydays, Mondays, Sunday evenings, or anywhere relatively near a holiday. On any of the aforementioned occassions you will find: mothers with screaming children, Guard families that do not live close and leave with three carts full of groceries to last the whole month, and retirees and their wives that act like they own the place.


Needless to say this was a nightmare! Those retirees are SOOO rude! I mean I get it, you were a spouse or servicemember at one point, but please don't treat us newbies like poo!

There was one "single" mom of a new baby (you can tell when someone is deployed by the amount of food they buy). Her baby was sleeping in his carseat in the cart and the mom was reading the instructions on the box of stuffing. This mean older lady came up to the young mom and slammed her buggy head on into the new mom's. She then proceded to tell the mom that she needed to know what she needs to buy and not stand around in the way. I was apalled but that young mom held her own. She popped off at the lady that it must be hard shopping for a large family (there were clearly many people she was shopping for based on her cart's contents) but that she wasn't sure how to make stuffing and wanted to know her other ingredients needed as she's never done this before and had no way to get home to her parents for the holiday and that she'd take a lot less time looking if she had any help by say, oh a husband who wasn't delpyed! I so had a go-girl moment after that mean ass grandma walked away in shock.

So here's my suggestions for you grumpy grandmas out there:
1. Don't be so mean, you never know someone else's story
2. Don't hog the food, I promise the world won't stop if you don't have a whole cart full of meat
3. Don't act like the world revolves around you. I don't mind you shopping on post, but you're not better than me and I'm no better than you. We're all part of this big ass Army family, and your shit does stink, just like mine, the lady with 9 kids, and the soldier down the asile who is loading up on Little Debbie cakes.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Almost that time again

Well we're almost done with our separation!! John will be graduating on August 12th from the US Army Drill Sergeant School at Fort Jackson!!! I can't wait to see him put on that Drill Sergeant hat, he's worked a long time to get to this point in his career.

We're fortunate enough to have family that can make it to John's graduation, as of right now we will have my mom, John's dad, John's Nana and John's "big brother" Tony at the ceremony. We're so thankful to have such a great family that can come out and support him :)

After the ceremony, we're going to get on the road and head out to Hilton Head for a long weekend with Dad & Sally!! Since we didn't have an official honeymoon or anniversary, we are going to celebrate our one year anniversary on the very beach we got married on one night while at Hilton Head. We're going to get a seafood dinner (our favorite) and go out to the beach we got married on and have a picnic. Don't tell John, but he's got a good anniversary gift waiting on him for that night! I got him something he needs for work, and has wanted for a good long while :)

Our other plans for the weekend are to spend as much time in the ocean as possible, eat as much seafood as we can consume, and laugh so hard our stomachs hurt! I can't wait to spend this time swept away with my hubby!!

I will have photos and hopefully videos of the graduation soon :)