Both My Joes Are Home!
I’m anxiously waiting for my phone to ring. Though I usually resent like hell the idea of sitting around waiting for a boy to call, I’m OK with it right now because the boy in question is my brother, Joe. After spending his first tour in Iraq as a captain in the Marines, he is back home and safe in California.
Anytime I was grumpy this weekend (like when I had to take my car to be inspected by the insurance adjustor) or anxious (like when I was at work on Sunday and the server backup wasn’t going as quickly as I wanted it to), I would think of my brother and his 22-month-old son and the reunion they would soon be having. I’ve only heard this second-hand from my mother, because, like I said, I’m still waiting for the phone to ring, but apparently, Jack acted shy when he first saw his daddy. But as soon as Joe picked him up, Jack grabbed his neck and didn’t let go until he fell asleep late last night.
Mom also told me that when my brother arrived stateside, it was in Bangor, ME in the middle of the night. The good people of Bangor turned up in droves (whatever constitutes a “drove” in Bangor) to welome the Marines home. They provided cell phones so the boys could call loved ones, and just generally thanked them for their service. Makes me weepy.
Of course, I can’t substantiate either of these stories because I’m STILL waiting for the phone to ring!
And my friend Joe is now home from New York. All is right with the world!
In an unrelated, but no less important, story…I had the best run of my life yesterday listening to my iPod. I’m now offically obsessed with it. I’m thinking of naming it Joe.