This fish was in the middle of our table at the Military ball Saturday night. It didn’t even occur to me that he could be ingested by the end of the night, but once it was brought to my attention, my protective instincts kicked in. I borrowed a camera to take this pic of him, thinking it would turn into a memorial. Thankfully, he was quickly swept up with his other centerpiece buddies before the real party began, so (I hope) they all made it out alive. Those military boys are crazy, I’m telling you.
None of you may have noticed that in our photo, Mark is missing some stripes on his right sleeve. I know I didn’t know they were missing until I saw others and asked what they were for. If he had stripes there, he would have four, and they would represent the number of years over his military career that he’s spent in combat. On his left sleeve, the stripes represent the years of service, times three – or divided by three, depending on how you do your math. He’s got 5 stripes, 15 years in. In 5 more years, he can retire. His panel of ribbons – well, there’s a whole bunch and I’m not sure what they all mean, but it’s impressive, eh?
I did spend a lot of the evening asking questions. “What do those swirley things on their sleeves mean?” and “how come his stripes go all the way around his arm?” and “What’s the star mean in the middle of his rank?” You’d think after 17 years, I’d know some of this stuff, but honestly this was my first Military Ball and I’d never seen so many dress uniforms all in one place. There were military men there who commanded respect, they had so many stripes and such a large panel of ribbons. Blue lapels, special cords – these are the men who have dedicated much of their lives to serving our country. It was humbling to be in a room full of men who stood at attention without hesitation, “hooah’ed” in support of their unit and eachother, and you know that they’d pack their bags and leave their families to go to war and serve their country in 10 minutes or less.
The evening was steeped with National Guardsman traditions, of which I knew none. There was a grog, which is this wicked combination of drinks that they pour into a hat – then the two commanding offers drank a toast from the mixture – consisting of burbon, whiskey, wine, beer – and I think one other thing but I can’t remember now. But iew? That had to taste bad.
Dinner was nice, the award ceremony was interesting, the toasts required a reply from the guests, so I’m glad I had a script. 😛 We were about 5 feet from the dessert buffet – so do I need to mention that I had dessert first? And also last. Because I was too close, and should have sat further away.
We sat with some really great guys and their wives, people that Mark spent a lot of time with in Iraq. I met a lot of them for the first time, and a few that I actually remembered meeting before. Dusty Hill was there, he looks amazing and it was so good to see him, smiling and having a good time.
All in all, it was a whirlwind of an evening, and I think I’m caught back up on sleep now. Put a bunch of military boys, beer and wives together, and what you get is a night with a lot of hemming and hawing and not a whole lotta sleep. It’s sortof like a fancy family reunion.
Who invited brown bears into my head while I was sleeping? I really don’t like you, whoever you are.
I have alot of monochromatic paintings in my 
