Vacation... sort of..

I have returned home.

My Coastie was required to be elsewhere for some months. I determined this would not be without me. After proper resignations and replacement interviews I joined him.

With the completion of this training I am now required to change his name. I will now call him my Lieutenant as he is no longer a coastie but a sailor. There are other names but I do not care for them.

I should be ashamed but it is difficult for me to contain my pride for this new position of my Lieutenant. I have boasted to my family and fiends in China I am married to an officer of the United States Navy! I am guilty of strutting around my house as I tell them as if it makes me someone of importance. I will strike the balance before I join him. I am only unable to say how yet!

His first station is Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan. I will remain home for a short time until he has arranged a house for us. For the now I will study and take the civil service exams so I may be employed during our stay. I will also see to my house. While we are away I will leave it in Mother Bing's care. She is wise and will see a proper family will live there in our absence.

I must now dispose of cattle I did not know I had. I had leased the pastures for grazing to a neighbor. He has told me of the removal of "all" of his cattle. I have asked him of the remaining. He swears no knowledge of them. Apparently, from the poo grows cows.

It is unfortunate but I must also say goodbye to new friends. Coasties tend to be close families and adopt you quickly upon entering their life. I will continue to write and send emails. As I have told another of my friends, though I may be guilty of neglect at times, I do not let go of my friends easily.

Until I join my husband, I will cling to Heather and Mother Bing. I will miss them most of all. Mother Bing has been as my mother since my arrival in this country. She has shielded me and comforted me when the world seemed a terrible place. We have laughed and cried together many times. She holds a piece of my heart.

Heather is the first face that greeted me at the airport. She has been my sister through many things. We have shared secrets, compared men, hunted together, rode horses together... the list is long. I would be less a person if I had not met her.

Be sure... I will spend as much time on the telephone with them as with my own mother.