I thought I posted this on Wednesday, but apparently Blogger had a hiccup.
~~~
Deployment Gremlins struck again. My washing machine stopped draining. It took about an hour of sweating and grunting and unscrewing and draining and wet-vac-ing the water up, but I had one load go through and drain fine, so my fingers are crossed. I’m also about $5 richer (plus some weird hinge thing, a Mr. Potatohead mustache, and a bucket of lint) after unclogging the damn thing.
Tried my hand at seitanic pot roast in the crock pot today. Note to self: do NOT be bashful with the seasoning. Otherwise, yum. Not bad for a bunch of guesswork and no recipe to guide me. :)
But now for the Grand Navy WTF. Remember how much I gushed about the family service center for the IA folks, and specifically Shannon? She’s still awesome. I was really disappointed with the IA get-together last week, though. It was a HUGE waste of time, and I came away frustrated and annoyed. I can tell you how the whole night went when I share this little tale...
One of the women was there with her husband. This wasn’t noteworthy since some folks there were looking down the barrel of an IA, and husbands came with to see what was what. This woman’s husband had just come home two days before the meeting, and apparently this woman had been pretty active with the group for the year-plus he was gone. So she talked to the group for about two or three minutes about how awesome the group was for her and how much she appreciated a few of the people who were there for everyone. Meanwhile, three women sitting in front of her (not facing her) were busy rolling their eyes as she talked. Slouched in chairs, rolling eyes.
Seriously? For real? That’s how you act at a support meeting?
Yeah, that about sums up the evening. I didn’t speak to a single person after I checked in, and we were there for a good hour and a half. Tried to infiltrate a few groups but got the cold shoulder each time. Feh.
Today I got an e-mail from the IA family services advertising a women’s retreat. I had two issues with this:
1. How the hell are the moms/dads with IA spouses supposed to go to this awesome weekend retreat away from everything to journal and relax? They need four more people for this thing, so clearly... send it to the IA women!!! Yeah, that makes sense.
2. Why do the only retreats (women, couples, family) available seem to have a religious undertone to the descriptions? It wouldn’t be an issue if I ever saw it was a Buddhist or Jewish or Hindu or... whatever chaplain. But they’re always Christian. So it leads me to believe either I’m not welcome or I’ll at least have to filter everything said through my particular religious filter if not ditch suggestions altogether. Which doesn’t sound very retreat-like, y’know?
I think it would be really cool to have non-religious retreats available. Or if religion is going to play a part in them (and I get it that it can and even should for lots of folks), can we at least make it not just non-denominational but non-dogmatic? Let’s discuss in a group if need be, and bounce ideas. Would that really be so difficult for the chaplains to facilitate? And if it is, then why the hell are they chaplains?
Feh. Off to check the laundry. Please be drained. PLEASE.
The long one about failure.
1 week ago
4 comments:
1. Good work on the washer! I get special satisfaction from fixing things. Of course, I am even more satisfied when they don't break in the first place.
2. Keep trying with the seitan, it's lovely stuff. Now I want to try pot roast, too. Lots of rosemary?
3. The nay vee resembles a giant Sunday school more often than not, and I have no idea how that's legal. And support from a nay vee-sponsored group? I have a hard time believing that's possible. I'm horrified for you.
4. We went to bluegrass brunch this weekend, and it was expensive, but lovely. Interested in trying that soon? And when do you leave?
the whole religion thing used to drive me batty when we had reintegration meetings etc. We did have one Chaplain that dispensed with it during his briefings - he understood that not everyone in the room was a believer, but knew his message of what we needed to be aware of in our returning spouses was important. I for one, appreciated that, but we did have those that stood up and said with G-d's help all would be well.. he said sure, but hard work and counseling were what would be needed, not just prayer. Wish he was there with you!
seitanic pot roast. now there's something I gotta look up - the name itself is so cool.
LAW
That really sucks about the meeting. People should be more embracing than that given we're all in the crappy IA situation.
And the religious overtones for a retreat is a bit much too but I think that so many people make assumptions about religious beliefs of military members just like they assume everyone shares the same political beliefs and that is so not the case. I'm a Christian but I would be irritated if every military retreat or function had some pervasive overtone of that.
I don't see why the retreats have to have anything to do with religion. That's what church retreats are for. A military spouse retreat should be a neutral event for people to commiserate or hang out or whatever.
Good job on the washing machine. You are way more talented than I. I would have had to call a repairman for sure! :)
Hey Snarky - my Mr. Wondeful just signed up for an IA - he'll be going early next year. How's about we have our own "retreat" and we can worship at the alter of the Goddess of stiff drinks and really good food. Or the God of Broadway. We don't need to "journal", we'll see some shows or go to a museum with other fabulous, snarky people ;-)
Post a Comment