Somewhat Normal

What! How did you grow up to refer to this as normal? OK, the place we stayed at was certainly out of the ordinary, but it was my goal to try to make things seem kind of close to normal. You see, on a four day pass, the last one before leaving the states, it’s nice to have something great to remember, but you don’t really want to do tons of sight seeing, or at least, Josh didn’t. My goal in picking a place to stay on the pass was two fold. First, no spring breakers. Second, I wanted a place that we could maybe feel like a normal couple again. A furnished condo seemed to fit the bill nicely.

Sure, life on the beach in an obviously expensive resort is not what is in the normal experience of life. However, deployments are not normal, either. So, we do what we can.

On Friday night, Josh and I ate a nice dinner at the restaurant at the resort. What a meal! Yes, though I still mostly eat vegetarian, I had a steak, and what a steak! On Saturday, we had facials and massages. Yes, Josh had a facial, too. They were wonderful, and we felt very pampered. Josh felt so pampered, that he wanted to buy a bathrobe like the one in the spa to take to Iraq with him. I obliged. Also, in the condo, there were beach towels with a note attached that we were able to take the beach towels home with us as part of our rental payment, but, they said we couldn’t take the bath towels. So, Josh is taking two towels with him, and I have the other two.

On Sunday, we went to church. Grace Lutheran Church was a good church to visit. There were a lot of Navy and Marine veterans who attend that church, as well as many active service members. The pastor, a Navy veteran, was very kind and prayed over us after the service. It was nice that though we are not members of that church, they shared Christian encouragement and treated us like we belong. And we did belong.

Monday, we took our time leaving and returning to Mississippi. We were both starting to feel the stress of the inevitable good-bye, and it was starting to show. Out of sheer curiosity, we drove on the cost between Biloxi and Gulf Port. Words to not describe the devastation that Katrina caused. One thing that did cause me a little amusement was a telephone post, lone on a corner of destruction, with its Nader/LaDuke sticker in tact.

We had a wonderful pass, and a great time. Josh and I listened to NARN on Saturday and the Pastor’s Bible Study re-run on Sunday. Both things we normally do at home. It was fun.

Oh, and by the way, Josh is bringing his Hugh Hewitt “Minne-so-cold” t-shirt with him to Iraq.