The sun beat down on my back, and I could feel the beads of
sweat start to collect, getting ready to soak through my brown tshirt and
create puddles inside my boots. I eyed my target and tried to ignore the salt
stinging my eyes. I wondered for the millionth time why the Army wouldn’t let
you wear a decent pair of sunglasses in uniform, and what had possessed me to
wear my regulation brown wool socks in 90+ degree heat. It reminded me of more than a decade’s worth
of other sweltering days at the range.
Except that it wasn’t like those at all. This was Fort Belvoir,
and I was on my lunch break at the archery range near my office, shooting a few
arrows with my new pink bow (courtesy of my new hunting-obsessed husband, of
course.) My Mom offered me some of the cold soda she had brought along, and,
laughing about something, headed downrange to pull out my arrows. I took a
brief work call. Something about the big picnic my branch was in charge of
planning at the end of the month.
Yes, I was a million miles away from the Center of the
Universe and my old life at Fort Bragg. Most of the time, of course, life is
just life and you roll with the punches- but every once in awhile it hits me
just how much of mine I could never have predicted even a few years ago. I
loved living in the dirt in the Middle East and throwing Soldiers out of airplanes,
and I was used to the long hours and perpetual suck factor that came with the
territory. I was resigned to the idea that I would never be able to make a long
term relationship work or live anywhere near anyone in my family, and I
daydreamed about spending my twilight years bumming around the country in an RV
alone. I was obsessive about “adrenaline sports” and ultradistance running. I
was constantly scheming to get out of the lawyering gig I found myself in and
get back to the real Army (read: avoid DC at all costs), and I spent most of my evenings avoiding the post-divorce
dating scene, drinking wine by the bottle with girlfriends or watching “Golden
Girls” reruns on the treadmill.
Now I’m about as lawyer-y as one can get while still being
in the Army. I have a big corner office and six or seven of my own counsel, doing
the generally-distasteful if constitutionally-important job of representing the
Army’s already-incarcerated to the appeals courts. The only perk is that we do
not have to bill hours. (Well, that and the fact that anything after 1730 is “working
late.”) I have an incredible husband who I literally adore, and we live a
pretty settled life in our suburban rental house in Glen Echo. I rarely hit a
happy hour with girlfriends, instead lining up with the other pitiful hordes to
sit in rush hour traffic on the beltway on my way home to see how whatever I’ve
thrown into the crockpot for dinner has turned out. Some nights, we grill out and
shoot arrows at the life-sized deer target in the backyard. I cannot remember
the last time I went skydiving or rock climbing, and we haven’t taken a
vacation all summer. I swim laps and have coffee with my Mom a couple days a
week, run with the Belvoir ten miler team only to keep from getting fatter, and
notice a lot more Outdoor Channel than Lifetime on the DVR lineup.
Sometimes it just blows my mind.
And I still miss the real Army. DC is definitely not it.
But life here is really, really great. The Niemans have
finally wrapped up business for good in North Carolina (thanks to Seth’s
gargantuan efforts getting his Raeford house market-ready last week) and are finally
settled in Maryland. Or will be, once Seth gets all of his dead animal heads
situated in the man cave. He goes to Walter Reed for physical therapy and
appointments every day, but our life no longer revolves around the hospital. As
of yesterday, he’s officially, legally walking without crutches or a cast, and
is back in the gym (and back to helping out around the house.) I feel like I
got my partner-in-crime back, and I’m ecstatic. I finally got all of the
shelves and pictures hung (kind of precariously) on the wall, and the grill,
smoker, and kegerator are all operational.
It’s been a summer of really big milestones. We're thrilled to have turned a corner, and started a new adventure.
We remain incredibly grateful, and are ridiculously happy.
And committed to writing a few lines about our new adventures occasionally.
I swear.
<3.
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