I cannot believe that this is my 100th post on Belletrist! When I started the blog last August, I had no notion of how many blogs or how often I would end up posting. My hopes were that this blog would provide an outlet for me to chronicle our adventures in Japan and share them with our friends and relatives. I didn’t know if many people would read my musings or if, like many of the journals I have started throughout my life, my devotion to posting would wane. However, here I sit, ten months, five countries, 36 readers and countless experiences later, typing up my 100th post. A couple days ago, I was thinking about what the subject of this post should be, and after a little discussion with my husband and partner in crime, we decided to dedicate this post to the Snyder family.
This blog would be remiss without a post mentioning our friendship with the Snyders. Matt and I wholeheartedly agree that our experience in Okinawa would not have been nearly as great without the presence of Alan, Brittany, two-year-old Faith and baby Carson. If I were to write all of the stories we have with the family that fondly knows us as “Dr. Matt” and “Miss Shannon”, I could probably add another 50 posts to this blog. They were some of the first people we met when we came to Okinawa: we all had dinner before Matt and Alan left for Korea and while the guys were away, Brittany was an invaluable resource on all things military life and really showed me that there were plenty of things to do here and that life on this island is what you make of it.
Since our husbands’ return, we’ve had a great time getting together, attending different on-base events, and more recently as our time winds down, sightseeing around the island. Our experiences together have run the gamut from confusing (getting lost on our way to the Peace Park, Brittany and I attempting to decipher our husbands’ conversations as they flipped rapidly between reality and Oblivion) to touching (the birth of Carson in January, our reunions when the guys got back from Korea) to hilarious (ditching the five-course dinner and “Evening of Romance” in favor of McDonald’s, any number of incidents concerning misunderstandings between the wives and the husbands). It is those last set of experiences, the hilarious ones, that are most representative of the fun times we have together. We’ve had some serious moments, but for the most part we when are together, we enjoy a good laugh. Often the laughter comes from Brittany and Alan’s sage, but comically delivered married advice and amusement at some of our newlywed foibles.
Case in point: the day that Matt and Alan went to pick up the wood and marble bar Matt and I purchased at the Holiday Bazaar. As Brittany and I waited and waited at her house, we wondered what could be taking them so long - especially because I hadn’t eaten and I thought the plan was to fix lunch when they were done. A couple hours later, Brittany said “I wonder if they are at your house playing PS3?” Innocently, I said “No way, Matt knows I was going to fix lunch.” Brittany, all the wiser, called Alan on his cell phone and indeed, they were seated on the purple couch playing Fall of Man. They sheepishly returned to the apartment and as Matt drove away, I commented “You poor thing, you are probably starving too since you haven’t eaten since breakfast.” There was silence from the driver’s side of the car and a weird expression froze on his face. His voice was meek. “We stopped at Pizza Hut on the way home.” I don’t think the guys will ever live this down.
One of Matt’s favorite anecdotes revolves around Faith, who in all of her toddlerishness, is a constant source of amusement. As Alan and Matt were playing Wii one evening, Faith walked up very close to the television screen. “Did she just lick the TV?” Matt asked Alan in astonishment. Not missing a beat, Alan turned to me and said “Oh, you need to get one of those for him reeeeal soon.” The good news is that we won’t be missing these moments when we leave Okinawa – the Snyders are also moving to Virginia for their next duty station and we will be able to return the favor of showing them the ins and outs of their new location. I’m sure that many more adventures will follow, and possibly be documented on this blog. But for now, Matt and I would like to end with one significant word that symbolizes the fun the Langfords and Snyders have together: CHUB!!
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