Now, that was a Ball!

Marine Corps Ball, Afghanistan, November 18th 2011.  Best. Night. Ever.

I’ve had some great times here in Afghanistan.  I know, crazy, right?  Well, if you know me at all, you know that a good time can be had no matter where I am and what I am doing.  I mean isn’t that what life is all about?  Living?  Well, the Ball was definitely living!  It may have been the beautiful way the ‘powers that be’ jazzed up the place and turned an open area into something almost palatial.  It could have been the pride you could feel pouring off the Marines.  It could have been the gorgeous dress I was wearing or the rubies dangling from my ears and neck.  But I am pretty sure the night was incredible because of who I was with.

You can usually tell if a relationship is going to go well within the first few weeks.  When two people come together, it’s always pretty exciting and new and shiny like a new lipstick.  Sometimes you wear the lipstick and you find that you really didn’t like that color after all and within the week you are shopping for a new lipstick.  Well, once in a blue moon, you find that the lipstick that you just happened to buy is really great.  It’s the perfect shade and feels great on your lips.  You realize that you love this lipstick and that you want to wear it every day and that oddly, you never get tired of wearing it and you feel naked without it.  What do you do when that happens?  Go buy all of that lipstick that you can find, because chances are the manufacturer will change it on you!  But I’m not really talking about lipstick (although buying tons of one you like is good advice).

When I met Paul, all I remember thinking was that I really liked him.  There was something about him that captured my attention.  See, I didn’t fly 8000 miles just to get my heart broken yet again so I let him know right away, in my own sweet words, that I’m not the girl you have a fling with.  I don’t really remember exactly what I said, but I’m pretty sure I got my point across that if he was just looking for a piece, he wasn’t going to find it with me.  Sharon doesn’t share – especially the man that I’m with.  He got my point. He just needed to know that if we started walking down that road and we got intimate, he better be prepared for what comes with it. I’m not a love em and leave em kind of girl, and not for lack of trying.  It’s just not my thing.

He got it.  He understood it. He understands me.  He actually likes it. Two weeks into the relationship, he asked me to the Ball.  My first thought was, “Wow, he thinks we will still be together in November.”  My second thought was, “What the hell am I going to wear?”  Come November, I had a great dress and a great guy that makes me smile continuously.

Either I actually prayed for the right things this time, or I got seriously lucky in the man department.  It’s my birthday today.  It started with a text at 12:30 am from Paul telling me happy birthday and another at around 8:30 and then he came and took me to lunch and gave me a card that almost made me cry.  I only didn’t cry because there is no crying in Afghanistan.  I won’t say what he wrote, but what I will share is what the card said:

Can you imagine finding the best, most-perfect,

awesome gift in the entire universe?

That’s how I felt when I found you to love.

Happy Birthday

He also gave me a gift card to shop online at a great art store.  (I’ve been drawing a lot out here, oddly)  And I will see him tonight.  See what I mean by seriously lucky? 

Well, kids – same bat time, same bat channel.

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