The Home Stretch: Bad News Thursday

Never, in a million years, did I ever think I would care one iota about a country with the letter "z" in its name. Never. The same would go for former Soviet countries. Yet, here I am, with a husband who is stuck in a country with a z, and all my talk of the home stretch and last weekend being the last weekend I would have to spend without him is all for naught.

In a nutshell, there was a coup in Kyrgyzstan. One of the U.S.'s most crucial bases - which ships all troops in and out of Afghanistan - is in Kyrgyzstan. Conveniently, this base is in Bishkek, the capital city. Anyway, the Pentagon has indefinitely suspended all flights in and out of Kyrgyzstan, and yes, that includes Greg's flight. Great quote I found today:"In Washington, a senior Pentagon official told CNN that the turmoil had interrupted flights into and out of that facility, and it was unclear when those flights would resume. But the U.S. military has contingency plans to deal with the situation, the official said." Every time I'm in a tight spot and don't want to disappoint wives and babies waiting for their husbands to come home, I'm going to start saying I have a contingency plan, too. I'd love to hear what that one is. Give everyone a candy bar who's stuck on base and hope it makes them happy?

Sorry. Obviously this news has not put me in the best mood. As you know (from the riveting things I've been doing every day this week to make it go by), time has been dragging, and news that it's going to drag even more is so, so sad. Psychologically this has been so hard on me - it's just been game after game after game. I just want it to end. The good news is, it will, I just won't know when (this is hard on everyone, but particularly hard on master organizer/planner Louisa, who never has and never will fully be able to rationalize the concept of not being on time).

As miserable as this situation is, it could be worse. I could have no friends out here (and my friends have been incredible - offering to come over/making an impromptu Friday night dinner plan), and I could be without friends who drop what they are doing and talk to me for an hour (seeing that Sarah and Caroline B. are the two that have done this today, this also makes me suspicious of how much law school encourages procrastinating... :) ). Finally, my awesome parents, who are always up for adventurous trips (especially when they involve cashing in frequent flier miles, sun, and warmth), are looking into the possibility of taking a mini vacation to Palm Springs, giving Caroline and me the opportunity to distract ourselves for a few days. We'll see - fingers crossed! I am loved, and for that I am very grateful.

So that's the situation. Thanks again for being so wonderful and supportive. This blog is called Semper Gumby Adventures after all, and the whole point of it was to track our adventures with the USMC, who is notorious for training its family to shift gears on a moment's notice, and be "always flexible". Guess in the end this is yet another example. Let's just pray the situation in Kyrgyzstan clears itself up soon!