Dance, Dance, Dance

This day reminds me of a book by my favorite author- hence the title. The book was a sequel to (get this) A Wild Sheep Chase, also highly recommended. But the title also comes from the question- what do you do when you feel like you're in limbo? It's not so bad, really. But honestly, I feel like I need to put my life on hold to go back to Oklahoma, then to Afghanistan. The good news is, I'm married to my best friend, and I know I'll be writing lots of letters to her, and to everyone else. This helps a lot, and besides, who knows, maybe this chapter of our story will be worth telling! Lots of people do that, though I'd guess many of them will have more spectacular adventures than me. But my life is my own story, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. The above, featuring the incomporable Reggie Bannister, perhaps best renowned for the Phantasm films, is kind of a takeoff on my old nickname-Ice Cream Man. This came from my days in the 696th. Those of you who have seen the movie Forrest Gump may recall the Army hospital scene- wherein Tom Hanks tries to interest Gary Sinise in an ice cream cone- being naturally blessed with an occasionally goofy-sounding voice and equally occasional talent for impressions, I was able, one field problem (I was on KP for most of it, as memory serves) I got everyone laughing with an impression of the same- "Lieutenant Dan, ice cream!" The nickname has stuck ever since. I liked my explanation better- ice cold, and loved by women everywhere, ha ha. But that's okay, it's still funny as anything. So that's the undisclosed story of that particular nickname. Over in Charlie I got the nickname Chips- predictable, but hey. Like I said before, generations of Chipmans have no doubt garnered the same nickname in some form or another. I wonder if Tabatha will get the same nickname? Her new sister-in law was Chippy in high school. I always found that funny, as Chippy can also be used to refer to a young lady, in the slang of a bygone era.

So far, married life is going great! There's a pesky ex, two wonderful kids, and a broken-down old minivan in the equation too, just to make things interesting. I keep telling Tabatha, we're an us now. I'm planning on trading in the car when I get back, and sinking a sufficient amount of money into a new vehicle for the both of us. A lot of guys go for sports cars or muscle cars- I'm thinking something less on the fancy side, and more on the practical side. And big enough for the moose-dog, bless his big shaggy heart. A good chunk of that is going to go to my retirement account, which has pretty much sat there since I signed up for it- set it into growth mutual funds and left it the hell alone. Like all retirement plans, it can roll over if and when I change jobs. Sad to say, the Army is doing away with the fixed-benefit pension plans, one of the major incentives to putting in 20-plus years of service. Honestly. I don't know what they're thinking. President Obama, I'm going overseas to face danger, people that want to kill me, shoot at me or blow me up, and hate Americans on principle. And I'm not doing a damn bit of it for you. I'm going over there because first off, I took an oath to defend this country. Secondly, because I want to make sure I do everything in my power to make sure the guys on my patrol make it back in one piece. And thirdly but by no means lastly, because I want to take care of my family.

Yes, there's talk of a family on our side of House Chipman. Not in a hurry though, and I'm certainly all right with adopting. If the equal rights movement has taught me one thing, it's that it's love that makes a family. Sounds so cliched, but it's very much true. Loved ones are your family. My pretty-darn-cool in-laws are very much family! My in-laws welcomed me to this crazy family, which I appreciated. And Tabatha saw potential in me when I didn't even see it in myself. She has a great deal of strength, more than she realizes. I know this is old hat, nothing that hasn't been said before, but that doesn't make it any easier to be apart from her. I know we're going to have a cool little deployment ceremony, in which we all honor those people who serve overseas (not so much ourselves, we who are heading out remember those who have gone before us), and this too is a good kind of energy in its own strange way. More than that- I made a promise to come home safely, and I intend to honor it. And, as the cadence goes, if I die in the old drop zone,

Box me up and ship me home

Pin my medals upon my chest,

Tell my girl I done my best.

Well, no worries there. My best will be done, there and back here in the States. I'm not going to die there, I know that. How I know that, I don't know. But I know that's not the way the story ends. It gets more and more interesting, and has a good deal of pages left to write. After this deployment, the question becomes, where do we go from here? It may be here in CT, I don't really know. It seems like everything costs more in Connecticut- rent, taxes, gas (especially). But further north, say Massachussetts, is always an option. Oklahoma, especially Lawton, is dirt cheap. But Lawton is a hell hole, quite frankly. (ha ha, see previous entries, yet again). But moving down south solely because everything's cheaper doesn't seem to be a good idea. Well, I'll have lots of time to think it through this upcoming year, and reach a conclusion. From here, I become legend. This chapter of my story is told, and a new chapter begins anew. From the ashes has risen the phoenix, yet again. It's an upward evolution, the next chapter in a story that has been told a thousand times before, and will be told a thousand times again before this world is done.