My father's service records were destroyed in a fire that wiped out a lot of the military archives a couple of decades back. I do have confirmation that he was part of the !st Army based out of New York, and I'm so curious as to why he stayed stateside. I don't think he had any ailments that would have kept him out of combat, so maybe he was just that talented as a mechanic that they wanted to keep him for his skills. But they needed mechanics in Europe, too.

And now I feel worse.

I'm sorry!

Horrible pain night last night. And the hospital got cranky and wouldn't finish my meds until someone came to pick me up. W LAistas contacted in the wee hours of the morning.

Unrelatedly, Joan Watson had some great dresses last night. But NY has no winter?

Never been to a reunion. University was too big for me to care, high school was too small and so grouped by five year groups. Also on the other side of the pond, so...

I haven't been to any school reunions. Either the timing was awkward or I was unemployed at the time, but honestly, high school was not exactly my glory days and I recently had to "defriend" somebody I went to high school with on FB because he was going on a racist bender.

I left my small town for a reason.

My high school is turning 100 next year and so they've been spamming me for months trying to get an RSVP for the reunion. NOPE. Not interested even a little bit.

I've just realized that part of mt division's secret Santa gift exchange includes READING OUT LOUD a limerick or haiku we've written about our giftee. I was fully prepared to write something and stick it on the card, but now I have to recalibrate for public performance. DO NOT WANT.

My dad was too young for WWII, (And colourblind, so rejected by the military anyway) but my grandfather served in WWI. He tried to enlist for France, but was still 17, so he ran away to Montreal, lied about his age and enlisted in the Canadian army. He was gassed in a battle a few days after the Somme. We found his enlistment card online a few years ago.

Loving the family stories, folks. None to share on my side of the family, but DH's grandfathers were both military men.

Kat, I might have a t-shirt for you if I can unearth it from amongst the clutter. USC related of course.

Franny was up until 10pm doing homework on Weds, and until 11pm doing even more last night. WTH is it with 6th grade? And she's been such a trooper about it. I just love her to pieces.

My dad was stationed in Germany during Vietnam. He worked in the Army motor pool. On his down time, he bicycled around the countryside visiting castles and eating all of the food. He brought back beer steins that are still in their house somewhere.

I don't have any college t-shirts (any I owned as a student have been lost in one purge or another. And were probably highly inappropriate, really) but now I kinda want to buy some to send to Kat. My various alma maters are probably not getting a lot of representation

One of my uncles was a wildcat pilot in WWII in the Pacific theater. Some things he talked about, other things I only learned about after he died. He liked being in the Navy and rejoined after a few years as a civilian. Dad didn't rejoin, but after going to college on the GI bill, he went to Germany to teach Army brats in Augsburg. He rambled all over Europe during holidays and breaks. Mom went to Central and South America to teach at mission schools in the early 50s. It's kind of surprising that neither of their kids have spent more than a couple of weeks overseas at a time. It's not like they made it sound bad or anything.

The Cooper-Hewitt museum is back open! But since when does the Smithsonian charge admission?