Yellow Ribbons and House Plants

 

I came up with a mascot for my sister while she is deployed. She is in the army. I think the world will come to know her as Sargent Sparkle. 

I found this grow-your-own grass kit at a the Midtown CVS (the same one that was vehemently protested by locals last year because they had to tear down a beautiful historic church to put in this drugstore, but, as we all know, everything happens for a reason and had they not torn down that historic church I would not have found this little fella on clearance for seventy-five cents) and I thought I would send her pictures of it as it grew. My thinking is that nothing brightens a day at war like grass coming out of a ceramic frog’s head. Also, it is pro-active to find something to do when you’re experiencing a distressing event that is out of your control.

Well, here is a little something you can put in the bank: it is very easy to grow grass. This guy shot up like a weed. I suppose that is to be expected, however I don’t have a lot of experience with living plants so I was convinced that the success was a positive omen. Here he is in the original packaging and just two days after planting!

 

So, my sis was deployed to Afghanistan today. She left in the morning and had a chance to text me a few things before she was officially incommunicado. Like this photo of lunch:

(Unauthorized) pic of her last American meal. We could do better than vienna sausages for our troops, but then again I am not a soldier trained to withstand all kinds of challenging and adverse conditions. 

The last thing I heard from her was that she was about to board a Boeing 777 and that was just precious because we had just toured the Boeing plant back in August. Her text said that she let her bosses know “If it ain’t a boeing, I’m not going (to the ‘ghan).” That shows you how much pull she has around there!

Now she is gone and I gave the mascot a warrior buzz cut. She told me that the soldiers fly over holding all of their gear. Sounds dreadful. And I thank her for her service.

Side note: A yellow ribbon means all kinds of things, but I am going to say it means I am waiting for a soldier to come home.