Coeur d'Alene

Home.

For some people, that word isn't really comforting, but for me it never fails to put a smile on my face. For the four years that I lived in Seattle, that city was never "home". The apartments and houses that I lived in were never "home". I never said "Let's head home", I said "Let's head back to the house".

Home was a forest covered hillside next to a city 300 miles away.

But now, I can say it. I'm home.

However, in typical fashion for me, I don't know how long I'll be here. The Army has several slots open for Active Guard and Reserve, and I've gotten my packet together to see if they'll accept me. If they do, there's a good chance that I'll be sent somewhere else for a while. But it's something I can accept if it helps me get my life on the track of my choosing. I'd say that I have about a 40% chance of getting accepted. Most the people who are applying at the same time as I am are higher ranking, and probably have much more experience in certain fields than I do. But, if you don't try then you'll never succeed, so I'm giving it a go. Should the AGR not accept me, then I'll continue in the Army reserve and finally go to the 91W school that I've signed up for five months ago. That'll be a Reserve Component school in California, so I might actually get to meet some of the people I've been reading for years now.

Most of my time will be consumed with job hunting and apartment searches, so don't expect to see me too much in the next few weeks. Once I have my internet connection set up at the house, then I'll be able to post much more frequently. Until then I'm dependent on the public library and other forms of public access. I have the phone numbers for my ISP's dial up in this area, but my laptop may decide that it doesn't want to play all nicely. We'll see what happens.

In any case, I hope everyone is doing well out where ever you are. Keep a stiff upper lip!