punch me please!

Or rather, pleased as punch! After a couple of days of the usual army shenanigans (read: lack of organization and mind-boggling red tape), things are set for us to move next month! Even better than having it settled is the fact that we will be living in the housing community that I've mentioned before! It's a brand new community and our house isn't completed yet. It will be ready for us on September 22, a mere month away! I'm absolutely thrilled! We'll be living in a place that will feel more like a home. A place where we'll have our own little patch of yard (lucky Scooter) and more space than we have now. I'm not sure of the floorplan for our particular unit, but any of the floorplans will be an improvement. We're going to have a basement and at least two floors above the basement. And at least 1 1/2 baths. I'm going to travel to Graf on Friday and hopefully will have more information on our specific unit, so I can start making some decorating plans in my head! Woohoo!

I got a little curious about the expression 'pleased as punch.' I mean, what does punch really have to be all that pleased about? Turns out it's not a reference to the fruity beverage. Rather, it's talking about Punch, with a capital P. Punch, of Punch and Judy fame. Y'know, the puppets. And what did Punch have to be so happy about? Well, what wouldn't a baby-murdering, wife-beating puppet be happy about? Apparently, Punch was quite self-satisfied with his evil, evil deeds. Having all of this newly-aquired Punch knowledge, I don't think I want to say 'pleased as punch' anymore.

Also making me quite pleased (but not in an evil way like that Punch fellow) is the fact that I've made a friend....it's about freakin' time!! Figures that it's just before I'll be moving. But it's nice to have someone to hang out with who is experiencing similar circumstances (her husband is away for training now and will be leaving for Iraq when Jerry does). It's also nice to spend time with someone who doesn't have children, something very rare in an army community! I'm hopeful that we'll stay in touch when I leave and that she'll join us on some travels (the 'us' being spouses in Graf that are planning to travel a bit while our husbands are deployed).

Now is the portion of my entry that is a bit of a love letter to "Eat Pray Love." I promise that this will be the last of my rambling on the topic. I can't remember the last time a boook has made such an impression on me. It's a book about a spiritual journey, and honestly, reading about someone else's spiritual journey doesn't usually hold a lot of interest for me. Yet, this one was captivating and made me take a step back and think a lot about my own spiritual journey as well as my emotional and mental handicaps. The thing that really stands out about the book is the author's candor and honesty. She's not a saint. She has desires and flaws and, at least for me, that's what makes her so likeable. She also finds that finding happiness and balance doesn't mean changing or denying who she is.

I found many things in the book to be both thought-provoking and inspirational. I will leave you today with one of my favorites, where the author references the Bhagavad Gita, which says:

It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.