SNAFU

Let's go back about two weeks.

I get a phone call from my recruiter.

He says, "Are you ready to enlist?"

I blink twice and say, "Could you elaborate?"

"Well, this is what I'd like to happen. We get the process rolling, go down to MEPS and have you sworn in by the first of the new year."

I say, "When would I be shipping out?"

He does some quick math by whispering, "Let's see, Janu.. Febru.. March. You'd be shipping in March."

I remind him of what I told him when I first walked into his office which was that I wanted to wait until summer.

Sounding like I just told him his house was on fire he exclaims, "You're talking about waiting until next year!?"

I wanted to remind him that the new year started in just a few weeks but I held my tongue. I did tell him, however, that I have no problem going to MEPS and being sworn into the DEP, I just want to wait until summer to ship to Recruit Training.

He countered with wanting to meet with me and my husband that Friday to talk about things.

I agreed and we set up the meeting.

Thursday night came and my husband informed me that Friday night (just thirty minutes after we were supposed to be meeting with my recruiter) our presence was required at his company Christmas party. There was speculation as to whether we could do both but we both thought the recruiter might think it strange when I showed up in a cocktail dress and my husband in a suit. I called my recruiter to reschedule.

He gladly accepted the reschedule for the following Monday and that was that.

Monday rolled around and so did a snow storm coupled with myself being quite sick, along with the baby.

My husband was kind enough to call the recruiter for me and the course of their conversation went a little like this:

"Why don't you want your wife to enlist?"

My husband, confused, wasn't quite sure how to respond. He has been nothing but supportive of my decision and wasn't quite sure why the recruiter assumed he was the one holding me back. My husband offered to come in and talk to the recruiter himself but the recruiter wanted to talk to us both so, again, the meeting was rescheduled for the upcoming Friday.

Because my husband was the one who made the appointment, on Thursday I called the recruiter to confirm. He assured me we were still scheduled to meet and despite another downpour of snow on top of slick ice I tentatively drove the thirty minutes to his office where I met my husband and we sloshed out way to the door only to find it locked and all the lights turned off on the inside.

We waited a few minutes and then I called him on his cell.

"Are we still meeting this evening?" I asked.

"Oh. Wow. I'm so sorry. You didn't drive all the way down to the office and then call me did you?"

Again, I checked myself from saying something sharp like, "Well, it is five minutes past the time we are supposed to meet. I'm certainly not sitting on my couch," and substituted it all for a simple, "Yep."

"Oh, Man. I'm so sorry. I feel so bad. I'm over two hours away. Wow.. ummm."

I cut him off and told him not to sweat over it. Since we were in town we would finish up some Christmas shopping and I'd call him Monday or some time the upcoming week to reschedule... again.

My husband was beyond irritated but we did have a good time finishing up some last minute Christmas shopping.

Monday afternoon rolled along and I was in my kitchen making a late lunch snack when my cell phone rang. I recognized the recruiter's phone number immediately but I failed to answer due to the fact that I simply wasn't up to talking to him at the moment. My own irritation at the whole process was bordering on anger.

He left a message, however, and on impulse I decided to check it.

"Hey, I'm just confirming that we are still meeting this afternoon. If you could give me a call that would be great. If not, I hope to see you here."

There was no avoiding it now. I called him back and asked him where he got the idea that we were meeting as I had told him I would call him, "Oh, I thought you said we were meeting on Monday."

"No. I said I would call you."

With a voice that sounded like someone had just shot his dog and then left a scathing note explaining why he said, "It's just as well."

Being a curious, kind-hearted person I had to inquire why he sounded so dejected.

He began to tell me a tale of woe dating back to first getting assigned to recruiting duty and for a moment I was translated from potential recruit to shoulder-to-cry-on. I won't lie. I felt sorry for the guy and for the next ten minutes we talked about everything from his in-law issues to handguns. I wished him a Merrier Christmas and told him I'd likely talk to him after the holidays and gave him a bit of advice in that he should try to forget about work over the Christmas break and just try to enjoy himself. I felt a bit like a big sister especially since he is a few months my junior.

He even admitted he hadn't written a contract in quite some time so it was clear to me that his oversight as far as our appointments were concerned was not because he was pressed on by other poolees.

Before I even started this process I was advised that I should not join a particular service based on the recruiter. That was darned good advice because if it was based on the recruiter I certainly wouldn't be joining the Marines.

For now I'm going to take my own advice and look past all of the frustration and aggravation and enjoy my Christmas with my family.