Olympus High School Class of 2000 Alumni Website

The other day I went to the grocery store to get some ingredients to make cookies. And by get ingredients I mean pick up a package of pre-made cookie dough. I don’t have the time to make homemade cookies. Or the patience.

Ok, so there I am with two big tubs* of cookie dough and a bunch of other random crap I really needed** and I notice this display at the end of my aisle.

These displays were created for people like me. The spontaneous/impulsive shopper. Yes, my arms might be full of groceries, but I will put them down to go back and pick up two large packages of Skittles and NEW Gummy Starbursts. That’s right, I said NEW Gummy Starbursts. New products are my favorite. And they were gummies. I heart gummy candies.

I am also the type of person that gets in their car and opens up the delectable treat they just bought. I was half way through the package of my NEW Gummy Starbursts by the time I made the 0.5 mile drive back home. And you know what, they were delicious.

*I know you are wondering why I bought two tubs of cookie dough. And that answer is quite simple. One for the party I was attending that night and one just for me. Naturally.

**Spaghetti, cereal and bread count as necessities. It’s pretty much all I eat. Well, that and raw cookie dough.

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This is why I don't allow myself to go grocery shopping

I had lunch with Katelyn the other day.

I actually haven’t seen Kate since last January, when I saw her in Florida, so it was really nice to catch up. It was sort of an odd reunion, though, because the reason Kate was home was that she’s deploying soon to Iraq and she won’t be back for a long time.

I met Kate when I was in the eight grade and we were close friends from the first day. She has sort of a brutal outer layer, but once you get past it she’s really funny and sweet and incredibly loyal. I had a complete girl crush on her when I was in jr. high because she was much, much cooler than I was and I wanted to have all the same clothes/accessories/movies/pens/jokes/shoes/cosmetics that she did.

Kate was also responsible for getting me involved in drama…a somewhat dorky move that totally saved my teenage years. I got better grades, met better people, and did better stuff because of Kate. Even after Kate got a boyfriend our sophomore year of high school and stopped hanging out with everyone else as much, she remained one of my closest friends.

There’s an easiness to that friendship that makes it the kind that will last for a really long time, partly because it’s not based on geography. Kate left for college after graduation and she and I have not lived in the same city since, but she’s still like a sister to me…

…which makes the whole Army thing completely surreal.

I’m totally spoiled, because Kate and her husband are the only people I know who are or have been serving in the military. Therefore, I haven’t often had to struggle with being both proud of and worried for someone who is serving our country. When Clint, who was in the Marines, went to Iraq in 2001, I remember that Kate was proud of him, but also worried sick. I was worried for him as well, but since Clint is an old friend but not a best friend, I didn’t have the same level of worry for him that I do for Kate now.

I’ll be honest, I’m not on top of what’s going on in the middle east. I read Time magazine like everybody else, but that doesn’t mean I have a clear picture of what’s going on. So now that Kate is headed off to Iraq, I have the weirdest, vaguest mental images of what her life will look like…some sort of cross between MASH and Aladdin. I think, honestly, that my brain won’t let me really think about what she’ll be doing over there. The only picture I keep coming up with is Kate sitting in an Army tent, writing letters home. As far as my mind goes, that’s all she’s going to be doing for the whole time she’s over there.

I feel like I’m not being supportive enough. I gave Kate a lot of grief when she enlisted in the Army, because I didn’t want them to send her anywhere where anything at all could happen. The sad and totally self-centered thing is that I really support the military…I just don’t want anyone I know to be involved with it. So, now that Kate is going, I’m having a hard time being excited for her. It’s weird…I think she’s so amazing for joining the Army and becoming a ridiculously strong person who can do all the crazy shit that she does, but I just can’t get myself to that place where I’m happy that she’s being deployed. It makes me want to hold my breathe until she comes back.

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I had lunch with Katelyn the other day.I actually haven't