The waiting place

"Headed I fear, towards a most useless place; The Waiting Place. For people, just waiting. Waiting for a train to go, or a bus to come, or a plane to go, or the mail to come, or the rain to go, or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow, or waiting around for a Yes, or a No, or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting." - Oh The Places You'll Go by: Dr. Seuss

I know this place - this waiting place that Dr. Seuss described. His date to leave Iraq keeps getting pushed back and it's frustrating on both ends. I'm trying really hard to stay positive, to be encouraging, but I would be stressed out and frustrated if I was in his position as well. He said it's driving him crazy because he has no control and the people who DO have control aren't doing anything. It's not a priority to them, just another piece of paperwork.

I was telling Sgt. about a dream I had last night. I flew to Iraq to pick him up and when we finally made it back to the airport (after many, a strange event) we didn't have a way to get home. I had only booked a ticket to get to Iraq but forgot to get return flights. So we were just stuck there. I finished up my story and he said "That's exactly how I feel right now"

I don't know what to do for him. I just want to make it better. I can see that he's frustrated and unhappy... he just wants to come home, and I know a lot of troops feel that way, but he's right there - on the verge and they're just brushing him off. The process is just very disheartening for him I think and I hate sitting over here seeing him frustrated and not being able to do anything about it. I feel helpless... and so does he.

I'm so thankful he's getting this opportunity and that he's coming home sooner than later... I don't mean for our frustration to overshadow the gratitude... it's just... let him go! He's not doing anything for you, you're not sending him out anymore, just sign the papers and move on to "more important things." He's still got to process out of Germany and get all this stuff done before school, which starts in a little over a month. For an organization that is so rigid about time frames and "to be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, to be late is unforgivable" thought processes... they sure aren't doing the math in regards to this equation.

I sort of expected the "leave" date to change... cause a lot of things in the Army are like that - but now that it's changed twice I've had my fill. More than that I just don't want him to be so stressed out about it all and then get sent out again.

AND - on top of all that suck fest. The internet connection has been horrible lately! So he'll get online and we'll talk for a few min. and then he cuts out and I don't hear from him again... he's not able to sign back on. Sometimes later in the day he can get back on but typically it's the next day. So for the past few days our conversations have been short and ended abruptly. It stinks.

I hate Iraq.

If he gets stuck Ku-wait-ing (I thought it was wonderful Lindsay!) too, I'm going to flip out.