The Teeest Thing

Recently, whilst unpacking some of my own personal boxes, full of my own personal things for my own personal use I was interrupted by the Specialist holding something mischeviously behind his back.

After threatening to bite him (I fight dirty) he handed me the one thing I would grab before running out the door if our house was on fire.

It was The Teeest Thing! or TTT, if you prefer.

And if you're in the military you probably do.

The Army is obsessed with acronyms, and its totally contagious.

As I disintegrated into a puddle of small noises and tears of joy and happiness I was instantly brought back to a time, about this time, last year when all this Army stuff/Marriage stuff started happening in a very real way.

A little background info:

Now, when we first got together, he was finishing his Master's in something and I was finishing my Bachelor's of Fine Art in Photography. After we both graduated in December, he went and got a teaching job in Irvine with a private institute specializing in ESL or English as a Second Language. He taught academic English to adults who already had a basic understanding of English. His students were a mix of Korean housewives, Thai college students, and Japanese businessmen.

So all during our casual dating phase (I like to call it the Irresponsible Sex Phase or ISP) that quickly transitioned into serious dating which became a rapid engagement culminating in Lets-Get-Married-On-Wednesday Wednesday, he would go to work in the morning and engage his class in conversations that included his personal life. I doubt they discussed our irresponsible sex, but I know they talked about marriage and his decision to join the Army.

During the 4 months when things got real real, his students were like this little panel of foreigners who encouraged him and supported him in this life changing decision to get married and enlist. I've never met these people, but our little love story resonated with them.

See! Love is totally, totally the universal language. Jodi Foster from the movie Contact was way wrong. She thought it was math or science or some baloney like that.

Anyways, his class marked the beginning of a growing wave of people who supported us even though what we had decided to do was in every way crazy. Totally bat shit crazy.

Fast forward, or rewind actually, depending on which way you're going, to the last day of class on the last day of the semester. They gave him a 5 lb bag of Gummi Bears, this wedding card and instantly became my favorite group of real people whom I've never actually met.

They're my FGORPWINAM, and I love them.

Just look at how precious this is.

And look at the bride! She's a redhead!

Here's some of the things my FGORPWINAM wrote on the inside:

Jinhee's is my favorite. She writes, "I bet you are a good husband."

Whenever he's being especially nice or cute or funny, I just want to call Jinhee and tell her,

"You were totally right dude, he's a pretty good husband."

I can't even begin to express how happy this little thing makes me.

I put it on the fridge so I can look at it every time I go for a pudding snack.

The Gummi Bears got stashed on the bottom shelf of the right side of my mother's pantry, behind the Juice Machine. If anyone needs a Gummi Bear fix, now you know where to go.

Tee!