Wanted: Desk Job, Lunch Box, Normal Life

Hey everybody! So wow...it's great to be home. No matter how full of preservatives, meaningless news headlines, overpriced real estate and ridiculous reality TV America gets, I'd still rather live here than anywhere else. Still getting used to some things (like driving...for some reason I now think it's normal to drive about 15 mph under the speed limit, much to Danielle's chagrin)...meeting some new people (apparently I now have a new younger brother and sister a few doors down), and finding out that the real world really doesn't stop the day I check out of the east coast for a few months: The other night Danielle and some friends suggested that we all get together and watch the movie "Children of Men." My response was akin to "which movie theater are we going to?! That sounds great!" - not realizing that the flick had come out on DVD a while ago...and we were just going next door to watch it on my neighbor's bigscreen TV. Some things don't change though, like the traffic on the Woodrow Wilson bridge...of all the deployments I've come back from, this return home brought me the closest to 'snapping' as I sat in gridlock traffic on I-495. Good times.

The future for the Townleys is still somewhat cloudy as far as job prospects go for me...I've been asked to come up and work with a research group in N. Va until I get out of the service this coming winter...now the only trick is getting that idea past my boss in NC. Keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer people, I'm going to need all the help I can get.

Other than that, my stupendous wife and I went through my sadly outdated wardrobe today and threw out everything that was more than 3 years old (which left my side of the closet rather bare), after which she took me out to play dress up at the mall. Somewhere in between trying on some new Crocs and the blaring music inside Hollister, Danielle and I were offered a modeling job by some crazy manager who refused to take no for an answer, even after we told him that we have "real jobs"...I figure if we lose our office jobs maybe we can stand around at the mall and make faces in designer clothing for 7 dollars an hour.

To all you folks who sent care packages, left messages, said prayers, mailed holiday cards, helped move our house all over the east coast, and otherwise generally opened your hearts and homes to us Townleys while I was gone, thank you. Your support of our family over the last few months meant the world to both of us, I hope we can repay all your kindness now that we'll not be doing this deployment nonsense anymore.

Stay tuned for the next chapter everybody...it's called "The Townleys settle down and start a family." Valentine's Day in Ethiopia's got nothing on this one, people! Promise!