Taylor Morris
Tween Author, Army Wife
"Hello, Gorgeous!" "BFF Breakup"
and others...
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The last weekend of April was the International Tattoo at the Virginia Arts Festival. Tattoos are ceremonial performances of military music by massed bands. There were about 800 musicians there including all of our Armed Forces.
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I got to spend my morning welcoming home troops from a year-long deployment in Afghanistan. Wow! What an exciting and emotional morning for these families. Best part—every soldier who left came home. Hooah!
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Silas and I arrived at our new home on Friday, November 11, officially beginning our military life together.
I was prepared for the transition from New York City to Newport News to be a bit bumpy. City vs. suburban life? What’s to compare? City wins every time! And even though I miss New York and know it’s the greatest city in the U.S., I’m actually having quite a nice time in our new suburban life. Moving from a one bedroom to a four bedroom has required more trips to Target than I’d like to count, and three weeks in we’re pretty much sick of buying things. But I do love the space and have no idea how we crammed our lives into our tiny apartment for ten years. We finally have grownup furniture and are trying to make things look nice even though we have no taste.
Added bonus: it smells nice here! Woodsy and sweet. I do not miss the stench of urine on Lexington between 42nd and 41st.
There are two problems so far: I have no friends and I’m reading much less. I used to read an hour or more on the subway every day. Now I only read just before bed, and usually only for ten or fifteen minutes before conking out. Totally not acceptable. As for friends, not being able to call up anyone (or walk down the hall in the office) and see if they want to meet for a drink after work or go to lunch is really hard. I made so many great friends in New York and I miss them all so much. Boo hoo!!
The craziest thing for me in all this, still, is that I get to write full time. Wow. What a luxury. My deadlines aren’t so scary anymore and I can actually spend my evenings hanging out with Silas. We do our jobs during the day and what we want in the evenings. It’s so luxurious I feel guilty about the whole thing. But I definitely won’t complain.
