Some days I feel like an angel with crushed wings that healed in a twisted, useless way. I can't put a finger on precisely why, but the image flatly will not leave my brain these last few days. Maybe it's just the isolation starting to get to me...
Anyway, I'm still writing. I've got an SF novel in the works right now, with the initial bits done, but I'm still brainstorming from there. ZoeB has quite helpfully given me a few points to ponder and ideas, and I'm trying to weave those in there. It doesn't exactly help that I'm typing on an EeePC in my copious free time, but hey, I make do with what I've got. My other laptop wouldn't have been much better, so I don't feel too bad. On that note, I've discovered that said laptop is now sitting in a Richmond PD evidence locker, held until I return, and is no longer in the hands of the douchevalve that nicked it from me almost a year ago. Maybe I do get a break once in a while :P If I'm /really/ lucky, all my data's still there.
We're finally starting to replenish our numbers in my division, too. Unfortunately, one of our recent gains is a cocky, self-righteous Bible-thumping jizznozzle, but I think I can get used to that. What's one more, after all?
But anyway. It's not all bad. We're past the halfway mark, finally. Between Joint Warrior and the harried month between then and deployment, it's going to feel like we've been gone for nearly a year by the time we return. I'm looking forward to getting back, even if I try to keep it out of my conscious thoughts. Evidently a fair few things have changed, mostly for the better.
But, there is a fight lurking. I'm trying to get one of my friends into college, and they're putting him through hell about financial aid. He's practically an orphan at this point - his father hasn't been seen for something like 12 years, and his mother is dead. Also, he's about to turn 19. Notwithstanding any of this, the damn financial aid office still insists on a parental signature. Where in hell is he supposed to get that from? There has to be some protocol for handling stuff like this, but I can't run it to ground out here and he doesn't know where to begin. Arglebargle.