LIFE IN A JUMBLE

Dearest Friends,

I like having a routine, and I always have.  Even as a young teen, I would make out weekly schedules for myself, as to when to do homework, give myself facials and manicures and such.  It's probably because I have such a terrible memory, and this is the only way I could ensure that everything important got done.  Actually, that's the true reason I started keeping these little agendas in the first place.  Once I reached my early teens, it was the only way I could think of to keep track of my babysitting jobs and schoolwork!  I just had to laugh, though, as I read ahead through the next few months of my 1977 agenda.  Every few pages, it seemed, I wrote that I had "made out a new schedule!"  Obviously, I was having a bit of trouble keeping things under control, and if you know me at all, you know what that means.  When Miss Becky has too much on her plate, Miss Becky gets stressed, and when Miss Becky gets stressed, there's just no telling what will happen!  I hadn't actually reached the dithering stage just yet, though.  For now, I was merely a wee bit discombobulated.

Some of John's photo-goofiness -- The Three Faces of Becky.  The one on the right is the face he saw when he stepped off the boat.  The one in the middle is probably the face he saw when he told me it was time to leave again!

By late March I was busy getting my boss ready for another buying trip to Paris, to stock up the new shop we'd be moving into.  A full year after applying, we were still on the stupid waiting list for a telephone, which could be kind of scary at times, especially with John offshore.  One time Paula and I were supposed to meet up to go shopping at the souk and have dinner afterwards, but she never showed up.  I had to wait until I got to work the next morning, to call and find out if she was ok!  The postal situation wasn't much better either, than it had been in Indonesia.  A birthday package that should have arrived in October, finally showed up on March 17.  Christmas packages came straggling in mid-April.  At least here though, they usually showed up without anything having been filched from them.  I was most ecstatic about a bunch of dressmaking patterns that Mom had sent, which set off a sewing frenzy!  I had also started work on a queen-sized flower garden quilt that I took with me to the handicrafts group meetings each week.  The needles were a-flyin'! 

John made it home for his first shore-leave on March 21st, only two days late.  He did go into the office while he was home, but usually just during the mornings, when I had to be at work myself, so that wasn't too bad.  Unfortunately, we made the mistake of meeting up with friends or having people over almost every day that he was home, which made the week fly by so quickly, it was over in the blink of an eye!  I got sooooo depressed when I found out his boat would be leaving the next day - especially when he told me his other bits of news.  Well, one bit was kind of good.  There was a chance we could still get a house out on the company compound where Paula and Nellie lived.  The other news however, made us unsure whether to accept it or not.  John's boss had informed him that they just couldn't do without him right now, so we wouldn't be able to take our home-leave and Greek vacation in June as we add planned.  In fact, they weren't really sure when they would be able to give him any time off.  Could this have been the beginning of the end?