The List

I've been meaning to post about this for over a week. Definitely on the list of strangest things ever to happen to me...hang on, I'm going to have to start at the beginning.

Matt randomly gave me a call in the middle of the day about a week ago. He had gotten a call from an old classmate of his, who is currently serving as the aide-de-camp to the Division commanding general. According to this classmate, we (Matt and I) had received a package via the General's office. This general wanted to present the contents of the package to both of us in an official ceremony, to be held later that week.

The day of...

I head down to Bragg to meet the husband at squadron headquarters around lunchtime. Every. Single. officer and NCO in the unit is there to witness the ceremony. 45-50 battle-hardened soldiers. And me.

"He's on the move." We get the word that the general is heading over for the ceremony. We greet him with a few pleasantries (we have family friends in common), then beat it out of the room while the squadron commander gives him a quick tour.

Finally, what is it??

The general starts the ceremony with a long speech about the package that he received from a correctional facility in Michigan. Uh huh, that's right. Turns out, this convict saw the article and was deeply moved by it. So moved, in fact, that he decided to paint a watercolor portrait of the Captain and Mrs. based on the picture that ran with the article. At this point, everyone in the room (including us and the general) is smiling, snickering, or outright laughing.

What does this portrait look like, you may wonder? Envision, if you will: bright primary colors, a HUGE rainbow and waving flag against a bright blue sky, and inexplicably, male and female "Austin Powers-esque" symbols.

Matt was pissed that his beret was painted black instead of maroon (the picture that ran in the paper was black and white). I was shocked to see that I was given a porn star chest.

Let's hope the inmate isn't in jail for stalking.


Since the general was there, he presented Matt with an Army Commendation Medal that he had recently been awarded. Hubby's got a ton of flair!