Welcome to the Dark Side

So… My friends will laugh, but I caved. I had a desperate moment and I joined the spouse organization Facebook page. I was looking for a babysitter for the pilot training graduation dinner for my husband’s latest class of students and I had exhausted most of my options. I joined the page to see the babysitter list. Sure, I could have signed up for one of those sitter sites you see on TV, but since we live in a small town, I wasn’t sure how many options there would be.

“Maybe we could just bring her with us?” my husband offered because he knew how much I had been avoiding this moment. I looked at our sweet daughter, who is really well behaved when we go out, and she smiled up and me. I considered the idea for a moment and quickly dismissed it as she blew a loud raspberry and giggled at me. I love it when she blows raspberries. Other people do not, though. I imagined the solemn tribute to MIAs and POWs that they do at all of these dinners and in my mind heard our daughter blowing loud raspberries during the moment of silence. “No, I don’t think that’s going to work,” I replied.

My mouse hovered over the “ask to join” button and with a trembling hand, I clicked it. Here we go…

A few hours later, I was in bed reading and noticed my phone blinking with a Facebook message, so I picked it up. The message was from someone I didn’t know and simply read, “Are you or your spouse stationed at this base?” Um… ok...

I replied with, “Good evening and thank you for your message! Yes, my husband is stationed at this base, thank you for following up!”

It was after 10:30pm, but I got an immediate response of, “What squadron is he in? What is his job?” I get that common courtesy isn’t really a thing on the internet, but this just seemed rude.

Again I replied, “Thank you so much for your quick response! I really appreciate it!” I also informed her of his squadron and official role.

Another message came though, “Well, why do you need to join this page? Sorry for all the questions, we just need to be sure you’re in the right place.” Oh, for the love… Really?

I almost gave up and said never mind, but I was determined to find a sitter (and be polite) so I informed her that the commander’s wife had instructed me to join the page and I was only just now getting around to doing it. I was added to the page with no further conversation or responses. Already, I could tell that this had a lot of potential to be more trouble than it was worth, but since people tell me they like hearing my stories, I figure it will give me some good ones.

A quick glance at the page already had me laughing. There were multiple posts about getting boudoir photo shoots done (Really?! Why is this a thing?). So, I’m sure I’ll have more fun stuff to talk about!

The irony of it all was that I managed to find a great babysitter though a cousin who had a friend nearby… Oh, well! I’ll stay on and lurk because it’s funny. Apparently the squadron has a page I “need” to join too, but that will have to wait for another day (and a few drinks probably too).

I told one of my good friends here about the conversation, so she could laugh at me and she responded with, “Haha! Welcome to the Dark Side!”