Happy-Happy Joy-Joy!!!

Care to guess when/where this picture was taken and by whom?


Wednesday night at 10:00 my cell phone rings and it's a local number. Weird. I don't know anyone locally that would call me at this hour...

"Hi, ma'am. This is Petty Officer Matthew from VRC--"

"You found it!!!!!" He must've had to hold the phone away from his ear. I would've hugged him, were he within reach.

Nearest we can figure, here's how it went down:

1. In preparation for the departing cat shot, the other about-to-be-victim of a camera disappearance and I place our items in a white trashbag the Chief is holding. Unbeknownst to us, Chief later reinforces the white bag with a brown trashbag.
2. To the C-2 crew unloading our gear when we return, brown apparently means HAZMAT (hazardous materials) rags, so they set it aside.
3. PAO calls squadron offices as the C-2 taxis back to the hangar, tells them to find that white trashbag...now.
4. Back at the hanger, brown trashbag gets placed with HAZMAT materials and the squadron practically strips the interior of the C-2, looking for... a white trashbag. They report finding no white trashbag.
5. The entire PAO is now in a tizzy and attention turns to the carrier, which reportedly goes to "near general quarters" trying to find a white trashbag with two cameras in it.
6. Person disposing of HAZMAT later picks up brown trashbag and says to self, "This isn't HAZMAT. Someone must've just set it down. I'll just leave it here so they can find it when they come back."
7. Six days later at the end of his shift, Matthew thinks to himself, "Brown bag has been sitting there for awhile. I should check it out." He takes the time to look through every single Soldiers' Angels business card in the camera bag and finds the only one I'd written my name and phone number on.

End result? He's my hero!!! He doesn't seem the huggy type, so I resort to thanking him with a properly-presented Soldiers' Angels sailor coin.

PAO Master Chief calls it a "comedy of errors." She's obviously not familiar with typical Fuzzybear adventures.

The best part... I had been heartbroken about losing some irreplaceable things, but I thought I was still thoroughly enjoying the memories. It turns out the sadness had been more of an anchor to my thoughts than I realized. Since last night, I've found a whole new level of happiness and enthusiasm when talking about last week.

I'm doing the Happy Dance again. I must be such a pain for grumpy people to be around...