Sisters are doin' it for themselves.

It's time for me to show some love for a couple of my girls who don't even know I'm blogging and don't know I'm talking about them. Why don't they know, you ask? Well because I am very tentative about the things (stores) I am working on and don't plan to come fully out of the closet until I get myself a little more squared away. Once I do, there will be no shutting me up. At any rate, it would be an exercise in confusion to have a discussion with either of these people and mention my screen name because while they might eventually guess who you were talking about, the preceeding conversation would be very Abbott and Costello-like.

As both of these ladies have made their names available online, I will go ahead and use them here as well. And both of these ladies are my friends in real life.

First, a lady not unlike ourselves who didn't like the way something was so she just.... fixed it. The world isn't perfect and neither is her solution, but I have to say I think it's great. Lori is a Marine's wife (her husband actually got out a couple of years ago, but once a Marine....) and also a Marine's sister who went online in search of some helpful information when her brother went off to boot camp at Parris Island some years back. Needless to say, at that time there was nothing of much use to be found on the web. So she started a little forum ("board") on the EZBoard site which has since morphed into Yuku.com. It's called The Parris Island Family & Friends Support Center. Talk about "If you build it, they will come." It's still somewhat underground but has generated such activity over the past few years that it does now show on the first list of Google results if you query "Parris Island." Mothers, sisters, girlfriends, wives, fathers and whatsits of recruits have flocked in to mingle with their own kind: the confused, the apprehensive, the enthusiastic, the sleep deprived. Because I so love Lori and the board, I will try to keep my analysis of it here as objective as possible and leave out the extra bit of Ooh Rah. What you will get when visiting this board is some very good (read: current) information for lay people about the daily procedures at Parris Island, comprehensive information and suggestions related to graduation, some input here and there from drill instructors' spouses and other moderators deemed experienced enough to pitch in, a chat room that goes full blast every evening, last I checked, and the occasional bit of drama from stray, misinformed souls who may be under the impression that Parris Island is akin to a concentration camp or who may not have recruits at all but may just be war protestors (although the latter is very rare). There is some occcasional "rank wearing" that happens with some of the Marine wives who work on the board, although I think it is unintentional for the most part and should just be humored because, frankly, being the wife of a DI is a tall order and because sometimes they catch a lot of flack just for trying to help out. If I seem overly familiar with the details here it's because I worked on this board for the better part of two years. I actually made some long term contributions to it that I'm quite proud of. No, I will not tell you what my username is. ;)

As icing on the cake, there are links on the board to a sister board known as the USMC board. This is for folks whose Marines have already graduated from boot camp. It's not quite as active as the Parris Island board, but that is to be expected as the uninitiated tend to be needier than those who have gotten their feet wet. And, because the PI board grew so expensive to operate, Lori started a store on Cafepress, the proceeds of which go to funding the extensive costs for the board's monthly usage (hits, bandwidth, etc). There are some good, company and graduation date specific items on there. Note that I will be very careful when I place designs in my own store not to infringe on anything that Lori is doing.

If you or anyone you know has a recruit headed off to Parris Island, I suggest you have them check out the board. There have been many copycats and some outright stealing of Lori's materials, but this is an original.

Second on my list of shout outs is my friend, Jill. Jill is not a Marine wife but if there were such a thing as a civilian equivalent, she would be it. That must be why we get along so famously. Jill is a mother of 4 who teaches autistic kids, has a great sense of humor (often socially inappropriate-- which I love!), and loves to knit and make felted items in her spare time. I turned her on to Etsy recently and I am so excited for her because she's going to blow right up. I personally own some of her hand knitted items and love them. As a matter of fact, she made a beautiful green blanket for my daughter and I am completely unable to pry it away from her. Jill is definitely shout-worthy and although she is just getting started and doesn't have a large inventory yet, so is her shop. So check it out.

Both of these ladies are good, everyday people that I am proud to call my friends.

TGIF.