Oy Vey, the Navy and Its Uniforms...

This whole uniform change is really starting to irritate me. It didn't help that Oliver had a rank change recently. While that is, of course, good news, it's added a new dimension to the entire problem. Not only are we debating which uniforms must be replaced and which can last a little longer, but we are also trying to decide which are worth buying and sewing on new insignia. The replacement for the old working blues and whites is out, and we've even seen people wearing them around base, so I never bothered to buy a patch for his working blues. He really has had no reason to wear them, and, as far as he knew, wouldn't need them anytime soon. Then he came home last night carrying a bag of new uniform pieces and rank insignia, telling me that the khaki shirt won't be at the NEX until the 15th. I told him I'd go online and see if I could just order it for him. Problem solved, or so I thought. This afternoon, as he was getting ready to leave, he told me he had been told to wear his working uniform instead of the utilities the day before. There's just one problem with this....there's still no patch on his blues! So, he pulled on his new jacket (which actually goes with the new uniform, not the working blues) and just said he'd wear it all evening so no one would know the difference. Amusingly enough, he was nearly right. He did have to take his jacket off after all. It poured today (ah, thank you, Washington), so he got pretty wet. He walked around with a second class patch on all afternoon and evening, as well as a missing ribbon because we couldn't find the one I'd bought him months ago, and only one person took note of it. This is the subforce we are talking about, however. Remember, they are all men!