Chapter 7 "Deployment Blahs For Dummies" 3/21/2012

So much for trying to blog it out more often...

Well, we made it over the "hump" and are on the down side of this deployment.  I cannot say I feel any different.  I still look at my Donut of Misery and see that I am just barely over the half way mark.  On the upside, I am three quarters of the way to R&R, and that makes me smile.

In the past couple of weeks we managed to celebrate my birthday.  In true fashion it got completely ridiculous and not the "ridiculous" that means "out of control awesome".

My very fabulous husband attempted to plan, with the help of my very good friends, a day of shopping, sans the little child, a home cooked meal and cake and ice cream from my favorite place, Coldstone Creamery.  I was also to receive an hour with a personal trainer followed by an hour massage.  My husband knows me well.  Low key, small, intimate.  Well, let's just say, one thing led to another and it is really hard to plan from 6,500 miles away.  Our son got sick the day before my personal trainer hour and because of timing, the massage is pretty much a no go.  We figured he would play in the gym while Mommy worked out but to allow me to be in a position in which I might get too comfy and fall asleep...well that is just not possible.  I still need to reschedule the time, but lo and behold, I get sick.  When you might ask?  My BIRTHDAY!  Seriously, I wake up feeling like I was hit by a truck.  I was fortunate in that my sister and niece came up to spend the weekend with me so I at least had company.  I am finally on the mend and the good part is my friends have promised a mulligan birthday, except this time I don't have to age, I can go for that.

Speaking of my sister, she has been wonderful in coming up and spending weekends with me here and there.  It is nice to have another adult in the house, someone to cook with and for...someone to catch the things I miss...someone to talk to without picking up a phone...someone to either watch the little one while I play taxi cab driver or to actually go and play taxi cab driver.  It is funny the little things that you take advantage of when you have a co-pilot in the house.  Okay, okay, it isn't all like that all the time.  To be honest, we do a lot of eating, watching TV, playing with each others hair, (but not in that provocative way a guy would think about) sister things.  I don't worry about offending her with things I might say or do and I am pretty certain she would feel the same way.  It is just comfortable.  Anyway, she came up a few weeks ago and decided she wanted to start watching Army Wives.  I only discuss the show with other army wives (or national guard wives, hahaha) so it was interesting to see what it would be like to watch it with someone that really didn't understand the lifestyle.  I am not sure how I am more entertained, watching the show with my sister or watching the show with my sister.  It is funny to think that at one point in my life I didn't know all the Army/military stuff I know now.  There are a lot of moments on that show that I completely understand though.  One part that sticks out was where Michael told Joan that Claudia Joy said it was harder for those left behind when soldiers deploy, that soldiers are trained to go away--they are trained for the experience, those left behind have to carry on and nothing prepares you for that.  Yes, that pretty much sums it up.

The show also got us thinking about moving or in military lingo "pcs'ing".  I have been itching to move for sometime now.  I lived in the same town for over thirty years of my life and have been in my current locale for over 6 and it was nice at first but this deployment has really opened my eyes to what could be, what should be, what isn't...I almost long for someone to say "You are moving to _____ on _____." and that be that.  Now it is a choice and when you have a choice everyone has an opinion.  My absolute favorite is that we "can't go".  I am so unsure why that it makes my head spin.  I have spent the past 6 months basically alone, with the exception of my sister and a couple of quality friends, many people just dropped off the face of the earth.  The sad part is, it was people I just didn't expect.  I have experienced this before and if I do say so myself, I handle deployment quite well, I don't complain and it isn't as if I sit around and cry but there are a few people that have really shocked me with their lack of compassion or lack of existence throughout this journey.  I could go into how low my expectations are of others but that is a whole other blog post.