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I got thi
s funky email from Facebook this week. “Brad has updated his relationship status to say that you two are married. Please confirm this relationship status.”
It kinda cracked me up. For one, it shows that my darling has finally broken down and decided to get a Facebook account. For two, Brad and I have been married for 24 years—and NOW he wants to “confirm” our relationship? Continue reading »
“I am running on fumes, here, fellah,” I snapped into the phone. “I’m getting nothing from you. Why do you think I can go and go and always come last in your life???”
Yeah, I confess that I went off on poor Brad last night. Note the drama of the words “nothing” and “always” and “last”—as if the existence of a Fig Newton was more important to Brad than me. Continue reading »
Sisterfriend? Deployment twin? Secret Weapon? What do you call the woman who partners you during deployment? The one who has seen your preschooler pick his nose every hour on the hour yet seems to still find him cute. The one who makes soothing noises when you whine about how long it has been since you heard from your beloved (even when you heard from him yesterday). The one who takes the screaming baby from your fevered hands and utters the four most beautiful words in the English language: Go Take a Nap. Continue reading »
Why does only 1 percent of the population serve in the military? Good question. When Michelle Obama and Jill Biden launched the Joining Forces campaign this month at the White House, they said that one of their objectives was to start the conversation about why only 1 percent of the population serves in the military while 100 percent of the population benefits. Continue reading »
Meredith Moss writes for the Dayton Daily News in my hometown. She called to get some deployment tips for the folks at Wright-Patterson Air Force base. Which was great. But here is the thing Meredith and so many other hometown reporters never think about: those tips could really help civilians.
Remember that scene in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang where Dick Van Dyke is telling the pirate story on the perfectly safe beach and turns to the kids and says, “What none of us have noticed is … that while we’ve been sitting here …the tide has cut us off!”
Sometimes I feel just like that during deployment. When Brad called last week he wanted to talk about our high school junior’s course schedule for next year. One moment we were safe on the beach, the next moment, swamped.
I took down our Christmas tree January 3. I am always a prompt Christmas-tree-taker-downer. But this year the tree was so dry that branches broke off in my hands. That never happens when my husband is here. Brad is thorough. Brad is careful. Brad remembers to water things.
I’d like to say that I am a queen of all this Holiday Alone stuff. That I have done four Christmas deployments. That I am so peaceful I am positively round-yon-Virgin about the whole thing.
Yuh … no.
I’m a deployment grumbler. I was grumbling to my girlfriend Kim the other day that every resource SAYS military spouses should get all supported during deployment, but that no one really WANTS to support you. “I swear it’s like a personal failure not to be able to get support!” I exclaimed.
When the kitchen floor buckled in our first house, my husband opened a giant hole in the subfloor to fix the joist. I promptly fell right through. I knew the hole was there. Told myself to avoid it. Fell right through.
