Jane at Taingamala (a fellow Alpha Gam!) just posted about going on a business trip after her hubby returned from deployment. It really it home with me because Mac has been gone for the past three weeks. The year that Mac was deployed, I adjusted to being alone. I created routines that helped me deal with sometimes crippling loneliness and depression (these may or may not have included drinking a bottle of wine in less than an hour).
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| www.cafepress.com |
Per Army regulations, units returning from a year-long deployment cannot conduct overnight training for the first six months they’re back. That six month deadline passed during our honeymoon, so Mac’s battery began preparing for a large field training problem for August (like consecutive weeks and weekends spent in the field and not at home). About a month ago, Mac was picked to lead a three-week long training mission at Fort Stewart in Georgia.
Suddenly, our nice homey life had been overturned. You would think that having endured a deployment, three weeks would be nothing. Not so! Maybe it’s because I changed jobs or maybe it’s because these past seven months have been the most time we’ve EVER spent together, but this training mission has really sucked.
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| This is terrible advice. We’d all be fat and emotional. |
All is not lost. Mac will be home tomorrow (or possibly Thursday), and we’ll have a long weekend to lay about the house and watch football. I’m more fortunate than several of my friends who see their husbands deploy several times a year (granted, they’re only gone for a few months at a time). Mac also isn’t in the same kind of physical danger that existed in Afghan-land.
I’ll stop complaining now.
I too use the wine bottle as a comping mechanism. lol And I’ve always thought that was absolutely awful advice too. Time apart sucks. Daniel starts his out in the field trainings in a couple months and I am dreading it! It just reminds me another deployment is on its way. 🙁
I like to think that he’ll be ready to deploy and that the Army won’t need him. Not exactly logical, haha. I hate field training.
I cant really say that I feel your pain because my husband isnt in the military or in any conditions that can lead to a deployment. I carpool with a newlywed Army wife and her husband had volunteered for a Afghanistan tour. She is having some hard times dealing with the situation because none of her family is in the military. I have experienced it with my dad when I was younger but his retirement is next year and I wont have to worry about it anymore. But being away from the ones you love for any length of time is hard to deal with. I am here for you BIG and if there is anything you need let me know. You are only a three hour drive away.
Thanks, buttercup. We need to roadtrip up y’all’s way 🙂