The holidays were pretty weird for me. Especially considering what the 2 previous years have been like. What it boils down to, however, is that this Christmas and New Year’s is the last one the hubby and I have before he deploys. And we chose to spend it with each other doing what WE wanted to do. It sounds selfish, doesn’t it? I imagine a number of people might think:
What about the rest of his family – don’t you think they wanted to spend his last Christmas stateside before a deployment with him as well? Especially since you will have him for the whole time until the actual day.
The thing is this – from here on out, he will be stressed, exhausted, gone for days and weeks on end, irritable maybe, certainly under a lot of pressure. I won’t “have him” at all. He will have me. As for the rest of his family – that is what “block leave” is for come the last 2 weeks before “the actual day”. “Block leave” is when the entire unit goes off on vacation at the same time. And our plan is to head to Michigan so that the rest of his family can have him before he leaves. Christmas and New Year’s was for me.
I know a few couples might do it the other way around, and maybe the interests of tradition are better served by that strategy. And frankly, chances are if circumstances had lined up perfectly, we might have ended up doing it that way as well. It just didn’t work out that way. Besides, it allowed us to do some things we needed to do here that we would not have been able to do had we driven to Michigan instead.
Speaking of Michigan – I miss snow! I missed having a white Christmas. And I certainly missed the small-town Christmas. I have to say that every day there is a new reason (or a reminder of an old one) to despise this big army city of Fort Hood. Traffic, crime levels (can you believe that the have to lock up the baby formula and pregnancy tests at the nearby Walgreens?), noise and density of people and buildings …
Last night, the temperature hovered at mid-40F but the windchill made it feel more like 20F and I was cold, in pain, tired and dying to get home – yet we spent 2 hours at Walgreens attempting to get a prescription filled that my doctor wanted me to have to take immediately. There might have been other faster options, but Walgreens was our only one last night for the simple reason that my refill prescription – also due – is at Walgreens and they don’t rewrite “scrips” in this country apparently – they just keep the refills “on file”. All this after finding out that there “may be some auto-immune-thing going on with you that we have to check out” from the doctor and an exorbitant dental work estimate.
On a lighter note, I went to my first yoga class yesterday. I am so badly out of shape that I couldn’t keep up with the class – although I know part of that was (a) I hadn’t had anything at all to eat or drink other than a cup of tea before the dentist at 6am and (b) I need to pay more attention to hydration. It felt good, though, to actively be trying to be fit and healthy and I think I will keep this up. Also helps to know that someone I know attends the evening classes too – assuming she is empathetic, I might just find a “partner” to help motivate me in her.
The year hasn’t been off to an awesome start thus far … more challenging and encouraging than just plain “awesome”. I appreciate it, and I am lapping it up. I am ready for “twenty-ten” (wink-wink at Jo). In spite of what it will bring for me in the way of “most challenging life event for me evar”, I am ready. I am gathering my own personal army and arsenal and I am going to charge this year head-on.
How about you? You ready for what “twenty-ten” is going to bring?
Related posts:
- Christmas parties for the fyr-family ...
- And as we edge ever closer to deployment date … ...
- Making a Christmas shopping list and checking it twice ...
- What is this Christmas Spirit that people talk about? ...
- This new life and me ...
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