Countdown

Every time Soldier leaves I try to stay focused on the day to day and creating a new routine so that I’m not constantly thinking about the fact that he’s gone and I’m alone now. We’ve had plenty of separations for me to hone my skills on, and I’d have to say that I was pretty successful through most of them. During his first two deployments I was in school full-time and working 4 part-time jobs (not exaggerating), so I was able to keep myself so busy that looking back those years just flew by.


Since we’ve been married and I’ve graduated from college our times apart have been shorter; one weekend a month and then a complete month last summer. Last summer I thought I was going to go crazy for that month he was at Ft. Lewis. He wasn’t able to communicate with me at all, no phone calls, no emails, no letters, nothing. He’s my best friend and whenever anything happens to me or I have news he is the first person I want to tell, especially if it’s something funny or a blond moment because he gets such a kick out of those. Plus, I now just have a full time job so my nights and weekends are free and I have a lot more time to myself. I try to fill it up with friends, books, running and projects (I’m going to finish that quilt this week!), but the next time he deploys I am seriously considering getting a part time job just to stay more busy.


Every time he has left I have tried to wait as long as I could before thinking about the exact day he would be back. I tried not to think about how many months until he was home, or how many of our family members would have birthdays before he was back or what movies would finally be released to theatre or on DVD before I got to see him again. And it never fails that it doesn’t last long before my calendar has a countdown marking off how many months or days before he returns. This time, I made it a whole week plus before I wrote down how many days left until my hubby is home. He comes home in 11 days!