The last couple of weeks have had some bumps (and accompanying tears) but no potholes that have left the vehicle disabled. I'm holding my breath going into the upcoming week that I can say the same thing by the end of Friday.
Last Sunday I actually found that I had enough extra bandwidth to brave a trip to WalMart and Michael's. I do that (not even exaggerating) about 4x year because of how much I haaaaate it. I also went for a "run" (a term I use verrrry loosely) which is also not a regular weekend activity. I've found a good work week rhythm and have a sense of how I need to balance connectivity with friends on the weekend with the amount of time I need completely alone on Sat/Sun and at nights during the week to adequately recharge (which is actually a fair amount of all-by-myself/not-talking-to-or-interacting-with-people-who-are-not-Philip time).
At one point while Philip and I were talking this week he went through this exercise of looking at the blog and checking what we were doing and where we were at this point at various years throughout our marriage. We were reminded how much of our time has been spent 1) getting ready to be apart, 2) apart, 3) transitioning after being apart.
Our conversation today provided me from some much-needed midday comic relief when Philip quipped, "The war is not going nearly as well as this mustache is!!" I erupted in laughter. For the most part, I think mustaches are gross. And, admittedly, I'm not sure quite what the recent pop culture obsession with them is (t-shirts, baby binkies, props for photo booths at weddings, etc.) The military has a tradition where many service members tout a strip of middle-of-the-face hair in the month of March. I roll my eyes. No, I take that back. I close my eyes and wait for it to be over. I told him, "dude, enjoy it now cuz it ain't coming home with you."
Let's let the commando next to him in this picture win the award this year.
This week had a moment that I really wish could have been shared and celebrated in person. Philip got an article that he's spent the last two months writing on his "down time" (even though he literally hasn't had a single day off in 5 weeks) published in a journal. Academic writing is an interesting coping strategy and entertainment choice in a combat zone, but, hey, whatever works. I'm looking forward to the raincheck celebration when he is back in Los Estados Unidos.
Yesterday I survived our tax appt. solo. Two of my least favorite parts of deployments are dealing w/ vehicle stuff and doing taxes by myself as we have a fairly complicated tax situation At one point in the middle of the appointment I was trying to reach Philip trying to see if I could get him to log on to a computer to answer a question I had no clue to the answer to. But there was no getting in touch. He was smoking a cigar. I figured it out how to hack into our Vanguard account, secure the necessary document, and felt mighty proud of myself when I did. A good CPA is gold. For real. On the car front I feel very fortunate as our pastor (who also has a great deal of mechanical prowess) said when Philip left "whatever you need with the car, call me!" And I have. If anyone is looking for a way to really put into action "support our troops" it is that: when a service member is gone, step in and take care of the vehicle maintenance for the spouse at home. That is true, tangible yellow ribbon support.
I'm looking forward to a quick weekend trip to CO next weekend to see my fam. I'm also loving the extra light. Not driving to and coming home from work in the dark just does something positive for the state of the world. While politics may be rapidly going to hell in a handbasket in March 2016, at least we've got extra daylight, no?
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