Jay deployed April 7, so today marks the half-way point of this deployment.  It’s been three long months, to be sure.  We’re on the downhill side now, with a rendezvous in Florida next weekend to look forward to.  We’ve done this deployment thing so many times before it’s just something we do, but this one-- at least for me-- has been harder than previous deployments. 

This time around, I haven’t really had the support I’ve had in the past.  I don’t have the “day job” I had during the last deployment to give me a connection to the civilian world and this ship doesn’t have the networking/support mentality of previous ships to give me a connection to the Navy world.  My friends-- and I don’t have as wide a circle of friends as I’ve had on previous deployments, for a variety of reasons-- the ones I’d expect to be supportive, don’t quite get it.  Correction: they don’t get it at all, even if they want to (which some do and some don’t).  I’m the nurturer and it befuddles some people when the nurturer needs nurturing (not that the nurturer ever asks for help, that would go against the very nature of being a nurturer, right?).  My fabulous and inspiring writer friends are at a distance and e-mail is no substitute for that face-to-face connection that I sometimes crave. 

There are literally days when the only people I see are the ones who serve me coffee and the fact that they know what I drink and often have it ready before I even get out of my car doesn’t really make them friends-- or does it?  Most of the time, I do okay.  I have my schedules and my routine and I thrive on having the flexibility to do what I want.  So if the phone doesn’t ring on the 4th of July (when every year previous my backyard has been cookout central), then I have no one to blame but myself for making the wrong choices.  It gets lonely sometimes, this writer/military wife life, and I don’t really expect anyone to understand what that means.  But, you know, sometimes it would be nice if they tried.

Three months down, three to go.  I’ll be just fine. 

Posted by Kristina in Life at 03:10 PM Permalink Leave a comment