It's All About Point of View

A little over a year ago, Husband and I moved out of our apartment, packed all of our goods into storage and checked into the Inn on post. That night, Husband would leave for deployment and I would spend the first of many nights alone.

That room tormented me from the moment I walked in the door. Just knowing that it was the last stop on the countdown to deployment would have been enough to make me hate that hotel room. Of course, with my luck, that wasn't all that made me hate it. Not two minutes after we had stepped foot into the room, a innocent bug flew from the corner toward Husband's face, causing him to throw his phone in defense. Sadly, his phone split in half upon impact, therefore keeping his command from contacting him if necessary. On a normal day, Husband would have cared less. But 4 hours before a deployment and he was a stressed out mess. Not wanting to miss any important information, Husband decided that we should head over to the Battery early, ending whatever couple time we had left.

I can't even begin to describe how I was feeling as we loaded his bags in the car and took that short drive across post. I do, however, remember every detail of that drive, from the street lights shining off of the newly formed rain puddles to the look in Husband's eye: a mix between pride for the mission and the devastation of leaving the one you love behind. As we pulled into the parking lot, all the strength I had left disappeared because for only the second time ever, I saw a tear run down Husband's cheek. Remembering that one tear and those last moments we spent in the car together before Husband had to walk away will always bring an ache to my heart, even if I'm wrapped in his arms. Thankfully though, we will never have to relive those moments again as we are now staying at the Inn on post for a different reason.

Husband is 5 days away from calling himself a civilian!! 

So now, for a very different reason, Husband and I have moved out of our apartment, packed all of our goods for shipment and have checked into the Inn on post. This time around, there is nothing sad about this hotel room because Husband and I are about to start a very exciting new adventure, together.

The Girl Who Cried Ghost

Sometimes, Husband likes to play tricks on me. Most of the time I find them slightly more annoying than funny but Husband really loves them. The ghost incident that occurred yesterday was much worse than a normal trick though; it was 99% terrifying and 1% funny [although the more time that passes, the funnier it becomes]. It started like this:

Laying in bed at approximately 0510, Husband wakes me up to inform me that he thinks he heard something. He then goes on the tell me how he woke up way before his alarm because he was convinced he saw something moving in the room. He then leaves for PT, leaving me cowering under the covers, trying to decide if he was lying or if I should seriously consider we have a ghost. I eventually fall back asleep and don't think twice of Husband's story when I wake up.

A few hours later, I decide to jump in the shower so I can have plenty of time to get ready before Husband gets home for lunch. [On a normal day, I would have at least an hour before I would expect him home.] So I'm in the shower, shampooing my hair and singing louder than necessary, when I open my eyes. As my eyes adjust, I realize that there's a face colored blur on the other side of the curtain but with all of the steam and soap, I can't really tell what it is. Instantly, Husband's story comes rushing back to my mind. I immediately begin to question my sanity. To prove to myself that I am not really crazy, I blink my eyes a few times and lean a little closer to the shower curtain to get a better look at the "face". The closer I get, the more I realize that there really is a face on the other side of the shower curtain. For a second I just stand there, frozen in terror, trying to decide if there is a ghost or a kidnapper in my bathroom. I decide neither is good, but either way I'm going to have to face it.

Bravely, I tear back the shower curtain to find Husband standing on the bathmat with the biggest smile on his face. And then I cried. Not just normally tears, but uncontrollable sobs of relief. I hadn't even realized how truly scared I had been until I realized that I was not actually being haunted. Naturally, Husband felt absolutely terrible and promised never to play a trick on me again.

I'll let you know how that goes. 

:]  

Wordless Wednesday

Now I remember why I hate bikes...

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye after two weeks of constantly being together sucked. Seriously sucked. As I was completely unable to control myself, I clung to husband and sobbed in the airport. People stared and I didn't even care. But one part of that awful day actually went my way. Let me start from the beginning...

Driving to the airport, I was trying to hold back tears and soak up all the love I could in the little time I had left. Before I knew it, we were in the parking garage, pulling his bags out of the car. Slowly, we walked to the ticketing counter, hand in hand. And it was there my small miracle happened. Not only was husband's flight delayed five and a half hours, I was given a special ticket that let me walk him all the way to the gate. With such unexpeded, good news at such an awful time, tears suddenly became the furthest thing from my mind. We were happy.

We left the airport, high on our small victory and spent every second of that extra time together. Eventually, we made it back to the airport and I used my special ticket to go through security to wait at the gate with husband. In our own little world, the annoucement of the flight boarding shocked me into instant tears. Suddenly, all my time was gone and it was time to say goodbye. As my tears fell onto husband's uniform, other wives walked away from their soldiers with smiles on their faces and not a tear in sight. I really don't know how they did it, because that goodbye was the worst of all we've gone through.

I still haven't recovered.

From Free to Fail

I am, naturally, very short on patience. Along with this problem, I also have a very low tolerance for stupid. Having these conditions makes accomplishing anything involving the government pretty much impossible. Like financial aid...

With husband deployed, I chose to come home to Arizona and go back to school. Go me. After my first semester back at ASU, I was given oppotunity to transfer to Grand Canyon University, a private Christian college, to finish out my degree. Normally, I would have just stayed at ASU for convenience, but Grand Canyon gave me the opportunity to attend for free. Of course, I didn't turn that down.

After I had been accepted and all of my paperwork had been signed and delivered, I thought I was home free. That was my first mistake. The school decided that I needed to verify my finacial situation. No problem, right? Wrong.

I sent in my tax forms and my bank information and everything else they asked for, except a copy of husband's 2009 tax info, which just so happens to be in storage, an ocean away from here. After all, why would they even really need his tax form from that year? We weren't even married yet! But it didn't matter; they insisted that I send it in. So I called everyone on the planet trying to get a copy. But guess what? Since we weren't married at the time, I am not authorized to obtain a copy. And that's when the real fun started.

The school started asking me to have my husband call. My response: He can't call. He's deployed. But apparently in the land of college acceptances and government forms, this means nothing. Because their next genius plan was to have him get a copy of the paper and fax it himself. Right then, in that very moment, is when my tolerance for stupid and my patience came to an end. I snapped. I was so mad, I cried. Which probably didn't make my response very intimidating but I said it all the same. My response: That's a great idea! I'm sure my husband, who has very limited time to call, can wait on hold with the IRS for hours to get a copy of that tax form. Oh, and then I'll just send my husband, who happens to be in a war zone, a fax machine. I'm sure, by some miracle, that it will magically work out there in the middle of the desert. Seriously, great idea.

So after that, I'm guessing that I'm probably not accepted anymore. Add that along to the fact that there is no way I am going to pay $8,000 a semester in tuition out of pocket, and it looks like I'm not going to school next semester. Right now, I'm still a little bit too mad to care. But I'm sure, in about 2 days, I'll be crying over this whole situation. Unless someone wants to finance my education...Please?