Two weekends ago, we had D's Going Away BBQ. It was a relatively quiet affair, with only family and close friends in attendance. We had burgers and dogs and all the fixings, and most importantly, a good visit with friends who were and continue to be our support system.
After that, were the last few days of the school year for myself (D finished earlier, since he works at the local community college and I teach secondary school) and a 3-day weekend of (mostly) alone time.
In this last weekend, we saw 2 movies (Kung Fu Panda 2 and the
On Tuesday (since Monday was Memorial Day we got an extra day), we rolled up to the recruiter's office at 8:10. We sat in the driveway for a bit, but then it was 8:24 and time for us to say our good-byes. It was hard. For the past 4 (almost 5) years, I have spent practically every moment of my life with D; being without him for 10 weeks to me is like losing your appendix - you can go without it, but you just don't want to.
So, at 8:30, I pushed him into the recruitment office and I drove away in tears. I had planned on going home, but decided that if I did I would just spend the next free hour I had crying on our bed. Instead, I drove to my eye doctor's office, where I sat in the parking lot for 5 more minutes with my head on my steering wheel bawling my eyes out. Then, I used a napkin to wipe my face, gave myself a mental shake, and took a few breaths.
Because him being at BCT is not like losing my appendix. He'll be back in 10 weeks and I will not just have stories about sitting on my posterior being sad to tell him when he gets back. I'm not saying that it won't still be hard, because I'm sure it will be, but for now I'm doing fine. I'm keeping myself busy and not thinking about sleeping alone in our gigantic bed every night.
D spent the day at RTI (I still don't know what that stands for), which is basically a holding facility for people shipping out to various training sessions. He was able to text during the day intermittently, then - to my surprise and excitement - able to call when they were released to their rooms for the evening. We probably talked for two hours and mostly about absolutely nothing important, but it was nice to talk to him. Like I'm weaning myself off!
Today, I had to clean out my classroom, and he was getting ready to really ship to BCT, but he could still text/call some. He called me this afternoon after he was dropped off at the airport, where the buses from Ft. Sill were picking up all the soldiers headed that way - a whopping 3 hours before the first bus was scheduled to arrive. He was lucky enough to get on the first one (the second and third would have been 5 and 7 hours after drop-off), and could text me till he got to base.
He sent me one more message: Turning off phone now... To which I promptly responded: LOVE YOU!! Write me as soon as you can!!!! Muses
Yes. That said Muses. Because, apparently, that's what your iPhone auto-corrects the word "kisses" to when you miss an "s." Oops.
He sent me a snapshot of a sad face and "Love you."
Now we'll be awaiting the mail with bated breath. I've got the stamp ready, all I need is an address.
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