Sunday, June 19, 2011

Oh the Irony!

So R&R is practically here, and guess what happens?  The glass on my oven door shattered!  Not, what you were expecting, huh?  We'll probably only have to pay a small fee to have it fixed/replaced if the manufacturer's warranty is out.  Which I think it is, but that's ok.  I'd rather pay a small fee than pay for the whole thing or even buy a new oven.

Where's the irony, you ask?

Well, last time the Marine was coming home for R&R (was in transit, and didn't have much access to phones and email, but more email access than phone) our computer blew up!  Ok, it didn't explode but it started smoking, and it was basically toast after that.  This was not that long ago, but this was when there weren't any Ipod Touches or Iphones, and Blackberries were just coming out.  So smart phones were in their infancy.  So there went one of my main of ways of contacting the Marine.  Of course this happened on New Year's Eve, and every place in 29 Palms was closed for a few days! 

Luckily I had some awesome neighbors who let me come over and use their computer a couple of times a day.  They day he flew into Palm Springs he called me to let me know when he'd be here.  That was my first call from him in days.

So last night I sent him an email telling him about the oven.  I have yet to hear back from him.  Now, I know this doesn't really affect our communication the like the computer did, but it does affect how I eat and possibly how we'll eat when he's here for R&R if it's not fixed!  I use the oven a lot.  I have something frozen, I throw it on one of my baking stones, and then I bake.  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.  I was telling my friends today, and they asked me if I had a toaster oven, and I said no but I'm thinking about getting one.  They all said "Do it!"  So I think a toaster oven is in my future.

Well, I have things I have to do since R&R is right around the corner!  I couldn't resist with this quote, it's from my childhood, and since my appliances seem to have issues.  Show yours some love.

"I remember the first time my bulb burned out. I thought, "That's it! I'm burnt out! Eighty-sixed! To the showers!" And then the master gave me a new bulb... and I glowed."~ Lampy from The Brave Little Toaster.

The Dancer


Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Bah

The Marine has been gone almost close to half a year.  If this was a normal (well as normal as you can get) USMC deployment, we'd be on the downhill slope.  We'd be getting ready for his homecoming.  Instead we are getting ready for R&R, and deep down I'd rather have him coming home and staying a while, instead of being here for a couple of weeks and then sending him back.  Don't get me wrong, I am so glad that the Marine gets R&R, I just don't want to send him back.

I'm a bit jealous.  It's hard for both of us to see our friends come home from their deployments when they left shortly before, around the same time, or just after the Marine did.  Then they come home before him, and we still have a good part of the deployment left.  The emotions at this point are frustrating.  I am so happy that our friends are coming home, but it's hard for me too.  I want what my friends have or will soon have.  And to know I don't get that for many, many months just sucks.  That's the best way to put it.  It sucks, and nothing can be done about it.

I just want my Marine home.  The Marine just wants to be home. 

We are getting to the point we are over this.  I remember during the first deployment, around month 7 we were over the deployment,  We were both done, and we still 5 had months left.  I believe that there is something about that number 7.  I think we are not suppose to be away from our partners that long.  The service members are also done with what they are doing.  They are burnt out.  It's an emotional and/or psychological thing, I'm sure there is some sort of study out there about it.  I'm just too lazy to look it up, plus I already know how I feel. 

But I'm starting to feel done with this deployment, and we aren't even to the halfway point.  Maybe it's because it's the summer and I don't have as much going on.  I'm hoping that's the case.

This quote is pretty dramatic, but it's the closest to my feeling right now. 

"Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair." ~William Cowper

The Dancer