The Life of an Army Wife 17/5/09

I am very proud of David and the work he does in the army. He works very hard in a very important job, and I know that he is actively contributing to the security of this country. Unfortunately this all comes at the expense of his time with me. After about 3 and a half years together I am more than used to getting by on my own and filling my time without him, but I always have a guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach when I’m having fun without him. Usually, When David is away and I’m having fun he’s doing something physically and mentally tasking and not fun at all. A perfect example is our pre-wedding menu-tasting: David was on a field exercise eating kosher spam and barely sleeping while I got to have a fabulous gourmet meal with family and friends in anticipation of the wedding. I don’t think David has ever gotten over that disappointment and is still waiting for us to be invited to another wedding at the same hall so he can finally taste the food. We have finally reached a new stage in our “he leaves me home alone” relationship: I am starting to take longer trips for school and during the summer I will be gone for two weeks straight for an archaeological dig. And I’m torn. After all of this time that he’s had to leave me for really important things I feel even more guilty for leaving him and extending the stretches of time that we won’t be able to be together. I guess I have to get used to it if I want to be a tour guide and be bouncing around the country all the time! All of this is practice for the real world, because as I try to keep reminding myself, its not only the army that separates us, its life and we have to get used to being together while being apart. It sounds ironic that this would be an issue for us after all of the time I spent in the states while we were together, but its so different now that we’re married and have gotten used to seeing each other all the time!!