Two calls in one day!

I promise the post about yesterday is coming, but not tonight. I'm still getting settled in from my week with K in Louisiana.

I got back to my apartment a little before 7:30 last night. I immediately started unpacking, and ER was here soon with some taco soup and extra arms to help me unload while our dinner heated up. I told her about my week and especially the events of the day. I cried through a lot of it. She even teared up as I told her about when K left. I was really glad to have her there with me to have someone to talk to. I can't imagine how it would've been to have the whole evening to myself.

I unpacked my things as I'd planned, and I even managed to find places for several of the things K has me storing while he's gone. By the time I'd showered, changed my sheets and climbed into bed, it was 1:30 a.m. I'm pretty sure I was asleep by 1:32.

I was awakened at 6 a.m. by my cellphone. K had told me before he left that he was going to call me, so I went from being dead asleep to completely excited and awake the second I heard my phone ring. He was in Germany after an eight-hour flight from Atlanta. He was about to fly another six hours to Kuwait.

We only talked about 10 or 15 minutes, but it was just great to hear his voice. Knowing it'll be months and months before I see him again makes me miss him even more than I usually would.

Once I got to work, I noticed I was being really quiet. Honestly, for most of the morning, I just didn't feel like talking to anyone. I found myself avoiding people by focusing my attention on Piper as I walked through the halls at work. I wasn't trying to be rude, I was just afraid if I talked to people, they'd ask me about my week or about K. Part of the week's events would come up, and I was worried I'd start crying. Even though I'd packed makeup for touchups just in case, I didn't really want to spend my day crying.

All of that made me feel a little like a zombie during a few parts of the day, since I was left to think about the next 15 months and the deployment in those times to myself. When people did ask me about the week or about K being gone, I surprised myself when I was able to tell the stories without crying. I teared up, but I didn't cry. Sometimes, the people asking me about it did. I noticed they seemed to choose their words carefully, and a lot of my co-workers had cautious looks on their faces when they asked me about it, as though if they weren't careful, I'd break. Maybe that's part of the reason I felt like avoiding people.

I realized that even though it's just a year ago tomorrow that K got back from Afghanistan, it feels like I'm dealing with this for the first time. I find myself thinking, "How does/did [insert m!litary w!fe friend here] do this?" But I've been through this once before. It was just four months, but still -- that's four months! That's longer than most "civilian" (I put that in quotes because I think it's a military word rather than one I use, but it's the best word for what I need) couples ever have to go without seeing each other.

Tonight, I was pleasantly surprised when my phone rang a bit before 9. It was K again. This time, he was calling from Kuwait. It was early tomorrow morning there, and he'd only been there for about three hours. We got to talk a little longer than this morning, but the phone signal wasn't always steady. He thought it might have been just a heavy call center time, since so many soldiers were using the phone then.

I should hear from him again tomorrow, he said. I know this is just the early stages, since more guys are traveling there through the week. I won't get to talk to him this often the entire time, obviously. But I'm definitely enjoying it now.