hi there

So it’s been a few days. I’ve had some thoughts over the past week, and every time I was in front of my computer those thoughts were strangely missing.

I’ve been hearing a lot from  M. He emails me at least once a day, and has sent several pics of the camp. The strangest part has been how happy he sounds. Its a comfort to me, because when he’s unhappy on ex it makes my time harder, because of feelings of helplessness. His relative happiness over there is making my time easier here. It’s hard facing down 6 months of this, but I know so many good things will be happening within those 6 months that it makes the time a little easier to face.

Good thing #1!! My mother and sister are coming to visit me!! They’ll arrive in the Capital the day before Halloween, so I will be touring them around on Halloween!! My facebook status was in regards to the snow that was blowing around, and my sister had a less than favourable response. Hahah! They told us we would get 30cm (1′) last night, but of course that never happened. Stupid weather people. This province couldn’t accurately tell the weather to save their lives!

Good thing #2. I’ve been stressing a LOT about M’s HLTA, because I was having to plan both airfares and destination, but M has just informed me that the clerk at his camp will do everything for us, as long as I give him the correct information! I’m also thinking about taking longer. M leaves camp prior to his actual HLTA dates, which would leave him a week on his own before I arrive. So I’m thinking of leaving 5 days earlier. I can take advantage of another weekend, and see my dearest for longer than planned.

Good thing #3. Home Province for New Years!! I’m planning my return flight to the Home Province vice the Capital, so that way I can see my friends and fam a little.

So those are the immediate things. Other changes in the future have happened as well. It doesn’t look like I’ll be going to South Africa anymore this late winter/early spring, as it turns out my cousin is getting married in November in the Dominican. M wants to attend (!!?! I think the heat has fried his brain which allowed him to forget that he hates weddings!), and I don’t think I can do 3 big trips within the span of a year. It also takes off a load of financial stress not having to worry about airfare to SA. Or the amount of time off I’d have to take (that I don’t have!)

I received the photos from the professional shoot last weekend, and literally spent my time mooning over them. They’re fantastic. So many of them are just perfect. There’s one in particular taken in front of an old warehouse, I want to frame it in the living room (even though I was only JOKING when I said I was going to frame one of our photos in the giant frame in the living room), it’s more artsy than mushy, so I think it will be okay. Plus, the colours of the warehouse match the colours of our living room :)

So, inspired by the mooning was a heightened sense of the Love that I feel for M. Plus the emails he’s been sending, I’ve been feeling very connected to him. I’m still vaguely emotionally unstable, but the precipice on which I balance has become less pronounced. A rolling hill versus a cliff.

Speaking of emotional stability, I went out with Sr last night to a tiny community that was hosting an Irish band. When we looked at the list of cities they toured in, we were like, “why the FUCK would they pick this place?”  2 hours from the base, not in the direction of any great city! Literally the middle of nowhere. However, we did have the best Chinese food either of us have consumed in this province, oddly enough. Considering the huge level of immigration to the city adjacent the base, the Chinese food there SUCKS.
The show was good, and as I told Sr after the show, the Music Appreciation nights M and I have where he forces me to listen to the Dubliners probably helped. I did feel a smug superiority (as a Scot) when the Uillean pipe player was discussing differences between the Uillean (or Irish) Pipes and the traditional Scottish Bagpipes. This is a constant and amusing tension that is generally present in my relationship with M. He is Very Irish and Very British (father born in Belfast, mother born somewhere in England), and I claim to be Very Scottish, even though that part of my heritage is more diluted than I knew (until recently). We’re in a constant battle of “who is better”.

Wow, so I totally digressed from the introductory sentence of “speaking of emotional stability”. The whole thing was supposed to be a revisiting of the conversation I had with Sr when I first discovered the dissolving of her marriage, about how angry I am, all the time. She had been discussing her anger management classes (as she works with the incarcerated and recently released), and I had asked for tips. On the drive back to the base I had mentioned to her that recently I realized I haven’t been angry in a while. Not unjustifiably angry, anyway. And the apathy I had written about before isn’t there anymore either. I think it may be possible that I finally moved beyond that step in the grieving process. I haven’t felt a shred of anger towards M regarding his leaving (i.e. abandoning me). I haven’t even felt apathy. I’ve felt sadness, fear, excitement, but nothing that didn’t belong.
I think I’ll just skip the remaining three steps :)

So today my plans kind of got shit canned. Sg and I were supposed to get together with her neighbour for a waffle breakfast, then take a jaunt to the local provincial park where there’s supposedly a haunted house. Sg slept in, didn’t give me details as to todays timings, and stood her neighbour up. So I’m trying to decide whether to head to town to pick up some weather stripping for the doors, plastic for the windows and some caulking (I need to caulk the baseboards, there’s an awful draft in here, and we determined that’s where it came from last year), or head to work to do some overtime so I can take a day off when my mom and sis come.
Tonight I’m either heading in to town to see Zombieland with Sg, or Couples Retreat with Ts.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving with L and Tg, as Tg’s husband leaves at o’ dark stupid that night/next morning. Then Monday is Thanksgiving with J5 and her family, which should be good. Her husband is Polish and apparently loves fish dishes, so win for me :)

I know there’s more in me. I’ve been over-scheduling myself, which leaves me with an anxiety about not writing. I’m planning on partaking in NoJoMo as I did last year, so you’ll hear more from me  more regularly, soon enough.

h&v

so good!

Wow. The last 24 hours have been… pretty spectacular. Home-coming is always great because it’s just an eye-opening reminder of how amazing I think M is. I’m sure anything I say will be written off as silly girl-emotions, but I’ve never been so consistently in awe of my partner as I am M.

Of course, something I haven’t written about was M’s proclivity of talking non-stop for hours after he returns from somewhere. This time, hilariously, he told me to tell him to stop, since his mother had just spent 5 days talking at him, non-stop. He went on about how annoying this habit was, and that he understands that he does the same. I told him that it’s part of the home-coming process, and that I love his non-stop chatter and ranting. And even his caveat didn’t stop the rapid-fire commentary on his week in the home province.

We stayed at the Fairmont, in their “gold level” accommodations, as with a military discount it didn’t make sense to take a standard king room. There were all kinds of swanky amenities that went along with it, but after the fucking that occurred, we weren’t inclined to put our clothes back on to partake in the cocktails-til-11pm, for example.
Fortunately, we DID partake in the stellar “Deluxe Continental” breakfast offered to Gold guests. Holy crap was it amazing – scrambled eggs with cheese and scallions, fresh delicious croissants, teensy ketchup bottles, cut up fruit, yogurt, tomatoes and cucumber with bocconcini and basil… the list goes on.
Checkout was noon, but after slowly getting ready, watching some clips on YouTube, and calling valet (!!!!)  to take our stuff to the car, we were out of the room just after 11am.

We wandered around downtown for an hour or so waiting for our appointment with the photographer. After some directional issues, we met up on a street corner in our preferred neighbourhood.  We discussed a little bit of what we were looking for. We’d said “nothing romantic”, but I guess we really meant nothing forced, or cheesy. We found a great doorway to a warehouse and used that for the first few shots, and then things just started to flow a little better from there. Apparently kissing was M’s favourite shot to take, because in almost every pose he kissed me. The photographer apparently noted M’s habit of brushing the hair off my face, and tried to use that in a few shots. We got some great pics at the riverfront, some against a wall of graffiti, in front of a parkade, on a construction site… she really took my comment that we are an “urban-style” couple seriously.
It was a lot of fun, and only took about 2 hours for the full shoot.

Afterwards, we were famished and roasting in the strange heat of late-September. We got the car out of valet, and drove to the italian restaurant across the river. We split some garlic/cheese bread and I had gnocchi with zucchini and goat cheese, and M had a meat lasagna. We had our usual entertainment of trashy people punching each other out on the street corner, and the fire trucks blasting out of the station across the road. Not to mention “the guy in the jacket” who was stoned off his face trying to get in the out door of the patio we were sitting on. Hah. The Capital is so trashy.

Afterwards we went to the Mall, where M spent $150 on books. I got another Post Secret book, and two novels. If anyone wants to send ME a care package, I’ll take your used books. My plan is to hibernate in alternate realities for the next 6 months, whilst sitting on a stationary bike or walking on a treadmill. Fuck the winter!!

Ahem. So after some major frustrations and minor shopping, and when the sun was low enough in the sky as to not blind us, we headed home.
We’ve been geeking out on our respective laptops since. And it’s quickly coming up on bed time.

h&v

second last weekend

I inadvertently did a countdown in my head. I’m trying not to think about how much time “we have left” because it’s stressful and morbid and annoying. M leaves on Thursday to head back to the home province to “say goodbye” and whatnot with friends and family. He’ll be back the following Thursday, and leaves that Monday, giving us a whopping 4 days together prior to deployment.

I almost don’t believe it’s happening. It feels just like every other field ex, course, whatever that takes him away from me. I said to him the other night that I’m happy we haven’t been fighting, since that’s what the pre-deployment psychology states is going to happen. He thinks that we’re above all of that and I want to believe him. Part of me thinks that I’m just that good at denial.

We talk constantly about what we will do next year. We’ve already decided that we will drive to the new posting, making our way to Alberta on the first day to stay in Calgary before we head to destination on the prescribed day. He’s said a few times now that he can’t believe he’s leaving in a few days since his heart and mind have already returned from tour. I wonder if that will make this harder on him and I hope not. I’ve been looking forward for the last 9 months or so, since we first got notice that he was going over. I remember refusing to start the countdown to posting at 17 months. Now we’re looking at 8 and I still refuse to start it.

I’m waiting for him to come home safely. I’m waiting for the posting message. I’m waiting for everything to be like it was today, but one year in the future.

I found this helpful. Humour is valuable in my life right now. It will be even more so once M leaves since he’s my main source of entertainment and hilarity.

When I re-read this, it sounds sad to me. It sounds like I’m sad. I’m not. Today was a great day – we cleaned the house together, napped together, went to dinner with friends, laughed a lot, co-existed as usual. He is a good person and we have a great life together. I guess I sound sad because of this fear that it could all end.

I despise and reject the possibility.

h&v