The Flip Side

It's when 'YAY, YOU'RE HOME!!!!' turns into 'yay, you're home *sigh*'.  It is the time no one really talks about because it makes both of you look, well, ungrateful.  You both feel it, you just don't want to admit it.  


Now, there are some that will say it never happens to them, but they are the same ones who have the Spouse of the Year awards lined up all across their mantle.  Heck, they probably even have their own special display case with lights!  You know the ones, they burp rainbows and fart sunshine.






Well, this is not about them.  It's about me the rest of us imperfect souls.


It's been about four days since my friend's husband came home.  In respect for their privacy I haven't called, texted (is that a word?) or dropped in unannounced, but I know it's about that time.  The time for me to ask her "So, how's it going?"  To which she will sigh, roll her eyes and say under her breath "He is driving me CRAZY!"  Followed by a HOLY CRAP.  It's this time of the post-deployment that would make even the most virtuous of women drink and curse.  


You get desperate.  'Yes, it did too take me 30 minutes to poop'  'Um, yeah, I gotta go to the commissary.  I know that I just went an hour ago, but I forgot something, anything' 'Kids, Daddy wants to play with you!' 'I bet you should go in to the office, I bet they are DYING to see you'


You've been in survival mode for months and now there is a practically new person that has been dropped onto the island and you have no clue what to do with him.  You really want to just say 'the tribe has spoken.  You've got to get on up out of here' but you know you can't.  


So what do you do?  You may have a bottle glass of wine and tell yourself over & over that you missed him at some point.  You remember how hard it was when that extra set of hands was not there.  You suck it up once again, put on your big girl panties and DEAL.  It's not easy, no one ever said it would be.  You just didn't think that it would be this hard either.  You try not to put your pillow over his head when he sleeps (but that sure stops that snoring that you lived without for months).  You think happy thoughts and wish that you were the wife that burps rainbows and farts sunshine.  


He's home, he's safe.  You count your blessings.  You are NORMAL.  There's still the point at the end of every post-deployment honeymoon that you find yourself asking


"Can't you find some TDY to go on???"