As good as it gets?

I think it may be right here, in DC.

Sometimes, I think it's kind of like a black hole.  Obviously, I mean black hole in the astro-physics sense. (Not "Black Hole of Calcutta" sense)  So dense, with such a strong gravitational pull, that NOTHING can escape.  The difference being that after a little bit, you don't want to escape.  You've been sucked in.  And you like it.

I came to northern Virginia because this is where my husband's family is.  Every day the high stays below 40, I miss Texas a little bit more.  The irony is that my husband and I are both rolling stones. We both left home fairly young, and planned on living in lots of other places. You know- join the Army, see the world.  So where am I?  20 miles from the house he grew up in. Point being, I wasn't sitting in Central TX pining for NOVA. 

But God has a sense of humor.

It is kind of strange to move to a place where one doesn't really need to make new friends, because friends from previous duty stations all moved here also.  Not bad, just odd. And it is just what happens in DC- a part of normal career progression for a lot of people.

I am not a big fan of the non-stop traffic.  Or the high cost of living. Or the rude people. But, 9 months later, I can see why people get sucked in. I understand why spouses get here and try to dig in their heels, battling the current of the Army, which is trying to drag them back to "real" posts.

Unlike other places I have lived, there are an overwhelming number of locations one can live in.  Figuring out WHERE to look for a house was much harder than finding a house I liked.  There are lots of schools here that are the best in the NATION, not "the best you can do in KISD".  And they are public schools, so military families can actually send their kids (presuming you can find a house in that school zone). 

Some people here work longer than others, but they come home at night. Spouses worry about accidents on the Beltway, not IEDs.  If your soldier gets snagged for a deployment from the Pentagon, most of them are 6 months.  There are people here with no combat patches.  (Can my husband switch into that career field?)

I live 5 miles from a Trader Joe's. Nothing like a little "Two buck Chuck" to help the deployment along. If I want to drive 15 miles, I can have ANYTHING. It's all right here.

I feel the pull. I am slowly getting sucked in. 

#1 is headed toward high school.  Is there anywhere the Army could send us next year where the high school wouldn't be a huge let-down? What about the other kids and their schools?  Not only are there great public elementary schools, but, from my preferred neighborhood, I could throw a rock and hit THREE Catholic schools, ranging from very good to Blue Ribbon. 

It is kind of depressing to see what is possible, knowing that I won't get to keep it.  We will leave, and I will go back to "the Real Army", where there are only 2 towns to live in, and only one school that I would even consider putting my kids in.  It will probably have only 1 Catholic Church, without a school.  I will find and patronize the commissary, the post gym and the CDC.  I will join the wives club and the FRG. I will put on my big-girl pants and drive on.  But I will carry with me a sense of lost opportunity.

It reminds me of window shopping when I was a kid in NYC.  Wandering along the avenues, looking at all the amazing window displays, walking through the stores, taking it all in, knowing it wasn't going to be mine anytime soon.

Ahhh, MDW. You promise so much, but only for a short while.

The last fleeting moments

The last 24 hours of EML.  Is there a way to stretch them out?  To stop these last precious minutes and hours from slipping away? The last 14 days have been fabulous. Thanks to Old Man Winter, the kids didn't even miss much school.  We went down to the aquarium.  We swam at the Great Wolf Lodge.  He got to watch #6 take her first steps.  He built snow forts with the kids in the front yard.

But time is just about up. 

Now I am trying to find a way to keep the feeling of his hug, the look in his eyes, all those things that I will miss most.  I am savoring the lower stress level that results from his mere presence at home.  How do I hold these things?  I am the queen of storage and organization, but nothing that I or the Container Store can dream up will fit the bill.  I'll have to rely on memory. I hope these last months pass quickly, so that I can feel all these things again, instead of simply longing for them.

So, today, I will spend the whole day right next to him- looking at him, hearing his voice, holding his hand.  Tomorrow, I go back to waiting.