1. A different twist on last week’s question. This week, the first question is: what’s the nicest thing a MILSPOUSE has ever done for you? (brought to you from navy_smurfette)
So when I first got married I enrolled in PhD program at IVYU and took a feminism and ecology class that turned into a why military spouses are in the throes of the patriarchy and thus responsible for like every ecological disaster in the world associated with the military.
This was quite shocking, especially since I had been married for oh 2 mos and thus couldn’t figure out how 1) I was responsible for all of this and 2) how why I had suddenly stopped being welcomed as a feminist because of whom I chose to marry. Enter intellectual and emotional crisis fueled by people I loved turning ugly and turning their back on me coupled with a large contingent of milspouses trying to enforce “Suzy Homemaker” living on me. I freaked out, melted down and kind of stayed there due to some other things (which I don’t want to discuss here) going on. I read all the feminist writings on military spouses and I lashed out at the contingent of “Suzies” out there, though it came across as a lash out against all milspouses.
Enter Kimba the Milspouse to the rescue. She read all the same stuff, processed it and responded to me in a way that I could understand. She somehow was able to find a way to understand my crisis and be with me through it, which was great because I never told Senior Jefe but at that time I seriously thought about divorcing him, not because I don’t love him, but because I couldn’t see a way for a smurfette like me to be a military spouse. She cleared the clutter and helped me to see that I could still be me and be married to someone in the military without compromising who I am as a human being. While being me and dealing with the military is really hard, it is much easier when secure in the knowledge that you don’t have to be a cookie cutter spouse or put the military ahead of your humainty. I will love Kimba for forever for this. She is my UBER ROLE MODEL! Kimba saved my marriage.
2. How often do you drive faster than the speed limit?
All the time. In the Midwest, if you don’t go at least 5 over, you will get killed by the rednecks in their mega trucks.
3. Did you have a nickname in school? If so, what was it?
In grade school I was called Salvation Army because that was where most of my clothes came from. As an adult, I don’t have a nickname per se, but a mispronunciation of my name rhymes with “Respectah mah Authoritah” (from South Park), so people are known to walk up to me and say “NAME-ah, Respectah mah Authoritah…” which really makes me laugh.
4. If your life was a book, what would the title be and how would it end?
Title: A Phoenix’s tale: An exploration of how one woman repeatedly defied the odds and rose to the top?? Maybe. IDK, it’s the best I can come up with in 5 min.
Ending: Me accomplishing all my crazy goals, having an awesome family and getting to reflect on it in my old age.
5. Look back (in your planner if you have one) to September 14th… what did you do that day?
Got off a plane from PCSing my hubs across country and came straight back to school the next day (the 14th) to the first GK-12 meeting of the year…which was missable, but how was I supposed to know??
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