Happy Chanukah and a Wrap Up

Happy Chanukah!

This past week has been busy. Finals week. Food Poisoning. Flying across the country to see LAW, Warrior Wife, and the hubster.

I spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (morning) on the floor of my bathroom puking. Lucky me. Then Friday night, I got on a plane to go to LAW's. Hubster picked me up at the airport. LAW is a gem; she had ginger infused water waiting for me when we arrived at her place at almost midnight.

We got up the next morning and after a slow start due to my tummy, we drove out to Bethesda to visit Warrior Wife. She was in good spirits. She and Hubster had lunch and I nibbled on tortillas while we talked. She and her husband are amazing. We went shopping until I pooped out.

Then Hubster and I went to meet his buddy from his first ship as an officer. We had dinner and then I was ready to collapse, so we went back to LAW's.

The next day we drove back to Norfolk and stopped at the commissary to get food. Hubster made me turkey soup from scratch, which is the first real meal I had since Wednesday. It's still all I am eating, but it's a major improvement over where I was.

I am really glad I made the effort, even though I was so sick to spend some time with Warrior Wife. She's a great person and I am glad for the opportunity to have finally met her face to face. Like so many military spouses I've been friends with online/phone/text for ages, LAW, Kimba, Snarky Navy Wife, Natalia, it's always wonderful to see people you've talked to in real life. This is especially important for me moving forward, because I want to move most of my online life to real life and cement the relationships that are important for me. If I get a tenure-track job, I'll have a lot less free time for online and I want to make sure I keep up with the people I care about. In that vein, I'll be meeting Snarky tomorrow.

Then Friday we are catching up with Hubster's CO and his wife, who was his CO back when he was a butter bar. They're awesomeness! The CO's wife is finishing her Ed.D. I remember meeting her when Hubster and I were dating. She seemed to make a career and family work. It never occurred to me at the time that she was a novelty in the system. I am glad I did meet her though. Hubster and I might not have been married if I had encountered some of the other CO's wives I've met along the way first. So I guess you could say that CO and his wife are directly responsible for me saying yes.

And of course, in other random news, today is my birthday and so my parental unit called me last night at 2350 to hit me up for cash. I guess it's good to know where you stand with people. If she weren't so effed up and crazy, I'd be more angry about it. It's just sad to have someone who is supposed to be the parent confess to you on the phone that she relies on you (as she always has) to be the parent in the family. And people wonder why I don't want kids. I already raised a family of 3 and so far none of them have turned out to amount to anything. But as my friend J (who I'll meet when I get back to the midwest) pointed out today on FB, I'm are EXTREMELY LUCKY to have such great friends who do love me so much.

And so on this first day of Chanukah, I'd like to say how grateful I am for the great friends I have. I'd also like to give a special shout out to LAW, who is more of a mother to me than anyone else has been. I love that woman.