Home Alone

Tuesday morning, my husband left for his very first deployment. The night before, I drove about 30 miles up to Yokosuka Naval Base where he was departing from. The guys that were not flying helicopters onto the boat had to leave a day early to get all of their stuff loaded onto the ship. Since he wasn't technically leaving until Tuesday, I decided to get a hotel room and stay the night there so we could have dinner together and I could spend even a little more time with him. I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye yet, so I was extremely thankful for even 12 extra hours. I woke up early to drive him back to the boat by 6 and after a really difficult and teary goodbye (teary on my part that is) I went back to the room for a couple hours of sleep before heading back. This was the longest drive I had made on my own since coming to Japan. It's less than 30 miles, but it takes about an hour and a half to get there. The way there is actually pretty easy. With the help of my iPhone and some directions I made it without any real trouble. The drive back was not so simple. While my map would show a road splitting between left and right and tell me that I needed to take the left road, going left would actually circle me around the highway and take me right. I got lost about three times and had one or two mental breakdowns on the side of the road. It didn't help that I was really unable to stop and ask for directions because no one could understand me. After going through the toll booth that I learned was not where I wanted to be, I pulled over and walked inside the building to try and get help. All I could do was cry and point to my map on my phone showing them where I was trying to go. After showing me a piece of paper that had English directions from Atsugi to Yokosuka (apparently I'm not the only person who's gotten lost there before) I nodded and said "Atsugi." The man was nice enough to draw me a map to show me how to get turned back around and onto the road I needed. He was very polite and did his best to be helpful, but it was still a frustrating experience.

He's now been gone for six days and I feel a bit like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone, a little lonely and overwhelmed. Actually, I think he was a little more productive than I've been. Other than baking some cupcakes for some friends today, I haven't cooked a thing since he left. I'm too ashamed to admit how many times I've eaten cereal as a meal that's not breakfast. I never realized exactly how much I depended on him for around the house. Next month, we will have been together for 7 years. In that time, I've never had to mow my own lawn, or fix anything that breaks around the house, or sadly put sheets on my bed. One afternoon when he and I had first started dating, he was at my house while I was doing laundry. When it came time for me to put sheets back on the bed, he stood back and watched while I used my typical "flying squirrel" method of grabbing the ends of the sheet and jumping forward from the foot of the bed to try and spread the sheets out. After a year in the Corps of Cadets and having to have perfectly fitted sheets, he was pretty appalled at my methods. He told me to step aside and took over from there. Since that day, whenever it comes time to put sheets back on the bed, I ask for his help and attempt to be useful for a couple of minutes until he tells me that I'm only making it worse so just let him do it. This method has worked wonderfully for years and I wasn't looking forward to doing this on my own again.

Just yesterday, I faced my very first household "crisis" since he left. I was vacuuming in my room and had used the hose to vacuum underneath my dresser when I accidentally sucked up a sock. I opened the vacuum up to retrieve the sock and found that it wasn't there. Then I checked the hose and found it lodged inside. Normally I would have set it aside and waited until my dear husband had gotten home from work and asked him to fix it. However it will be more than a month before he gets back, so this time that wasn't an option. I will admit that I actually sat there for several minutes debating whether or not I could go that long without vacuuming. I could simply use a broom or swiffer for all the hard floors, but I decided I really did need the vacuum for the two rugs we have. Then I went around the house looking for anything long and thin that would I could use to try and push it out the other end of the hose. I eventually found a broom handle and tried that, but that sock was really stuck in there and it wasn't budging. Finally I got desperate. I went to my computer and googled, "How to get a sock out of a vacuum hose." Pretty sad, I know. I finally got a wire hanger and straightened it out. Using pliers, I made a tiny hook on one end and was able to hook it in the sock and pull it out. Success! This whole process took about 45 minutes but I was pretty proud of myself for figuring it out all on my own. I know that had he been here, he would have walked over to his tool box, taken out a tool designed specially for this exact problem, and fixed it within 5 minutes. I really don't understand how guys seem to intuitively know how to fix everything!

Before he left, my husband attempted to show me the basics of how to use the community push mower that's at our house. Growing up, my parents had a John Deere riding mower that I thought was the most fun thing in the world because it was just like driving! I loved any opportunity that my parents gave me to "mow the lawn" which mostly consisted of driving as fast as I could around the house. Any grass that happened to get in my way and get cut was just a bonus. However those are the only times I've ever actually cut my own grass and I was dreading having to try it by myself. I had actually secretly planned on asking around to see if anyone on base had a son who wanted to make $20 every few weeks. I was sure that I'd somehow end up running over my own foot and cutting it off which would not have been a pleasant start to my time here. I was basically going to put it off as long as I possibly could. I had hoped that just maybe it wouldn't rain for several weeks and I wouldn't have to worry about it. Of course, it rained on Wednesday so I knew that I was going to have to suck it up and do it sometime this weekend. However yesterday afternoon as I got in my car to head over to the post office, I saw that one of the guys from the squadron had just finished mowing both my yard and the girl upstairs' yard. I was so happy I almost cried!

Other than that, I've basically been holed up at my house studying for my (hopefully) final CPA exam. I'm scheduled to take the FAR section again on October 6th in Guam. For anyone reading this here in Japan, I'm sorry I've been a little anti-social lately. I promise I'll leave my house again once this is all over with! It's getting late now and I need to get a little more studying in before bed. Thankfully the Cowboys are playing the Sunday night game, so I think I may actually get to watch it tomorrow morning! Though Monday morning football doesn't have the same feel as Sunday football, I'll take what I can get. Goodnight!