Well, folks, I've survived yet another Drill Weekend. I'm officially in the final year of my three-year contract in the Naval Reserve (following four years on Active Duty)! Let me tell you, I'm so grateful for the opportunities (and extra cash) the Reserves have provided us, but I'm even more grateful that Hubs and I can get by without that meager income so that when my contract is up, I won't have to renew it. It's so hard leaving Bunkey, even though it's only two days per month, but I hate to be away from him for even a minute!
This month is a bit different than most, however. This month, since I am transferring from a Reserve Center (and unit) on the East Coast to another out here on the West Coast, I have to go through an indoctrination "class" here. Last month, the reserve Center was hosting a Family Readiness Weekend, so my indoctrination was a bit extended and I didn't fulfill the required paperwork and briefings until this month. That said, my unit is also having their Change of Command ceremony this month (next weekend, in fact) so I'll actually be serving two drill weekends in December. Yes, two. In a row. One hundred miles from my house.
I'm not looking forward to that.
Since I live so far away from my drill site, the Navy will pay for me to stay in a hotel during drill weekends. But since I've never been away from Bunkey, Hubs and I decided that during my INDOC class, I'd make the drive both days, and come home Saturday night. Next weekend, we'll do a trial with me in the hotel and see how it goes. I'm dreading it, but spending eight hours in the car and waking up at 4:00 two days in a row is equally awful.
This weekend, however, we had another new experience. While I was at drill on Saturday, Hubs invited some of the guys from his MBA program over to watch the SEC Championship game. While Hubs has been in charge for the entire day while I'm at drill before, he'd never done so with friends over. I was a tiny bit concerned that Hubs would get distracted, but I told myself to relinquish control and keep my thoughts to myself. After all, in a couple of weeks, I'm inviting several ladies over to play Bunko (Hubs will take Bunkey to a friend's house to stay out of our hair) so how could I tell Hubs I didn't like the idea of him having people over when I wasn't home? So I told my Type A personality to shush and have faith that my husband's first priority is our son and I needn't worry.
But the evening ended up having a few interesting points I thought I'd share with you:
~Hubs' class originally planned to watch the game at a sports bars. But Hubs told his buddies that I'd be working so he'd be babysitting. That, of course, led to the gamewatch at our house and Hubs inviting the guys to come over here. Yet some of the guys brought their wives anyway. I don't know if they didn't pay attention and so didn't realize I wouldn't be here, or what. All I know is that some part of me was uncomfortable with the fact that there were other women in my house when I wasn't here. It just seems strange. Not to mention the fact that Hubs and I are perfectly content to do our own thing without the other every now and then. So I'd feel uncomfortable going to someone else's house when it was billed as a Guy Thing and when I knew the "lady of the house" would be gone. Apparently one woman knew that I wasn't going to be home but told another woman that came "Well, I'm going to stay; there'll be other women here." Why would someone assume that?
~I got out of INDOC a bit early, so I made it home right around halftime. Bunkey was sound asleep in the corner and the guys seemed to be having a great time. Hubs told me about the other ladies that showed up and mentioned that they might return. I was a bit embarrassed that the house wasn't cleaned and there wasn't more food, but since it was supposed to just be a bunch of guys, and since I had to work, Hubs made me promise not to go crazy with prep work and that he'd take care of everything. And for once, I let him!
~So eventually apparently the ladies left and went somewhere else, leaving their husbands at my house. But when they came back, I turned around and one of them (who I'd never met before) was rummaging through my refrigerator, saying, "Who drank all my stuff?" When she turned around and saw me, she was embarrassed that she was going through my kitchen like she owned the place, and apologized, obviously flustered. I was gracious, and I honestly don't care that people were getting into the fridge to get drinks, but if I didn't know the host/hostess, I'd at least introduce myself before getting into the fridge!
~Later in the evening, I was chatting with the women. Thought I was a little taken aback by a few things in the beginning, they were nice ladies and I was glad that they'd returned so I could meet them. In fact, I invited them to Bunko in a couple of weeks! Anyway, so we were chatting and the gal who'd been rummaging in the fridge complimented my decorating. I replied that I'd take her upstairs, but that it was a mess and I'd left the house at 5:00am so none of the beds were made and there were Christmas gifts all over waiting to be wrapped. She said, "Oh, I've been upstairs already. Your husband showed me." Ladies. Consider yourselves warned: Tell your husbands they should not take people upstairs when the house is trashed, you're not home, and you've never met the person who wants to see your bedroom! Hubs was totally clueless as to why I'd be upset, but he promised it wouldn't happen again...
~Within a few hours, the game was over. I was getting tired (and hungry; the meager bowl of chips and salsa Hubs put out was long gone before I got back home) and really wanted to relax. Yet instead of winding things down, they perked up. Someone turned on yet another football game and all the guys got into watching that one. I don't know where all the beer came from, but the supply sure wasn't dwindling, and no one was making any indication that they intended to leave soon. I pulled Hubs aside and asked what the plan was for dinner (on drill weekends, he's in charge of food) because it was getting to the point where if people didn't leave, either I'd be forced to leave and eat or Hubs was going to have to order pizza for everyone. Since the game started at 1:00 and was over by 5:00, Hubs wrongly assumed that the guys would head home to their own wives and get out of our hair. Boy was he wrong! It really was a difficult situation. Hubs couldn't kick people out, but I also couldn't announce I was going upstairs to sleep. We're not rude people, so we both knew we were just going to have to suck it up and deal, hoping people would start to leave soon. People finally started to leave around 8:00 (when I was hoping to be in bed!) but were still lingering in front of our house. I couldn't even start turning off the lights since they were still out there, because I didn't want them to think, "Wow...she was really pissed we were there!" because I honestly wasn't; I was just exhausted! Hubs cleaned up the mountain of beer bottles all over the counters, I vacuumed the Chex Mix crumbs and got Bunkey in bed, and then Hubs went to Chipotle to get us dinner. In fact, there was still a handful of people on our front lawn when he pulled out of the drive! He finally got back, I devoured my food, and crawled into bed!
Don't get me wrong: I'm so glad Hubs has a group of guys that he enjoys hanging out with. And I am so glad he wanted them to come over for a bit of fun while I was working. I'm equally glad that there was no mistaking his top priority and Bunkey was well taken care of the entire time. But we learned a few things. We learned that while it all worked out in the end, it would probably be best if Hubs didn't organize a gathering that would still be in full swing when I get back home. After spending 200 miles and four hours on the road and sitting through a million briefings at Drill, I wanted nothing more than to come home, lay on the couch with Little Man, eat dinner, relax a bit while watching TV, and then go to bed early. Instead, I had to turn into a gracious hostess. Hubs truly didn't mean for any of that to happen, and I think he realized that early on! After all, if the roles were reversed, he admitted that he wouldn't really want to walk in to a party after a long day at work!
At the end of the day, everything worked out just fine, and I'm glad Hubs had a good time....but I'd never repeat the experience!
Has anyone else has a similar experience?!
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