A Wife's Lament

In one of the British literature classes I took in college, we read an Anglo Saxon story called The Wife's Lament that was published in like 900 A.D. It was kind of boring and confusing, but essentially some wife was excommunicated from her village because of her husband and was basically lamenting her circumstances.

So I'm going to take a minute here to have my own lament. Here we go.

It is common in the weeks before deployments for soldiers to get off at like noon, maybe one o'clock. Sounds like a luxury, of course, but remember they're about to be deployed for nine months, so a few extra hours with family is pretty important at this point. In Jack's unit, most of the enlisted soldiers and even some lowly officers are getting off between 1 and 4, but of course, not my husband. His job is juuuust important enough for him to actually have stuff to do. Jack left for work 30 minutes early today (so he left our house at 4:30AM) and he says he will get back around 6:30PM tonight. So let me just clarify. That's fourteen hours of work. FOURTEEN HOURS in the weeks before deployment. And this is not a once-a-week occurrence. This is like, an everyday occurrence. Most of the time, the army is very family-centered. So I don't know if it's just his unit, or his boss, or what. But come on, dudes! He's got a new wife at home and you've got him for nine months. Let my husband go!!!!

Well, that's my gripe. I know nothing's going to actually change, and despite my lamenting, I actually have a general disposition of exasperated acceptance, but I hope you won't blame me for venting.

I do have to say, though...It's just too bad his boss doesn't read my blog.

Edit: Just to be thorough, it's 7:05PM and no sign of my husband. He didn't answer when I called so hopefully he's not still in a meeting. Right now my mission is trying to keep dinner warm! THIS, my friends, is what army life is.