(picture published on article page of Blog Brigade)
My publishing credit: credited as “Guest
Blogger” “Christina”
Published
by Blog
Brigade of Military OneSource on April 4, 2013 , in Deployment
Blogger Biography: Christina is a proud war
bride, military
“dependent,” writer and volunteer. She met her husband
while
working two jobs to pay her student loans and stay afloat.
He stuck with her
despite the long and crazy hours away from
each other and so began her experience
with the military.
Scrapping the wedding for a long and dangerous deployment,
she fully embraced being a military spouse. Christina reaches
out to all
available networks to learn and take advantage of
what the military has to
offer its family. Learning the ropes is
tough, but she knows she has help.
There is
always one thing I consistently do when my husband deploys
or goes TDY. I would
like to say it’s get a massage or a facial,
but I just never find the time or
budget for those things.
What does
fit in my budget and what I can sneak a few moments for
is coffee. Forever ago,
I found one specific flavor from a specific
brand that I just could not get
enough of. For years I could only
find it during the holidays and then it was
gone! I refused to open
the last package for everyday use. Coffee is coffee to
my husband.
(His fishing or car stuff is another matter entirely.) For me, this
coffee is like his special stuff. He just laughs at me when I try to
explain
it.
It’s even
more special because when I finally found it he was
deployed. I would come home
to a dark, cold house and turn on
the coffee pot for just a cup or two. That
gave me enough time
to change out of my work clothes or uniform and into yoga
pants,
a sweatshirt and some fuzzy socks. I would turn up the heat and
get
dinner started. If it was just me, I enjoyed the coffee while
cooking. If the
house was abuzz with activity, I saved it for when
beds were tucked and guests
had taken their leave. I would settle
on the couch and listen to some music or just collapse into the
nearest chair for a few minutes of peace.
I would
indulge in the smell of the coffee as it wafted up from
the cup in white curls,
savoring each taste as it rolled over my
tongue, absorbing the warmth of the
cup in both hands before
returning to life, laundry, cleaning, bills or
returning missed
phone calls. When I found it, I couldn't help but send a happy
little email to my husband. After that, every time we talked
or emailed until
he came home, he would ask if I had my special
coffee as a clue to how my day
went.
Now it’s one
of our little jokes. Since I can get it fairly
regularly, I only buy a few
boxes, which stay hidden in the
pantry waiting for the next deployment or TDY.
And they only
come out then. Once he even came back with two special mugs
for
my “Deployment Coffee.”
What is the
special thing you do for yourself during a deployment
or TDY?
