A woman I work with, after noticing I was quiet and grumpy, said something to me that really struck home. I told her I was irritated and letting someone else's combative attitude get me down. Her response? "You're living alone while your husband is deployed. It's just you right now. Only you can take care of you. Letting someone get inside your head and bring you down is only hurting you." So simple and yet so true. It is just me right now. When my husband was home, I had a live-in support system. I had a sounding board who would listen to me get it ALL out. (Yea for married life! Where you're contractually obligated to listen.) And like every man I've ever met, he would offer advice (whether I wanted it or not). He would strategize and give me a plan of attack just like he would for any Marine...er, wife. I now come home to an empty house and have no one there to really unload on with all of the day's craziness. Email just doesn't have quite the same...oomph...as face to face. Sure, he still gets an "earful" via email and writing it out makes for a good release. Ultimately, though, the solution is fairly easy. Instead of getting myself all worked up over something trivial, I've decided to just not get myself worked up. (So, yeah...That shouldn't be too hard.) But it is important to not let silly, inconsequential issues get to me. I have enough going on that I could freak out about if I really needed a reason to freak out. There are enough worries and stresses (and let's not forget about that deployed husband who pretty much encompasses ALL of those worries and stresses) to really kill a mood. It's my choice on how I want to react to certain situations in my life. It's my choice to be happy, with or without my attentive husband. (Or as attentive as he can be while playing on his computer, checking his iPhone, and watching the SyFy channel.) (I kid, husband!) (Sort of.) So I choose to shrug it off and move on. I choose to eat Chunky Monkey ice cream, snuggle with my cat, and watch Family Ties on Netflix.
Because that's how I take care of me.
*Or, as we say in this family, "Suck it up, Marine!"
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