I'm not dead yet

Soldier's farewell at Penn Station, 1944 (Courtesy, Life Photo Archive)

Wow; practically a whole month has managed to slip by without a single post. In my defense, May was pretty crazy. I spent the first two weeks spending time with Captain Husband, who arrived home on May 2 after about a week of traveling by helicopter, private plane and then commercial air (all without showering, of course; he kept fresh by stuffing drier sheets in his clothing). Then I've spent the last two weeks recovering from it all. I definitely think mid-tour leave is a bit of a cruel joke when you get right down to it. You have such a short amount of time with the person, and you wind up spending half of that time getting used to sharing your space with another; then, when everything is all peachy-keen, it's time for them to leave again. It was like ripping off a band-aid from my heart and then liberally applying salt to the wound.

All in all, though, CH and I really had a great time, albeit rather short. The first week he was home was miserable in terms of weather and I had to work, so he spend most of that time at home and connecting with friends in the area. He also went off of the deep end and bought me a new (to me) car for my birthday. We had talked about looking at new cars when he returned later this year, but he decided he couldn't wait. Believe me, I'm not complaining in the least!

The second week he was home we decided to take a short trip out to Winchester, Virginia; we booked our stay in a lovely bed and breakfast right in the heart of the historic district and spent our days exploring the area and testing out the new car. We went to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, walked through the gardens of Glen Burnie, visited Abram's Delight, the oldest home in Winchester, and made a special trip to see Belle Grove, the home of Isaac Hite, which was built around 1797 with some design assistance from Thomas Jefferson. We really lucked out with the weather and managed to see and do everything that we had wanted, which is always a plus.

We also managed to put a Hello Kitty-themed birthday party together for my 30th (ugh) and got a bunch of our friends together in our house for some food and fun. I had a great time and it was just so nice having CH and my friends all in one place again. CH and I had the weekend to recover together and then he had to leave Monday morning. I got up early and drove him to the airport, where we said our brief goodbyes. The bright spot in all of this is that it's now looking as though CH could be home as early as the end of July/beginning of August, as opposed to October as originally expected. So I've got that going for me. :)