I'm a Navy Wife Because

I posted this list as a note on Facebook, but have recently had some requests to view it from those not listed as Friends on my Facebook yet.  As a result, I have chosen to share it here as well.  I hope everyone can appreciate it for what it's worth.  It has only been edited a very little.

"So, recently, a friend of mine wrote her own version of the, "You Know You're A Navy Wife If..." lists. Before listing everything, though, she explained that it was very therapeutic for her, and asked her fellow Navy wives for help in adding more to it. After a few hours of thinking about it, I realized why it was "therapeutic". The thing about the Navy is that we all have common ground, but none of us have the same experience out of it. My friend's list allowed her to share what her personal experience has been, and I think we all should try that in some form... That said, here are my efforts, and I hope I do them justice.

 

I'm a Navy Wife Because...

• I know what it means to watch him leave knowing that I have no promise of his return, much less his return to me. (Long story short, we were only dating 3 months when he left for boot camp...and he lived 2 hours away at a time when gas was $5ish per gallon. We only got 4 dates in before he left.)
• I got engaged in an "odd" way. (His proposal was at the end of his last boot camp letter home.)
• My wedding story is an SNL skit gone so hilariously wrong, the directors / producers air it anyway...
• Pillowcase? Uhm...no. More like hubby's t-shirt which I refuse to wash until I receive a freshly scent-locked-into-a-box one.
• And guess what my PJ t-shirt is...
• I've heard that Axe body spray is a hot little alternative to pepper spray. And it stays next to my bed.
• Much to my mother's remorse / concern, I'm slowly learning exciting things about how to be a mechanic because no one else will do it for me for an honest price -- or honesty period.
• I know where the ONLY living mechanic who is still honest and won't overcharge me is located. He lives in Georgia. Approximately 10 hours drive away.
• Most phone calls to my father are short, sweet, and to the point - "How 'bout them BULLDAWGS!?" "How's huntin'?" "Hey, uh... what do I do when the truck makes this noise *insert 'klunk, pow, boom' noises*?"
• The truck was fairly new (2003 model). So was the experience I had with my first nor'easter which flooded it.
• My family are my friends. But I try to love everyone equally, including my actual relatives *haha*.
• I feel things deeply -- but rarely show them publicly.
• Jellyfish are not my friends, and frankly neither is their ocean habitat... it's a ticking timebomb that could do amazing things either for or to a ship, and I'd rather not think about that.
• I carry an out-of-state driver's license, and it's totally legal. I make a habit of flashing it whenever possible in order to "represent".
• Superstition is considered good luck in this house, which is why I have one of his dog tags. He has to come back for it someday.
• Naw, I ain't from around hyeern (here). And I think it'd be funny to tell the next person who asks where I'm from that, "Ahm frum Fraihnce (I'm from France)" just to mess with them. The reason of course being that most people who ask me, follow my reply up with, "I thought you sounded like you were from there..." Naw shit, Sherlock!
• Math may have thrown me for a total loop, but I know our needs and our pay don't always add up unless the goal is a negative banking balance.
• I can't complain about the price of groceries or the amount of the paychecks received because I love him too much and consider our relationship too important to be at work when he's home. Hence, I do not have a job. Yet. Another reason deployments can be good for the finances.
• Despite the last two bullets, we're totally blessed to have everything that we do, and I'm super grateful.
• My grandmother calls me at least once every 4 months with some story about how uncle so-and-so was in the Navy many many moons ago, and she was talking to his wife, who told her this that and the other about how seperation pay works, and it's not the way I've told her it works so I should go and double-check with someone... I can't wait to blow her mind with, "Yeah, I just chatted with Drew on Facebook..."
• When asked where I live, I can easily be honest by saying, "Everywhere" or "The world is my home!" That's right. Becoming a Navy wife automatically creates an instant philosopher.
• I treasure the little moments - cooking with him, cleaning with him, scraping paint bits off his hands... even the moments when he screws with my OCD by rearranging everything in the cabinet just to see how long it takes me to pick up the right thing.
• Vodka, fun with other people, the library, and his/my gaming systems are all fast forward buttons.
• Food is an odd mix of non-health-nutty foods which claim to hide a variety of vegetables behind awesome things like taste.
• Snacks are fancy things like salad or crackers, cheese, and sausage with chocolate for dessert.
• Animals are companionable collector's items in my household.
• Any contact with him is more awesomer than Christmas in July, and yes, awesomer is considered a word here.
• I have literally been run over/rear-ended by a shopping cart in the Commissary. No the woman did not apologize. But my husband did appear shortly thereafter to rescue me. I hate being crowd-chlostrophobic and was threatening to just give up, abandon cart, and run out of the Commissary screaming hysterically and beating the crap out of any who dared get in my way. And yes, this is why I live off of canned goods for 2-3 days after payday.
• I'm pretty much a professional at entertaining myself.
• Every piece of furniture I have and every inch of floor can be considered a bed. Particularly on "poker night". And this is why I LOVE the late Mitch Hedberg's joke, "Isn't it my decision how many bedrooms there are?! This bedroom has an OVEN in it. This bedroom has a lot of people sitting around watching TV! Excuse me, sir, I believe you have one of my bedrooms! Do NOT decorate it!"
• Sea Legs. Front to back. Every page. All in one day.
• I like abbreviations a lot more now.
• I've been to the FFSC (Fleet & Family Service Center) for Resume help. I'll never go back (for that), though because I arrived at FFSC with my resume, a notebook and pen ONLY. I returned home with a stack of books and papers so high (most of which had NOTHING to do with my job search, but with Navy life itself) that it rivaled my mother's nursing school curriculum. Severe informational overload. It caused a minor panic attack.
• Photographs are pretty much priceless.
• Craft projects involve building a box and stuffing it full of random gag gifts, snacks, Game Informers (magazine), and other gifts for him.
• Someone's always trying to sell me something home-made because they're SAHWs (Stay At Home Wives) too. So we all cycle our money around because I sell homemade stuff too. No one gets richer. It's a stuff-swap.
• When he's away, it's not at all abnormal for me to watch the oddest things (mostly vampire stuff) until 0500.
• I tell time in hundreds, but still catch myself wanting to say "oh eight hundred a.m."
• I do not suffer from confusion, but from oganized chaos.
• I know what pilots the Navy. Me, and every other wife out there. *wink* And we're quite the monstrous force of nature, if I do say so myself.
• I have a fever..." in the morning, fever when he holds me tight...FEEVER when he kisses me, fever all through the night!"

 

If anyone has anything to add, feel free to do so."

Holding the necklace I made using an old-fashioned keyring and his dog tag.  Who knew this would be the key to my heart?