A friend of mine is mid-deployment. Her husband has been gone; her out-of-town company has left.
Due to the school schedule, vacation time is over.
And, well, she’s stuck. It’s the deployment doldrums.
And so, yesterday, I left on her doorstep coffee, wine, and cookies.
Last week, after I survived the biggest event I run for a non-profit all year – with only a few minor panic attacks – I flopped down in my bed.
My husband found me an hour later, staring at the ceiling, seemingly checked out. Or dead. At the time, he said he wasn’t sure which.
He tentatively – and with some fear – said, “Babe. Can I get you something?”
I grunted out three words, never taking my eyes off the ceiling.
“Coffee. Wine. Cookies.”
The man had the good sense to bring me (decaf) coffee, cookies, and what I believe was his attempt at wine for a pregnant lady; he poured me a glass of grape juice with a squeeze of lime.
The wife of one of my husband’s shipmates was distraught when I ran into her at the grocery store. Her first sweet baby had crawled off the bed while she bent down to pick up her shoes.
I quickly reminded her all babies did that at one time or another, and then gestured to the aisle beside us, stocked with glass bottles.
“Get yourself some coffee, wine, and cookies,” I told her, and then bid her farewell.
Without realizing it, in just a week, I had patented the recipe for a military spouse survival.
Coffee. Wine. And cookies.
Call it survival. Call it necessity. Call it whatever you want.
Sometimes, everyone needs a crutch.
And when things get hard – and with deployments, military work schedules, and semi-single parenting, they often do – there’s no shame in a little pick-me-up.
Coffee. Wine. And cookies.
Trust me.