Forty-Six

Until this past Monday, I had been home for 46 hours over the past 46 days. I've been lamenting that fact a lot. That's a long time away from home. I definitely got cranky at times while away and was not my usual cheerful self all the time. I had been working long hours. It was definitely taking it's toll on me.

I'm a multitasker. I'm actually very good at it. Typically it's not until the 5th thing that my work begins to suffer. I'm really not kidding. It's probably the reason why I excel at my job. When working long hours and suffering from sleep deprivation, my ability to multitask goes down. At one point in Daytona (which was immediately after the superbowl) I think I was at most able to do 1/2 of a project at a time-- Meaning that it took me twice as long as it should have to get something done. This was very frustrating.

At home, things slid as well. I have a cleaning service. During the 46 days I was gone, they came 4 times. Plus the day that I had left. That was a waste of money. I have a few bills I can't pay electronically- one of them I forgot to pay. That's just not my way.

I've lost touch with several friends and my family during this period of time. Between working long hours and being on the other coast for most of the time, I just dropped. It's not that I didn't want to talk to them or catch up with them, but I didn't make time for itm and my relationships there suffered. My father apparently was diagnosed with some form of vertigo (treatable). I didn't know. I went down to see him on Monday when I got home to make sure that he was ok. That made it be day 47 really.

My feelings about this changed slightly tonight. I just saw a promo for the movie Stop Loss. There was a line in there "I can't go another year without touching your face". We all have different feelings about the war, and this isn't the place for that. Regardless, you have to feel for the troops who are serving away from their families and friends for that year. It gave me a different perspective on things. Here I am spending nights in hotel rooms, complaining about not getting home, or only getting home for a brief amount of time, and there are soldiers sleeping in barracks or tents or on duty not getting home for a year at a time. I was off base on this one. I am lucky. These long stretches happen to me only once in a great while, and then I end up with a period of time home and off to make up for it.