Rules of survival: Here comes deployment!

Day 75 of Deployment.

ATTENTION NEW GIRLFRIENDS/ FIANCEE'S/SPOUSES OF MILITARY MEN:

This one is for you :)
Bare with me.
On my way back from a short family vacation, after having yet another ferocious facebook chat argument with my deployed hubby to be, I realized what a literal shit show these past few months have been. That got me thinking, there HAS to be other significant others out there who feel like me. As alone as I feel, I cant really be alone....right?

After frantically googling what to expect as a military spouse, I have decided to change my tactics and attempt to explain to the world what deployment is like through the eyes of a newbie to the military world.

 So, if some hopelessly alone girlfriend or fiancee (who is too afraid to join a forum) starts googling to  cope with the tears and fears, perhaps I can lend a newbie perspective.

Alright. Here we go:

The days leading up to my fiancé's deployment were definitely head spinning. After an amazing 5 months of dating, we got engaged on April 5th of this year. He was in the Air Force for two years before we met, and has 4 more to go. Deployment was discussed several times while dating, but we were told he wouldn't deploy until December of this year, if at all.

Rule One: Don't be a misguided fool like myself and assume that since the military said he wont go for several months, that he really wont go for several months.

Nope. December turned into September. Which was cool. I thought, "Ok, Septmember. I can handle that. No biggie."
September quickly turned to June... which was suddenly pushed to March...?!! WHAT?! Of THIS YEAR??
But ooops! Teeheehehe! Just kidding, they changed their minds again. Now it's May. May May May. Of this year.
Ohh wait, May? Nope, mind changed AGAIN, it's now back to June.

So, my once careless attitude towards that "far away" deployment did a whiplash 180 and turned into "Oh shit, he leaves in a couple months."

But, we were newly engaged. He had just proposed and we had a wedding to start thinking about. We had just gotten started looking into cakes, flowers, all that good wedding stuff when he got the news. "I leave in a week," he told me. A week. My heart sank. It was April 17th, we had just gotten engaged, and now he was leaving.

 I felt... sad...I thought. Did I? It was hard to know. My poor, fragile mind and heart had been pulled in so many different date directions that, to be honest, I didn't believe them. I figured that the military would change their mind again and he wouldn't go until next year or something dumb.
Over the next few days leading up to deployment, he would attempt to discuss matters such as taking care of his bills for deployment, etc, and I just brushed it off. He started to get frustrated with me "It's like you dont even care this is happening, why do you act so nonchalant about this?" He would ask.

At that point, I would usually find some minute flaw to point out to him. "Because you're a picky eater, and I dont know if I can deal with that," I'd huff. Suddenly, we were fighting all the time. A person would think that in the final few days before your hubby's deployment, you would be snuggling and cheery and absorbing every second of being together.

Rule number 2: WRONG. Don't expect the week before he leaves to be filled with romance and glitter and romantic rainbows. If you happen to be cynical like myself, you will most likely hate him. For no real reason.

More to come.