One foot in, One foot out

Today is Friday and my official leave date for South Korea. Sitting in a white rocking chair against the wall of the newly renovated San Antonio airport, I stare out the window into the gray, gloomy and COLD day while I wait to board the plane to Seattle. My feelings are like grandma’s secret soup, a can of excitement, a spoonful of apprehension, a pinch of heartbreak and a squirt of nervousness. I have just said goodbye to my hubby, but I have come to terms with our separation. As we kissed our parting kiss, I felt those familiar sensations, a constricting throat, pressure behind the eyes and an uncontrollable trembling began in my lips, but I kept my composure. Hopefully if everything goes to plan it will only be one month apart, which happens to include our 8 year as a couple anniversary and Christmas, but we can and we will endure.

As I reflect on the week past, I consider how our relationship has already reacted to the preparation of our time apart. Distance helps bring into perspective what is easy to forget when faced with the day to day happenings in a structured and normal life. At the very least has helped us appreciate our love and the happiness we bring to each other.

Here is a reflection of this past week.

Monday- Kyle and I drove back to SA from visiting his grandparents at the coast. After acquiring Kyle's mandatory background check for the Korean visa, we headed over to visit with Leslie and her mom Carole for some Christmas merry making.

Merry making activities:

* Visiting the Christmas tree lot for Carole's tree. (My very ever trip shopping for a REAL Christmas tree. I had no idea how many different options there were!! My mom always had a fake Christmas tree to avoid an allergic reaction resulting in a grumpy mom at Christmas).
* candy making
* mimosas and margaritas
* The Grinch

All in all, a very successful bout of Christmas fun! I love Christmas, even if I won’t be in the states this year to celebrate it!

Tuesday-

* A run in the park with Leslie and Kyle including a snake and an armadillo sighting. Pretty much a lazy day, avoiding thoughts of leaving my husband and enjoying doing just about nothing productive.
* Dinner with Dad. He brought us our Christmas gift and Kyle a book of Bob Dylan music for Kyle to learn on the guitar. ( He doesn't know how to play yet, but he wants to learn)

Wednesday

• When I was in high school, I put some money into stocks. ( I was such a savvy teenager) My $500 dollars isn’t doing so hot since the market is circling the drain, but isn’t as bad as it could have been. So we had a meeting to put Kyle on the account and discuss putting more money into stocks with our stock broker (that sounds so fancy). Result: Kyle and I are opening up ROTHs, that is right, at the age of 24 and 25 we are opening up retirement funds. That really wasn’t what I had in mind going into the meeting, but it seems like a good idea to prepare for the future- even if it is the far far future considering I haven’t even started my career yet and can’t even fathom what retirement will be like. But not only retirement funds people, we are preparing for death: Life Insurance. No, I am not crazy. It only takes like $7/month at our age to lock in a $100,000 policy for 20-30 years. I watched Kyle carefully through our discussion, scrutinizing whether my hub dub’s brain was scheming my strategic and untimely end to collect that mulla. (j/k sweetheart, I know you love me more than $100,000, now if it were 1 million dollars I might actually be worried ☺ )
• My mommy took us last minute medicine shopping. Anit-diarrheal, pepto, tums, nasal squirts, cold medicine day and night time, pills with names and functions unknown to me, and laxatives (evidently very important for the heavy rice diets). I felt like a freaking pharmacy- hypochondriac- drug addict all combined into one crazy girl with lots of drugs.
• Curried humus, white turkey Chili, cowboy caviar, hard-as-stone burnt pitas, air soft guns, great friends, Cranium, and a premium boys butt whooping by the girls team all combined made for a terrific second going away party. My favorite moment had to be when the boys were asked the question: What spendy spice is derived from the stigma of a crocus, and Kyle didn't even blink before he knew the answer: Saffron. My husband can't remember a conversation from five minutes previous, but he knows the answer to that crazy question? He truly is a special fella!

Thursday
• Reality and stress started to set in as my comprehension of what was about to occur started to set in.
• Thank God for Kyle. As I stared blankly at the suitcase, Kyle stuffed my pharmacy, and electronics into my carry-on bags. Their weight combined is the equivalent of our entire house. It is like we disassembled the house, stuffed them into two carry-on bags and strapped them to a 100 pound girl, me. I gotta be prepared-even if I can’t walk, I will be prepared!

Friday/Today -When I woke up this morning, my body reacted to my conflicting feelings about my flight today. At 3:10 pm, I left San Antonio, connected in Denver to ultimately land in Seattle. Tomorrow at 12:40 west coast time, I will be on a flight to South Korea. I am excited, but I wish I could be more excited. I am alone and wish that everything would have worked out like I had planned in my head, to fly with my love to our adventure together, but life doesn’t always go your way, and I have accept that. The flight to Korea will be 12 hours. Once I arrive, I will need to find a kind soul to help me with my four bags and make my own way to the bus station. Once I exit a bus, someone will be there to assist me, hopefully. See you on the other side of the world!

The butt kickers!

The manly losers :)