Speaking of Kurt, his ship is no longer in the Gulf. I know I can tell y'all that because I read it in the newspapers, and since it's been printed for the civilians to read, I may as well mention it here. Kurt's excited to leave the Gulf -- he's so tired of the heat. I don't blame him either. Although he ought to be used to it -- he was raised in Tucson, Arizona, for cryin' out loud! :o)
Last weekend I got to talk to Kurt several times. That was really nice. It got to the point where we could just chat about the stupid stuff, which felt really nice. Usually we're so worried about how much time we have left that we try to keep to the really important stuff.
And I also decided last Sunday to write him a REAL letter. I haven't really written him a decent letter since he's been gone (five months now). I wrote him one when he first left, and I send him cards, but not a really long letter, like I would write in high school to my friends in other states. So I sat down and wrote him a long letter -- seven pages of looseleaf notebook paper. And it was mostly a love letter, all the reasons why I love him and all.
Then my phone rang just as I finished. It was my good friend VH, whose husband is on the same ship as Kurt. She very brusquely told me that her marriage was over and she's getting a divorce. She even said something about her husband having an affair. I was so shocked because I was in a loving mood, having just completed this long love letter to my husband.
I emailed jumped on email and told Kurt to tell the husband to call VH right away so they could at least be on the same page with what was going on. Apparently they got things at least somewhat worked out because when she called me back later, she told me that things were better.
But it's not VH's first deployment, and she's been married for thirteen years. Plus she's the same age as my father, so it's not like she's a young wife, right out of high school, dealing with her husband being gone for six-plus months for the very first time. I just don't understand what has torn apart her marriage this deployment. Kurt doesn't believe that he's having an affair -- they work closely together and he sees no evidence for it.
While all this was going on, Kurt told me about his co-working DK whose wife is sleeping with other guys while he's deployed. I just can't understand it when people do that. You're supposed to take a vow to cleave only unto your spouse, and even if your marriage is the worst marriage in the world, it doesn't give you the right to sleep around on your spouse. You wait till after the divorce for that!
It's weird that these marriages seem to be in such dire straits where Kurt and I are doing just fine. He should be home in early November, which is REALLY exciting, and it's making the time crawl by because I'm too excited about it. I knew what I was getting into when I married a sailor, which doesn't mean I don't want a little sympathy for it, but I'm not going to use it as an excuse to allow my marriage to fall apart.
I'm too smart for that.