Like many military spouses, I carry around my phone like it is some kind of life support device. If I don't have it, I don't just get irritated - I feel naked.
And there's a reason, too. I was trained long ago to realize that call opportunities don't come at set times, and it was easier to carry around an umbilical cord - errr, cell phone - and be available whenever AFG was able to get to a phone in whatever ugly place he's in.
I stay in this habit even when he is working somewhere close and coming home each night. Like now.
Let me say right upfront that even when AFG is not deployed, I will answer the phone no matter what is going on. Having seen one friend of mine go through the aftermath of her husband dying in a car accident, I just don't ever want to be in the position where the last time I was able to hear his voice I decided I was too busy to pick up the phone.
But that's not to say that I don't ever get irritated about the phone calls sometimes. You see - AFG has a gift. He has the gift of knowing when his call would be MOST inconvenient and calling right at that moment.
He doesn't call when I'm sitting on my butt surfing the web mindlessly. He doesn't call when I'm working on the plethora of knit and sewn accouterments required by my brother's anticipation of triplets this summer. He doesn't call when I'm watching TV or when (which would be the best case scenario) I'm vacuuming or doing other housework I wish I could find a reason to stop.
No, AFG only calls when I'm in the middle of an intense workout or when I'm trying to buckle three kids into the van or when I'm in the library and the sound of the phone causes my life to be threatened by old ladies with blue hair checking out romance novels on CD. There's also a penchant for calling when I'm in the bathroom.
Now, I NEVER skip the call. NEVER. Because I don't know what the future will bring. And a small bit of irritation because my heart rate will drop and I'll lose my workout groove is totally small bananas in the grand scheme of things - that my husband loves me enough to call during the day just because he wants to hear my voice after all these years. It's sweet, and I love it.
But I do have to wonder if anyone else has a husband with these sorts of psychic powers.
Do you?
