10

It Rubs Off

October 02, 2009, in Military Life by

One of the best things about getting together with my military spouse friends is the common language we speak. I mean, we all speak militarese with various levels of proficiency, but there is a common sense of humor as well.

Andi talked about the Gallows Humor that is endemic in our lifestyle, but there's more. I think it is probably a common sense of smart-assery.

And where would we be without our ability to make fun of ourselves and our situations? I mean, it's laugh or cry quite often, right? And we have quite an example to follow in our service-member spouses!

One of my favorite smart-assery situations is when we make fun of the OpSec that is so much a part of deployments. Semper Fi Wife was starting some of her statements to me last weekend with phrases like, "The bear went over the mountain at midnight," delivered in a low measured voice.

And then there's the statement that has become ubiquitous as a reply to those gremlins that stalk us and love to throw wrenches into our carefully laid plans, "Embrace the suck, right?"

I've barked out "embrace the suck" in the company of civilians who aren't familiar with the background of that statement and the astounded looks are something amazing to behold. Even better is the reaction when you tell someone ELSE to embrace the suck!

We have tons of these sarcastic statements. Which ones do you use?

Related posts:

About airforcewife

airforcewife started her military journey as an Army National Guard wife, but upon experiencing base housing decided to aim high and made the switch to the Air Force. That's worked pretty well for Air Force Family so far, even though airforcewife holds the spouse world record for Come to Jesus talks with various members of the command.

Air Force Family has four children, two pit bulls, and a Mother-in-Law who lost her mind eight years ago. Despite the reputation of pit bulls, airforcewife would like to assure you that her Mother-in-Law is truly the most dangerous of the group, and is banned in more places than the dogs.

airforcewife gets through Air Force Guy's frequent deployments and TDY's by frequently attending her boxing gym, after the chance discovery last deployment that hitting things really does make life better. She also volunteers as the Ambassador for Sew Much Comfort to Bethesda National Naval Medical Center and in a variety of other causes throughout the year.

airforcewife has no idea what the future holds, but decided five years ago that she wants to be Andi when she grows up.

Comments

  1. Semper Fi Wife says:
    October 2, 2009 at 9:12 am

    The one that gets my husband laughing and his friends looking at me weird is "Its just another GLORIOUS day in the Corps!!!"

  2. Jessie says:
    October 2, 2009 at 10:07 am

    GI Joe and I like to say "If there wasn't a SNAFU in our day we would think we are civilians."

  3. airmans.sweetheart says:
    October 2, 2009 at 11:23 am

    I love the air force motto: "Hurry up and wait". That seems to be the current theme to everything in our life right now. It frustrates me to no end even though I know better. :)

  4. Ted@Gaming Mouse says:
    October 2, 2009 at 1:23 pm

    New to me. Embrace the Suck? I gotta assume that basically means…deal with it? Live with it? Essentially embrace the bad? Am I at all close here, lol?

  5. Basinah says:
    October 2, 2009 at 1:53 pm

    Standing by to stand by …

  6. Jai says:
    October 2, 2009 at 5:52 pm

    I have been trying for years to get Embrace the suck on a license plate and have yet to find a state that will let me! BOHICA is a good one too, a little graphic but it gets the point across :)

  7. Apryl says:
    October 2, 2009 at 7:23 pm

    Might have to start using Embrace the Suck. That's just freaking awesome. We hurry up and wait all the damn time…sigh.

  8. Michelle says:
    October 3, 2009 at 6:33 am

    among our group of wives "super secret squirrel" is our little Opsec phrase. Like when every guy had a cell phone last time and every wife knew everything about what was going on but we were still afraid to talk about it online because of "super secret squirrel" rules…

  9. David M says:
    October 5, 2009 at 8:03 am

    The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 10/05/2009 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.
    http://www.thunderrun.us/2009/10/from-front-10052…

  10. Sarah says:
    October 12, 2009 at 3:33 am

    I frequently utter the phrase "It's a good thing they tried to make it more fair."
    http://www.spousebuzz.com/blog/2009/04/more-fair….