Fun-filled Day as an Army Wife

Yesterday, I had the privilege of listening to my husband get berated by some civilian paper-pusher who works on base. I don't know about you ladies, but I don't like it when someone trashes my husband in front of me. Even if I was mad at him. It took everything in me not to scream at this woman...

Let me backtrack some.

I got up "early" on Friday so that I could pick Joe up and go to transportation to see about getting congruent travel for Hawaii. I woke up with a sore throat and feeling like crap [as I am right now]. As I'm leaving, Joe is texting me and telling me that some paperwork has been mixed up or lost and we need to go figure it out. *sigh* Come to find out, there's paperwork that should have been turned in a few months ago so that I can actually go to Hawaii. For any of you who have PCS'ed to OCONUS, you know that you have to have an overseas screening and turn in the paperwork. I did my part and got a physical and gave the signed paperwork back to hubby so he could turn it in. He never turned it in. This is the missing paperwork that says I can go to Hawaii, and that I have zero health issues. Apparently, he was supposed to go have it signed/stamped by someone important and that never happened.

I was a little bit beyond ticked. But, after talking to him on the phone on my way to get him, I could tell he'd beat himself up enough already. He does that. Especially when it involves me. I seriously needed to vent, though, and knew that I couldn't yell at him. So, I called my bestie, Melissa. I love her. She allows me to yell at her, gripe, and complain so that I don't say things I don't mean to my hubby. =) This is what friends are for, right?

We finally get to where we need to be going and the woman who is supposed to help us figure out what we need to do is griping at my husband. She did this twice. Once when he told her that he'd forgotten to turn in the paperwork. For the second time when we returned with said paperwork uncompleted. The first time she told him that he was irresponsible, and that she was tired of "these Soldiers" not doing what they should do and that "your spouse" is the one being punished, I was mad. The second time she griped at him for not doing what he should have done when she had "given [you] all the information [you] needed when I stood up for four hours telling you what needed to be done and you didn't do it," I was livid.

She complained at him because he had all the information he needed and now he was just punishing me because he wasn't responsible enough to do what he'd been told. Did it ever cross her mind that maybe he'd misunderstood? He told her that he was under the impression that all that needed to be done was get the form for my doctor and turn it in. Obviously, this was incorrect. But it couldn't be her fault for not explaining it in a way he didn't understand. No, it was his fault for not understanding her. I'm telling you, it took every ounce of control in me not to rip the piece of paper she was holding from her hand and ask her why she was yelling at my husband, who signed 4 years of his life away to protect her right to yell at people she was irritated at?! Of course, I was prepared to say a lot more than that...as you can imagine. =) I was absolutely angry.

Was I mad that Joe didn't get paperwork turned in the way he was supposed to? Yes. Do I want some stranger yelling at my husband? Absolutely not. It was completely disrespectful of her to yell at a man who will most likely be deployed this summer to protect her freedom. And she had the audacity to yell at him? *insert explicative here*

Long story short, I'm going to be here in GA until paperwork in Hawaii gets approved for me to go. Once Joe gets to Hawaii, it could take anywhere from 1 week to 1 month for the paperwork to go through.  *sigh*


Hooah, Army life.