Was up at 4am this morning to take A to the airport for his last training stint. It seems that no one can fold shirts as well as I do. A was stressed, running a little behind schedule, but we live close to the airport and it was early so everything worked out fine. But my eyes feel like sandpaper due to the lack of sleep (and the rampant forest fires causing a nice layer of smoke in the area). This last 10 days has been a whirlwind, with him home after 16 days away, then gone again, then home again and now gone again for the last 12 or so days. This block will be the training in the full motion sims and he's got the fantastic 2:30am to 9am shift. I told that at least if he could function well to pass at 2:30am, then he'll do fine on a 10am flight. he's bummed that he's going to miss out on the free continental breakfast provided by the hotel every morning.
A called from Houston already this morning and said that it seems that the hotel has no reservations for him or anyone else coming from ExpressJet. This is a different hotel from where he's been for the previous 5 weeks. So he's currently stuck at the airport trying to get in touch with the training travel department to find out where he is supposed to go. We had an inkling of an idea this would happen last night when his roommate called to tell him that he had called the hotel and was told the same thing. Hmmm, ALPA's going to have a field day with this one if it turns out that there are no hotel reservations. All A wants is to be able to get some sleep before his session thursday am.
A told me that he's started to read this blog more often now. He wanted me to update and say that they did in fact finally get to do the cabin training evacuation stuff :)
Twice in the last 10 days, we've had conversations about him feeling so disconnected from our lives. I tell him about conversations I've had and he has no idea who the person I'm talking about is. I tell him about things we've done and he feels left out. He's been so deep in training that he has no idea what's going on in the world. It's hard for him. He comes home for a few days off and is torn between resting and getting done what needs to be done. He doesn't have enough time for both. I have to give him credit for trying though. Hopefully things will get better when he's not away from us for such long stints.
It's hard for me to get sympathy from friends as well. When ever I make mention of missing him or having to do it all myself, all I get is "Well you knew what you were getting into". Well, yeah, I did. But I'd still like some recognition that I have a hard life sometimes. I have a few friends who have long distance relationships. They see their boyfriends less often, but for longer blocks of time. They say to me "well, you see him more often than I do". Yes, that's true. But when you see yours, you are on vacation and can focus on just him. A comes home and I still have to go to work, make sure we have enough milk and clean laundry and do all that other day to day stuff. I think that being in a transition right now makes it harder. Once he's settled and has some regularity in his life, things will ease up. But right now it's hard- end of training and we are all getting worn down.
I did get a boost to my flagging spirits yesterday when A gave me some Mother's Day gifts. I was so suprised because they were great things that I never thought about getting. He used his per diem money to get a gift certificate for a local spa and an Ipod Shuffle. I don't know which one I am more excited about using.
Counting down the days until the end of training...
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