Apologies for the lack of military-esque posts lately. To be honest I’ve been a bit busy. But also, since James isn’t in school or deployed I have realized that we are living the garrison life. One that includes training at times but just feels like a “normal” life, since he is home around dinner time and on weekends. In some ways it just seems like what life would be like if we weren’t military, except his days start wayyyyy earlier than most work places thanks to PT. We’re each busy with work, me with school, and both of us with keeping up with our friends. But let’s see if I can explain what life is like stateside.

For one, James is gone about 12 hours a day. His morning starts bright and early at PT (Physical Training) followed by a day of work, which for him typically means quality time with Excel, Powerpoint, and meetings. There are training days thrown in there for good measurement, and sometime in the next few months he’ll be away at training areas for a days if not a few weeks. So it’s a lot of getting ready for that on his end. But for me it means getting to see him, kinda. There are late nights (for both of us), social events we attend (separate and together), and well, life in general. It can get a bit hectic.
One thing that we try to do frequently is date night. Sometimes that means watching Netflix and turning off all electronics for the night. Sometimes that means going out to dinner and a movie. It really depends, but just a little alone time is needed!
Unlike deployment we can talk almost whenever, and we’re on the same time zone, only miles down the road from one another. But with busy days we usually just call or text to say ask what’s going on a certain day or a funny story.
More social events. We moved to a new unit so we’re making new friends, have some official events with them, and of course hanging out with our “old” friends. This means more events, dinners, hang outs, etc. Highlights: I learned Bunco (it’s super fun!); I still get to hang out with the ladies from my old unit; we’re exploring Washington! Downside: Always busy. But we took time on a recent weekend and cancelled our exploration plans (we were worried about weather on the mountains) and sat at home, it was glorious!
That’s garrison life for us. Nothing too crazy…yet but I’m sure something will pop up! What’s your experience living the garrison life?