military wife

7/20/99

Happy birthday, John!

For my first day as a housewife I decided to do...well, nothing. I’m not really a housewife.--just killing a few days before getting a job. I got up when John left for work, ate breakfast, and went to work out. 8 am in Georgia and it’s similar to the hottest noon sun in Michigan. I had the health room to myself, so I watched Casablanca on the little TV while I crunched and pressed.

I actually puttered for most of the day. Did a little unpacking, a little reading, a lot of phone-calling. A little singing along with Fiona Apple. I went out and got myself nice and lost in Warner Robins. The town doesn’t really exist—it’s a military base and a couple of strip malls. The strip malls all look alike; it’s ever so hard to find my way around.

News from Julia-Land....

Fitting in well! She hides under the bed, in the utility closet and behind the bookself. A few times a day she mews at the sliding door and I’ll let her out onto the balcony. The balcony’s only about three feet off the ground, if that, so Julie can slither through the bars (on a thin day) and sniff around in the bushes. Mostly, though, she flops on the balcony for 5 or 10 minutes and then cries to come back in. I think she’s happy.

She is, however, getting fleas again. I was using Advantage, which is truly amazing stuff, but I didn’t refill her prescription before we moved. And of course the fleas are worse here. So we have to stop by the vet on the base and get more flea-stuff for Julia.

She loved today: I was at her disposal, she thought. Just like the last couple months in Lansing. Mid-afternoon she pops up onto the couch and demands to be petted and pampered. Today I was sitting there with a Nintendo controller balanced on my knee while I flipped channels with the remote. Julia pranced up to my leg, butted the controller onto the floor with her head, and planted herself on my lap. Can’t complain—it is my job to spoil her.

One day of housewifery and I’m ready to get a job. By 10:30 I was wondering how long I’d have to wait before getting lunch, because lunch means the afternoon is starting and the day’s half over. Tomorrow I’m going to start job-hunting. I can’t take this boredom.