Holidays-Schmolidaze

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. We had family in town from Wednesday to Sunday. It was busy, but awesome. We also had friends visit for a football game on Saturday, and then for dinner on Sunday. It was a full weekend, but, again, awesome. Steve was home for the entire time, which was so great.

So, here we are in full swing of the holiday season. This is always a super fun time when you are in aviation. I hope you can detect my sarcasm. This year we are fortunate to have Steve home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. But, it certainly hasn't always been that way. We still think he is going to have to work, will that fear ever stop?, but the scheduling gods have been good to us for the last 2 years.

All I can say to my fellow pilot wives out there during this holiday season...drink a lot. It sucks when your lover isn't home for your neighborhood Christmas party, or for the kids school performance, or for your work Christmas party, or on Christmas morning when your little ones run downstairs with their sleepy but excited eyes, or on those quiet nights when there is a crackle to the fire and the soft glow of the trimmed Christmas tree makes you long for your man who is so far away. It sucks. I have no advice as to how to make it better, well aside from drinking away your sadness, since I don't think there is one. Just grin and bear it, and January will come soon enough. Eventually will come the day where he holds holidays off, and you can finally celebrate as a family...on the actual holiday.

Here is a blog post I did a couple years back about what a pilot really wants for Christmas. Worth the read, if you ask me.

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Since family was in town all last weekend, that meant we were doing a lot of hosting and entertaining and relaxing. There wasn't much time for laundry. Steve was off this past Monday and Tuesday and did a great job of getting the laundry caught up.

On Tuesday night he gently tells me to, "just do one load a night, and that way it won't get all backed up."

I just glared at him. Does he really know how much is on my plate when he is gone?!

"Just one load..." he repeated.

As if. Sometimes it is all I can do to not break down and cry by 7pm. That is certainly not the night to do "just one load."

After I kept my glare, he got my point.

And frankly, I got his point all along. I, too, would LOVE to be able to do a load a night. In a perfect world it makes perfect sense to do so. But, when you child is screaming and is in a bad mood all night, after your son tripped and fell hard in the driveway...oh, and add on basketball practice and Christmas pageant practice, on top of a hard day at work...you get my point.

For what it is worth, I ended up doing tow loads in his absence this week. 

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Speaking of hard and exhausting days, where I didn't do any laundry, wanna know what time I crawled into bed on Wednesday night?

Yeah, baby! While the kids were getting ready for bed, so was I. After they got into their beds, I locked up the house and made my way into my warm bed, thanks heated mattress pad. Great gift idea, by the way, for you pilots out there. Steve gave it to me a couple years ago. At first I thought it was a horrible gift idea, and questioned the man I married. Well, maybe not that dramatic. But, I have grown to LOVE this thing. Anyway, so I crawled into my warm bed, and searched Netflix. Because I just finished up Schitt's Creek...which is awesome and you have to watch it...it recommended I watched Bachelorette. Great cast. The movie probably didn't win any awards, but it kept me company for the next hour and a half.

There are days that just kick my ass. And the perfect remedy is an early bedtime in a warm bed with a chick-flick.

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Not pilot wife related, but woman related. There is so much in the news about sexual harassment, that I can't help but speak up.

So, Matt Lauer has been fired from the Today Show. Good. I'm glad. I like(d) Matt Lauer. In fact, the Today Show is the morning show that I always turn to, and I still will.

Bottom line, I'm glad that the people who have done wrong are now getting what they deserve.

There is a lot of talk about the women in these stories, and why they haven't come forward earlier. Why now? Why didn't they come forward before? I get pissed at that. Like, really pissed. Here's why I get pissed: have you ever been a victim of sexual assault? rape? molestation? hell, even the victim of a man grazing your ass in the middle of Time Square?

Last night in the middle of time square, some perverted asshole grazed my ass with his hand. Why the fuck does one think that is okay?

— Joanna (@comebackdaddy) July 22, 2017

If not, be thankful you haven't been a victim. If not, then try your best to listen first and not judge. Understand how hard it is to come forward. Perhaps these women did come forward before and nothing was done. Or, perhaps these women didn't say anything because they couldn't open their hearts. Perhaps now they are ready to open. The statue of limitations in my state, for example, is 20 years. Think about how long that is. Ask a victim how long they kept their silence? Ask them how it was before they were ready to open up.

I stand by the women who are coming forward. I find these women courageous, and I applaud them.  And I hope that the women who are holding their story close to their heart, are able to be set free. Perhaps we are in the era of the woman...and if we are, I'm very proud to be part of it.

Have a great weekend!