The Leen

I’ve started writing about four different things tonight, and nothing is coming out right. So I’ll just keep it brief and boring and say that I still don’t feel great, although I think I’m feeling a little better right now. I went to the doctor this morning and he said it’s just a cold at this point, so I guess that’s a good thing.

Also, I really miss Brett. He left this morning for Amsterdam, and while I don’t usually see him during the day since he’s at work, it’s different when he travels like this because I can’t get in touch with him easily. When he’s in town but busy working, we at least talk on the phone a couple times, or text, or email, but today we talked for about two minutes on a borrowed cell phone during a layover, and that’s probably how communication will be the whole time he’s gone. Which is fine, I suppose, since the trip is for work, after all, I just miss having him accessible to me, even if he isn’t physically present. It makes me feel lonely to think of him being so far away, even though his mom is staying with me and even though I have lots of friends around to hang out with, too.

I guess it’s always harder for the person left behind when one spouse travels, especially when it’s to someplace as cool as Amsterdam. Brett’s going to be having a great time, meeting people, seeing a new city and country, eating new food, drinking amazing coffee — the days will fly by. But for me, I’m sitting at home, fighting a cold, paying bills and trying to figure out how to make ends meet this month while thinking about how he gets to do all of those fun things.

I know there are lots of people out there whose husbands are gone a lot more than Brett is, so I feel kind of bad complaining about him being gone. It’s a relatively short amount of time for him to be gone, and I know he’ll do his best to keep in touch with me even if it is spotty.

When he’s traveled in the past, I would buy wine and lots of junk food and watch girly movies or Gilmore Girls episodes, or hang out with my girlfriends, or go shopping, but now watching junky TV isn’t as easy to do with Elanor around, and getting together with people is kind of challenging with no car and a baby in tow, and we are on a complete no-frills budget so shopping is out of the question.

So, tell me, what do you do when your husband or significant other travels? How do you cope? I need some new ideas.

P.S. — I promise that as soon as I kick this stupid cold my posts will be much, much less whiny. I don’t know what my problem has been the last few days; I hate feeling whiny and meh like this and I hate even more blogging about it and then going back later and reading it and thinking how dorky I sound for being so whiny. Sorry!!