Everyone here knows that the military is a neverending cycle of hurry-up-and-wait, of finding out about changes at the last minute, of thinking you're headed in one direction only to find you're headed in the opposite.
Everyone knows this. I know this.
So why do I always get surprised when it happens?
On route to our very first duty station, my husband got his orders exactly six days before we were leaving his training post. Orders to Germany. Making preparations to move OCONUS with six days to spare is not fun. We made all the arrangements for him to go alone since we hadn't been authorized concurrent travel, only to get the extra orders for me the next day. Un-doing the work was harder than doing it the first time. But we survived.
I didn't think we could top six days, but on our last PCS to where we are now, we picked up my husband's orders on the way out of town. Literally. We handed in our apartment keys, put the dog in the car, and swung by to get his new orders as we drove out of town. That process involved a lot of nailbiting and hair-pulling. But we survived.
I didn't think we could top one day, but we seem to have managed it.
My husband finished his Army school ten days ago, and we still don't have orders. He was "forced" to take leave and sit around the house waiting to find out where he'll be assigned and what he'll be doing. We are not moving (thank heavens); his new assignment will be on the same post. But he doesn't know how to find out what he needs to find out. The head honchos at the new unit are on TDY and leave right now.
So we sit and wait.
I know we will survive "negative ten" days too. But I wonder why this stuff still surprises me. You'd think I'd be used to finding stuff out at the last minute, but noooo. For some reason, I still expect Uncle Sam to give me a heads up before the big changes happen.
Silly ol' me, wanting to plan my life.
