Thank God for Army SO Bloggers!

For those who don't know me, I am, and have been, an Army SO (significant other) for nearly 3 years now. B and I met in college, and started dating November of our sophomore year. Aside from the summers apart where he would go to Airborne, LDAC, or CTLT, we had a normal college experience, relationship-wise. Not to be mushy or any of that crap, but he's truly the best guy you could hope to have around, and I am beyond blessed to have him in my life.

Last Sunday, September the 9th, I got a FaceTime call at 7:30 CST from him -- he was off to Ranger school! I put on a brave face and told him to kick ass and take names, and then fussed over him (just a little!) to write down the contact numbers for me and his family for the pay phones on base. Then, away he went.

The rest of this week ("gee, a whole *four* days, how do you do it, Courtney?") was spent trying to keep busy and find a routine for life. It went pretty well! I've got my work, which has really picked up since our project implementation is set to "go live" on October 1st, as well as my on-the-side tutoring gig. Plus, I'm counting calories again, so that's another full time job in and of itself! (Seriously, how did all that weight creep on during college?!) So far, so good.

Then, yesterday, a friend from college texts me about the "Surviving the Cut: Ranger Edition." Sure, I've got time, let me re-watch that, I think to myself. For those of you reading this who do not know -- this is a documentary showing a portion of the suckage that our men go through to go to this elite combat school. It lasts 62 days, and consists of 3 phases. It was not the best thing to watch when the whole time you're sitting there thinking "That face could be B. Or that one. How can they do this to them?!"

The guys get to talk to their loved ones three times in those 62 days -- and I'm skeptical that I'm going to hear from B at all. Why? Just because the men with wives are typically allowed to cut the line to call them first. Understandable, definitely, but I can't help but feel a twinge of jealousy to be in the wives shoes, if not just for this one instance. All I can do is send letters to let him know how much he's missed, and how much I support him! And I do.

To get back to the point -- I was operating under the assumption that I had to wait to mail B all his letters until he got back to me and told me what Company he was in -- not true, I find out! Thanks to Katy, an Army wife we knew in college, I got to mail B his letters today! Woohoo! She also linked me to these incredible blogs, both from SO's who had their men go through Ranger school back in the summer of 2011. You can find them here (The Girlfriends Guide to Ranger School) and here (Communication During Ranger School: A Recap).

Being in Texas, while he's in Georgia, is pretty sucky -- but, I keep reminding myself, it could be worse. He could be at his duty post, in Alaska, or he could be deployed. Every time I start feeling sorry for myself (I'm so lonely, I miss him so much, blah blah blah) I just think about how lucky I am to have AC, food, water, and more than 30 minutes of sleep each night. Then I feel like an ungrateful brat. But I think the most important thing to remember is that I'm not alone in all of this. Attached to dang near every one of those Ranger candidates is an SO, mother, sister, aunt, etc, feeling the same anxiety as I am.


So, with that rant (vent?) being out of the way, and the envelope with B's letter/news in the mail (the iPhone 5 comes out yesterday, and he's not even gonna hear about it?! No, ma'am/sir) I am going to sign off.

Rock on and HOOAH.