When He’s Gone

Brad and I don’t do much significant travel for our jobs, which is probably why it seems tough when he’s traveling and I’m home alone.

Brad was sent to Atlanta pretty last minute and returned home last night. The first time he traveled after we moved into the house, I couldn’t sleep in our bed. I tried but every little sound startled me, the room felt too dark, the bed was too big… etc. So I slept on the couch. The cats didn’t know what to do with me there and decided to climb on me while I slept (our cats are not allowed in our bedroom otherwise I’m sure that would be a normal occurrence).

Watson prefers to lay on Brad, but my feet will do in a pinch

This time, I decided that I was going to sleep in our room. The first night, I didn’t sleep very well. I’m afraid that it might be partially due to the 4-day weekend messing up my sleep patterns. The next night was a little better. Since we don’t have a TV in our bedroom (by design, it’s a very good idea) I brought the iPad up with me and watched old episodes of Friends to keep me company until I fell asleep. It’s weird, because I would never even think to do that when Brad is home.

For the first 22 years of my life, I slept alone just fine. Although I shared a room with my older sister for almost 16 years, and when I went to college I had roommates.

I always make these plans for what I’ll do while Brad’s on the road (or in the air), of course I rarely do most of it in favor of binge watching shows on Netflix or reading magazines. This last time, I said I’d finish all of the Christmas decorating, clean the house top-to-bottom, hem the new curtain for the kitchen, write a bunch of blog posts, grocery shop, etc. Instead, I finished decorating the first floor and cleaned the entire first floor of the house all while watching Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel… and that was about it.

I also work late when he’s gone… so there’s that. Most of the time, I do okay when he’s gone, night time is really the only snag I encounter. I also worry a little because I’ve lost my safety net. I’m extra cautious about taking a correction before bed and I set an alarm in the middle of the night to check my blood sugar… even though I’m usually still awake when it would go off!

Another last-minute trip just landed on the calendar, so I get to do this all over again incredibly soon.

What do you do when your spouse travels?

3 thoughts on “When He’s Gone

  1. I know how you feel. I HATE when my husband travels for work. It was fine when I worked, because I had a set schedule and had to sleep for work. But now that it’s just me taking care of the kids (and cat and dog), I freak out. It’s funny how life circumstances change things. I’m still super new to life with a defective pancreas, so who knows how that will change how I feel the NEXT time he travels!

  2. My hubby doesn’t travel for work (neither do I) so we’re not usually away from each other for long. A few years ago when my MIL was sick, he went to Florida to be with her a few times. The first time I actually went and slept at my mother’s house because I didn’t want to be alone! I suppose it’s something that you get used to if it happens enough, even if you don’t particularly like it. I’m glad you were somewhat productive 🙂

  3. I have never been good with long-distance. Luckily neither one of us travel right now, but we had a whole year where we studied three and a half hours apart :/ It sucked.

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