J had to leave this morning for training. He'll only be gone for nine or ten days, which is pretty good. We were just apart for nine months. This is only nine days. Still, I had tears in my eyes this morning as I gave him a kiss, told him that I loved him, and wished him safety. I'm not sad that he's gone. Training is important. But still...the tears.

Anyway, with J gone for the next few days, I will get to finish settling into the house. Or, in other words, I'll get to rearrange things the way I want them without him looking over my shoulder.

I can't complain. Well, I shouldn't, anyway. He did a great job. But the house needs a few tweaks here and there. And doing that with him here is kind of insulting to him--like telling him that he did it wrong. With him being gone, though, I can rearrange out of boredom. Or to accommodate the new bookcase that I bought. Or to make more room for...whatever. It's a game we play. He's well versed at it. Heck, sometimes he plays it better than I do. Like...this weekend. He was looking around at things and remarking about how he wasn't quite sure he should have put this here or that there or arranged the sunroom quite the way he did. He knows that I would never tell him that it was done wrong. No. I'll tell him what a great job he did and how I'm just so happy to be here that I don't care where things are. Then he'll look around a little more and start "wondering" how he could have done things differently...and just "mention" that he's sure I wouldn't have done it this way. And I will of course respond that this just seems like the perfect arrangement. BUT...

(there's always that "but")

BUT...if we ever think about doing THIS in the future, there won't be room for THAT unless SUCHANDSUCH move over THERE. I would hate to do that, of course, seeing as everything fits just so right now...


No, no no, he'll respond. You're right. If THIS were THERE and THAT were HERE, then THE OTHER THING could fit right between them. Sorry, dear. I didn't think that through. I was just in such a hurry to get things in here before you got here....I'll work on moving things around when I get back. Well, not right when I get back, of course, since we'll have to do recovery and AAR's and such, but I'll get around to it...

he says with his head hung low in defeat with a glance at me out of the corner of his eye. See? He knows how to play the game.

So this week, I'll do a little shopping and some rearranging. And I'll get things set just the way I like them. Which won't be exactly the way he would have done it, but that's the point! And then he'll come home and look around and say, oh. I didn't know you were going to do THAT. I was thinking more like THIS and...

to which I'll respond...

I KNOW. I was thinking about that, too, but then I realized that there was just no WAY that I would be able to move THAT by myself. I mean, I TRIED, but I felt that thing in my back kind of pull, so I looked around and decided instead that if I moved THAT over THERE and THIS to the other room, THE NEW THING fits in HERE just perfectly! Don't you think? I mean...DO you think so? If you don't like it, we can always put it back. YOU could have done it better, I know. But you've already done so much. I just wanted to try helping. But you're right. It WOULD be better the other way. I'll move it all back tomorrow and just haul that NEW THING back to the store. I think I can find odishi's little store again...

I'll say with my head hung low in defeat and a glance at him out of the corner of my eye.

And J will come up behind me, wrap his arms around me in a hug, drop a kiss on the top of my head, and tell me what a terrific job I did and that HE would have done it JUST the same way. See? I'm pretty good at the game, too.

Well, I've got about a week to plan, shop, and arrange. Game on!