so, say you're lucky and really just work 8 hrs a day (when i'm at my civilian job, they're usually 10 at the least, 11-12 on an average, and the bad ones start one morning, and don't end until a couple mornings later. i'm a network administrator, so when things are good? yay! when things are bad?). take that 8 hr day and add 20 minutes for commute each way, 20 minutes for lunch, so in a good sitch, that's 9 hours out of 24 that you're gone. then let's pretend you get an 8 hour sleep everyday. that leaves you 7 waking hours a day with your spouse, family, kids, dogs, roomate, whatever. i think most people would say it's closer to 3-5 per day.

what's this got to do with ANYTHING? well, some of my buddies are in hot water with people at home. and it's crazy. they're not volunteering to stay down here longer, they're not saying they don't want to go home. all that they've said is that they've made some good friends down here and are going to miss them. let's look at how this works. we all knew one another before we came down here for the most part. so we were already pretty good friends. we've all been through basic training and different military schools so we've got common experiences to draw upon. we've all volunteered for military service and this deployment, so chances are we've got similar beliefs. we've been away from home for almost eleven months solid now, and probably have another 3 to go before we get home. unlike spouses/dogs/girlfriends/mom and dad/whatever, we spend pretty much 24hrs a day together within our groups. we've slept on cots that were a couple feet away from one another in tents, on bunkbeds, now in cubicles where we're less than 8 ft from each other. We eat meals together, we work together all day, we work out together, wander of to the px or mwr center and waste time together. We've gone through our honeymoon phase, we've gone through our rough periods where we hated one another, and now we're getting tight together again now that we're getting ready to go home. we've celebrated birthdays, births of kids and grandkids back home, engagements and graduations. we've helped one another through deaths in the families back in the states, divorces, break-ups, and the death of a fellow soldier. we've relied on one another for loans, to act as alarm clocks, to watch each our backs in dangerous situations. i'm not saying the bonds we've formed down here are stronger than any of the ones back home necessarily, but they've been tried and tested. i'm not sure how else a guy or girl can explain that to people back home. i would THINK they should be able to say "you know, i've made some really good friends down here and i'm going to miss being around them all the time when i come home" without making anyone at home feel threatened. weird.

i'm not really going anywhere with this. just musing.