Staying Home Alone

Well, it's finally happened: Robert has gone on his first traveling job. I know I said that it wasn't going to happen because I didn't want to be separated from him for long periods of time EVER, but, when you don't have any other options at the moment, and he's only 4 hours away in Louisiana, it doesn't seem quite so bad. We don't know that it's going to be that long of an away trip anyway...there are 2 different contracts in locally-one in Pascagoula and one in Mobile, so hopefully one of those will come through and he'll be back in a couple of weeks, right? It was so sad, but funny to watch him go this morning because all the cats were running around like something weird was going on. I think Jade still has some residual fears of packing because of when PJ left her with Aaron. Poor Sweetness must still have issues with being locked up for that weekend we left her in the closest by accident...and Sandy, well, she just likes to sit on top of luggage. Jade spent the hour before Robert left alternating between cuddling with me and attackinng me (although she has gotten much better about not actually PUTTING her claws INTO my body). Sweetness sat on the top of her Daddy's chair and got up with him every time he got up. Sandy just sat on the suitcase until Robert took it outside, and Topper went and hid. I think they are going to miss him just as much as I will.
It's hard to believe that some women deal with this all the time. I know plenty of people here in Pascagoula who deal with their husbands traveling for pipefitting or joining-gone for months at a time! Our friend Monica's husband is in the Navy and gone for 6 months right now! And my sister in law Janet stays home with the girls while Perry travels all week some weeks. I hope that we don't have to do this very often and not for very long when we have to do it. We're lucky because we don't have any kids, but I remember being that kid left at home while my dad went away for months and months at a time...it wasn't fun. Maybe that's why I have such a problem with it now.
Also, I'm not very good at being alone-especially at night-especially in a neighborhood like mine. I suppose it would be just as scary if I lived out in the woods away from all kinds of people. So, it's an experiment for me to see how brave I can be. I will just be keeping myself busy: cleaning, uploading CDs to my new Ipod, playing on myspace and facebook, getting on a better workout schedule, loving my cats, and doing anything else it takes to keep myself from feeling alone. I'm also lucky enough to have Robert's family close by in many different directions, so I'm really not ALONE...but I want to be able to do this myself. Too bad I can't throw myself into my work-they're counting every minute so we don't get overtime.
Here goes nothing.:)