Random Crapiosity

I like the word "crap". Especially as you can use it so many creative ways. Holy Crapping Crap. Crapness. The Great Crapinski. Crapiosity. Etc.

However, that was not the point of this crappish post at all. Just a fun, slightly vulgar digression.

Crapski. I forgot what I was going to write about....hmm. Ermm.....

Oh! Yeah.

I'm off to London tomorrow for a few days with Karen and the ever-so-fabulous Ben. Should be fun, and it will be nice to get away to somewhere warmer than here, if even by only a few degrees. It's just WRONG to have to wear a sweater AND a jacket in May, almost June. Grrr. But I need to get away for a bit, I have too much on my mind.

I just got news that a good friend of mine here is moving to Houston. This, after finding out a month or so ago that another good friend is moving as well. That is the serious downside of being an "expat trailing spouse". (Well, one of the downsides, another major one is being referred to as a "trailing spouse".) Just when you feel like you are a bit settled, when you have a nice group of pals, some folks to hang with every so often, someone has to move. And now I am losing two of the five or so that I really like to hang out with. Major bummer.

It's very unsettling, really, I know I feel constantly under the gun and a little wary of developing a friendship too deeply, as I am always afraid that person might have to go. I hit it off really well with one woman not long after moving here, then she got transferred to another country less than a year later, and it really threw me for a loop. Hard lesson, that. So whenever one of "my girls" has to go, it hurts, and honestly, it makes me pull back into my shell just a little bit deeper.

I won't even go into the fact how mad it makes me at the large multi-national company that my husband works for, that they move people with so little thought for the spouses, and with so little help or support for them in the process of moving. I know the husbands are just doing their jobs, but the company should think a bit more about what it does to the spouses and families. Sometimes I think we work for the one company that has the least support for spouses in all the multi-national corporations. I hear of the benefits folks get at other companies, and I am blown away. And when I say "we work" I mean it, because these companies basically get two employees for the price of one, when a trailing spouse comes along. One who goes to the office every day, the other to do all the support and grunt work behind the scenes. The mover, the housekeeper, the planner, the organizer. Why hire a person to plan moves and house sales, when you can get the wife to do it for free?

I won't say anymore, it could go on forever, but to all "trailing spouses" out there, man, I know there are benefits to our international lifestyles, but there sure are pitfalls, too. And I salute you for all you do. I know it's not easy.