I'm currently in Red State.
The plans are for me to be here one more time before Hubby comes home.
After three years of being here regularly, this is kind of weird. I actually like Red State quite a bit. The food is good, the people are nice and there is more 'scenery' than you might imagine. It's also quite easy to live here because the city is a manageable size with most of the things you need (they're missing an IKEA).
It isn't as if I'll NEVER be back here again. I have friends here, my grad school is here--- so, I'll have reasons to come back, but not on a regular basis.
On the other hand, I won't miss the regular 12 hour round-trip to see my hubby... and I KNOW he won't miss the drive to see me, The Queen and The Minion.
Think about it this way-- in order to make this whole thing work this semester my work schedule ended up being 16 contact hours (12 teaching, 4 office) over 4 days -- with two night classes and one 7:45 in four days -- plus department chair duties. If I were a 'normal' faculty member.. it would be pretty manageable because I would have Thursday afternoon and Friday to get caught up -- and then have a weekend. Now, add 12 hours driving into the mix.... 6 on Thursday, 6 on Sunday. That takes out a lot of the 'get caught up' time--- thus moving it into the actual weekend.... sigh.
To put it another way -- think about your weekend. Now add a 6 hour car trip at the beginning and a 6 hour car trip at the end-- in other words, subtract 12 waking/working hours.
To be fair, actually 'packing' for Red State takes me about 5 minutes, as I have clothes and things here.... so it isn't as if I'm living out of a suitcase. Getting things ready so the Queen and the Minion can stay alone for a few days takes about 10 minutes more, so it I don't have the packing/unpacking hassles of most car trips.
The other general challenge is also getting things done around our place in BNstate. I'm still there during the week, making messes, wearing clothes that need to be washed etc. The Queen and the Minion are there right now scattering things around just to show their displeasure.... and all of that will be waiting for me on Sunday night when I get home.
Overall, the LDR works for a few reasons... 1) we're within a 6 hour drive of one another. It isn't airline ticket range... which would have ended up with fewer trips and costing a lot more money. 2) we don't have kids, since we only have ourselves and two cats to worry about -- it is much less complicated. 3) We re-started our relationship as a long-distance romance. He was in Denver, I was in Minneapolis and my step-dad worked for an airline, so I could go visit. Between times we talked on the phone a lot. We started out knowing how to do this.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Knowing how to handle an LDR ahead of time was key to making it work for us too. We dated long-distance through college and our first jobs. Then we got married and were able to live in the same place. When I got into graduate school, we had to start the LDR up again. We'll be done in May. Can't wait. Happy that you'll be done soon too!
Post a Comment