"When I got home, Sprinkles’ body was in the freezer, where Dwight said he left her, but all my bags of frozen french fries had been clawed to shreds!"

- Angela

I love this show! Thanks to a friend's suggestion to watch it and the joys of instant viewing on netflix, along with NBC's generosity of posting season 4 episodes as they air, I have officially seen every episode of every season and I am completely in love. It is right up there with Scrubs and Will & Grace. Awesomely funny and awesomely witty. I did realize though, as I tried to get my mom to watch it for the first time, that this isn't a show you can just jump into and get hooked on. If you haven't seen it from the beginning it won't be half as funny. It's all about the backstory and the inside jokes, just like real life. And who else is so stoked for Karen to come back and shake up PB & J? Me! Me! Me! :)

5 months down, 8 months to go...

10 rules to handling a person who has a significant other deployed to a combat zone...

1. Don't ask her if she's seen the news about the latest bombing/ ambush/ raid/ arrest/ deployment extension/ possibly invading another country. We are avoiding the news for the duration, do not make us think about it. Sheesh.

2. Don't ask her if she misses her soldier. Duh.

3. Don't complain that your boyfriend is going to be out of town for a few days and "omigosh" you "could just die" at the thought of him being gone that whole time. This might get you slapped, it will certainly not get you sympathy.

4. Don't knock our troops. I'm totally okay with knocking the guy that put them there, but don't cross the line.

5. Don't remind us that we are lonely. "Aw, this must be so hard for you, being alone every night, not getting to talk to your man..." may seem sympathetic, but it's really just an awful thing to do to someone.

6. Don't ask us what we will do if our significant other is killed or injured. We don't really know, and we'd rather not ponder it. Knowing it is a possibility is enough.

7. Don't ask us how many days are left until our soldier is coming home. We know this answer but it is hard to say it out loud because no matter what number it is, it is still too many.

8. Don't ask if we are allowed to visit our soldier wherever he is. It's a freakin' war zone, not a country club.

9. Don't question the couple's decision to stay together. Long distance relationships are tough under the very best circumstances, year long separations with little more than a few phone calls and emails is damn near impossible. Try to be positive.

10. Don't ask if we are "over it yet" when it comes to missing our soldiers. There is no getting over it. There is no getting back to normal. Life is literally on hold until the soldier comes home. Sometimes it's not so bad and sometimes it feels like you can't breathe. The absense is always there, you never really get used to it, you just try to live around it.

Sometimes I am amazed at the insensitivity people display. The other day I was showing a less than symapthetic attitude to someone who was distraught that her boyfriend was going out of town for a few days. 'Talk to me when he has been gone 4 months, not 4 days' I told her. She explained to me that it was different for her. She wasn't used to her man being gone like I was used to mine being gone. 'It's different for you,' she says, 'you're used to it.' Right, of course, how could I have not realized that her man being gone once in a blue moon for a few days was catastrophic, while my guy being gone for months and being in a combat zone is nothing to be concerned about. Silly me...