Friends Off.

My husband brought home a Vodafone pay-as-you-go internet stick a week ago. I don't think I've ever loved him so much as I did in that moment. A connection to the outside world! The only problem is that it's not necessarily reliable and I don't quite understand how it works. Something about volume? I learned quickly that if you pay €40.00 for 30 days of Vodafone internet service, but you watch one episode of Jersey Shore (hey, at least I can admit to it), you will have used your alloted "volume" and will be required to pay another €40.00 to regain service. So I can't watch TV online but I can email, blog, Skype, and most importantly, Facebook! Ha.

The past few weeks have been fairly uneventful and really rather lonely. The guys have had daily-doubles nearly every day and when my husband comes home, it's a wonder if I can get him to serve himself dinner. He's exhausted, mentally and physically. I think he feels he really needs to prove himself here, so he's working really hard. I'm proud of him but it's easy to forget that he's working hard for us too, not just himself. I get wrapped up in feeling neglected ... when will he ask how our day went? when will he ask if I could use a little help? when will he take us somewhere or do something with us? when will my needs be met? No matter how prepared you think you are to, more or less, be invisible, it's never as easy as you think it'll be. I'm used to taking a 'back seat' to my husband in a lot of ways, because that's kind of the name of the game with this lifestyle (that sounds worse than it really is), but it's rare that I feel my basic needs aren't met.

There's almost a disconnect. He's exhausted from training camp. I'm exhausted from Linden and I'm lonely. He needs me to leave him alone so he can relax. I need him to pitch in and help me. Where do you go from there? Who's needs are more important? How do you find a balance? Yesterday he had the day off and he helped me hang curtains and tidy up the apartment. He also totally pitched in with Linden. It didn't take much on his part and it gave me the boost I needed to go another week or so without the support I crave. We'll figure it out.

Anyway, the team just completed their first preseason road trip to Poland. They won 7:2 and 6:0, I think. I haven't quite figured out how to keep up with games online yet so it's hard to keep up with scores and points, etc. Linden and I survived just fine on our own. Next on the schedule is a seven day road trip to Austria and the Slovakia. Teams in the DEL typically play each other during preseason but, long story short, a lot of things happened this summer within the league and it ended with us being a part of the league but our team not being invited to play other DEL teams during the preseason. Hence lots-o-trips to random places.

Me and preseason are officially friends-OFF.