Aim For Unhappiness

Saying a Flight Attendant has an erratic schedule is an understatement.  Any given month I am gone 12-18 days.  This means my few days home weekly are spent in maintenance.  Maintenance of home, self, kids and relationships.

Recently, I went to my boo's place and told him cryptically that I have decided we have a MTA of 82.  He sat there perplexed as he valiantly tried to decipher what I was trying to say to him.  Finally, I told him that after a careful analysis of our relationship, I've noticed we have less stress, and silly bickering, and a higher level of obvious security and contentment if we see each other at least once every 4 days, so I've come to the conclusion that our Maximum Time Away from each other allowed is 82 hours.  Sometimes this needs to be stretched due to work or family matters, but we are doing our best to recognize the time needed to nurture our amazing relationship.

The month of April was crazy busy for me... this past week I had a whole 7 days off.  As I spent a day weeding and fertilizing my garden, it occurred to me that there is a MTA for every aspect of my life.

Where my boo and I speak MTA in hours, my house has a MTA of approximately 10 days before interior and exterior are overwhelming and overgrown.




My kids MTA isn't consecutive but more cumulative...  For example, they can handle me being home only one day this week if they know that next week they will have me 10 days straight.  I learned this in the early days of my job when I only had 10 days off a month...  my kids got needier and fought more when I was gone for long periods.  I've learned our cumulative MTA is 16 days but try to keep it to 12.  There's a delicate balance of family security and financial stability.

In writing this and uploading pictures, I think Avery recently told me he has a MTA also... His is probably 5 minutes in his lil fur brained head... but I notice when I leave to do errands for a day, my house is fine... When I leave for a 3-4 day trip, I find gifts like this.

It was an interesting exploration of my life as I gardened... I think if everyone recognized their MTA's, and stuck to them, the world would have less stress and more happiness.  We Americans tend to be overachievers, and overtax ourselves and our relationships in doing so.

Dedicated to my boo and children, who I miss desperately when I'm out of town...