Putting Out Fires

Sometimes in my life I feel like I spend so much time putting out fires for my friends and my family that I don't really have time to worry about myself. Now in some ways this is good because it keeps me distracted. But sometimes it is frustrating because I'm constantly taking care of someone else's issues. And I feel like some how mine get pushed to the back burner.

For example...Friday night I went out with my friends T and S for "girls night out." I thought to myself that it would be cool to see them and to chat. Basically it was a time for T to grumble about her boyfriend's ex-wife while S and I listened. Then to break it up a bit S asked me about J and talked some about her work. But very quickly it went back to T and the ex-wife. And I don't want to monopolize the conversation or anything but I almost feel like we need a chess timer so each person gets equal time.

I've noticed that people don't really ask how you're doing unless it seems like you're struggling. I don't wear the fact that J is deployed on my sleeve. He is deployed and I miss him ALOT but I go about my day to day stuff pretty well. (most days) I've even had people comment about the fact that I don't seem to struggle with deployment. Now of course they don't see me when I'm having a bad day.

Do you ever feel like you put out other people's fires?