09 October 2007 2017 GMT
#1 - I no longer have to walk 20 meters over gravel in order to go to the bathroom when I wake up in the middle of the night.
#2 - I was actually able to log on to AIM after leaving the office tonight.
#3 - I don't have to worry about waking people up and keeping the lights off when I come home late at night.
#4 - I can play music on my computer when I wake up in the morning and when I go to bed at night.
#5 - I was somehow assigned room #24, my lucky number.
#6 - My new location is ideal, about 20 meters from the DFAC, 30 meters from the gym, and about 50 meters from my office.
#7 - I can blog in my underwear now.
I don't know. There are lots of good things. Yesterday, I actually got a chance to start reading my book. I got through the first two chapters yesterday, and saved the one on "falling in love" for today. I'm kinda curious about how someone would describe that feeling on paper.
The S4 just stopped by a few minutes ago and came in. He's my next door neighbor here, so he showed me his room. Mine is much better, btw. It's okay. He knows it. There's just less clutter and more space. It's cleaner too. The only thing that's better about his is the fact that there's a sink in it. Of course, the bathroom is just a few feet away, so no big deal.
Anyway, I said that I was going to get some reading done and then get to bed early again. Tomorrow will be a 0600h start with the guys at the gym. MTF
08 October 2007 1957 GMT
This morning was an early one, as my alarm clock went off at 0440h so I could get my shave and my brush on before the 5K. We didn't go very fast, but we stayed together as a section and finished in the top 200 and got ourselves some free t-shirts. That's all I'll say about that.
After that, the guys spent a bit of time packing things and moving today. Me, it took me maybe a half hour tops...mainly because I didn't really unpack that much and because I haven't really acquired much in my time here. I'm pretty easy. I've got a nice little room to myself now, complete with wall locker, desk, rolling chair, and air conditioning unit. I'll tell you about how well I sleep when I get up tomorrow.
Last thing is dinner. I was so excited when I saw the words "General Tso's Chicken" on the menu on the way into the DFAC today. Unfortunately, it wasn't anything like the GTC back home. The TCNs (third country nationals - mostly Indians) who cook the food around here do a pretty good job with most of the "American" food they serve in the DFAC. The frying and extra gravy doesn't hurt, you know? But today, I had some really high expectations and they were a little off...more soggy than crunchy and no spice or sweet flavor to it. I really shouldn't complain about the food though. When I temper my expectations, I'm usually pretty satisfied with everything here. Words to live by...
07 October 2007 1958 GMT
After that, I made a quick call to the gf before heading back to bed for a few hours. I ate a light breakfast and then spent some time hanging out in the office while the section continued redecorating. It looks pretty good right now, and my desk is even tidy for the time being. I don't know how long that'll last, but the peer pressure will definitely help. With it being a light day, I even got out to the gym to get a good upper body workout in before eating dinner (spaghetti and meatballs) with the guys.
We took a little walk over to the motor pool after that to grab a bunch of foot lockers that we'd actually shipped over a month ago by sea. They arrived here in camp a week or two ago, but we just hadn't had time to unpack them. With our counterparts having left, though, we're starting to settle in pretty well now, and it was just time to start unpacking. That was kinda fun, as guys looked through their packing lists for their foot lockers - almost like a time capsule from the beginning of the deployment. One of my guys had some mail, some magazines, and some sunflower seeds in his. Me, I haven't unpacked it yet, but I know I have some binders from the office. What I did pull out already, though, were two pictures of the gf. I didn't want the frames to break in my duffle bags during my flight over, so I thought ahead and packed them in with my towels in the foot locker. Anyway, they're up in my office now, so that's kinda nice. I've never had pictures up on my desk before. That's kind of a nice feeling. Hehe...okay, enough with the sappy stuff.
After unpacking, I was hoping to catch the skins game tonight before bed since it was an early game. No luck, though, as the Steelers/Seahawks game was the only one on AFN today. So I ended up playing chess with one of my guys with that on in the background. I think I beat him five or six times during the first half. It kinda reminded me of the last time I played chess with one of our medics during the last deployment when he beat me some fourteen times before I was ever able to beat him; and that was after he lent me a book to read so that I could get better. Either way, it was fun playing again.
Tomorrow morning is our usual section run day when we run as a group. Even better for us, the camp is having a 5K for Columbus day (with free t-shirts, of course). So instead of doing our usual run, we'll jump in and do that in the morning. We have to wake up an extra half-hour early, but it's kinda worth it. We're going to stay together, so it'll probably be a relatively slow pace. Did I mention I'm starving right now? I think I'm watch the rest of the skins game online and then grab some late night chow before shoving off for the night. MTF
06 October 2007 1613 GMT
Anyway, today was relatively slow considering the rest of the National Guard people back in Virginia are taking a four-day holiday weekend. I did get to meet with one of our liasons from Guard Bureau in Arlington, though, and go over some of the issues we're facing. That was relatively productive. It also turns out that three Major League Baseball pitchers are in town to do some autograph signings and stuff. I didn't actually recognize their names when I saw the flier, but then again, I haven't paid attention to baseball in about a decade, ever since I ran out of money and stopped collecting baseball cards.
The other little highlight was mail call. The gf sent me another letter (which is pretty awesome), but I also got a card from an old reader from the Afghan deployment who also reminded me of a soldier we had with us, SPC Jean Paul Borda, who ended up picking up the blogging habit while we were overseas and started a couple of big websites after the deployment. Anyway, I didn't realize it, but he's deployed again and blogging not too far from where I'm at. Small world, huh?
05 October 2007 2047 GMT
The rest of the day was the usual routine, though I had a little session learning about the big picture stuff behind the relationship between the US and foreign Governments. It was somewhat eye-opening to see how a little National Guard unit from Virginia played into the political and strategic importance of the mission.
Anyway, from there, we had a special group dinner followed by Friday night bingo. I didn't win today, and I didn't get to do any singing, but I still had fun. Then, luckily for me, it was karaoke night at the movie tent afterwards. It was pretty quiet there, with maybe a half dozen to a dozen guys hanging out there. A bunch of guys from 1st ID were making fools of themselves, but they were having a lot of fun. Me, I quietly picked my songs out of the binder and threw in a few of my old favorites to help warm me up for what promises to be one of many karaoke nights in the future. My songlist tonight was Sweet Caroline by Neil, Good by BTE, and Build me up, Buttercup by the Foundations. MTF
04 October 2007 2250 GMT
Speaking of relationships, a bunch of my books came in from Amazon today. I wanted to order His Needs, Her Needs specifically to hand off to one of the guys going through some interesting relationship issues. The brother actually recommended it to me the first time I read it after I'd not-so-successfully wrapped up a relationship with a girl Ben introduced me to. But yeah, it was a good book that's stuck out in my mind, so I figured I would give it to him to read and then maybe donate it to the library here for whoever else might want it. I ordered three other relationship books, too, just for the heck of it. One was another that my brother had recommended called the Five Love Languages, and there are two more I'm almost embarrassed to post online...so I won't. If you stop in my office, though, they're sitting on my bookshelf for one of those long, lonely nights to come.
03 October 2007 2332 GMT
After chow, we ended up circling over to hang out with the night shift at the JOC (Joint Operations Center) to take a look at the progress of one of the reports we were supposed to work on. In the end, there was still some stuff that needed to be worked out, so we'll end up putting it off a little while until tomorrow. I guess that means I should be going to sleep now, right? Tomorrow will be exciting. I need to do my quarterly counseling with my guys (kinda like report card time) and then I need to finish up drafting my section and personal goals. Unfortunately, I didn't get any help from you all, so I'll have to do all of that myself. Oh well.
02 October 2007 2012 GMT
I kinda learned my lesson from Afghanistan, where my platoon, believe it or not, was not much bigger than the section that I have now. We had a lot of responsibilities, but it was a completely different feel. Last time, we supported with manual labor, and this time, it's paperwork. It was a slightly younger crowd last time, too...not that it was a bad thing. But anyway, one of the regrets I did have was the lack of PT that we did together. Nothing against my platoon sergeant at the time, but he wasn't a big fan, and I didn't have the confidence to push it like I do now. It helps. It really does. As a section, we PT together three days out of every week, and then it's on your own for the other three days. Most of the other guys pair up to help each other out on the non-section days anyway. Then on Sundays, it's kind of up for grabs. But yeah, it's nice to have the whole section up and workout out together at 0530. I don't know if any of my guys particularly like it. They definitely don't like waking up for it. But once we get going, I think it helps to build that feeling of camaraderie.
Anyway, aside from PTing together, we each just about every meal together. Breakfast on most days when we do PT together, and then lunch and dinner the whole week with some minor exceptions over the weekends when they have a little more time to themselves. But yeah, it's nice to have everyone together. It's like Saturday lunch at the parents...except it's every day. It's funny how we've started to walk to chow too. I lead the way, with the LT behind me, SFC Wehrli, SSG Maynard, SGT Wilkes, and then CPL Reed, in that order. Then when we get to the chow hall, I stop, and everyone enters in reverse-rank order like it's supposed to be. I don't know. I like it. The XO even made a comment tonight about seeing us all together all the time. For me, it just feels good to have the team together. I mean, every once in a while, I guess it's nice to have some time to yourself (I don't think I've ever really gone through that except maybe when I broke up with my first gf); but for the rest of the time, it's nice to be part of a family. I think we're definitely getting there. I'm just glad that we didn't have to split up between different locations or because of shift work.
Anyway, with that said, I'm off to bed. Hope all is well back home.
01 October 2007 1824 GMT
Most of this I noticed during our three-mile run this morning. I guess we ended up going at a decent pace, but I was a little frustrated with the guys. I need to be a little more patient. I mean, sometimes I think I'm too patient, but I think I'm expecting results too quickly with these guys. I mean, they signed up to be admin guys, not infantry...and they're trying. This is the first time we've had a consistent PT plan now that our workload is starting to lighten up a little. We're doing an internal PT test this Friday so that we can gauge where everyone is at again. We'll see how far we've come since that first one while we were at Shelby. The goal for me is 77 push-ups, 82 sit-ups, and a 13:00 two-mile run time.
Anyway, today we had a little ceremony where we got to stand out in the sun for about half an hour to 45 minutes. I was sweating like crazy and probably fell asleep about a half dozen times because the loudspeakers weren't turned up enough. Well, that's not the entire reason why I nodded off, but it didn't help. I'm going to sleep early tonight, though - once I finish updating this, in fact. And then I'll hit the gym first thing in the morning - some time between 0400 and 0500 if I have my way. Until then...
30 September 2007 1955 GMT
We did a rehearsal for an upcoming ceremony today, and I was selected to play the role of a visiting colonel. It wasn't anything spectacular. In fact, I think most of the people were probably a little frustrated after standing out in the midday sun for the two hours+ for the session. But yeah...hmm...this story really isn't as interesting now that I think about it.
I ended up working out with one of my soldiers in the gym this morning. Being Sunday, it was kind of a slower day, so I slept in a little bit (got up around 0715) and wasted a little bit of time online watching football and doing some early Christmas shopping. That's really it. Not too exciting except for the few dozen people who have come up to me asking about my musical performance at bingo last night. I need to hurry up and do some more karaoke soon before I get to be known as that guy who sang Ice, Ice, Baby.
29 September 2007 1952 GMT
I must have sat through almost a dozen games or so before I hit the jackpot. The catch? Well, if two or more people yell out bingo on the same number, then there's a sing-off to decide the winner. Hehe...I know, right up my alley, right? Unfortunately, I just blanked out being in front of the amazingly large crowd for bingo night. I mean, they must've been pushing two hundred soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen. Out of that, maybe a few dozen were from my unit and the rest were from all over. Anyway, I just spent about 20 seconds looking like an idiot with a blank stare across my face when the host takes the microphone away from me and hands it to the other guy who also won. Luckily for me, he had the same dumb look across his face and the crowd was starting to get restless. While he stalled for a few more seconds, I tried to think of some classics, but I couldn't figure out how the beginning of Sweet Caroline went. So instead, I went with old faithful and broke out with the first verse of Ice, Ice, Baby. My knees were shaking a little bit, but the lighting was kinda dim and I don't think too many people noticed. I got a pretty big round of applause, though, and a brand new DVD player to boot, so I guess it was worth it. *pause* Okay, so I admit it...I enjoyed the little musical performance, too. Go figure.
28 September 2007 2216 GMT
The majority of the day was spent on a little road trip as we ended up visiting some of our higher headquarters at a nearby base. There was a big fancy D-Fac there with lots of plasma screens and laminate floors, but the food wasn't as good as it is back here. But yeah, I just kinda took the tour...asked some questions, took some notes, shook some hands. I've got a few more months doing this, so I figured I would pace myself.
This evening, I had a chance to catch up with one of commanders at a different location. It was pretty neat catching up with him...even weirder that all we had to do was call each other on the phone. I should probably do that a little more, as opposed to always sending messages back and forth over e-mail. That's so impersonal, especially when dealing with guys you've worked with for years. It was nice sharing stories and catching up, though...and we even got a little bit of work done in between.
Tonight, I was a little extra motivated and decided to head back to the gym after dinner to get a little workout in. Mainly, it was my way of not feeling guilty if I decide to take tomorrow off from PT. We'll see how that goes. Either way, I'm sleeping in until 0700h.
27 September 2007 2049 GMT
I woke up early today to hit the gym before it got too busy. I got some good sleep last night, too, so that was nice. Unfortunately, the two latrines right next to our barracks were completely flooded with water and we had to walk about a hundred meters or so in the other direction to brush and shave today. I know, life can't be too rough when that's the worst thing I can think of to complain about.
After dinner tonight, I decided to kick back and relax a little bit. While I was still e-mailing and doing whatever, I ended up sticking in a DVD that one of my guys left for me on my desk the other day, 28 Weeks Later. It was pretty awesome - got my heart pumping within a few minutes and I was hooked for the whole movie.
But yeah, now the movie is over and I only have so much procrastination to do before I have to go to sleep. Wake-up is early for the 0530h PT formation tomorrow. Oh yeah...almost forgot. Our section started making some resolutions over the last few days. Two that we're doing together are the PT thing (just getting in shape in general) and limiting our food intake. Seconds are no longer allowed at chow, and some of the guys will be cutting out certain foods by the end of the week. There are two others with the no smoking resolution, too. But yeah, I'm at a bit of a loss right now as to what I want to quit. I've already done quite a bit, so I can't do the chocolate, potato chips, soda, or showering again. That was last time. I guess you can kinda throw sleep into that list, too. So yeah...suggestions? I love deployment resolutions, so make this good.
25 September 2007 0600 GMT
Honestly, it was nice to be back out on the court, though it would have been nice if I'd performed better. I almost pulled my groin about a half dozen times, though, as the court is not made of concrete or asphalt or anything like that. It looks like it was made up of panels of a runway or something, a bunch of metal planks pieced together with a little bit of grip in some places and less in others. It wasn't great for lateral movements, but oh well. What can you do?
I circled back to the office after the game and returned a couple of e-mails before passing out in front of the computer. I was probably out for a few minutes before realizing it and deciding that it was bedtime after that.
It's a new day, though, and there's more work to do, so I'd better get started.
23 September 2007 2200 GMT
There isn't too much else to write about today. It's Sunday. We just did a lot of rearranging in the office today, had like three different inbrief-type meetings, and played around with some spreadsheets for a bit. I kinda get the feeling that I have a lot more of that to look forward to in the next few months here. Oh well. Time for bed...seriously.
22 September 2007 2023 GMT
I'm updating from the laundry facility today. I finished writing my postcards and worked on a spreadsheet while I waited for my clothes to finish, but it's taking a while. So being the multi-tasker that I am, I made the logical step to share my laundry experience with all of you. The facilities here are actually much better than Camp Shelby, and it doesn't hurt that there is air conditioning here. Back in Mississippi, the open trailers just baked in the sun, and probably had a heat index of about 150 degrees with the added moisture/humidity from the dryers. Here, it's actually quite nice and peaceful. Granted, you could just throw all of your clothes in a bag for the contracted laundry people to wash and fold for you; but what's the fun in that?
Anyway, it's Saturday night over here, and that means I will have thoughts of fantasy in my head all day tomorrow while I try to concentrate on work. I already have two meetings scheduled for 0800 and 0900. They're kind of in-briefing type meetings for the rest of the guys coming down. With us getting down here a little bit ahead of the crowd, we've had a chance to get a headstart on the transition. I think that worked out really well...for us, at least. I hope we didn't neglect our companies too much during these last few days, but I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Other than that, I put together a little battle rhythm for our section today. That's a fancy name for our daily/weekly routine that we'll follow, to include operating hours as well as a listing of all of the reports due to us from the units and due to our higher headquarters from us. It's a bit of a chore to get so organized so early and put all of that together, but it is also very comforting to have all of your daily tasks laid out there when you know you have the time and the manpower to get everything done. Plus, it doesn't hurt that I've been on a roll with the spreadsheets as of late. But yeah, looking at our battle rhythm, this doesn't seem like it'll be as grueling of a deployment as the last...not to say that it'll be easy, but I think we'll survive.
Anyway, laundry is up now and it's time to maybe hit the gym again before heading to bed. Good night.
21 September 2007 1900 GMT
Some good news to share today. First, I cut my hair this morning after PT. That was a long time coming. The last time I'd done it was the day before I came home from leave, so that was maybe 09SEP07. That was almost two weeks ago. Anyway, I actually ended up having to borrow SSG Good's clippers because mine were going crazy with the 220V power, even after plugging it into the converter. Oh well. It feels good - that's all.
Some other good news includes the fact that I have my unclassified internet account open now, and that means I don't have to wait in line any more to post. Not that it makes too much of a difference, but that saves me a little more time. Oh...yeah, I can do work too.
I actually feel like things are starting to get productive again - not just because of the internet access, but because we've had some time to adjust. One interesting distraction, however (for me, at least), has been bathroom breaks. I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but I've had to #1 maybe five or six times already today. I don't think I've been drinking that much more water than usual, but it's hard to say when you can pick up a free bottle whenever you want. Hmm...yeah, good to know, right? Anyway, I think I'm going to close up shop early today and head to the gym. There's a possibility that I might take advantage of bingo night tonight (followed by karaoke), but I don't think the camp is ready for me yet. MTF.
20 September 2007 2003 GMT
Lunch was a little better. I think it was roasted turkey with stuffing, along with some mixed vegetables. Then dinner was lasagna (I can never say no to that), more mixed vegetables, and an egg roll. Of course, there was this beautiful, shiny, chocolate/raspberry truffle cake that was just sitting there for the taking. I took a pretty big slice to cap off my daily intake, which totaled somewhere around 3500 Calories today. My only consolation is the fact that I ran almost 3 miles with my guys this morning and I lifted weights the night before...plus, I've weaned myself off of the sweet tea, and I've gone back to water. That's one of the things I'd missed about being deployed overseas - free bottled water.
Oh yeah...I guess I can talk about work. I did a little bit of that today. After spending about four hours on the spreadsheet yesterday and another two hours or so today, I think I finally got it to work right. It's tough when you're working off of someone else's code, but it was relatively well commented, and I learned a lot about excel/VB just by going through this guy's code. I'm kinda proud of myself, too, considering that the closest thing I've ever had to a visual basic class was an evening or so of watching over the gf's shoulder while she was doing her homework for class last fall. I'm pretty impressed with myself, but I guess I owe a lot to Mr. Steuben and Karel the Robot. Other than that, I spent some time working on a spreadsheet to depict a personnel analysis for another commander, and then we went through a checklist of all of the different tasks that our predecessors need to hand off to us for the transition. Most of it is stuff we've already done in one form or another, so it was pretty straight-forward. We talked over the checklist as a section after dinner tonight and divvied up the tasks. I'm pretty happy with the end result and look forward to going through all of the pieces in the next few days. With some luck, we'll be up and running a few days early and we can let these other guys relax a little bit during their last few days deployed. The transition is going really well so far, and it definitely doesn't hurt that the unit we're replacing is pretty squared away and created all of these products for us to use/steal.
Enough chat though. It's nearing bedtime and I have the same 0600 appointment with my section tomorrow morning. Until then...
19 September 2007 2103 GMT
Other than that, I just worked a few memos and a couple of spreadsheets for the boss, sat through (and maybe fell asleep during) a meeting for the camp tenants, and just exchanged a lot of ideas and techniques with my counterpart. I also picked up on a couple of things I slacked on back and Shelby and did what I needed in order to set up my accounts here. After dinner chow, I even took a little field trip with my section to pick up a few things at the PX, since I'd been taking a few breaks here and there to add to my shopping list. In the end, I just picked up a power converter to go from 220V and a package of clothes hangers. I'd toyed with buying an alarm clock while I was in the store, but none of them were pretty enough - plus I wanted to see how long I could last without one. Infortunately, it's too late for me to play with any of my new toys now, as lights out is at 2200 local time or 2000 zulu.
Then lastly, I finally pulled myself together to go to the gym for the first time in maybe half a year. I had to dial down on a lot of the weights, but it was a good feeling to be back there. I actually have a date with my section in about seven hours from now, but I'm sure I can find a few more muscle groups to struggle with when the time comes. Until then, it's bedtime.
19 September 2007 0405 GMT
This morning, I actually got up kinda early (0300 local time) and took a shower before trying out a handful of the other facilities. Of course, I had check out the MWR for the internet access. I didn't really do all that much - just scouted it out to see if I could check my fantasy stuff (I made Thuy a trade offer, too) and to see if I could use my thumb drive to upload updates to the page. Everything looks good so far. I tested out the phone systems, too, and called the gf at about 10:30 PM Eastern time.
Other than that, things seem like they're going well. I think I've taken enough of a break though. I have to admit, I took a lot of the last 72 hours for myself, taking naps, watching football, and eating non-stop, meal after meal. But now that the dust is settling, it'll be time to start figuring out my job again and setting up shop. I think it'll be fine. It'll just be hard to get started again after slacking off so much these last few days. It's nice to be back though. MTF
17 September 2007 1640 GMT
I'm not complaining though. The living conditions are still better than the last time I was out this way. The A/C makes a big difference, especially when it's still getting close to 120 degrees in the mid-afternoon sun.
The lack of internet has been my main issue, which I've been dealing with poorly in between naps as I try to get used to the time change. We're about seven hours ahead of the east coast right now, btw. But yeah, after my first nap after breakfast, I walked the half mile or so over to the MWR trailer where they had the internet set up. It was about a twenty minute wait to get on, and I noticed a very interesting sign on the wall while I waited. It said, "The network monitors your activities on the WWW. Never visit porn or political sites from work." That seemed interesting to me, grouping porn and political sites together like that. I just used my time to catch up on some e-mail, upload my last post, and check the scores of Sunday's games. Unfortunately, all of the fantasy football sites are blocked; so either a) I need to find another way to get to the internet, or b) I need to get out of here before next Sunday. I'll tell you how that turns out.
Oh well...things are actually going really well so far and morale is pretty high. I've got another meeting in about 20 minutes, and I'll probably grab chow and get back online after that. And then it'll be some more time searching for an internet connection. In the meantime...
Oh, last thing. The highlight of my day was at breakfast (NOTE: This last part is rated PG for those of you under the age of 17) when I noticed two soldiers sitting at the table across from me, a Specialist Dick and a Sergeant Wood. Just as I noticed, Sergeant Major Balz walked up behind them and I told him to stop for a second. It was priceless. That's all I've got.
16 September 2007 2215 GMT
It started off with loading out all of our gear and then grabbing a bus from Camp Shelby to the airport. From there, we stuck around an airport hanger for the four or five hours before the flight...which I spent playing a game of hearts, for the most part...a really long, relaxing game of hearts. I hadn't played in a really long time - probably not since I was hanging out with Thuy and his GMU friends a few weeks before I left for Afghanistan a few years ago. Anyway, with about half an hour before our flight out, I made one last phone call to the gf to say good-bye. It wasn't as sad as I thought it would be...which is good. The bad thing about the whole military deployment thing is all of the good-byes.
Anyway, from there, we flew out to Maine, where they had a bunch of people hanging out to greet us when we rolled in just after midnight. They posted a bunch of pictures here so that our families could see us during our last moments stateside. That was kinda nice of them. Apparently, they've been doing this for a long time, and some of the guys even remembered stopping there during our last flight overseas. But yeah, after about an hour or so there, we jumped over the pond and stopped a little longer in Shannon, Ireland, where I was finally able to spend the 10-Euro bill that's been sitting in my wallet for the last two years. I just bought a bunch of postcards (I need addresses for you guys, btw, since I've never written you at your new addresses before) and some other little trinkets, and now I have a 5-Euro bill which will probably sit in my wallet just as long as the last time.
The flight itself has been rather comfortable. I pretty much bounced back and forth between eating and napping and watching movies. I think we had three in-flight meals and a number of snacks. The movie line-up started with WildHogs and continued with a marathon of Numb3rs episodes, of which I caught two. I got a chance to watch Night at the Museum as well as the first hour+ of Casino Royale. That was the worst. We were landing with about fifteen minutes left in the movie, and now I'm going to have to catch it some other time. That happened one other time before when we were watching Swordfish on a bus ride back from Fort Pickett one weekend. I never finished that movie either.
Anyway, I'm hanging out on a bus right now waiting for our next ride. I don't have internet access, but I'm hoping to upload at our next stop. Until then...
14 September 2007 2237 EDT
There's also another impression that staff guys end up with all of the awards while the grunts do all the work and get nothing for it. I'll say that's true to an extent because staff guys know how to do paperwork and that's how awards are approved. But for a variety of reasons, I didn't end up writing any of my guys up for the work they did these last two months. It's not because they didn't work hard, though. They did their jobs and they did their jobs well. Being an infantryman myself, I know where that impression comes from and I don't like it. But at the same time, I'm a staff guy now, and I know people can work hard and excel no matter where they're assigned. It all just needs to be balanced, though, and that's all I have to say about that.
Friday night, though, and I need to finish up packing before it's too late. I think I did a decent job of throwing stuff away so that I didn't get stuck carrying too much with me, but my inner packrat played a bit of a role too. Oh well...I'll get better in time.
13 September 2007 2325 EDT
13 September 2007 2054 EDT
13 September 2007 0058 EDT
Heads up for everyone else back home...like people who like to read and stuff. GF informed me that National Book Festival is on 29 September back home. I guess she brought it up because this was supposed to be one of our first dates last year; but plans changed as we were driving around DC and couldn't find a good parking spot. I think we just ended up circling for a half hour and then decided to grab lunch somewhere before hanging out with her sister and playing scrabble and watching the first episode of heroes. *sigh* Good times. Also, for those who would rather read stuff online, Ultimate Blogger 3 has begun.
12 September 2007 0015 EDT
The BC paid me a nice little compliment and named me his "chief of staff" in the absence of the senior staff members already overseas. So among the extra responsibilities, I got to yell out, "the battalion commander" at the beginning of the meeting tonight. That was fun...as always. Other than that, I got to sit through a couple of extra meetings and I got to stay up past midnight again. I even took about an hour tonight to clean off my desk so that it'll be nice and presentable when the General comes through our area in the morning. Well, basically, I shredded some old documents and I consolidated the many piles of papers into one medium pile. I know I'm gonna have to cut that down and pack it up eventually, but I've got another day or two to wait on for that. The real tough part is going to be packing up the rest of my junk into my two duffle bags and my ruck. I think it'll all fit, but I'll actually have to pack in order to find out. I told my NCOIC to block off a time for us to do that because I knew I wouldn't be able to find time to do it myself. We'll see how that works out.
Other than that, September 11th went by rather quietly this year. We had a moment of silence at the end of our meeting today, but that was about it. That's kinda good though. I'm kinda caught between wanting to commemorate that day and wanting to keep it from being all commercial like the rest of the holidays and observances. It was good, though. Let's leave it at that.