New Blog

All right. I give in.

More than a few people have asked if I'm going to keep up with the blog. I opted to start a new one.

So, here you go. You better read it!

What Now?

I'm Home! I'm Home! I'm Home!

So... yeah, its 4 am and I can't sleep.

*sigh*

But, I'm sitting on my couch in my living room. There's about 3 inches of snow outside and I can't wait for the sun to come up so I can see the mountains! I'm just so happy to be home!

I left Kuwait on Jan 7 and landed in the US on Jan 7 - after a day and a half at Ft. Benning, I was on a nonstop flight from Atlanta to Colorado Springs! I have the best sister and the best friends EVER - waiting for me at the airport to give me a HUGE HUG.

For my Ohio friends, I plan to be in Dayton the first week of Feb... so let me know if you'll be around so we can get together.

Thanks everyone who kept up with me by reading this little blog. I had fun maintaining it and might continue blogging... I'll let you know :)

Good Bye...

I left Zaytun on Sunday morning...Saturday night my team threw me a little going away dinner - trucked in pizza from a local pizza place. It was pretty good pizza, actually. But the company was better - I already miss these guys.



Happy New Year, and I'll see you guys soon!

Christmas

We had a good Christmas here.
Good food.
Good company.

One Santa, Many Expressions

One Santa, Many Expressions, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Push his green belly button and be surprised!

Thanks P* for sending me this little guy. He's keeping me entertained!

DFAC on Christmas Eve

DFAC, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

The workers are up late setting up for tomorrow. The grills and tables aren't usually outside like this.

Fuzzy Me

Fuzzy Me, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

What I did on Christmas Eve.

After telling Carol I didn't have anything to do, she suggested taking self-portraits.

{I couldn't get myself in focus.}

Look at what my troop is doing...

I am leaving this camp in 7 days (or so) and I'm leaving this country shortly thereafter.

But one of my soldiers started blogging about this place too!

And if you want to continue to send him packages of the sort you've sent me this year, let me know and I'll send the address (our zip code changed).


The Last Hooah.

For your 'greasy hair'

For your 'greasy hair', originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Packaging says:

Purifying
Greasy Hair

{i giggled like i was in junior high}

Roasting Marshmallows

Roasting Marshmallows, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Periodically we have a bonfire, I mean, burn our classified material.

One guy had marshmallows.

We improvised with some commo wire and skewers!

Them: Selling Stuff

Selling Stuff, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Been while since I posted, and this photo was taken a few weeks ago. I went to the Irbil City Center to do some shopping. These guys are located just outside the Citadel, reportedly the oldest inhabited man-made structure in the world.

"Open on December 5th"

was written on today's envelope.
{I have twenty more envelopes with similar writing!}
and inside were these two little guys.

B* sent me a tabletop Christmas Tree, so up they went!



Lila and Sue are sisters, living in Pennsylvania. I've never, ever met them, yet they have regularly sent me letters and packages and cards all year. The story is that they ran into my friend N* at the post office, got to talking and somehow my name and address was passed to one sister, who then passed it to the other sister.

Anyway, this last mail push, I had a big box from Pennsylvania, and in this big box were 25 envelopes - a little present for each day until Christmas.

I teared up when I realized what it was - the generosity of strangers completely humbles me. I mean, these two women take such time and care to put together something like this for someone they've never met. I know they have more Soldiers on their mailing lists too.

Thank you Lila and Sue!

Live Entertainment

Tonight the band assigned to CENTAF (Air Force component of Central Command) goes around to different camps, FOBs and bases within the area of operations. I missed their initial performance by mere minutes - they were packing up as I arrived the other night.

Circumstances at their next scheduled location forced them to stick around for a couple more days. We were not complaining - its so nice to have different people around. I suspect people get tired of talking about the same things, with the same people.

Anyway, the band agreed to put on another show for us - and we all had such a good time.

Break

This was this afternoon. My two commo guys.

Happy Birthday 3ID

poster taken from their website: here.

I was able to see their reenlistment ceremony. All those chairs were filled with Soldiers who volunteered, continuing to serve.

It was pretty cool and I realized that this is what I will miss about the Army. I was ... well, emotional in a mixed up kind of way. I will really miss this sort of thing, the ceremony and the significance of being in uniform. I mean, I didn't feel enough to change my mind, but I will miss this... noone but us really gets it.

A bit harsh...

my last post.

Certainly, I was miserable, but there were many, many good things about my trip and my return. I made a list of happy things.

*people going out of their way to help me (SGT H @ Finance, 1LT L and SFC P with the signal platoon)
*chat w/ T - reminding me of something called 'grace'
*emails from people who love me (P, M) that are under no obligation to love me
*getting on that flight back to camp
*having people happy to see me when I got off the helo
*hot water for my shower
*a heater that works!
*my bed

I also got mail from cousin (yummy cookies - thanks ria+3!), sister (good coffee and love the Onion you included), Blue Star Mothers, boy, 2 T letters, Amazon.com (Heroes Season 1, The Best American Nonrequired Reading of 2007 (love this series), and Ryan Adams & The Cardinals Follow the Lights) (love this guy)...

Made it!

Honestly, this was the worst trip.
Ever.
Beats any other time I've ever been stuck
in an airport
or in a car
or in a blizzard in the middle of nowhere Kansas ***at least when we were stuck in Kansas, we had a bar to dilute our misery***

I'm finally back in my little 10x10 (or whatever the dimensions) room.

It was
cold
cold
cold
in Mosul and the room I had was without a heater. The next day I switched rooms to one with a heater, only to have that heater crap out somewhere between indirect fire attack 3 or indirect fire attack 4. My awesome Army sleeping bag really is awesome - I was toasty inside, but the chill outside made for a rough wake up. Really, I've slept in colder environments (uh, south of the Imjin River in Korea ... in JANUARY!), but I just was not in the mood for it. Especially after a 14 hour wait for the C-17 in Baghdad, only to go south to Kuwait to catch a C-130 headed north to Mosul.

And I was extra miserable because it was THANKSGIVING and I was with no family to speak of - not my parents or sister, my roommates or friends, or my Zaytun family either.

I'm looking for a little love...at least a little sympathy!

[Feel sorry for me! Feel sorry for me!]

Holiday Weekend

Happy (Late) Thanksgiving!

Not much going on here with me. I spent a week in Baghdad for some administrative stuff and now I'm in Mosul trying to take care of some contracting/money stuff. I've been living out of one bag for over a week now, and I'm ready to get back to my little 10x10 room in Irbil!

I was able to have Thanksgiving dinner with some friends I met back in January. We ate around 8pm at the big, big DFAC on Victory Base.

Here in Mosul, places are already decorated for Christmas. I think they're trying to make us feel better, but really, I think it just makes me feel even more isolated and lonely. I'll be home soon (52 days soon!) so I'm trying not to think about Holidays.

I've got 2 maybe maybe 3 more mail pushes, so please don't send anything more my way. I have enough things and whatnots to keep me stocked until I leave and leave behind for the rest of the group. I have enjoyed everyone's letters and packages this past year.

That's it for now!

Ludicrously Tasty

The Box says, "CRUNCHY NUT! ... its ludicrously tasty!" (this pic was just sent to me, we discovered notquiteright marketing months ago...)

{Not as funny as Liz's gem "The Cleaning Power of Barf"

CLS

I know these are bit late.. apologies. I've got some free time and my internet connection is cooperating!

The students stick each other with IVs the last day of the combat lifesaver course (CLS). This guy's buddy needed some more practice...