New House

Today I had to move from the room I was in to a room closer to where I work. Much closer. It is nice being so close. Maybe my blissters will go away now that I'm not having to walk so much. Anyway getting the room was fun. I was told yesturday at work to go sign for a key from Billiting today before work. So after work last night I packed all my stuff up. Then this morning after instant messaging Jane I took my shower and finished packing the rest of my stuff. I hurried off to the billiting place and signed for my key. After a quick inspecition of my room I was going to run to chow, borrow a truck from the officers at work and move all my stuff. When I poked inside the room was missing one bed and the other was filled with a sleeping guy. So I went back to billiting and told them. The next two hours were fun. I ended up watching the guy move all his stuff over to his half of the room while a bunch of civilian contractors moved a bed in for me. I felt kinda bad for the guy to tell you the truth. But I don't have a choice. If I did I would have stayed back at the other room where I had it all to myself. Atleast he works the night shift from 2000 hrs. to 0800. That is when I spend the most time awake. After getting my bed I went to chow and got the truck. I moved all my stuff into the room but didn't want to unpack as my roommate had gone back to sleep. With nothing better to do I went to work an hour early and worked on my homework. This was a great day at work. I spend most the time working on homework and some time reading. I did do a little though. I had to pick up a bunch of people that flow in on helicoppters and take them to a place to stay for the next couple of days and I answered the phone a couple of times. It was a hard day at work. And diffenently a job they just had to have me for because I was so critical and was the only one that could fill it so they stop lossed me. Oh well its a for sure pay check for the next year.

Sunday

So I have now been here for a couple of days. My schedual has been established. I wake up around 1000 in the morning which is nice because I feel like I have slept in. I shower and shave and then hang in my room working on homework or anything else until about noon. Then I had to breakfast. After breakfast I will hang again. Lately I have been spending my hanging time either fitting in homework or walking to the PX and back getting the few things I need. I have also picked up about five blisters on each foot from my new boots not completely broken in yet. I then have to be to work at 1600. I spend my time in the Division Headquarters answering phones and taking messages. I'm sure later it will entell other jobs but that is the main thing I am doing now. Which translates into working on my homework/finishing my homework or reading a book. I mostely read. I think I read something like two hundred pages at work today. I go to dinner sometime between 1800 and 2000 hours. At 2000 hrs the person pulling shift with me changes out from a captin to a master sergeant. I like the captin just a little better than the master sergeant. I then finish the last four hours, getting off at midnight. I then go to the chow hall again and grab something for dinner. After that I call Ash for about an hour and talk. This is my highlight of the day!!! at about 0100 I go back to my room and try not to fall asleep before 0300. It is really hard but I need to stay up late so I can get plenty of rest before my shift and not wake up so early that i will be tired during my shift. I go to sleep at three and set my alarm for 0500 so I can instant message my wife and video chat. This is the second best highlight of the day. then I go to sleep after and hour talking to her again. and thats my schedual. It is rather nice.

I'm Back!!

Well it has been a couple of days since I last wrote. I'm sorry about that but when I got to Iraq I lost service on the BlackBerry, which sucks. So I will be sending it home to Jane so it can be put to some good use.

I spent about three days in a cold tent and not sleeping good because of the gay cots so I caught a cold. But I'm just about over it. I have now moved into a nice warm, more permanet housing unit. let me discribe it for you. It is about the size of a large walk-in closet, 20 foot square. It has a door in the center of the front wall and a block out window in the back. Its block out in case of indirect fire they don't want glass shattering and neither do I. The walls are covered with a fake 70s style wood covering like on cheap furniture. I have a singel size bed that some how has colleted two matteresses over the years. A wall locker about the size of a coat closet and a small two drawer night stand which is my desk as of the moment. I have white lanolium flooring. and thats about it. Of course it is made for two people so there are two of each but i lucked out and have the room to myself. We will see if it stays the same.

So anyway, this morning I got picked up from my tent and driven to where I'm living. They told me to hurry and throw my bags in and they would bring me back later. Well, I didn't look at the room number and they didn't bring me back later either. So later when I was able to go back to my room I walked for over an hour, back and forth trying to remember which one out of the hundreds it was. But to on avil I succumbed to defeat and walked back to where i work. The guy there then asked someone else that is my neighbor which room it was. I was like 50 or so rooms off. It sucks. So after walking all afternoon I finally made it to my room with five blisters and tired eyes. Goodnight!

Moving to Iraq

Well as you guessed it from the title I have moved into Iraq. It is a long process. We loaded buses at 2100 and drove to an Air Force base an hour from us. Then we hung out in a cold tent, freezing, for about two more hours. At midnight we all got together in a formation so the guys running the show could count us. After words I had to go palletize all the bags. About twenty of us moved bags from the back of a truck and throw them on metal pallets. About a hundred and fifty bags. The part is that I got warm lifting big heavy army bags. Then we senched them down with cargo nets. After that it was back to the cold tent to wait so more. Hurry up and wait is the army's unoffical slogan! We loaded the plane around 0130. So far I hadn't had any sleep but I thought I would be able to sleep on the plane. They sure like to crame soldiers in. We had on all our body army because we were flying into a combat zone and that stuff doesn't make you very skinny. Plus with carry on bags it was a horrible flight. I did manage to sleep a little but it was such wonderful sleep it probably translated into about five minutes of real sleep! The best part was a awoke with a sore thoat and a runny nose from the freezing and lack of sleep. After deboarding our luxury class airliner we moved into another tent at around 0300. It already had people in it so the more we brought in just made the party better. At lease this tent had a heater running. Being cramed into a loud tent like that was condusive of a sleeping enviroment so I sat on the floor waiting. Finally after moving lots of bags and shuffeling around we loaded busses for holding tents with cots and we were able to spread out. This was around 0600. After a much needed shower and a nice hot meal I was able to get some sleep, two wonderful hours.