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.

Happy birthday

So today is my birthday! I am now the big 25. I can't believe it. I always have the problem of thinking I'm the same age as Jane and she just turned 23 so when I think I'm 25 it sound too old. This morning was nice. I woke up around 0500 can was able to lay in bed and text Jane. It was so nice to do that! We talked for a couple of hours! If I'm not able to be at home for my birthday at least I was able to start the day off right, by talking to the best woman on earth! Then I got to take a hot shower! Yesturday I woke up at 0430 and went to the shower thinking it would be empty. Well a group of about five guys walked out just as I walked in. So I had the shower house to myself but they had used all the hot water. My shower was freezing cold. So today I go to the shower just after 0700 and the shower was perfect! So I don't get it, maybe it was just a Sunday thing. We will see what happens tomorrow. Today was another chill day. We don't have any training scheduled until tomorrow morning. So I don't think I have descriped the chow hall yet. It is really nice. We walk in and the first thing we have to do is get our ID cards scanned so a computer can keep a head count. Then you walk into a room filled with some twenty or more individual sinks with hot running water and large mirrors to wash our hands. Then we walk into a caffiteria nicer than any school caffiteria I have ever been it. After walking though the serving line is a fountain taller than myself with running water and lights. Then there is a self serve line. So they serve pretty much school food in the main line but the self serve has fruit and salad bar. Both a pespi and coke dispencer, juice dispenser, milk and coolers with juice boxes and milk cartons. There is a three different capacino machines, several regular coffee makers donuts, pop tarts and more. Then there is a sandwich bar where a guy will make a sandwich for you, and a chillie, potato and nacho bar. Then in the back they have a dessert bar with several different types of cookies, pies and cheesecake plus a basken robbins icecream. Its a feast at every meal. Then there are several large flat wcreen tvs set to CNN and ESPN. This is like the nicer chow hall I have ever seen. Plus army cooks don't even run it. It is all contracted out to civilians. It is so nice. So what is the point of all this, as I was exiting the chow hall some privates were saying how crapy the chow hall was! Well the other staff sergeant I after we walked out were saying how bad we wanted to turn around and effectively remind these new soldiers what life was like a couple of years ago with no chow hall and eating meals-ready-to-eat or MREs and maybe getting a hot meal trucked in from kuwait city two hours out to the base for a luke warm dinner. Boy we both wanted to rip into that joker! We really should of. We just have gotten to nice as we get older.

Day 5

Today we had to wake up early for a formation at 0530 to say we haven't lost our weapons because apparently someone lost their night vission goggles. Its a common accorance. Then after that formation we had another at 0700 so the battalion commander and command sergeant major could welcome us to kuwait and say that next time we will have a full battalion formation will be in some 360 days. Thanks for the reminder. Like anyone had forgotten. Anyway after that we then went to a class about rules of engagment to tell us that we can and can't do when indiffernt situations. Basicly if you feel threaten you can shot back. Then we covered everything we are not allowed to have. Alcohol, canned air, and pornography are the big ones. We are not allowed to drink. A couple of years ago some died from huffing canned air and porn is against iraqi laws though everyone breaks that one. Telling soldiers they can't have porn is like telling some of them they can't breath. It is a very common thing in the army. After that I worked on my book some and hung out. One of the guys I work with just had a baby and the chain of command is mad at his old first sergeant because he made the soldier deployed and now they have to waste money to send him right back after only five days. He is not the only one. I know of two other guys from my old battalion in the same boat. They made them deploy dispite a memo that was put out to keep everyone with due dates before febuary back in the states. I'm sure that is going to create a stir as well.

Day 5

Today we had to wake up early for a formation at 0530 to say we haven't lost our weapons because apparently someone lost their night vission goggles. Its a common accorance. Then after that formation we had another at 0700 so the battalion commander and command sergeant major could welcome us to kuwait and say that next time we will have a full battalion formation will be in some 360 days. Thanks for the reminder. Like anyone had forgotten. Anyway after that we then went to a class about rules of engagment to tell us that we can and can't do when indiffernt situations. Basicly if you feel threaten you can shot back. Then we covered everything we are not allowed to have. Alcohol, canned air, and pornography are the big ones. We are not allowed to drink. A couple of years ago some died from huffing canned air and porn is against iraqi laws though everyone breaks that one. Telling soldiers they can't have porn is like telling some of them they can't breath. It is a very common thing in the army. After that I worked on my book some and hung out. One of the guys I work with just had a baby and the chain of command is mad at his old first sergeant because he made the soldier deployed and now they have to waste money to send him right back after only five days. He is not the only one. I know of two other guys from my old battalion in the same boat. They made them deploy dispite a memo that was put out to keep everyone with due dates before febuary back in the states. I'm sure that is going to create a stir as well.

Day 4

Well the days arer slowly ticking away which is nice. Okay they are really going by slowly. It will be nice when I get to iraq and start working on my job. Eight to 12 hour shifts will make time go by faster. Today I woke up at 0400 party because I was going to the range but mostly because I went to bed at 1900 last night. going to bed so early was really needed. I was out like a rock. Just after I had fallen asleep the guy next to me woke me up to tell me formation wasn't until 0600 when it had been planned for 0500. I didn't remember any of the conversation and after waking up in the morning I had to lay there a couple of minutes deciding if it was a dream or if it jad really happened. My decision was made for me though when another guy woke up and asked if I would go to breakfast with him, I consented. After breakfast we grabbed our gear to go to the range. We went out side for formation at six and waited. And waited some more, then for the hell of it we waited a little longer. At about 0800 I was standing there debating if I could seek away. I was the only guy out there from my section and no one was really accounting for me. So I picked up my gear and walked back into the tent! It was a smart desission! The other three guys I worked with said they felt bad that they all got out of it and was going to be out there all by myself. So instead of going out to stand in a wind/sand storm shoot maybe nine rounds to sight-in a weapon I will never use and getting sweaty and being messerible I got to lay on my cot and read. So I finished my book today! I know I'm a geek but I like the Star Wars books. Anyway I also got to go for hot lunch instead of an MRE. And that was pretty much my day. I is always nice to get out of sweaty crap but working in an office for eight hours will be nice to pass the time. It is funny how much I've changed since I got married. I use to be all for that stuff, now I'm for anything that will make my life better or easiler.

Day 3

Agin I didn't sleep very good last night. I woke up at 05 again chilly and wondering about Jane. Luckily she was logged into yahoo messenger and we talked for a while. She is having a hard time. Well, who wouldn't knowing your spouse is going to be gone for a year! Plus we splurged a littel because I was leaving and now we are broke with pay day not for a week. Life is hard, when it rains it pours! So I had to help her out. I called her before dinner and we came up with a plan to get us to pay day. Hopefuly it works. Other than that it has been unevenful day. I went to a rollover training simulator for about an hour. The instructors put us in a hummer that is missing everything but the cabin and is connected to something that makes it do barrel rolls. It sucked! My seatbelt didn't really work and I ended up smashing my head into the ceilling. The good thing is we did it with all our combat gear on so I was saved from a broken neck.

Day 2 in hell

Well sleeping without jane wasn't an easy task. I went to bed past midnight last night and awoke at 0500. Not able to go back to sleep I got up and took a shower before the early morning rush. We are alotted 14 gallons of water per person per day. You say that's a lot but the problem comes from the water being distriputed thoughout several different shower trailors. Then when several tent each holding at least 70 people wake up at the same time all wanting to shower and shave, let's just say that the water heater can't keep up with the demand. So to take a shower early was nice and warm. Of course I'm the jerk that used up all the hot water! I liked it. So to discribe the shower its a white metal trailor about 20 yards long with 12 showers, a water heater and four sinks for shaving all cramed inside. Even when you are the only one inside there is only standing room. But after a 14 hour flight and a whole day in this dust hole a shower was needed. After the shower I went back to my bed that is in a big white tent with a metal frame. The floor is made up of 2x4s and plywood nailed togther to make a six inch platform. The shelter has wooden doors and is about 50 yards long by 20 yards wide filled with three rows of cots. An army cot is thick green nylon sown around an alunminan frame and sits about two feet off the ground. It gets cold with all the air unden neath. And it drops to about 40 degees at night. It gets cold. With body heat keeping from complete misery it is still hard to get a good nights sleep. I think I will cuddle with my duffel bag tonight, mainly cause I'm missing Jane. After the shower this morning worked on some homework until some of the other guys woke up. We have to go everywhere with a buddy "battel buddy" who is suppose to watch your back. So after a couple other guys woke and got dressed we walked to chow. About 3/4th a mile to the chow hall. They were serving the same breakfast that I have had everyday since joining the army, omlet, bacon, potatos, and cereal. Nothing changes. After that we walked the 3/4th mile back to the tent and chilled. I hadn't heard from Jane for a while so I was starting to get worried as she should have gone to bed. I have been blessed with a blackberry and an international data plan allowing me to one post this blog and two hear from Jane regularly. Not hearing from her was upsetting. I then remembered to check my email. Turns out that she is in ohio and doesn't have signal on her verizon phone. Go figure, I get great signal in kuwait but she doesn't get signal in ohio, that's some bull! But the real problem isw after going to dinner and the phones I still wasn't able to get though to her. When I called her from the phone cafe all I got was one ring and the voice mail meaning her phone is still off. That is really making me sad, to go so long and not hear from her. I really need a hug, iguess I will have to settel for that duffel bag idea.

Day 1 or 791

So this is the end of my first day deployed on my third year! Isn't it so exciting! NOT! Anyway I'm posting from a blackberry so it will have to be short. Today started sunday night when I sat in a small leather seat in the back of an omni air international dc-10 airplane with one guy on either side of me. We were packed like sardeans! Luckily we stopped in maine so I bought a travel pillow and some night quill. Fourteen long misserible hours later I landed in kuwait. Only three more times! I fly to go on leave then back and finally home again and glorius seperation from active military service. Anyway I went to a "welcome to kuwait" breif where they checked us in so we can start getting all the wonderful extra pays. Then we got the rest of the day to climatize (chill), I went to lunch, askedb for two enchiladas but the jerk would only give me one "only one sir" he said in a hinduish accent but on the good side I got two scopes of chocolate basken robbins icecream! After lunch I spent the day working on my final paper for a college class. Dinner was discussting! Some sort of gross pasta mixed with bad tuna and old cream od mushroom soup! At least I was able to call Jane, but it turns out that this blackberry get a better connection than the at-n-t phone both. The only problem is I can get unlimited international internet but phone calls are two bucks a minute so I was stuck using a crapy land line go figure wireless has surpassed landlines in every way now. Hearing her voice was good for my heart though. She is driving back to idaho with her dad so they decided to take a short break and see DC. They were having fun! After the call I watched a movie and now I'm blogging. That is day one in a nutshell. Goodnight and hope you all don't have to slep on a hard uncomfortable green nylon cot like I do.

Logged for another day

Today has been such a great day!! It was Jane’s birthday! She is now 23. We celebrated first thing this morning by me giving her a Disney Princess ribbon that said Birthday Princess. She was suppose to wear it all day. She didn’t want to so we compromised and she wore it for the presents and cake. I was lucky and only had to work until 1400 which I will talk about after this. I ran home and snuck her presents inside the apartment. I made her favorite cake, german chocolate. We then went to Olive Garden for some very tasty Italian food. It was so good! We filled up so much on dinner that when we had cake and opened the presents we were both to full to eat cake, go figure. So, after dinner we lit the candles, which were suppose to sparkle but they were just like any other candle is a little spark here and there. I thought I had got sparklers like on Independence Day. They were so difficult to blow out. Jane had to blow one candle four separate times before it finally didn’t relight its self again. It was humorous. But don’t tell her I thought so. (She will problaby read this and I will be in the dog house anyway, oh well.) I got her a card, the new Taylor Swift CD and Narnia the Lion, witch and the wardrobe. Now she is listening to Taylor Swift because she is so excited about it. I also promised to take her to the opening of Twilight on Friday. She says that sometimes I’m like a little boy, well sometimes she is like a little girl and it is so cute.

Today at work I discovered that the first flight is defiantly flying to Kuwait tonight. I’m so glad I’m not on that flight. I was suppose to be. But I got bumped to a later flight. It would have sucked flying on Jane’s birthday. I spent the day weighting Tuff Boxes full of equipment that the companies are going to put in the belly of the plane. It was so cold today though. I was freezing. Then about a half hour before we were done clouds roll in and it starts to snow. It is so crazy to see snow in North Carolina. It didn’t stick at all but it was coming down. It was really cold! But as soon as we were done I jumped in my Ford Escape, blasted the heat and tried to warm up my hands. It felt good.

Joural Entry # 4

Well, it’s been a couple of days since I last talked to world about my life. Okay its been a week. I’m sorry, I get distracted. I’ve been working on my book. I hope it gets published. Last Tuesday we rented Star Wars Clone Wars. It was so good. Now I’m addicted to the series on Cartoon Network. I can’t stand the commercials on Cartoon Network so I watch the show at the web site, fewer commercials. The cool thing is Jane like the movie as well. She has never seen the Star Wars movies all the way though and doesn’t completely understand the story so we have question and answer period before and after the movie. I don’t mind. If I can get her to like the story, some day I will get to live my life long dream: watch all six movies in a row none stop!!!!! Jane will have to be really into it for that as well because we do everything together!!! I can’t wait for the live action series to come out in 2010. It will be awesome.

I spent the rest of the week going to work, doing nothing at work and disappearing from work around 1400 on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday we had an enlisted battalion run. This meant that somewhere around 300 people got in a group and ran in formation. The bad part was it rained and it was cold. So we are all soaked. Then the Sergeant Major that is leading the run wants to take a dirt road. So, we end up running though puddles that are at least a foot deep. My socks go from white to dirty to brown forever to chew toy for the puppy. The entire run I’m thinking how bad this sucks and I wish I was a civilian and still in my bed sleeping like I should be. Hence, after the run I’m grumpy and go home to shower and I don’t go back to work the rest of the day. Ya, I played hooky from the army. I know that is so bad! But with my new job no one really keeps track of me and the run went over the time it was suppose to so by the time I got home and showered I was already late for the only meeting I was kind a suppose to go to and my philosophy is that it is better to not show up if your going to be late, everyone sees you come in late but if you don’t show up, out of sight, out of mind!

This weekend Jane and I just hung out, sleeping in and working on blogging and writing. Today Golden Coral celebrated Veterans Day, a week late but I still got in for free and we got a great dinner for 10 bucks only having to pay for my super sweet wife! Rock On!!!!

Life Log for today

Today has been fun. I spent all morning reading homework and cleaning the apartment. Okay so I didn’t wake up until 1030. Sleeping in is so good. I guess that means I spent the afternoon reading homework and cleaning the apartment. It was fun. Poor Jane is just feeling sick. So I cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom and folded the monstrous pile of laundry left over from washing closes last weekend. Jane came in and sat with me while I folded closes and we talked about controversial religious doctrine she had read on a blog called Ask Anything and had me help her find answers to some religious questions out there. Some lady had said that you should never question the leaders of our church because they are inspired and would never lead our church astray. So while we were there Jane found a quote by one of the earlier leaders of your church, in fact he was our second prophet. He said that members shouldn’t blindly follow their leaders, but should ask and pray for themselves to get personal revelation. After discussion the finer points of our religion we came to the conclusion that there are some really closed-minded and extreme in the box thinkers plaguing our church. The problem is they are the majority and they try to smash anyone that thinks outside the box down until nothing is left but a little pile of dust. Oh well, “From dust we were created, and unto dust we shall return” or something like that.

Anyway after cleaning we played with the supper hyper, energetic puppy. She is like the energizer bunny she keeps going and going and going and etc. you get the point. At least until we put her in her crate and she is forced to crash. Blissful quite time!

When then when and rented two more movies, Kong Fu Panda and some other girly movie that I’m going to be forced to watch tomorrow. (Don’t tell my wife but I enjoy those girly flixs, they just don’t go well the male ego). I really wanted to get Star Wars Clone Wars but they wouldn’t allow me to rent it until tomorrow because that is when it comes out. But Panda comes out tomorrow too? And I rented that, what the Hades!!? I think they are just prejudice against Star Wars fans. Panda was really funny though, so I’m glad we got it.

Dear Journal / Dear World

Another day is done. One more day closer to whatever it is you are looking forward to.

We have this puppy, a female golden Lab named June. We have had her for two weeks. She really enjoys crate training. It must be so fun to sit in a small crate all day. Okay so we have felt really bad about this but she just keeps thinking the carpet is grass. Not a good mix. Well, after a full week of crate training we decieded that we would try to let her out today. All day she did so good. We were so proud of her. She even when up to the door to whine when she needed to go. It was such a good feeling. Just before cooking dinner we took her out for a potty break. Then after dinner, out of no where she forgot all her training. Oh brother! During this wonderful venture I am calling my mother for our weekly Sunday evening talk, and we are on speaker phone, so Jane is trying to disapline the puppy and clean up the mess. Our poor puppy has a very soft spirit. A snap of the fingers and she thinks it’s the end of the world. So the puppy tucks tail and runs back into her crate. Then Jane tries to clean up the mess. Remember how yesterday I said that Jane wasn’t feeling good. Well, she made it though, but we almost ended up with a second mess on the full.

So that is the drama of today.

This morning we both sleep in way to late, because we stayed up way to late last night working on our blogs. So when I got up I started working on homework, writing the essay I just published for my online college class. Well all of this builds up to the climax of… we were not paying attention to the time and missed church. Oops. Now most people would be like that is so bad right? Well the problem with us, we are usually late and there isn’t any sitting available. So we only stay for the opening then leave. So missing entirely isn’t much of a bigger sin than we already are committing. I know, we are so bad, we really need to be going to church more. I mean how can you profess to believe something and not live it. Well there is the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. I totally believe in living the spirit of the law. Plus, our church has a be problem with accepting anyone different. Like Democrats. When 90 percent of your church is Republican, anyone that thinks different is an outsider. It is a really good thing we have such a strong belief in God.

So instead of going to church we spent the day, cuddled up on the couch watching several different movies playing on TBS and a puppy sleeping puppy at our feet. At least until dinner and she decided to end the fun filled night by leaving her last drink on the carpet.

In the wonderful phone conversation with my mother, we talked about the situation I’m currently in with the army. I was originally suppose to separate from the military in September 2008. Due to the upcoming deployment to Iraq I was involuntarily stopped from leaving, known as Stop-Loss. Well the military can only stop loss a soldier from exiting the military 90 days from the time they are suppose to step boots on dessert soil. I was suppose to deploy last Thursday. That changed, now I’m being told that I’m to deploy in a little over a week. But, that is only tentative. We are still waiting on order from the Department of the Army. Which doesn’t make me since, how can I be stop lossed if there aren’t any orders? Any answers? Your ideas are as good as mine. Plus, Iraq is saying that America has to be out of Iraq by the end of the year if we don’t agree to allow Iraq to try our soldiers for murder. This can not happen. If we agree to this, any time someone is killed in Iraq by an American Soldier will get arrested by the Iraqi Police. Right, like that will happen, I wouldn’t allow Iraqi Police to arrest one my soldiers, there will be fights between Iraqi Police and American Soldiers. Iraq knows this and we know this. Iraq is trying to kick us out because they don’t want us there anymore. I think that Department of the Army is waiting to see what will happen before they waste money to send up to Kuwait just to being us home again. Which is good for me, come December and I’m still here, I get to separate and return home. I pray that is going to happen. Two years over there is two to many!!!

Learning Spanish as a Second Language/Essay for School

Most people have some sort of skill. There are butchers, bakers, and candle stick makers. We have engineers, bankers, designers, accountants, builders and so on. If you can think of it there is a skill for it and money can be made doing it. People make money designing blogs for the growing blogging community, never having to leave their homes. Some skills come naturally, some with little practice and some take a life time to learn. Today we live in a predominantly white country but this could change. Hispanics make up the largest minority group in the United States and, they continue to grow. Many of these people come to America, not able to speak English. People need to learn to speak Spanish as a second language. Many people have jumped on this band wagon but more need to.
Today Hispanics make up the largest minority group in the United States of America. In 2007 the US Census reported that there were 44.3 million Hispanics in the United States on July 1, 2006. This makes up 14.8 percent of the American population. In one year, from July 2005 to July 2006 there was an increase of 2.9 million. In 1960 Whites made up 85 percent of the population while Hispanics made up only 3.5 percent. In 2005, Whites dropped to 67 percent and Hispanics increased to 14 percent. According to the Pew Research Center, it is projected that in 2050 whites will drop to under 50 percent while Hispanics will grow to 29 percent. It might not happen in our life time, but if the rates stay constant everyone can see that one day, Hispanics will be the majority and out number whites in the United States.
Reported in the 2007 American Community Survey Spanish is the primary language for 34 million people. Roughly half of these people speak English as well. That means there are at least 15 million people in the nation today that can only speak Spanish. Most of the Spanish speaking residents live in Texas, California, and Florida but that doesn’t mean they migrate to other states as well. It is reported that Alaska, the furthest states from Mexico has 22,649 Spanish speaking residents making up 3.6 percent of Alaska’s population. This is not much, but it does prove that every state has a Spanish Speaking population. California has over 12 million making up 34.6 percent of its state population.
With Hispanics the largest minority today and with 34 million people considering Spanish as their primary language it is smart for people to learn Spanish as a second language. This skill for employees and employers is invaluable. Owning a small business the owner wants to be able to serve whoever enters their doors. Small Business owners that are able to accommodate anyone that walks in results in more sales and more profit. National companies have a much larger need for Spanish speaking employees as they have a 29 percent chance of selling to a Hispanic-American. It’s just good business to be able to cater to the costumer. The business that caters to the Spanish speaking costumer will have the costumer return for future business. A lot of people believe that if they are in America then they should speak English, as it is our primary language. But, no business made money by expecting the costumer to humor an ignorant business owner.
Where can we learn this new skill? There are many ways to learn Spanish. In Yahoo Search, typing in “How to Learn Spanish” will result in 269 million hits. Spanish is taught in schools across the nation, from middle schools to universities. Spanish can be learned online, from a computer program, books, and even a tutor. Rosetta Stone is one that claims to be fast by providing a six month guarantee. Spanish is considered one of the easiest languages to learn and is Latin based with several words similar to those in the English language.
With 29 percent of the population Hispanic today and expected to grow to 47 percent by 2050 and with 34 million people claiming today that Spanish is their primary language it is a smart business move for people to learn Spanish as a second language. It is a great skill that can be utilized in the business world. One day, Hispanics will be the majority and non-Hispanics Whites will be a minority. In order to survive as a business it will take employers and employees speaking Spanish. Plus, with Spanish so readily available, why not start now?


References

1. Passel, Jeffrey. (2008, February 11). Immigration to Play Lead Role In Future U.S. Growth. Message posted to http://pewresearch.org/pubs/729/united-states-population-projections

2. Wikipedia (2008). Spanish in the United States. Retrieved November 9, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_in_the_United_States

3. Bernstein, Robert. (2007, May 17). Minority Population Tops 100 Million. U.S. Census Bureau New. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/010048.html

Life Log

Today marks the first full day of the long weekend. Tuesday is Veterans Day, for the military is it a four day weekend. I got off of work yesterday at a little past noon and don’t have to be back to work until 0630 Wednesday for physical training.

I was so nice being able to sleep in. I really enjoyed it. I woke up at 0900 which is so much nicer than the 0400 I had to wake up at yesterday. Before I joined the army I didn’t know there was a 0400, I had never stayed up that late and never woke up that early. The army makes you do some crazy things. Normally, I wake up at 0500, but yesterday we did a Division Run where we formed up somewhere around 10,000 soldiers and ran four miles, everyone singing cadences. The run didn’t start until 0630 but getting 10,000 people in a bunch of square formations takes time.

But, that is besides the point. I’m writing about today. Lets see, we spent a good portion of the day, Jane and I, packing our spare room/storage room up, sorting garbage, donate, storage, and take home piles, preparing for the up coming trip to Iraq. Jane has been working on it here and there for the past week so it didn’t take very long to get the rest done.

After that Jane and I decided we were hungry. It was a tough decision. My stomach really made it for me. The real problem came when deciding what to do for dinner. Jane has been having stomach aches lately, so she got to make the decision. IHOP, here we come! Breakfast is easy on the belly.

The funny part about the whole thing came just before we realized we were hungry. Jane is playing on the internet, doing her whole blog thing, I head to the kitchen to find a snack. I start making me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which was divine by the way, Jiffy really knows what they are doing! While I was thus engaged in spreading the creaming smooth peanut butter, Jane asks if I’m getting hungry. My mind and my mouth have a disconnect somewhere, Jane would argue that is in the male genome and there is no fixing it. So instead of just saying yes and that I’m having a sandwich, I yell back sheepishly NO, then proceed to eat my sandwich.

Five minutes later, Jane finishes working on her blog and says she is starting to get hungry. I’m not now. So she get a little upset with me because I said no earlier and then had a sandwich. What is wrong with me? So, to try to fix the situation, I say, yes dear, I’m still hungry. I can be such a dork sometimes.

I’m not complaining about having to eat twice, no, no, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy IHOP as much as the next guy, if not more. I’m just saying, no asking, what is wrong with me? Of course my wife is asking the same question.

After dinner we chilled cuddled together on the couch watching a movie from the instant Net Flix. We watched a western about Billy the Kid. I don’t remember what it was called but it was pretty good.

After the movie, Jane wants to check her blog again. I think she is addicted to it. But that is okay, I’m addicted to her, she is addicted to the blog, so now I’m blogging. What men will do for a little action. I’m getting her to design the blog for me too, all I have to do is write.

While she is working on her blog, I’m getting ready for bed. I’m always tired. What can I say, when you wake up at 0500 or earlier most days, and then stay up late every night, when it comes to the weekend all I want to do is sleep. Plus, don’t forget I’m a man, and when man gets tired, man gets grumpy! I am papa bear for a reason.

However, Jane is very excited, and a little mad at someone that commented on her blog, and want to read it to me. Despite my best efforts to hide my true feelings, she reads right though me and sees that I’m not interested. Crap, saying I’m just tired stopped working a while ago. But, I tried it anyway, to no avail. Then I hurt her feelings. So then, we have great make up… hugs and kisses. No sex tonight, remember she isn’t feeling good.

Hello World

I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but I have been watching my wife play around with it. She is an expert, with several of her own blogs. I will probaly have to ask her for help at times. Anyway I thought I would use this to write a journal and pratice writing as one day I want to be an author. Well thats all for tonight.