homecoming

staging

Today is "fly day". we woke up at midnight and had to have our barracks clean and stuff stacked outside by 0130. we then had a formation at 0200, and at the moment it's 0235. We're sitting in the chapel to do a final manifest so we can load the busses at 0430 to make our 0730 flight. Talk about time to spare, huh?

done!

I'm still stuck here until monday, but I'm now done with my processing. why then are we not coming home tomorrow? because the civic center was booked.

Brrrr

Ok, it's not just me...30 is cold. my toesies are numb and my hands are cold. My nose is running and I'm just plain cold.

Today is another day of reverse SRP (soldier readiness process). Yesterday was an exercise in ineffieciency, but i still managed to get most of it done. I just have to get a new ID card and gt signed off by legal today. Then it will be back to thebarracks and probably a nap for me. I am still totally jet lagged. For those of you who were interested, my welcome home ceremony will be at 1230 on monday at the Canton Civic Center.

Anyway, that's that for now. I also "discovered" facebook, and as it turns out it's pretty nifty. Later

Day 1 complete

Well I inadvertantly slept in this morning until 0800 when I had to be in formation at 0815. woopsie. we had about 4 hours of mandatory briefings on everything fro VA services, to finance and dental care. It was rivoting. It actualy was stuff that was good to know though. anyway, then we had lunch and had to go turn in body armour. I have tossed in my laundry (which should be eady for the dryer any minute) and it's 1530 and the next thing I have is formation at 0815.

oh, by the way...we're all freezing our little patooties off. It was about 40 this am and we were popsicles.

Tomorrow is reverse SRP. We have to rotate through a bunch of stations (medical, detal, personnel, finance, VA...). It ill be a long day of standing in line. I don't think I have any shots coming though (which is unusual) so I'm happy about that.

We'll know for sure tonight, but there is an 80% chance that I will be home on Monday. Nappy Time. combine being up for fouty eight hours with some massive jet lag and I am a little less than bright eyed and bushy tailed. :-)

made it

hi everybody! I have finally madw it back to the US. at the moment i am sitting on a plane in gulfport, ms, but will soon be at fort hood texas for processing. god bless!

On the road...

Hi Guys,

I know I haven't written much lately. I've been pretty distracted, but some cool stuff has happened. I'll write about it and post pics when i can. Big news...We pull out at about 11am to start our week and a half journey home. Yeah! I should be in TX the night of the 2nd, or early the 3rd. yipee!!!

Hi

Hey Guys... Well I haven't posted an update in a while...but nothing is happening. I have to get up every morning and have formation at 0900. we then have to stay in uniform all day and have various things to do, or not, depending on the day. I then havev evening formation at 1700 and can return to my normal people clothes. :-) We are now down to 9 days until we leave Buehring and I'm excited, but also a bit bummed. I met an interesting young man recently here, but he's still gonna be here for a while. Isn't that always the way it goes? Anyway, I've been having fun getting to know him.

We have the big game coming up tomorrow and the USO is staying open late for us to watch it live, which is nice. Then on Sunday night Aaron Tippin is going to be here for a concert and I'm really excited about that. Then Monday is the Grand Opening of the new USO tent. It's REALLY nice! Anyway...things are just puttering along. Today I had a PT test at 0600, then napped and read off and on most of the afternoon. Just hung out tonight, and did some school work. Same old, same old... Love ya!!!

Thanksgiving Has Arrived...

So last night and tonight were Thanksgiving decoration niughts. Last night I cut out all the construction paper, and today I put it together. I also Watched the Charlie Brown Mayflower story while doing it. :-) I had fun. I have much to give thanks for...I'm coming home. YEAH!!!

Today was low key. I slept in and studied. I watched some Gilmore Girls, went to get more minutes for my cell phone and to the PX. All in all a good day. I'm over the stressed out boredom thing. I just worked ALL the time for so long that not having anything to do really messed me up. Between helping at the USO though and studying and puttering about I've been filling my days. Oh, and tonight was Mongolian BBQ at the DFAC (dining hall) and it was great! It's hands down the best thing they ever serve. I feel like I ate actual food! Anyway, hope all is well! love ya!

Random Pics from Around Base

another day

Hey, today was actually much better. marikay-my room is clean. been there done that one. i should be leaving this base Nov 30, and flying to Texas on 2 Dec. My welcome home ceremony will (God willing) be 8 Dec. I finished my first two classes and got A's in both. I am now taking Middle Eastern Culture and the American Revolution in Context.

Today started out bad. one of my roommates who has been spreading rumors about me pushed me over the edge and I finally told her off. I can take a lot of crap...it something i learned to do the last few years...she finally got told off. then she moved out. :-) yeah! anyway, gotta run! much love!!!

bored

Oh my gosh...I am bored out of my mind! I am on day 4 of no work and climbing the walls! Last night took a long walk around base, which was nice, but there is only so much Gilmore Girls that I can watch. Oh my gosh I'm bored!!! I just saw The SecretLife ofBees at the theater, but now it's Hellboy 2...not exactly my thing. I wanna go home. :-(

Done!

Hey ya'll I'm done! I'm still stuck here, but Friday was my last day at work. Yippee!!! Gotta do homework so more later.

Go Trevor!!!

Congrats Trevor!!!

My good friend Trevor just (like hours ago) graduated AIT

and is now one of the Army's new UAV pilots.

Go Trevor! I'm so proud of you!

Welcome to the family!!!

Sunday's Sunset...Go God!

Haunted House Pics

The Crypt Keeper room

I'm the Joker on the right. :-) The beginning of the Wizard of Oz room

Frankenstein

Let me tell ya, these british guys pulled off the bikini look. :-)

Frankie...Makeup courtesy of yours truely.

Election Day!

Well, I hope everybody gets out a votes today! They say this could be the best turn out in a REALLY long time. I voted weeks ago, but am still curious to see how it turns out. I plan to celebrate Election Day by watching the election day Charlie Brown Special in my tower 'round about the time the polls open in the East. I know, I'm a dork. Anyway, have a happy election day everyone, and don't forget you sticker!!!

I Voted!

Happy Halloween!

So, on Friday I worked at the Haunted house that we set up at the USO. It turned out great! We had an awesome turn out and everybody had a blast! We separated the USO tent into 8 rooms and each room was themed to a different scary movie. I was in the Dark Knight room and dressed up as The Joker. I hid in the wall and jumped out and scared people. It was a lot of fun, but I spent yesterday recovering my voice and getting over fog inhalation from the fog machine in close quarters. I was completely exhausted by the end of the night, but it was fun and actually felt like a holiday for a change.

**Note: on the off chance you were wanting to send any mail, send it now or 'til December hold you piece. Mail service for us stops in a couple weeks, so send it in the next day or two if you're going to. Otherwise it will bouce around the postal service indefinately.

Well, I've been trying to load pics and the web site is in rebellion today, so I will load them when I can. Love ya!

Lovely Day

Today was a lovely day!

It was in the low 90s with a stiff breeze and lots of sunshine!

I was in the tower from 1100-1700 and spent a good chunk

of that time sitting on the balcony reading.

Which is what this pic is of.

I was also kinda bored and playing with the camera. :-)

This is sand. I like the ridges that the wind carves in the berm.

It's pretty in a desolate desert kinda way. :-)

This is lots of sand. And a road that leads to nowhere.
There used to be a road that ran along the border right through here,
probably pre-Desert Storm. Anyway now it starts in the middle of nothing
and goes nowhere. Kinda peotic.
You know, in a desolate desert sorta way. :-)

And this is a shadow of me sitting on the balcony of my tower. I

said I was bored...

Anyway, I got in from the tower, emailed some folks, checked my school account about 20 times to see if grades were posted yet, finished my book ("P.S. I Love You"-and a good book), talked to Aunt Linda (while she was hiding in her office with the door shut so as not to get caught on a personal call...bad girl!, and now here I am. Oh Yeah, I think all that sitting on the balcony gave me a sunburn on my face too. Nuts. Oh well. So there, you go. Not perfect, but lovely none the less.
And a Big Giant Happy Anniversary
goes out to Jenny and her oh so lovely husband Greg...4 years. Awesome!

MEN!!!!!

So, I just went out to go potty. There are five porta potties outside the area I'm at...ALL FIVE had pee all over the seat. COME ON GUYS!!!!! Really, all of them!?

Pics

Here's me working on my blog. Today actually.

The computer is tucked into a little corner in a supply room.

On Monday, THERE WERE CLOUDS!!!

It was so pretty!

This is one of Jenny's...

I'd so much rather look out my window and see this.

EST (Engagement Skills Trainer)

Today we did EST training before work. On the negative side we had to get up and hour early and do this stupid thing before our normal shift and got stuck waiting around for a couple hours waiting our turn. On the positve side, the thing is actually pretty cool. This was the only pic I could find, but we were shootin M-4 rifles, not 50Cals. You go in and have to group (get three shots real close together) then the computer zeros the sights for you. (normally with a regular rifle you have to manually adjust your sights a little at a time until you are hitting center mass. Each weopon is different, and each person is defferent, so you have to adjust it each time you qualify. It can get knocked off of it's zero by everyday jostling.)

So then you look at the far wall which serves as a giant screen and the targets pop up, looking like when they do on an actual range. Today we were doing NBC (Nuclear,Biological, Chemical) fire qualifications, meaning we had to fire with our gas masks on. It's not easy, but you get used to it after a while. The CCOs (Close Combat Optics) that we have mounted on the weapons help. Anyway, the computer can tell with lazers where you hit, and the targets actually go down when you hit them. We did one at basic where there were actually people at some wearhouse thing shooting at us and we had to engage the moving targets.

It's like a really cool interactive video game. Expensive too I'm sure. :-) Your tax dollars at work. It does make it easier when going to a range would be impossible, and does save on ammo costs. Anyway, that's what I did this am. I'm done with my classes now and have 5 days off...don't really know what to do with myself. Anyway...hope you have a great day!

Day Off

Hi! It's my day off and still eary (noonish). So far I had to get up early for a flu shot and get my teeth cleaned. YEAH!!!! whatever. So I just checked online...I got an A in my strategic Geography class. Yeah! And yes, Aunt Linda, an A on that paper. I still have one project due in my other class, but it's a good start. I'm looking forward to the rest of the day being pretty rexaling. Well, have a good one!

Better

Hey, thanks y'all. I'm actually feeling much better. A 24 hour thing I guess. I still have this massive paper to write today, but that's just the way it goes. :-)

Sick.

I am sick today and this bites. What's worse than being sick in a foreign country? Being sick in a foreign country and having to work 15 hours while doing it and writing a final for school. I'll spare the details, but I woke up at about 2am and was not a happy camper. I switched my shift around with my squad leader so that I could get some sleep and that helped some, but I've still got a killer headache. :-( I wanna go home.

Kuwait City

So I was on the phone on Tuesday afternoon trying to figure out WHY it was going to take three trips to the Kuwait City to get my wisdom teeth pulled when in walks one of my sergents.


"I need to know RIGHT NOW if you want to go on an MWR trip tomorrow." "Where to?" I ask. "Kuwait City, I think." "OK," says I. So, 0730 yesterday AM, off I went. Groggy and cranky about being sent back to my barracks to chend=ge into a shirt with no print. So that I wouldn't stand out as an American. Cause the blonde hair doesn't give it away... Anyway, We headed down adn after driving incircles for a while to follow force protection protocal, We got to Kuwait Towers.

Now, Kuwait Towers is a shameless tourist thing, but they are cool, and you get a great view! There were also Pictures posted inside about what it looked like when the "foreign barbarians" destroyed it during their occupation in 1991.

This is the view to the south from the tower. We walked around a bit, got a snack and loaded up to go to the mall.

The Marina mall was pretty nice. It is really upscale and full of mostly Eurpopean and American stores. (Claires, DKNY, Limited Too...) It was OK, but I'm not a mall person under the best of circumstances, let alone in a foreign country. I did, however, enjoy a Krispy Kreme donut. :-)


I was there with a buddy I work with, Sam, so after we pulled our guard shift at the busses we skipped out of the mall and headed to the beach. We walked around and took pictures, played in the water a bit.




Then we headed out into town. It was nice to see a bit of more realistic Kuwait City. We got lunch at a little cafe and just wandered around looking at stuff. It was pretty cool. We also made it back in time, so we weren't missed. :-)

After that we headed to this science center, but didn't have a lot of time. We explored a little and went for a wlk along this path on the water. All in all it was a really nice day. I saw trees, and kids, and water and grass. Everything was so colorful. It might sound silly, but my whole world is in brown and gray. It was nice to see normal people doing normal things. It was very relaxing...even if they did make me go to a mall. :-)

Military Dental

OK, so I need to get my wisdom teeth out. I still have 2, and they cause me problems. So here's how it works...I went to the dental office here and he wrote me a referal. So I called to make an appt, and I have to physically walk into the office at Camp Arifjan (2 hour drive each way) and make an apt to go get a pano x-ray out in Kuwait City. I then have to drive down on an additional day to get the x-ray. Then I have to come back the third time and get the extraction. (good news is they can knock me out if I want.) But 3 trips to Kuwait city to do it. And I need 2 crowns...who know's what that'll involve... Oh, well, I guess you get what you pay for. :-)

Zone 4

The Little shopping area near my barracks is called Zone 4. I know, creative. The Army is great at boring names. There is some descent stuff though. To the left and right are the inside and outside of our Starbucks. I don't hang here much being that I hate coffee, but it's open 24 hours and provides a little spot of home for us.



Then we have the KFC. I've never actually eaten here, but it's pretty popular. Most of the restaurants are like this...walk up. That's not so bad at this time of year, but in the summer it REALLY sucks.



We have one "big PX" on post, one 24 hour Shopette, and this little thing. It's the back of a Semi that they've made into a little PX. it's actually not too bad. It's doesn't have much, but it is convenient.




Here is the Nathans's hot dog stand. I have eaten here, and it's not bad. The chilli cheese fries are killer. Aside from these things, there is an embridery shop, a beauty shop, a barber, a photo processing/t-shirt making shop, an internet cafe, and a couple of little souvenier places. There is also a DFAC (dining facility) here. Overall it's pretty convieniant.

Civilians Suck.

Ok, here's a fun story that happened a few days ago. I think...thins has kinda been the week that will not end though, so who can really be sure?

Anyway, we were getting back to post and there is usually a bit of a line at the front gate,

but not too bad. Well this night there was a HUGE line. We've got another troop surge going on and they all come through Buehring. Anyway, so big charter busses..blah, blah. So we swerve around the group and cheat by going through another line. That gets us past the first set of guards.

Well, then we had to pull over to clear our weapons (make sure there are no bullets in the chamber so we don't accidentally shoot someone. We have to do that everytime we come back on post.) Anyway, there are these serpentine barriers set up along with the speed bumps from hell. We stopped in the middle of the road, got out and walked around the berm to clear our weapons in the barrels we always do. We loaded back up and got to the second set of gates.

Well, we got there and they said we had to clear our weapons. Our driver said we did. They said we didn't. we tried to explain that we did and where. They said we didn't. This is where it got a little louder. After a few Minutes of going back and forth with the dumb ass civilian guards, one of our guys got out to go get our sergent from the bus that was following us. Well, At that point they said they were going to call the MP's. Our sergent came up, we all went and cleared our weapons, AGAIN, and got back in the vehicles.

They wouldn't let us through. They called the MP's and waited for them to get there. As if there was anything they could do about a couple of guys mouthing off to some civilian rent-a-cop gate guards. Anyway, the pic is of our sergent talking to the MP's when they got there. At this point we had been sitting at the stupid second ate 10-15 min at the end of a long day and were all pretty pissed. The MP's told us to be nice and sent us on our way. It was a big stupid mess.

Civilians suck. :-)

Another day Begins...

Well, we're at our daily stop at the PX before work. I'm tired and I wanna go home! The barracks will due, but I have about 14 hours before then. I'm on my 7th day straight working and I'm exhausted. On work days I don't get enough slepp because there are not eough hours. We get back to base at midnight and have to be up at 8. So I am generally sleep deprived.

I have reading a paper to write today, fun fun and I am in the tower all day. So I will have my cute little butt parked in there for 12-13 hours. It's not that bad, but get boring after a while. Well, gotta run!

Oh, and Aunt Linda, I HOPE to be home then, but the Army can do whatever it dang well pleases. I would say there's about a 98% chance that I come home in Dec though. :-) But hey, I volunteered. Love ya!

Kaboom!

Well, we had a bit of excitement last night. We picked up this uparmored Hum-vee the day before yesterday and drove it out to K crossing. Well the stupid thing wouldn’t drive over 35 without overheating and billowing black smoke. Please recall all the vehicle problems we’ve had… Anyway, the thing needed to get back and maintenance wouldn’t come get it, so our platoon Sgt said to have someone drive it back.

So around 2200 two guys took off in the truck to get back to Buehring since it wouldn’t go very fast. About 2210 we got a call that the truck had caught fire. So I’m thinking, a little fire. We had one catch fire before, and they just grabbed an extinguisher and put it out. Well, that’s not what happened here.



They were driving and the truck overheated, so they pulled over. They called in that they were broken down and right after they called the engine exploded. Not broke, exploded. Like big giant BOOM and fire ball. So they grabbed their stuff and make a run for it and called to say it was on fire.


Our relief was an hour late getting here (no big shocker there…) so by the time we got to the site there were MP’s all over and a big hubbub. The pictures are what the truck looked like when we got there. The hood and tires were totally melted. It was quite the happening.

Anyway, I’m pretty beat right now. That didn’t get us home until around 1am and then I had a hard time sleeping. Today we were out at the firing range for qualification and that was pretty sucky. I qualified though, so I don’t have to go back out. Well, I’m gonna run. Love ya!