Loving it

It's been about 10 days since my last post. If I can't do better than 10 days then I'm just being lazy, no matter how busy I claim to be. I not only have a lot of catching up to do on here but I haven't done to great of a job calling people on the phone either. Here's what you need to do if you want to talk to me... Tell me to get my butt up early in the morning before the patrols go out and call you. If I get up at 0500 here then its 2130 your time. Thats usually a decent hour to call people, unless you are my mom :) Speaking of my mom, last time I talked to her (finally) she had just recovered from a tragic night being stuck out on a boat. She has always told me to watch the tides so I don't get stranded out there on the sand bars and what does she do? Gets stuck out there on a sand bar... with three other "responsible" adults. I wish Sammy and I had this gouge on our mothers when they didn't want us to take off on Mo-peds in the Cayman Islands. Though, we ended up doing that anyway.

But back to Afghanistan. Well, you all know the collateral duties I have so I'm sure I don't need to say things have been busy. I am continually learning to appreciate being busy because as stated in a previous blog, it makes time go faster. I really wish I could talk all about what I have been doing but I guess that is frowned upon by S-2 (Intelligence). What I can tell you is I am already having the experience of a lifetime and we've only been running the show for a week now. Some of our Marines have gotten into some tough situations and my Marines have done a great job at getting them out of those situations. These kids seriously impress me. I know we have a long deployment to go but these guys will do anything to save their brother and I'm looking forward to watching them work for another 6 months. Again, we have great eyes over our whole Area of Operations so there is no threat to our FOB immediately. We see them long before they are able to gain any kind of foothold. Just want you guys to be ensured that I am safe.

Now I want to run you through an average day so you can see what its like here. I must start in the middle of the night because I toss and turn a lot. I still don't have a room yet which means no AC. Just last night I moved into a different lobby than the one I have been in and it has 1 AC unit for the whole area, so it is a little better than the lobby with no AC at all. Looks like early June one of the rooms will be opening up, then I will have my own space and hopefully some internet of my own. Right now I just have to bug Lt. Ealy (I'm going to start calling him Dan from now on) to let me hang out in his room. Back to the morning, after waking up for the nth time, I start checking my watch periodically because I know morning is near. If we have a patrol going out in the morning, which we have had for the past week, I need to be in the Combat Operations Center/Fire Direction Center (COC/FDC). That means my mornings have started around 530-6. I started skipping breakfast because eggs heated up in a bag along with bacon and sausage gravy heated up in a bag gets old after a while. Unless Mopsey is cooking. I could eat that every morning for the rest of my life. Mmmm that also makes me think about this delicious sandwich Julia likes to make for breakfast with eggs, some kind of meat, cheese, and jelly. Sooo good. Or, the whole-in-ones I always requested from my mom! OR Lindsay's famous french toast!! Wow, I need to stop, my mouth is watering. (If you are around any of these people any time soon, request breakfast from them... they will deliver)

Usually as I get to the COC, the patrols are getting ready to step off and we just verify that their numbers and everything match with what they told us the night prior. After that I make some oatmeal (someone from Bravo battery left it behind in the COC), drink some coffee, and track the patrols movement throughout the AO. This is where I can't really get into detail, but if stuff happens, stuff happens and we take care of it. You can say I work in the "brains" of this deployment. We always have to know whats going on at all times. Who/what is at all the locations, who is patrolling, whats going on, are we sticking with the mission, are the vehicles ready to go and much, much more. I'd say on average patrols get back around lunchtime, maybe a little before or after. I try to bum Ramen or Manchurian off people for lunch, but if I cant, I settle for an MRE. There is one new MRE that is fantastic. Maple Sausage. It is a chunk of sausage sitting in a maple syrup juice. Yum, yum, yum. BUT, noodles are my favorite right now and I really hope a package from my mom comes soon containing those items. If you want to know what to send me, those will work. I like any flavor. Spicy, chicken, beef, spicy chicken... you get the picture. I could also use a pillow. I wish I had brought one of my really comfortable feather ones, or stole one from the hotel in Ireland. Right now I sleep on a bag of t-shirts I have. A pillow is probably difficult to ship though so I wouldn't worry about it. I've blown two fans since I have been here as well. One time I didn't think the 220v power was running through our room and the other time I thought it was plugged into a power converter. It turned out to be some crummy bulky blue outlet extender or something. I don't know. I had the chance to get a power converter in Leatherneck too! The good thing about Laptops though is that they come with a converter in the cable so at least I can charge my laptop. Plus I bought a nifty little 4 inch fan that plugs into my computer via USB. Its not as good as the fan I brought with me (one that I blew) , but being that it actually works, it will do.

Wow, I am really good about going off on a tangent. I just try not to bore you with COC talk too much, that is all. So yes, when patrols are back, I eat, then get to work on all my other stuff. Today consisted of playing with Microsoft Excel for hours making a template for the hundreds of pieces of gear I need to maintain accountability of. I'm separating the gear by which unit is responsible for it and making a record of where it was seen last. That way, when I have to get eyes on everything once a month it won't take me forever! I am really dreading having to do this for the first time though while I try to figure out where everything is. Oh well, just another thing to keep me busy. I also worked out some organizational things with the Armory as well. I know that the more I get things in order now, the easier my life will be for the next few months, but it is sure a pain now.

In between the paper work junk I try to take a break to work out (around 1500.) I've been pretty consistent with it. 3 days on 1 day off is my rotation. Though, instead of working out today I took a nap because I was too exhausted. That made it two days off. Oh well, maybe I'll go do some pull-ups later. Then again, maybe not. I promised Julia I'd be a hunk-a hunk-a burnin' love when she sees me next so I'm trying to stick to a routine. I also have a confession. I said I would stop drinking soda because I didn't think it would be around. Well, the other night I sat down to eat a DELICIOUS (more on that later) meal and a Corporal brought be a soda. I didn't ask for it, but I couldn't refuse it. So, I have had one soda over the past few weeks. Still not too bad if you ask me. At least I don't get headaches anymore from not having one.

After the workout, or nap, I get back to work until dinner. This is when I surprise you. The dinners here have been great. It could very easily be crappy food, but our guys know how to work the seasonings just right to make things very tasty. Heres just a few solid meals we've had called "Class 1 meals". Steak kabobs (with chopped garlic, I saw the cook preparing this one). Homemade mashed potatoes (which I missed out on because they ran out before I got to the food line). Beef Enchiladas. Green beans with bacon. Ribs. Beef gumbo... Thats all I can think of now. But even the food they have to warm up in bags they make taste better too. I'm very impressed. If they don't get a combat action ribbon, they deserve some kind of great award.

After evening chow, its back to the COC to finish things up for the night. This could mean I get out of there as early as 1930 or as late as 2230. Just depends on whats going on. After that I head to Dan's room to see if internet is working (it wasn't last night, sorry Julia!) I may watch one or two episodes of a show or a movie if its not too late, then I hit the rack just to do it all over again.

All the heads (bathrooms) here crack me up. To turn on the sink, shower and toilet is some huge ordeal with instructions written all over the walls on how to do it without screwing everything up. I wish some plumbers could come see some of this piping. It is ridiculous.

We have little mini clothes washing spinny buckey things that most of us use to wash clothes, but there is also a bathtub outside where you can let your clothes soak and use that ribbed scrubbing thing that they use in The Little Mermaid to clean everything, including Sebastian. Yes, I just referenced Little Mermaid. Yes, I am a Marine. So what. Anyway, last night I washed off at about 2200 in the tub. I just hosed off with water, rubbed some soap on me, and rinsed. It was really cold water, and a very glorious feeling. I can now say I have had goosebumps in Afghanistan during the summer.

Okay, well I think I am going to call it an end for now. It is already so long that I am contemplating not proof reading it. Maybe I will just skim. By now you already know if I actually did proof read it or skim because you've kept mental notes of all the silly mistakes I wrote, or did not write. Love you guys, talk with you soon!