Friday, September 30, 2011

Is summer over?

Hello everyone!

This is much easier to do if I keep it updated weekly but oh well! I guess I'm too much of a bum to stay on top of it. Julia got on to me this time and told me I need to get back to updating this more often.

You'll notice one thing different about me. I now double space after periods. It's crazy how quickly I got into the habit. I know its the proper thing to do but I have never done it until now. Not even in college. The reason I now double space and the reason I have not written in a while is because I have spent this whole month writing awards. The last thing I felt like doing after writing awards all day was to come back here and write some more. In total I wrote 21 awards, 12 of which were at least a page of military writing and four of them over two pages. The first few awards I had to go back and fill in a space after each period so I made myself learn quickly. And now I double space without even thinking about it. All the time. No matter who I am writing to or what I am writing about.

I have spent a lot of this month thinking about Hawaii. More than most. I am so excited about being home in November and seeing Julia when I step off the plane. It is going to be so nice to be "home." Which of course lets you know how excited I will be when I actually do get to my real home in December. You guys have no idea how important you are to me. You don't realize how special the people closest to you are until you can't have them around. I appreciate you all very much.

Other than award writing we've been pretty busy. As most of you know, the troops will be starting to pull out soon, but you wouldn't know it up here. We are continuing to roll on like normal. And I love it

September 11th was a great experience up here. It was so neat to fight for our freedom on that day. There was something special about it. Kind of sad that we are still over here 10 years later, but I can see that if we had come here and left quickly, it would not have changed much. These locals need to see stability and they also need a lot of guidance before we just take off. It's been fun taking part in working with the local police force. They are a mess. I had chai tea with them the other night and let me tell you... it was GREAT. They heat up the water by plugging two wires directly into the socket and place the other ends into the water. It works pretty well. Seeing the article of me on the internet on Sept 11 was pretty sweet too. I was excited to see what Julia and my mom said. That will be a neat thing to hold on to for the next few years... or the next forever years.

We celebrated Memorial Day with ribs and steak and then celebrated the Air Force birthday on the 18th with steak, chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. We love celebrating holidays and birthdays because they send us all kinds of good food to celebrate it with. The Marine Corps birthday will be the best. Obviously. Not only because of the food but because we will start leaving Kajaki shortly after. And leaving this place after all the Marines have been through will be a joyous time. I know I'll miss it though. I can already feel a part of me is attached to this place. I'm already thinking about my next deployment and I keep hoping I get to come back here. It's such a unique area.

Really, I think thats about all I can update you on. All the operations are still Secret and on a "need to know basis" only. You guys be safe and I look forward to seeing you in a little over two months. Stay warm! It sure has stayed warm here.