Twelve miles and 2 hours til X-mas!

Pretty much the only things I have standing between me and Christmas are a 12 mile road march and 2 hours of safety briefings. It's supposed to be half days Monday and Tuesday, but we'll see whether that happens. I have a feeling it may end up being half days for some of the soldiers, but there's no way I see myself having half days. I'm sure something thrilling is going to come up between now and then.
Luckily this weekend has been pretty quiet. We had a Christmas reception for all the officers and senior non-commissioned officers in the battalion on Saturday night, which involved having an open bar that no one really wanted to take advantage of because who wants to risk doing something stupid in that sort of company, and standing around in dress blues waiting for the commander to make his speech for the evening so that we could start making our good-byes and leave.
But hey, my Christmas shopping is pretty much just about done, so at least I'm starting to feel caught up for the season. It's beginning to feel like Christmas, minus the fact that it got up to 50 degrees here at Ft. Drum today, not that I'm complaining because it beats the heck out of the weather this time last year.

My Day Today

This was my fun day today. I'm posting this because I really can't say anything more, but the below came from the Ft. Drum Public Affairs OFfice and was approved for release. Suffice it to say that today was not fun.

Update: 'Suspicious Device' Investigated At Fort Drum Wednesday, November 29, 2006, 12:55pm An official with Fort Drum's Public Affairs Office confirmed Wednesday morning that a suspicious device was found in a barracks. However, initial concerns that the device was a bomb or destructive mechanism proved to be unfounded, Major Sean Wilson said. According to Wilson, a call was made at 8:45 a.m. to Fort Drum emergency personnel alerting them of an object that "didn't look right." The barracks was evacuated. Upon further investigation, it was determined an unidentified soldier had contraband. Wilson would not disclose what the contraband was. He said only that it was not weapons or drugs. The soldier was detained for questioning, but Wilson said there appeared to be no criminal intent. Wilson would not disclose the soldier's unit. The incident made for tense moments at Fort Drum, especially since the Under Secretary of Defense was visiting the post at the time. Bill Huba, spokesperson for the FBI in Syracuse, told 7 News his agency is assisting the Army with its investigation.

Happy Thanksgiving

For the second time in the last 3 years, I wasn't able to go home for Thanksgiving. I had to pull Brigade Staff Duty on the Friday after Thanksgiving, so there was no real way of making it home and having it be worthwhile since I had to be around here. Luckily, my PSG invited me over to spend Thanksgiving Day with her and her family, so Thanksgiving didn't turn out to be me sitting in front of the TV with a bowl of Ramen noodles or something equally pathetic. I baked an apple pie, which I'm actually quite proficient at now, and despite not being at home with the family, Thanksgiving actually turned out to be a pretty decent day. That said, it will be nice to be home for Christmas and have the whole family together for the first time since last Christmas, especially since it looks like both Ashley and I will be deploying within the next year.

Another Rainy Week at Ft. Drum

Looks like this is going to be another stellar week at Ft. Drum. It's been raining all morning, meaning that at almost 11 o'clock I'm still in my PJs because there's absolutely no reason to go outside when I can stay warm and dry inside.
I'm finally getting around to clearing out the last of the boxes from moving in to my apartment. I figure it's about time since I've been here over 2 months now. Besides, if I clear out all the boxes I'll be able to figure out how much room I have left that I need to find things to buy to fill up the spaces. Haha, just kidding, although I am in the market for a good bookcase and possibly some sort of table for the entryway. I sure never realized how much it took to make someplace feel like home, but I'm glad that I've had the luxury to be able to buy just about anything I want thanks to my 6 month vacation in Afghanistan.

In Memory of Amos Camden Riley Bock

The West Point Class of 2004 lost one of our members last week to an IED in Iraq. He was the fifth person we've lost from our class so far, but for me, the first one of those guys that I actually knew well enough to have it hurt when I heard.
Amos was my next door neighbor first semester firstie year. I have so many memories of him from that semester, when he was a new F-Trooper. I didn't know what to think of the "new guy" at first, but it wasn't too long before I realized he was someone special.
I decided to take entirely too many classes that semester, and it wasn't uncommon for me to be up until the wee hours of the morning. Amos was a bit of a night owl too, and we sort of got into a routine where he would stop by after getting back from the Firstie Club and give me a hard time about studying too much and not having enough fun. The extra chair in our room became his chair, and anyone else sitting there when he stopped by was subject to getting kicked out. If he made coffee at midnight, I'd usually be awake, and get half the pot, and we'd sit out in the hallway and talk while we both got a bit more awake to continue working on whatever paper was due. I can't remember everything we talked about, but it usually put a smile on my face and made me forget what I was stressing about, because Amos would find some way to make an imaginary argument over something silly just so he could flash his grin and say he outsmarted me.
Aside from coffee at midnight, Amos came to me and my roommate's rescue one night when we saw a few furry invaders under my desk. West Point had a bit of a mouse problem that semester, and being two girls in a room, we decided the easiest way to solve the problem was jump on my bed, get away from the mice and shriek until the guys next door came to our rescue. Amos and his roommate burst in to find out what we were making all the racket about, and Amos quickly decided that the nearest mouse eliminator at hand was my saber. He spent about five minutes cornering that mouse under my desk, and finally emerged victorious, and presented me with my combat-tested saber and the advice that I might want to clean it, but he would dispose of the mouse.
Mouse hunting aside, Amos also decided he needed to educate me on a few domestic skills, but especially cooking, teaching me how to make a good pot of coffee and "Barracks Quesadillas." I didn't know what to think the night he knocked on door and asked if I was hungry and if I had an iron. Replying yes on both accounts, I was told to hurry up and get next door and bring my iron with me. I laughed when he said we were making quesadillas, but they were really good, and all it took was ironing the tortillas and cheese between waxed paper or paper towels. I never would have thought of that.
The last night before we left for Christmas leave, we both were up pretty much all night studying for the Mil Art TEE. It focused pretty heavily on the Civil War, and I kept getting generals mixed up and couldn't keep track of the order of the battles. After agreeing to refer to it as the War of Northern Agression, Amos walked me through the entire war and laid it all out for me far better than any text book or History P had been able to. Of course, the lesson featured heavily on Missouri's contribution to the war, and had a side note on why Amos was Amos Camden Riley (and had the card to prove where it came from). That was probably the first (and only) history TEE I ever went into feeling that I knew the answer to just about anything they could throw at me.
I guess to sum it all up, Amos taught me an awful lot, and I'm incredibly grateful. I cried when I heard, but in trying to explain the type of person he was to the people I was with, I found myself laughing as I told some of these stories. He was just such a good guy, and I'm truly sorry that he's gone. Well done Amos, we'll see you on the other side.

Columbus Day Weekend and the Ice Cream Gods

Finally had a four day weekend, it was just about perfect timing, as I was definitely ready for a little bit of time off.
My sister came up for the long weekend, and we ended up having a pretty good weekend, especially considering that we didn't have any plans made before she got here. We spent Friday evening trying to figure out what we were going to do. At first we thought about going to Niagara Falls, but then decided that was a bit too far to drive for just a couple of days. My platoon sergeant had mentioned that Alexandria Bay was supposed to be pretty, so we did what any modern girls would do, and googled it. Turns out they have the Thousand Islands Winery up there, and that they were hosting an Oktoberfest this weekend. And then it turned out that this was one of the last weekends that Boldt Castle was open, and so it seemed that all signs pointed towards heading to Alex Bay.
The Oktoberfest was fun, although it was a bit funny since they had more wine than beer (it was a winery, so I guess that figures). There was a crafts fair set up outside, and it all had a decidedly small town feel that felt comfortable even though we'd never been there before and didn't know anyone else that was there. People were sharing around some of the goodies they'd purchased, and offering to share the bottles of wine they'd ordered, which was definitely different than you'd probably have in a lot of places. They had a Bavarian band which was pretty decent, although they didn't use the accordian for the Chicken dance song. Oh well, guess you can't have everything, and it was an awful lot of fun.
The day after the Oktoberfest we went on a boat cruise on the St. Lawrence Seaway, and saw some of the Thousand Islands (the guide informed us that there are over more than a thousand and that they're split between the US and Canada). The weather this weekend was incredible, and was probably one of the last nice weekends that we'll be having in the North Country. After spending about 2 hours out on the water, we stopped at Heart Island and visited Boldt Castle. Boldt Castle is a story of why decisions made in the name of love aren't always the smartest things to do. Back in 1900, the family which owned the island decided to tear down their curent house and construct a castle in the European tradition. George Boldt (the husband/father) said he wanted to build a castle because his wife was a queen. They spent millions of dollars scouring the world for the perfect decorations, furnishings, etc and the castle was going to be absolutely incredible. Except that in 1904, his wife died from consumption, so he ordered all work on the castle stopped immediately, and forbid his children from ever working on it or living there, and no one from the family was to ever set foot on the island again. It was abandoned for decades, before the Thousand Island Bridge Authority finally bought the island and the castle with the agreement that they would never finish the construction, would never turn it into a restaurant or a resort, and would never make any money from the castle. So now, all these people get to visit the castle and imagine how spectacular it could have been if the dude didn't go off the deep island when his wife died.
We came back to my apartment on Sunday night and just kind of did a bit of chilling and watching some of the TV shows that I'd recorded. Nice and restful, and then decided that maybe we could do with a little bit of ice cream. I was in my PJs already, so Ashley said she'd run to Wal-Mart, which is literally like 2 mins away from my apartment. After about 10 mins she came back in and said my car wouldn't start. No matter what we tried, we couldn't get the key to turn in the ignition. Aside from the fact that we wouldn't get to have any ice cream for the night, it was a big problem because I was supposed to drive her to the airport for an early flight in the morning. So we ended up having to call and pay to change her flight to a late one, and Monday morning I got to wake up, call the dealer, have them send out a tow truck and spend almost the entire day sitting waiting for them to be able to fix my car. Turned out that some stupid little pin in the key cylinder had broken and was wedged in such a way that the keys wouldn't be able to turn. Once they actually figured that out and got the cylinder out, it took about 20 mins to fix, but it ended up wasting my whole day. Still, we decided that the ice cream gods must have been smiling on a couple of old trou (please, no EO complaints, I know its not PC, but what the heck, it makes the telling of the story so much better), and that our faithful devotion to ice cream allowed us to find out about the problem on Sunday night when we could actually do something to solve it instead of finding out Monday morning and missing Ash's flight.
I guess all things considered things worked out as best they could if the stupid car was going to break, but it just put a real damped on what was otherwise a great weekend.

I'm Ready to Go Back on Vacation

Okay, it's only been about 2 weeks since we got back from the cruise, but I'm ready to go back again. Being on vacation is so much more fun than having to wake up every day and actually go to work, but I suppose it's necessary to work in order to be able to afford to go on vacation, at least for those of us who are not independently wealthy.
The cruise was great and super relaxing, and probably just about what I needed after getting back from Afghanistan. 9 nights of not having to worry aobut anything other than what I wanted to do and being able to relax however I wanted to was wonderful after 6 months of having to work 7 days a week. I did a spa treatment which was absolutely divine, and definitely made me realize how people can become addicted to going to the spa. However, trying to run after eating gourmet meals for that long made me realize that I really, really should have done a lot more working out and less eating while I was there. Oh well, you only live once, and I had some absolutely awesome meals.
We visited Grand Turks, which was essentially a desert island because they have to import everything to the island and there is no naturally occurring fresh water source on the island. However, it was the island where John Glenn's space capsule ended up after his first trip in space (I think), so at least there is a little bit of history to the place. We went horseback riding in the morning when we were there, and actually rode the horses out in the ocean which was a blast except that mom managed to fall off her horse (luckily didn't get hurt) and we hadn't really thought about the ummm, floaters, that would accompany swimming horses. Let's just say that it paid off to push your horse to go fast so that it was at the front of the pack and not at the back. After finishing up horse back riding we spent a few hours by the pool at the Margaritaville before heading back to the ship.
Next we went to San Juan and toured the Bacardi factory and then went to an old fort (El Moro). It was such a contrast seeing all the touristy areas and then the poorer areas around the factory. We went to Senor Frogs and had the super tall margaritas and a waaaayyyy overpriced thing of guacamole and chips, but since the drinks were free (after purchasing t-shirts in the gift shop), I guess that it was one of those fun things you have to do.
We headed to St. Thomas next, and en route found out that because of the new Hurricane (Florence I think?), we weren't going to be able to head to Bermuda at the end of the cruise like we were supposed to, which was pretty disappointing. That meant we had to change our plans for St. Thomas because I wanted to go snorkeling, so we went to St. Johns on a catamaran and spent 2 hours snorkeling (where we saw sea turtles, sting rays, and lots of fish.) It was so beautiful and really felt like being in the tropics, so I was super glad that we were able to get on the trip even though they were showing it as booked up.
So after a trip like that, being back at work and having to wake up every morning to go to PT, especially as it's starting to get colder. Welcome back to the real world for me, thats for sure. :-)

"Well Done"

After getting back from the cruise (which was excellent, more to follow on that), we stopped at West Point to visit my sponsor family and my brother. It's funny, because even after 2+ years since graduation, I still got that "going through the gate" feeling in the pit of my stomach. I know some people were excited to see the gate in their rearview on graduation and hope not to see it for a long long time again, but it still felt fairly welcoming to me. After visiting with Brandon and taking a quick gander through the C-Store (picked up some brown bombers for some of the loose FMs I have, toolish I know, but so what, they're convenient), I walked back along Washington to my sponsors' house. Since they're just down the street from the cemetary, I realized that it would feel wrong not to pay my respects to the members of my class lost in Iraq.
Walking through the gate to the cemetary reminded me of when we went to the cemetary, I can't remember if it was Intersession or an MS class or what, but it put me in a somber mood realizing that the people we've lost also did that same walk, and doubtless they did not plan to be there so soon after graduation. I wandered around looking for the section, and was struck once more by the history contained there. But history is something that seems like it should remain in the past, and it was glaringly apparent that our class had painfully contributed to the history of the Long Gray Line when I came upon the headstones for two of my classmates, next an '03 grad, and surrounded by the other recent heroes from OEF/OIF. I didn't know either of them particularly well, I think we maybe had a class together at some point, but my memory is uncertain. However, walking up to their resting place, with the strains of the Alma Mater going through my head, to render a salute and say "Well done," I found myself with tears streaming down my face. It was quite possibly one of the most profound moments of my life, and extremely sad. I stood there for a few minutes, ignoring the cars passing by on Washington Road while I knelt and prayed, knowing that they served with honor a society where such a word means little these days. I only hope that we can all prove ourselves worthy of their sacrifice. I walked away from the cemetary a little sadder, but more inspired, and reminded of just what "Duty, Honor, Country" really means.
Well done, boys, well done.

Back and Settling In

Well, I've now been back in the US for almost a week. It's kind of strange to think, I mean I've been out of Afghanistan for almost 2 full weeks now by the time you count in the Manas layover and the 4 day odyssey to actually get back home. Being back in the US is great, I can't argue with being here, however, some of me actually misses being over there. That or I just miss the people I know who are still over there. I never ever, in my wildest dreams, thought I'd be sort of sad to have left early, but I am. I guess its like anything though, there's always something sad about a chapter in your life ending, but there's at least excitement in the new chapter that's about to start that should help to make up for it.
So, as far as my new chapter, I'm in the process of settling back in to Ft. Drum. Well, considering I was really only here about a month before we deployed, I don't know if it counts as settling back in, or if its settling in for the first time. I think I've got an apartment lined up that is super close to post. Granted, there's more fun areas, but I think given how busy I'll be this year, it's probably a good thing that I'll only be about a 5 minute drive from post instead of 45 minutes. Once I get that all signed, I've started looking at furniture, I feel like a bona-fide adult, it's kind of cool. But, everything is sort of on hold until I have the apartment all figured out.

Never Doubt the Power of 1 Idiot

I'm sitting here, still in Germany writing. We've been in Germany almost 24 hours now. All I can say is that if anyone has ever doubted the power of an individual to affect a whole lot of people. We were delayed taking off from Ramstein yesterday because there was a thunderstorm in the area with lightening, so they couldn't refuel the plane. That wasn't too big of a deal, it added a couple of hours, but nothing too terrible that had anyone upset.
Well, they finally cleared us for take-off, and we're sitting on the plane, when some junior airman straight up passes out two rows ahead of where I'm sitting. I mean the guy was gone. Turns out that he had taken 2 Ambien on an empty stomach. They couldn't get him to respond, he was practically comotose, so they decided to call in the ambulance. It took a good half an hour or so for the firefighters to get on board, during which time a doctor on board examined him and found he was pretty much totally unresponsive and his vitals weren't the best. Meaning, when the firefighters got on board, they decided they had to evacuate him off the plane and take him to an emergency room.
Of course, given current flight regulations, if he wasn't going to fly, his bags couldn't fly either, so they had to offload his bags from the cargo hold. Well, when they started to close the cargo hold, some strap got stuck in the door, so they couldn't seal the door. We sat on the plane for almost 2 more hours waiting for them to try and fix the door. Finally, they decided to de-plane us and see if having all of the weight off the plane would help fix it. No such luck. We sat in the airport for another 3 hours before they finally decided they weren't going to be able to fix it that night and decided they'd put us all (280 some-odd passengers) up in hotels around Ramstein for the night. Wunderbar. Except that trying to actually get us to the hotels took well over 2 hours. So at 2 a.m. local German time, we finally arrived at a hotel, where we got to take a shower and sleep. And now we're sitting back in the airport, waiting to hopefully take off. Lovely. It's now been over 32 hours since we left Kyrgyzstan, and we haven't even crossed the Atlantic. Hopefully we'll get back to the US soon.

So Close, and a Quick Update

It sure is a pain in the rear end (literally) trying to get back to the US. We've been travelling for over 12 hours at this point, which has seen us leaving Manas, Krygyzstan and arriving at Incirlik AB, Turkey and now Ramstein AB, Germany. We've loaded the plane twice now, and will shortly load for the 3rd time. Of course, the over head bins are super tiny, and everyone has monster carryons, so it's fun every time. Good thing most people are being super accomodating to others since we're all excited about almost being home.
I left Bagram on Monday to head to Manas for what was supposed to have been a Thursday rotator flight back to the US. However, in keeping with the phenomenal flight luck that we had while on pass in Qatar, the flight was delayed twice. Meaning that I had almost a full week in Manas. Translation, for almost a week I had nothing to do but eat, sleep, go to the gym and do whatever I felt like doing. But, considering the entertainment options available at Manas, that translated into reading or watching movies, although of course that meant having to buy movies at the AAFES price (gotta love their monopoly over here).
It's strange, we picked up several families in Turkey (and more here in Germany), and having little kids on the plane is weird after 6 months of just being around adults. I have to wonder what these families think since 2/3 of the plane is soldiers/airmen returning from OEF. Oh well, I'm sure that most of the people we're picking up along the way have been over there or will be at some point in the future. It's the reality of military life right now, so it's probably not as unusual as it might seem at first.

Out of Afghanistan

Finally out of Afghanistan. It came a lot sooner than I planned on, since they're sending me home at 6 months to get a platoon, but it feels as if I were there forever, I can't imagine doing a full year. I'm in Turkey en route back to the US, and since I finally am not blocked from the blog, figured I'd go ahead and update. I'll write more about Afghanistan once I get back, but for now I'm just enjoying knowing that within half a day I should be back in the US.

24 Years Young

This year's birthday was just a little bit different than last year's was. Last year I went to dinner with Rita and Thar, and then spent like 20 minutes in Sainsbury's trying to find a birthday dessert that didn't have eggs in it. This year I had Easy Mac for lunch because I had to work on a presentation that had to be in to the Colonel before the end of lunch, and then actually got to leave work once the Commander's Update Brief was over, which meant that I had time to hit up the gym. Not very exciting, but what do you expect from a birthday in Afghanistan I suppose?
I guess at least that I'm not worrying about starting to get old, because the vast majority of the people I work with are in the mid to late 30's or older, and they constantly pick on me about being in my early 20's , well I guess mabye with 24 I move into my mid-twenties, but who's counting, I still feel young.

My New Home

Home sweet home is now home sweet connex. I live in what is essentially a metal box... think like uber-mini trailer or something and you'll get the idea of where I sleep each night. But I can't complain too much because I now have internet access, so I feel semi-civilized.
I am in Afghanistan. Actually, I've been here for over a month now, tomorrow marks the 5th week I'll have spent in country. Crazy.
I don't even begin to know where to start, so I will simply leave today at what I have written (besides, I technically need to register my blog with my S1 so they can make sure I am not being devious.) Really, I'm just too tired, but at over $1 a day for internet access, I had to log on just to make sure it works and feel I'm getting some of my money's worth.

The Ones We Love

You know, I've always thought that I've been being fairly grown-up about preparing for the deployment to Afghanistan and knowing that it is my duty and yada yada yada, blah blah blah. However, tonight it really kind of hit home that while I've been sort of professing to worrying about how my deploying is affecting others rather than myself, I think I've been acting my age and whatnot, in otherwords, acting like the young, single, soldiers that we keep hearing warnings about as officers that we'll have to watch out for.
I've been probably more stressed about this than what I would like to admit. It's much easier to hide behind a facade of calm, cool, acceptance than to admit to fear or worry or apprehension, or any of the other myriad emotions that one would expect to be going through in the situation I find myself. I've been talking about deploying in the abstract for over a year now I think... whether it was desirable or not for a career, whether it would be the right thing for me, but I never quite fathomed the emotional impact that will face the people I love and care about. Sure, it's great for me to be able to call and talk about my worries and hear reassurances of how much I am loved, and how people will be keeping me in their prayers and all of that. But I have been selfish, I am the one with the resources and support that the military is offering here, but that's not the same resources that my family has access to.
I wish there were some way to lessen the impact this has on others. Just because I have volunteered to serve in the military, it seems somehow unfair that this burden isn't shouldered just by the volunteers like myself, but by the families and loved ones who support us without having volunteered for this duty.
Don't get me wrong, I love being an American, I love my country, I am proud to wear the uniform I wear, and serve. I just wish that any hurt and pain with the demands placed on me were not shared. It's not realistic. It's not human to expect that the emotional weight will not be shared across the bonds of family. But you know, part of the reason I believe I wanted to join the Army is to protect the country and people that I love, and instead, it exposes the ones I hold dearest to me to more hurt than they probably otherwise would have.
I love the poem that says something along the lines "It is the soldier, not the protester who has given us freedom of speech.... etc", but perhaps that is more accurately reflected by saying that it is not only the soldier, but their family as well.

Feeling Short

I accomplished something positive today, my tuff-box/footlocker is completely packed. Or at least, it's as packed as it's going to be because I have to take it in tomorrow and I won't see it until some time after I arrive in Afghanistan.
I'm getting used to putting things away and not seeing them for awhile, after all, the majority of my belongings that I took to England were packed away at the end of June, and I won't see them again until after I get back from the deployment. By that point in time, all of the clothes that I had in there are sure to be out of style, so I'll probably end up garage sale-ing the whole lot. Or just donating it to the salvation army or something.
If I haven't mentioned it before, I really really really hate packing. Ok, maybe hate isn't the right word, I abhor it, and yet, here I am doing it again. I'm waiting for life to settle in enough that I don't feel like I'm constantly in a transitory state. At this point, it's beginning to look as though that might not happen until I'm out of the military. I think that the upcoming year is going to do a lot in terms of deciding how long I'm going to stay in, whether I'll serve past my initial committment or not. I hope that it goes well, but at least I'm seeing how things are going to be fairly soon, and I should be able to go into the decision making process with my eyes wide open when 2010 gets closer. That sounds so far away, but if the last six years of my life are anything to judge by, I'll be making that decision sooner than I'll probably be ready to.
Right now, I'm focusing on getting everything ready to move out of my temporary first real apartment, and put things in storage or on the plane to Afghanistan. But it's all the side issues that have me wrapped up and take the majority of my time - figuring out what to do with my car, my cell phone, trying to put everything into a neat and orderly place. Except that I'm really not a neat and orderly person at heart, so maybe the messiness of all this uncertainty is really just what the doctor ordered so to speak. We'll see. That's the catch phrase of my life. We'll see. Things are about to really start rolling, and I'm ready to see them started and find out how the next phase goes.
Even if that possibly includes teaching college courses during the deployment. Apparently that's a possibility, I've been approached about fitting that into my schedule next year. How wild would that be, trying to teach basic algebra or whatnot to deployed soldiers? Guess I'll find out how I feel about teaching maybe. Again, we'll see.
Now, I'm feeling short (and not height wise). Time is moving and pretty soon I'll be deployed. Guess the rubber's about to hit the road.

Playing Soldier

Well, today marked one more step in the pre-deployment process that is complete... weapons qualification. The very thought of qualification is usually enough to send shivers of foreboding up my spine, because I've never managed very well with the M16. So as I lay in bed last night, unable to sleep because of the house shaking (literally) in the 30 mph winds that buffeted the area, I was dreading spending a day in the freezing cold at the range today.
In a nutshell, I was quite right about the freezing coldness. It was miserably cold, even with 2 layers of long underwear and my gortex. The poor shooting however, was replaced today with what was, for me, quite a spectacular showing. I zeroed in 4 attempts after beginning with a miserable mechanical zero, and shot 36 out of 40 for my qualification, which means that for the first time in my life, I shot something besides marksman.

Settling In

I don't know how long it's going to take until Ft. Drum feels like home, but I am starting to feel settled finally. It's been frustrating, because I feel like my credit card is constantly out of my wallet as I think of things that I need to make my month stay here more comfortable, but I suppose that at least everything that I'm getting will be useful to me once I get back from Afghanistan next year. At least I've been able to forego clothing purchases so far, aside from the new winter jacket I got at Thanksgiving, but that was really a necessity considering the climate this far north.
I feel like January is just a holding pattern of sorts. There's really nothing that I can do this month to get myself permanently settled in, because at the end of the month I'm just going to have to pack it all up and put it in storage. But at the same time, a month is a decently long time, so I want to feel settled in enough that it's not adding stress. It's a fine line to walk, but thank goodness I have my roommate. If I were trying to get used to living here by myself, I don't think I'd be too happy right now, but she's definitely helping to keep me sane. We kind of came to the realization yesterday that friends are the biggest way to settle in with the crazy life that we lead in the military.
So while I can't guarantee that I'll actually have reached the point where Ft. Drum will feel like "home" before I leave, at least I don't feel completely cut adrift right now. It's starting to feel familiar.

2006 - Off and Rolling

2006. Eek. I'm still not sure where 2005 went, it seems like it was only a few weeks ago that I was heading into London to watch the fireworks for 2005. Far from being in the capital of a foreign country, I spent New Years at home this year, in all the excitement that good old Batavia has to offer. Which is to say, not a whole heck of a lot. But I guess that considering where I'll likely be for the next one, might not be as bad as it sounds.
I flew back to New York last night, and the trip was bad pretty much from the start. Let's see, the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed. I had to sit for almost 40 minutes on the runway while they were delayed in loading our luggage because there was an accident on the tarmac with the luggage vehicle. They couldn't find my leave form when I tried to sign in. I had to drive 65 miles through fog that had a visibility of about 3 feet in front of me. But all of that I would have been willing to overlook as minor snafu's that come with travelling. The kicker was sleeping in my car in the freezing cold because the land lady for my apartment had the locks repaired last week while I was home on leave and the key that I had wouldn't work, and it was 2 in the morning by the time I got there after all the aforementioned delays, so she was dead to the world and didn't wake up to my ringing the door bell and pounding on the door. So I spent my first full night of 2006 curled into the fetal position on my driver's seat, with my coat over me and had to turn on the engine every hour or so to warm up the car when I'd wake up absolutely freezing. I was not a happy person. In fact, I was pretty much the opposite of happy. I think I was cursing Ft. Drum, the Army, my land lady, myself, the airline, the weather, etc, until I fell asleep.
Well, enough complaining, I survived the night, didn't get any frostbite, and even managed to get a small amount of sleep, so I suppose I am no worse for the wear. It's a lot easier to say that now than it was last night at 2:30 though.
I certainly hope that the first 24 hours of 2006 was not indicative of what type of year it is going to be, or I'm in trouble. On the brught side, I may very well have used up all of my bad luck in the first day of the year, and then I'll have nothing but good luck for the remainder. I'm trying to be optimistic and put my money on the second option.