Wow, has it really been that long since I updated this blasted thing? I guess so. Well, I get a lot of my family asking me to update the blog, so I’m going to address a few things that people always ask about or seem to have a misconception about. First, it’s still hot here. 105 is the average hi, but it’s actually very comfortable, especially in the morning when it’s a cool 75. I haven’t updated much b/c I haven’t felt the need to write anything. This job is not the most glamorous, and lately, the rockets have been few and far between (knock on wood). It’s very much like Groundhog Day here, and it’s mind numbing. At least for the contractors, they all get to go home one month for every three in country. Damn, they get paid 3 times as much as me on average, AND they still get to spend 3 months at home during the year. Talk about a crappy deal for our Armed Forces.
I’ve been well overall. I’ve lost a lot of drive to do anything and I attribute it to being bored, among other things. I guess after seeing videos that my wife sent me of my daughter made me miss them so much, that I fell into a funk. I’ve lost the drive to go to the gym, and I’m drowning my sorrows in Baskin Robbins ice cream every night. DAMN THE SWEET NECTAR OF BASKINS ROBINS!!! I’ve also experienced a bad part of wearing contacts. Somehow, I managed to scratch both my eyeballs and get micro infections in both of them, which has made it very hard for me to focus on anything, especially words. I’m making due, and I’ve got eye drops to help, but we’ll see if this gets worse and I’m forced to get further treatment.
Many of us soldiers try to break up the week by giving ourselves a “weekend”. I’ve managed to pare my days down to about 11-12 hours, so it’s not nearly as bad as before. We have two days a week that a half dozen of us get together and play either Mega Monopoly (look it up…better then regular Monopoly) or Risk. Playing Risk is a throw back to my first tour. We used to play Risk all the time up in Mosul, drinking Near Beer and eating microwave popcorn…and it was fun. Guess what? It’s still fun! There’s nothing like a good game of World Domination.
I’ve been making a lot of connections with a number of individuals here. I think it’s taken the Department of State personnel a little while to realize that we’re there to help them, and that we’re not out to screw them like our predecessors tried. I do think a good part of it is coming from sympathy for many of us b/c they have come to see that we’re led by the incompetent. That’s an entirely different post, so I’ll not say more about our “Fearless” leader. Anyways, I had a moment of realization back in late August, shortly after we had a social with our DOS counterparts. The primary directors in our unit met with our counterparts over dinner, and we had a great time. I was very, very surprised at how young many of the DOS personnel were, most of them in their late 20’s and early 30’s. My counterpart is the Senior State Information Management Officer in the Embassy, which means he’s in charge of all internal computers and communications. He reports directly to the Deputy Chief of Mission, or the Deputy Ambassador, and he’s just over 35. I guess I’m so used to dealing with military folk, that I never thought about where my current responsibilities actually fit in the civilian agencies. Of course, there are other officers who outrank me in the AO, but since we deal with DOS and they don’t, I’m the man that DOS comes to when it comes to MNF-I communications and computers. It’s nice to realize that I’m not just a lowly officer anymore. Being a Major is beginning to sink in it feels like.
Maybe I'm not so much bored, but the job isn't nearly as stimulating as my last deployment. Ok, enough babbling. I’ll write more later since I have other things to say.
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