1 week down, 30 to go...

someone made this excel thing called the 'donut of misery' and if you put in your dates, it will count down how long you have to go. you just adjust as your dates adjust. i hear that it really is miserable though as it just seems that time never passes. i only look at it occasionally :).

so i've been here a week now and what's life like? well, all things considered, it's not too bad. work has picked up (mostly admin bullcrap, but better than nothing) so quite a few people come through medical daily....still time for movies and tv shows though so that's good. my room is pretty nice. it's set up so that there are these makeshift walls so that my roommate and i each have our own little space and one big common area. my tv/dvd/gamecube are set up. our mini fridge is well stocked with diet sodas (yeah, i drink diet now), water, and gatorade (made up for by the diet sodas). the chow hall is pretty decent. i eat way too much but i've been exercising a bit more, too, thankfully. i hear the heat is a great means of weight loss though. i'm pretty used to the portapotties. but we also have these "comfort trailers" where the showers are and where there are pseud0-real toilets. i usu try to wait to go there for no. 2 (i know, tmi).

the base is fairly bleak...not much on here...driving to mainside, you can see the town of habbaniyah off in the distance and it looks like any other city....so close and yet so far away. on southside where i am, there's a beautiful blue lake that looks so incredibly peaceful, you have to remind yourself that a rocket attack could come at any time. i got my first haircut (they usu come every other week now) by a local national who gave a mini massage afterward for 3 bucks. we take out our own trash (mailing labels have to be burned) but laundry is done twice a week. weather's still pretty nice from the winter. still cold at night and early morning, but warm during the day. they sky is so clear at night it reminds me of those nights in small town new england where the moon and stars just light up.

so 7 months, 210 days, 14 paychecks (tax free will be nice!), and 95% of deployment left to go. not that i'm counting or anything....