Well, this has been an odd week

First things first, my work schedule has changed every day this week. I’ve gone from night crew to days, back again and then something in between. My body has no idea what time it is anymore. It doesn’t know when to be hungry or sleepy, and decides it needs a bathroom break at odd and sometimes inconvenient times.

Secondly, the adjustment from being on the feet all day running around and turning wrenches to sitting in front of a keyboard for an average of twelve hours is turning out to be rather painful. Although the reports from the lower back area show that things have calmed down there, the calves are essentially on fire. Why the calves, specifically? Why not the whole leg?

There is good news on the mental front. I have now been officially diagnosed with ADD, inatentive type. Quite an accomplishment, really. Maybe as a civilian I could just go to the doc and he would see right away that I have the attention span of a coked out gnat. However, convincing the military shrink that I was serious and needed help was a chore that’s taken me the better part of three months.

Apparently, it’s not uncommon for marines to claim difficulty concentrating in order to obtain the speed-based drugs often used to treat ADD. Imagine that.

The long hours here with an inatentive brain led me to this site called superbad.com. It really is super bad.

When you’re done there, spend a second at something. It’s stupid, yes, but I laughed.

Here’s the real time killer, though. It’s the Home of the Underdog.

As long as I’m posting links here, I really should mention that Kady’s posting at gourmetish. She updates this place a lot more often then I do. So if you’re interested in gastronomical discourse, or just want to know what’s going on in the world of The Incomprable Lady K, it’s a good place to go.

That’s all the time I have tonight. Back to work.

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After reading Tripp’s post on his discussion with rachael(re: what is cheating?), Kady asked me what my limits were.

At first I thought I drew the line at kissing on the mouth…but then I didn’t like the idea of her thinking about kissing another guy. Under further consideration, I decided that I drew the line at me imagining her thinking about kissing other guys.

I would also like to caution everyone about buying things in an asian market without carefully considering the list of ingredients. It’s always an adventure to go someplace where you can’t understand the language. Asian markets can be so much like a petting zoo.

Live spider crabs aside, tonight I had the exclusive experience of eating a “Preserved Egg Bun”. Imagine a cute little custard bun type roll with sesame seeds as a topping…and a preserved egg in the center.

What’s a preserved egg?

This is one of those “delicacies” I first encountered in the Phillipines. The important thing to know here is that they bury a duck egg in the ground and somehow it doesn’t rot…but it does turn black and green.

Not the kind of thing you expect to find in a innoquous looking roll you are expecting to be filled with some kind of egg-based custard.

Imagine Kady’s surprise. (grin)

But, I guess that’s what she gets for cheating on me in my head.

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No more promises to post more often. Those are just good intentions gone wrong.

I would like to welcome myself to the world of desk jockeying. It’s a nice little world where I don’t worry about the weather too much anymore.

Back from lovely Yuma, AZ, a state that I hope I never see again. Tripp, if you ever want Mech’ville to feel more like a cultural mecca, try visiting Yuma. No, really. There are more disturbing examples of the U.S.’s lowest common denominator population out there. (shudder)

Oh well. I won’t be headed back east for the holidays. I’d like to see my family, but the plane tickets are just ridiculous. Plus, if I’m on the right coast, I might actually have to speak to my father.

Pops, if you’re still checking this site, all I was asking for was an apology…not to have junk mail forwarded to my work address. Thanks for the credit card applications, though, that was really thoughtful because it was the only mail that found me in Arizona.

Hello world!

Let’s try a little harder to get me bumped up on the list. (smile)

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Hey all,

Just wanted to let you know that Matt is on a six week deployment currently. He left about 4 weeks ago (so about 2 more to go) for Yuma, AZ. The middle of NOWHERE. I visited him last weekend and it was seriously insane how there is NOTHING going on there. There are only a handful of places to eat and they are the kind of places I almost need to be held at gunpoint to eat at (but then again, I’m a food snob). We saw two movies while we were there– Wallace and Grommet (Sp?) and Corpse Bride. The first was good but we were both majorly disappointed with Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride.

Anyway, just a quick update. Hopefully Matt will start posting more regularly once he gets back in November. We have a lot going on that month but hopefully he’ll post.

Hope anyone reading this is doing well.

Kady

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As you know the red cross is one of the best organizations to support in this relief effort. If you haven’t already gone to the website please see how you can help:

The Veterans for Peace are also there helping and need a few supplies/donations:

Also, here is a petition asking the goverment to open vacant military bases as housing for Hurricane Katrina victims. Please check it out!

Thanks to Tripp for posting the Kanye West outburst.

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Well, I been meaning to post for ever here and just not for various reasons. Now that Tripp has given me the final deadline, I’m properly motivated to remain on the site.

I have to apologize to him for my abuse of his friendship, and to anyone else who may have been reading this.

I should also take this space here to say that I will be posting more in the future, both quality and quantity wise. Not tonight, though. I just had a real pisser of a work week and I’m just about ready to pass out.

Nighty night.

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As you may have heard, it was my birthday yesterday. I turned twenty-nine. Two Nine, every one. That may not surprise anyone but me. I don’t know how I got to be this age. Strange age to be, by the way. Of course I don’t feel any different, but there are now enough people in the world that consider me old to make me a little self-concious. Of course, an even greater number still consider this young, which is what I find kind of amusing.

At any rate, it was not the best birthday I’ve ever had. Nothing horrible happened, nothing like a traumatising childhood birthday experience anyway. I woke up early enough to finish packing my gear, shower and shave before breakfast at 6 am. I am in no way, have never been, and will never be, anything close to a “morning person”. From there on it was one of those “hurry up and wait” days you only experience in the military and airports.

Our chopper flight from the boat inland was pushed back, then delayed…and then hurry up! planes are ready to go! Go! Go! Go! Then I sit in the chopper for about an hour trying to keep my lunch from coming up for an encore. Not fun. Once again, my MP3 player saved my sanity. After a hard landing, hauling a couple hundred pounds of gear into the hanger, it was straight to work until after dinner. By the time I found an open cot and layed down well after midnight, I was too tired to unpack my sleeping bag. Of course, it was on the bottom. So I spent the night in cammies, freezing in the desert, praying for sleep.

Welcome to Kuwait!

My first impression of this place leaves a lot to be desired. In an email to Kady I descibed it as “nothing visible worth fighting over.” Just a lot of sand punctuated with rocks. As far as you can see. It’s almost exactly like being at sea…except that the ocean changes from day to day so it’s by far the more interesting of the two terrains. The base reminds me of what a frontier town in the wild west must have been like. Poor living conditions, cheap buildings thrown up every where, and everyone’s armed to the teeth. It’s been two days now and I haven’t bothered with a shower. What’s the point when I have to walk through a dust storm to get from the showers back to the tent? I still haven’t figured out how to get the taste of dirt out of my mouth.

We’re only going to be here for a couple more days at the very most. Then, we’re going to bounce around to a couple other bases over the weekend before settling down somewhere in the general vicinity of the place you hear about in the news a lot. I have no idea what the conditions will be like there. I assume that it will be realitively safe, however. Safe from physical harm, anyway.

I also have no idea how long we’re staying there. We could turn around after a few weeks and head back to the boat for the trip home. That’s what I’m hoping and praying for. However, there’s a remote possibility that we could be extended, in which case I could be over here for a minimum of six more months. It’s a remote possibility, but if I’ve learned one thing here it’s that “remote possibilities” have a scary way of becoming reality with absolutely zero warning.

I’m anxious to the point of being sick. I’ve lost all appetite recently and when I do eat I fight to get it down smoothly. It’s that tightening of the throat exactly like when I eat something that made me sick once before….but it doesn’t matter what I eat. Thanks to my Pops for sending those monster power bars. They’re not appetizing, but they take care of the hunger pangs when I can’t manage to get to breakfast in the morning.

I hope you are all doing well. I will do my best to keep this as updated as I can considering what a luxury internet access has become to me.

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