My work day

Two weeks here and boredom is beginning to set in but, I've found the best way to deal with this is to work more. Today I arrived to work 2 hours early because time goes by surprisingly fast in the office. My schedule is the same everyday of the week (which I like.) Wake up, eat, go to work, eat, work out and sleep. I might throw a movie in there or a hundred pages of a book every few days too. Gotta keep things spontaneous you know. Here in the office (yes I am writing personal emails whilst at work) we have a little Christmas tree with lights which we have to hide every time the top brass decide to pop their head's in. At night when everyone who cares has gone home, we light up the tree and play Christmas music (right now Frank Sinatra's Let It Snow.) Played in our weekly poker game last friday where after four hours of hard work I managed to win a single dollar. I'll leave you with a funny story. One of my buddies got into a bit of trouble yesterday. The chow hall got hit with a rocket yesterday ( a common occurrence although not at all scary due to the insurgents extreme inaccuracy.) My friend was on his way to breakfast when it hit, bounced off the roof and landed a few feet from him. Unharmed and undeterred he continued on his way to get his morning omelet. Protocol would dictate that he return immediately to our HQ and report this "close-call." An hour later he returned from breakfast to find our entire command searching for him and contemplating the possibility that he had been "blown up." Now he has to guard the computer lab for the next week as punishment. He says he's catching up on his reading and emails and doesn't seem to mind. Thought that was funny and hope you did too. Till Christmas.

My new home

After a few more flight delays (this time waiting on helicopters) we have arrived. The base is a lot smaller than I expected and not quite as nice as Kuwait (no Starbucks or fast food.) On the upside however the dining facility here is open all but six hours a day and the food is awesome. Last night I had steak and shrimp for dinner which is a regularly scheduled meal here. If the Army is short on funding it certainly isn't coming out of the food budget. Right now I'm sharing a room with five other people but, after a month or so it should be only two per room. The buildings aren't much to look at from the outside and a lot have the top floors blown out from the initial invasion in 03'. The insides are the exact opposite having been home to thousands of soldiers over the past four years. The walls are all decorated in letters and pictures put up by previous units and their are several bookshelves filled with books that have been left behind. In our room we already have a 1-foot tall Christmas tree with lights courtesy one of my roommates family. Other than that we haven't done much because we will be rotating rooms soon. I don't know much about work yet and probably won't be able to write much here in this public forum. Most details will be limited to the antics and misadventures of me and my platoon. Hopefully those alone will be enough to keep you reading. Lastly, I do have my physical address now but, I can't give it here. You can contact me at danieledowd@gmail.com or get a hold of my mom. She has it. Till then.