Soccer

As some of you know, I'm not much of a soccer fan (I'm way too obsessed with football to leave any room for another sport) but I couldn't help but watch the Paraguay-Iraq game last night. Partially cause we were actually ordered to monitor the score and partially cause I genuinely wanted Iraq to win. We had to monitor the score (and yes, it feels surreal) because some Iraqis have a habit of grabbing an AK and firing hundreds of rounds in the air when they win. Even with that, I was still pulling for the Iraqis to win. How awesome would that be if Iraq had brought home the gold. Man. Like one broadcaster said, no one deserves it as much as Iraq. I was very sad to see them lose that game. My sympathies to Iraq and their loss.
Also, I was quite mystified the other day when I logged on and found that I had had 150 hits in ONE day. I couldn't believe the numbers. So, I started poking around on Iraqi and Soldier blogs and found that my blog has made the List of Iraqi Blogs. YAY! What a great moment in my blogger career. ;-) B

Food Cravings...

So, we're almost to the sixth month mark here in Iraq and that must mean that it's time for the insane food cravings to hit. You know how, in the states, you get a craving for something, you just go get it. Not so here. Even if we could get what we're craving, it usually doesn't hit until AFTER everything is already closed. Like the other day, I'm sitting on night radio watch and this commerical comes on the TV showing Chinese food. CHINESE FOOD. Grrr. My stomach starts rumbling and I have this crazy craving for chinese food. And no way to get it, especially at 4 am. Two days ago, one of the guys busts into my room, BEGGING for anything even vaguely chip-like. So, of course we didn't have any, but he kicked off one heck of a craving for chips and dip with my roommate and I. Grrrr. And yesterday, I was playing Risk (the game, and actually winning, for the moment) and one of the guys started talking about real pizza, and burger king burgers, and real fries, and steak. The whole game stopped as we sat there, just imagining those things and how good they would taste. We all snapped out of it at once and were ready to kill this guy. Why'd you do that? OH, jerk, you're going home tomorrow. GRRR! (He said he was going to seal up some McD's wrappers and bring them back to tease us. I think we shall have to kill him if he does.) I'm hoping this food craving phase stops, cause I can't keep dreaming of steak at night. I can't get no sleep. B

P.S. Speaking of dreams, one of my roommates woke up this morning having had a dream where he couldn't stop staring at the sky cause it has white puffy things in it (I think they're called "clouds"). I think we've been here too long.

Who thought cold water would be a luxury...

After groggily ripping yourself out of the hungry jaws of sleep, you stumble to the shower. Still blearly eyed, you turn on the hot water. Check. Now, reaching for the cold water handle, you try to get a nice temperature to enjoy your shower. But all that comes out is boiling water. Confused, you step into the shower hoping that the water will mysteriously cool down as it...OW...OW...HOT! Sound backwards? Used to actually running out of hot water? Welcome to IRAQ! Yes, in their infinite wisdom, the builders put the water tank on the ROOF of the buildings. Yes, this would be on the ROOF, as close as possible to the firey ball in the sky some call the sun. And just to make sure that it gets nice and how, the water even flows through a hot water heater. Now, this might not be a big problem if we were somewhere like, Michigan, but we're in IRAQ, where it normally gets around 110 degrees. And as we all know, water likes to store heat. I never thought I'd say this, but what I wouldn't give for a cold shower. B

Job update....

I just talked to the guy actually in charge of my job switch in order to find out what was going on. The guy I was in a rush to replace (by Sept 1st) was replaced by an Infantry LT so, I'm basically waiting now for my actual replacement to come in. Because of the job I do, I have to actually wait for an Artillery LT to come in from Hood. And who knows when that will happen. Let's just say that 2-82 BC isn't in a big hurry to replace the FISTers. He seems mainly concerned with getting replacements for 2-82. Anyway, what this means for me is that I'm basically on hold until my replacement comes in. If he ever does.
As for things Iraqi, it's quieted down a lot here. There have been very few mortar/rocket attacks lately and no reports of a bad guy army invasion. The National Convention (thanks for posting that article, JDenn) that was supposed to be 2 days long has decided to keep meeting until they can get their issues resolved, or at least on the way to being resolved. It's still a great step for Iraq and something they should all be proud of. That's about all that's going on now. Later. B

Boom

Sorry again for not posting as soon as I wanted to. I've been pulling a lot of night radio duty in the company command post (yes, we're that short-handed). So, that's really messed up my sleep schedule and it seems everyone conspires to not allow me to sleep. Sometimes, I can't fall asleep until like 0600 and then get woke up at 11 for something stupid, but then I can't get back to sleep. Anyway, things have calmed down and I've been trying to get on a normal schedule again.
The other day, I had gotten off shift at 7 am and took a little bit to get to sleep. I got woken up at 1130 with the words "sir, wake up, you're in charge." I groggily asked, in charge of what? The company, sir. Of course, my first thought was that everyone must be dead for me to be in charge. Luckily it was only b/c the XO and CO had left the area for a mission, which left me in charge. It only lasted a couple of hours, but it sure was a nice feeling. I'm definitely going to have that as a block on my officer eval (OER).
They've still been launching lots of rockets at us lately, especially since the National Convention is going on. Never heard of it? Yeah, I'm not surprised. It seems that covering big bad American soldiers defiling the most "holy city in Iraq" Najaf and killing millions of innocent civilains is more important than covering the fact that hundreds of delagates from all over Iraq are meeting right now to start drafting their own constitution. A huge step forward in making Iraq its own nation on its own terms and it's NOWHERE on the news. Very frustrating.
I promised more information on the job switch I'm about to make. As early as September 1st, I may be switching back to 2-82 FA. The relies on someone coming to replace me, but he is supposedly on the ground at Fort Hood right now and should be on the way soon. The reason that my switch date got moved up so much is that I'm the first in the chain reaction of moves to be conducted. I have to take Guy 1's job, so he can take Guy 2's so he can take Guy3's so he can take Guy 4's and so on. Not that I'm complaining too much cause I am more than ready to move out of this position. It becomes more frustrating every day for reasons I really cannot get into on such a public forum. As for the job I'll have, I'll be taking over a platoon (what I really want) conducting escort missions. I'm hoping that this will give me a much more regimented schedule and get me back sleeping normally again. It is a tad more dangerous job, but hopefully one that will leave me more fufilled than I am right now. Well, I actually have some things to do today, so I'll leave it at that. Later. Brian

still here...

Sorry for not posting in so long. I've kinda been in a funk lately and haven't felt like doing much of anything. I am doing pretty well, on the whole. Had a mistaken report today that my replacement was here. Kind of a shock/suprise that I'll really be moving soon to a new job. Lots of things happening in Iraq, for those who've been keeping up with the news (I'll detail them later for those who don't ;-) ). In the last 4 days there've been over 20 mortar/rocket attacks in the Green Zone, so it's been pretty crazy. Hopefully, I'll get on later tonight and let you know more about what's going on over here. Brian