Deployment Journal-Jun 07

01 Jun 07: June is finally here!! Thank God! I had yet another day from hell. Here’s to hoping that next week is MUCH better. Tuesday can not get here soon enough! I had a camel spider come in my direction tonight and I freaked! It gave Kelly a good laugh to see just how much spiders freak me out. When you can see it’s shadow, it’s way too big for my comfort level! I got to hear an interesting story from Billy, the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) guy today. I don’t know if I can share it so I won’t for now but, wow!

**It was surf and turf Friday (or as we called it tonight, surf and feathers). I had crab, BBQ chicken and baked mac and cheese.

02 Jun 07: If anyone has sent me e-mails since Tuesday and I haven’t replied, please don’t be offended. I am just now starting to get them coming in for some reason. I guess our e-mail server has had a serious lag the last few days. (Crystal, you’re the only one that I’ve gotten an e-mail from.) To be safe, if anyone wants to e-mail me at home, it seems to be a little more reliable (at least while I’m at work). The address is floatingwithbutterflies@yahoo.com Anyway, today was another hot and windy day but it has been much better as far as my mood goes. I got a full 8 hours of sleep last night and when my alarm went off this morning, I had no idea what it was. It was so nice to have my alarm wake me up instead of noisy girls. Now I remember what it feels like to be rested. I did some rearranging in my room last night so I’ll have to take some new pictures to show everyone. I put a dark green sheet up along with the blanket that was up there and it sure helped to keep the sun out when people open the door. What a relief!

**Meal of the day was yummy veal and garlic potato cubes!

03 Jun 07: I got another full night sleep and was raring to go today to say the least. Our system has been down at work for 4 days now and it’s making it very hard to get the job done so it’s made for some boring days. Our e-mail is still haywire also. Hopefully it all gets ironed out so I can get my e-mails again and get some work down. Huff’s system was working so I utilized that for an hour and a half while they went to lunch but other than that, we couldn’t get a whole lot done. When we were on the bus on the way home, we had a F-15 come screaming over top of us with full afterburners. Now THAT was pretty cool!

**Meal of the day was not very appealing so I had a burger.

04 Jun 07: I’m alive and well today. Had an extremely busy day at work and was there late. It’s my day off tomorrow though but I’m getting up early to dye my hair and stuff before we head out to “the roof”.

**Meal of the day was another burger. Yuck!

05 Jun 07: Today was another great day. I never imagined I would enjoy my days off so much. We went out to our spot again today and had a nice relaxing day. We also watched 5 hours of The Sopranos. It’s great to just sit around and do nothing all day. We had an awesome storm last night so we didn’t walk out to work today. We had Huff come pick us up because the road is flooded and we wouldn’t have been able to get through it without getting our feet wet. The lightning last night was amazing. Thankfully it didn’t thunder for too long though because I don’t care for the sound of thunder. We didn’t do any of our other normal stuff because we were out there so long. I got a package from Katie today too and it made my day! She sent me sheets, angel pens, jerky, she was the first one to find pink lemonade which was awesome, Listerine packets, a very cool journal with a butterfly on it, trail mix, lip stuff and that’s what I can remember off the top of my head. What a sweetheart! Thank you so much Katie!

06 Jun 07: Today was a strange day. I had absolutely no desire to get out of bed and go to work. I just feel tired. I would like to just get in a 30 minute power nap at some point and get some real sleep. I’ve been sleeping well every night but it’s from sleeping pills or I don’t sleep at all but I’m starting to feel like I don’t ever get any real good sleep. It’s all sleeping pill induced. Hopefully I can get a nap some time tomorrow before work.

**Meal of the day was some awesome chicken. It was so tender and juicy and some mashed potatoes.

07 Jun 07: I’ve had a rough couple of days and I am just so ready for things to start getting better. I’m okay, just a little stressed out. We had a water pipe burst in the dorms this morning so I didn’t get to take a shower. I’m home now though and showered so I am off to bed.

**Meal of the day was a burger. I didn’t feel much like eating.

08 Jun 07: Today was a weird day. We got word as soon as we were getting ready to leave for work that we had a meeting and that we were all changing shifts. We got in and we did in fact get moved shifts and have a meeting. It was very directive in nature basically stating that since some people couldn’t pass stuff along, that we were all going to 7-7 shifts and shift change would take place in the shop. It’s going to be interesting to say the least. We get off at midnight tonight and then go back in at 7 p.m. I don’t know how I’m going to stay up late but I’m going to try. I have been sick all day I guess from something I ate. The other 3 guys that ate at the same place I did are sick too so I’m hoping it passes for all of us soon.

**Meal of the day was a lobster tail and some mac and cheese. I’m not a huge lobster fan but it was cooked perfectly and not very fishy at all. I really enjoyed it!

09 Jun 07: Well I made it until 4 this morning before I finally couldn’t take being awake anymore. I woke up at 11 and then went back to sleep until 1400. I just couldn’t sleep anymore plus the a/c is out in our room and it was probably the hottest day we’ve had today. I know that I am going to pay for it tonight though since I will be on shift until 0700. It’s going to be a learning curve with this whole new shift but we’ll see how it goes. It seems like it will work out better for me as far as talking to the kids goes once I get used to the sleep schedule of it. I have to figure out when to eat too since chow will now be open for dinner (my breakfast time) and midnight chow (my lunch time). I’m just not a huge fan of changes on a deployment. Everyone is already on edge because of the conditions, hours, lack of sleep, etc that little changes like this can throw someone over the edge. I just usually roll with the punches but sometimes, they’re harder to take than others. There has been more and more camel spiders each day. I about stepped on one today and ran in the other direction. Tom has a really good picture of one and when he gets it downloaded, I will share it with everyone. That thing is huge! Oh, I got to see a fox tonight. I thought it was a cat because it was that small and then I shined my flashlight on it and realized it was a tiny fox. That was the highlight of my day!!

**Meal of the day was veal parmesan.

10 Jun 07: Last night was the longest night I’ve had in a long time. I didn’t get much sleep at all so I’m definitely counting the minutes until this day is over. I am going straight home, taking a sleeping pill and getting into bed. We had the contractors come in to replace one of our air conditioning units at 10 this morning so I got woken up for that. Then, they’re building a parking lot across from our dorm and they were using a steam roller and it was shaking and vibrating the entire building all day long. I don’t know they expect us day sleepers to ever get any sleep around this place but it’s getting a little old. I’m hoping that I’m tired enough tonight when I get off work that it won’t matter and I will just be able to crash. I could sure use just one solid night of sleep. I’m starting to get very anxious about the results of our test we took in March. Results come out on the 14th and I am getting very nervous about it. I really hope that Chris and I made it. Other than me being very tired today, there is nothing else to report.

**Meal of the day was just leftovers from yesterday. I am not very hungry today.

11 Jun 07: Today things are starting to look up. I got a great night of sleep. I woke up this morning in the same exact position as when I went to sleep so I know that I slept well. It felt so good to be rested. The rest of my body is still trying to catch up though because my eating schedule is still way off. I get hungry at the oddest times. I have been able to keep myself busy at work most of the night too which always helps pass the time. Tomorrow is my day off so when I get off work, Kelly and I are going down the road to do our normal weekly thing, just a few hours earlier than usual and then we’ll sleep whenever we’re done.

**Meal of the day was some fried chicken and rice.

12 Jun 07: Today was the best day off ever. I am liking my new shift as far as the whole day off thing goes. We went straight down to “the roof” from work. I thought I would be exhausted but I got my second wind. We didn’t hang out for long though and got home early afternoon and went to sleep. Kelly and I got up and did our normal BX, uniform, laundry, etc. thing and then went back to sleep. I got some great sleep which I so needed. I hope every day off is like that.

**The Pizza Hut opened so we had to go check that out. It was expensive but pretty good.

13 Jun 07: Today has been pure torture waiting for results of my next stripe. I have to wait until 6 p.m. our time (that’s 6:30 a.m. my time back home) and it is just killing me. I am so anxious to find out either way although I do not have a good feeling. People insist that when you feel the worst about it, you usually make it. I have about 13 hours left until I find out. I think I’m mostly adjusted to my new shift now so that’s great. I think one more day and my food clock should be back on track. Hopefully I have some great news to post about tomorrow. Other than that, today was just very windy and hot. It’s like a blow dryer here now.

**Meal of the day was leftover pizza.

14 Jun 07: And the hits just keep on coming. My laptop crashed last night so now I don’t have a computer in my room so I can’t watch the kids on the webcam. Chris is sending me the restore disc in hopes that I can just restore it back to factory and it will work again but that’s a whole week at least that I’ll have to wait before I have some entertainment in my room. That is not what I needed over here. Then, I found out that I did not make my next stripe so here I am having to spend another year being underpaid and underappreciated. That’s the story of my life. I usually try to keep this positive but today, that is not a possibility. I am so mad at myself and I only have me to blame for it. It won’t get me that stripe though. Well, at least it won’t get me the stripe this year. All I can do is learn from it and kick the crap out of the test next year but I feel like an idiot. There is only one person that made it from my base in my career field so there are plenty of others having a bad day today. I hate crying though and when the captain looked down at me and told me that I was still his #1, that was the end of it for me. I needed some time to compose myself. Hopefully tomorrow’s entry will be a lot happier.

**I just had some cereal for dinner tonight.

15 Jun 07: Today is a much better day. I woke up with a bit of a heavy heart this morning about all of it but I’m in much better spirits. It shows too. Many people have commented on how I look like I’m doing better today. It’s nice to know as many people as I do but sometimes I just want to be left alone. It’s nice to know that people care though. Kelly let me use her computer last night so I could talk to Chris for a while which was very nice of her. I finally got my computer and phone back at work. As soon as we get the printer and scanner loaded back on to it, I’ll be back in business and I can finally get some work done. I hate just sitting here although I have gotten through quite a bit of my book. I’m currently reading “Three Fates” by Nora Roberts. I am about 3/4 of the way through it. It’s a great book! I enjoy having time to read so much!

**They had a BBQ for a promotion party today so I was able to get some burgers from that for dinner.

16 Jun 07: My computer is fixed!!! Jesse, a guy on the flightline that doesn’t care for me very much, is a computer genius and fixed it! He didn’t know it was mine until after he fixed it but thankfully he wasn’t upset. (We had a minor disagreement when I was here last time.) I guess since Leah had her day off yesterday, she decided to take it out there to him and he was able to get it going and I have some brand new virus software. It is working like a champ now and I am beyond excited. That made this whole week better. Kelly pulled something in her back a few days ago and she was really hurting bad today so I suggested she go get it checked out. Poor thing looked like she was in so much pain. I don’t know if it was just a pulled muscle or what but she is staying in her room today with some good drugs so hopefully she is feeling better tomorrow. Billy, the guy I talked about earlier in this months journal, was on the news today. http://www.bagram.afnews.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123057355 Also, the other highlight of my day was getting to watch a dog being trained out here by where I work. One of the supers knows how much I miss my dogs as well and so he came in to get me and let me know that it was out there. I sat out there for about 40 minutes and just watched them train him. That was so good for my morale. The only thing that would have been better is if I would have gotten to pet him.

**Meal of the day was chicken, rice and some very yummy cheesy mashed potatoes.

17 Jun 07: Happy Father’s Day to my dad and Chris and all those other daddy’s out there. I hope you all had a fantastic day. Today was interesting here but boring. Of course I still have 6 hours to go of my 12 hour shift so that ought to be fun. On the way in to work today I was looking out the windows on the bus and realizing how pretty this place can be if you just pay attention. I was wishing I could get a picture of the beautiful view that we have on the way in with the sun just starting to set behind the mountains. It was windy again today but you could see the mountains very clearly and they are just amazing.

**It was another burger day. The only thing I don’t like about this new shift now is the food schedule.

18 Jun 07: Today was by far the worst day yet. Kelly and I were up in the First Sergeant’s office because she wanted to show us a video she was putting together of pictures from over here and the bus decided to leave without us even though they knew we were there in the building. We called and asked for someone to come get us and we waited for an hour before we said screw it and started walking. Everyone knew that I was beyond pissed off when I walked in and said nothing to anyone. I don’t know how you can just leave someone you know is in the building when work is 2 1/2 miles away but they sure did it. I gave a piece of my mind after I calmed down a little bit and I’m fine now but it was just annoying. That killed 2 hours of my night so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. My day off is tomorrow so I’m looking forward to that. I did get some great news today though. Huff found out that his wife is pregnant! They have been trying for a long time to get pregnant and have spent a lot of $$ to get there. She sent him a picture of her positive pregnancy test. I couldn’t be happier for those 2! He’s going to make an awesome daddy! Also, I got a package from Grandma Louise today! She sent me some snacks, a magazine and a picture of Chris when he was little.

**Meal of the day was Subway. Since we were walking to work, we made a little detour.

19 Jun 07: I had a great day off. I was suffering from a complete lack of sleep though. We went out to do our normal weekly hang out on “the roof” (which I put a picture of on my website) and ended up being up for 24 hours before I went to sleep. I slept most of the rest of the night. I did dye Kelly’s hair for her though and then did mine since we were doing that sort of thing anyway. It was fun to sit and play beauty shop for a while.

**We had leftover Subway for dinner.

20 Jun 07: Today is boring, boring, boring. There is absolutely nothing to do. My drive where I do my electronic docs isn’t working at work so that takes a couple of hours of work away a day. Hopefully they will figure it out soon. I just got coffee at 3:30 in the morning though so that will at least keep me awake the rest of my shift. I’m going to finally finish my book I think. We found out today that we’re going to get to do some gym time during our shift which is wonderful. I’ve been losing weight like crazy and that will only help that out. My back has still been hurting every day but I’m going to do as much as I’m physically capable of.

**Meal of the day was a burger and fries. Yuck!

21 Jun 07: Sorry I’m just getting around to posting this now. We’ve been having internet problems at work again. Last night was boring again and I’m back in that pattern of no sleep again. I’m sleeping but not for very long stretches and not very well at all.

**Meal of the day was another burger. This is not working for me. I’m going to have to start getting up early and going to get “to go” boxes from the DFAC.

22 Jun 07: I still didn’t get very much sleep last night. I have bags under my eyes to prove it today. No amount of Mary Kay is helping me today. LOL Hopefully I will get some great sleep tonight. I need to figure out how to get a new mattress or something. I have visible bruises on my hips and back from the stupid spring that pokes me every night. I already have a small egg crate thing and a blanket under my sheets but the spring still gets me.

**I had a bowl of cereal for dinner. The other guy on my shift is off work so I can’t leave and I just wasn’t in the mood to burden someone with bringing food back for me.

23 Jun 07: Well today, they decided (the Army I guess) that they would restrict our computer access even more so no more Yahoo from work, my journal, Baby Collin’s blog that I visit every day and even my bank account. So, because of that, you will see a delay in my journal entries especially if my internet is not working in my room. Ugh! This is getting really old, really fast. Hopefully enough people will complain and they will knock it off and give us what little access we had back.

**Another burger. Yuck, yuck, yuck! Why do I have to be so picky!!

24 Jun 07: Today was pure hell. I got 2 hours of sleep last night but thankfully I made it. Then I got home and got the most wonderful news that just made today worth it. My brother finally proposed to his long time girlfriend Juliet!!! I am so proud of him and so happy for them. She is going to make the most beautiful bride and the best wife! I couldn’t be happier for those 2!!

**Meal of the day was Subway.

25 Jun 07:  Today was the best day I’ve had since I’ve been here yet!  I finally got a great night of sleep and then when I arrived at work, I had 3 packages waiting on me!!!  I couldn’t believe that I had 3.  There was also someone that came around with dog tags for all the moms that say:

With Love From Mom
U.S. Air Force
Afghanistan 2007

The first box I opened was from Bryan and Bonnie.  Bryan had asked me if there was anything that I needed and I mentioned that the one thing I didn’t have enough of that was hard for people to find was pink lemonade singles packets.  I gets Wyler’s makes them and his wife Bonnie was able to find them at a store there in Kansas and bought all they had.  They sent a whole freezer bag full of singles!!  That ought to last me for a while.  The second one I opened was from Travis.  He sent me Korean candies, lip balm, body wash, dust cloth, Mentos, laundry sheets, cappuccino, chocolate mints, loofah, pretzels, laundry soap (individual packets that are perfect so I can do the handwashing that I need to do), and air freshener.  Wow!  I had no idea that he was going to send that much stuff.  The last package I opened was from my brother Ryan and his now fiancee, Juliet!  They sent me all kinds of goodies too!  I got white socks, black socks, panties, granola bars, peanuts, scotch tape, writing pads, note card, pens and purple sheets.  Boy do they know me!!!    I also had a very nice card with a note from both of them and it was so great to see Ryan’s handwriting.  I haven’t seen that in ages!  Thank you all so much for taking the time to send goodies to me.  It honestly made my day and I was so thrilled to know that I was being thought of!

**Meal of the day was some chicken fingers and a grilled cheese.

26 Jun 07:  Today was my day off.  We hung out at our usual spot until a little after noon.  It wasn’t the same though because this was our last day off getting to hang out with Huff.  He’s finally out of here very soon so it was kind of sad for me.  He’s just such a neat person and we have so much in common.  I’m excited for him to be getting back home though and getting to go through the whole pregnancy thing with his wife.  I am excited for them!!  Anyway, I just came back to my room and slept and now I’m just watching movies trying to stay up long enough to talk to Chris and the kids on the computer when they get home from their day.

**We went out to lunch with Huff to Pizza Hut. 

27 Jun 07:  What a boring, boring day!  Yikes!  I was up at 1 this afternoon because one of the girls in the room decided to open her ironing board in the middle of the room.  Some people really are just clueless.  I couldn’t sleep after that.  It was a nice, rainy, overcast day so we got a bit of a break from the heat.  I had a camel spider right by my feet tonight so that was my scare of the day.  Everyone just laughs at me when I shreik and run.  They all think it’s funny.  I’m sure it does look pretty amusing but it’s not very funny to me!  We finally are starting PT during work time so I get to go to the gym towards the end of my shift this morning and for 3 days a week.  I am really looking forward to it!  Other than that, not much is going on.  I was thrilled to look at the calendar and realize that as soon as June is over, I can write October up there and then we’ll be home.  (I have a 4 month calendar at work and we’ve been looking at it bummed that the month we go home isn’t even on it yet but we’re moving right along!)

**Meal of the day was chicken and rice.

28 Jun 07:  I am ready for this day to be over.  Six more hours and then I can go home and crash.  I got a whopping 4 hours of sleep.  Two of those hours from 9-11 and the other two from 3-5 and I am beat.  All I want right at this moment is a good night of sleep.

**Meal of the day was enchiladas and mashed potatoes.

29 Jun 07:  Sorry for the short post yesterday.  I was beat!  I got some decent sleep last night.  It wasn’t great but it was sure better than the night before.  So, I have a funny story to share today.  Kelly and I heard a female scream from the shop tonight and we figured it was one of the girls on gate duty so we decided to go make sure she was okay.  We get up to the gate and asked the girls who screamed.  Sammy looked at me like she didn’t know what I was talking about and Bretta pointed at Sammy and reminded her why she screamed.  Just then, we saw why.  A huge camel spider came crawling out right in front of our feet.  We both screamed and jumped back and then Kelly proceeded to beat it to death with a shovel.  Meanwhile, I was halfway back down the road already!  Those things are just too much!  They are beyond creepy!  It was pretty amusing though once my heart rate settled back down.  Anyway, Miles was sent home from daycare yesterday so Chris took him to the doctor.  My poor baby has ringworm on his leg.    Chris said that he’s fine but of course, I worry.  I’m his mom and that’s my job!

**Meal of the day was shrimp.

30 Jun 07:  Today was an interesting day.  It was Huff’s last day at work so I decided to go hang out with him for a bit after I got off work.  I ended up tagging along with him on some work which was a nice change of pace.  He took me out into the bomb dump and then out to the flightline.  Well, before we headed to the flightline he drove back to his shop so I could pick up my bag and my gun and stuff and when I walked in, my gun was in pieces on the table.  (See picture in my album.)  One of the guys had decided to take it apart and even made a heart with an arrow through it with my bullets.  I couldn’t do anything but crack up.  I chased the guy around the office that did it and was poking him in the sides while he was yelling, “Not the ribs!  Not the ribs!”  It was hilarious!  When I got back to my room, I saw that Kenny Chesney’s new album is due for release in September and that his new single was released so I had to go find it to download it which started a whole almost 2 hours of downloading and sorting music so I’m tired today.  At least I’m tired for a reason all my own instead of someone else’s!  That was a nice change.  Although the date on this says the 30th, it’s after midnight now so I can officially say that June is over for me!!  That’s a great feeling!  We’re almost at the halfway mark!  Also, Mel, I got your package with the jerky and drawing in it today!!  Yay!  Thank you so much again for sending me another package!!  Love you!

**Meal of the day was chicken and rice.