Homeward Bound

It's finally time ladies and gentlemen. I'm headed home...or at least I should be headed home, this afternoon. The weather is not cooperating, but I'm still hopeful. A dust storm rolled in yesterday, and it's still lingering. It got better late in the day yesterday only to reemerge stronger than ever this morning. I'm hopeful it will clear again by evening. It will take me several days to get from here to there, but that's ok...at least the plane is heading in the right direction.

It's been an eventful year...some good, some bad, but I've learned a lot...mostly about myself. I'm stronger than I thought, but not complete without family. I've learned that people have an amazing capacity to find laughter, even in the most trying of circumstances. I've learned that just by being myself I earn respect from my peers.

I'm so glad to be going home...no...not glad really; that's far too bland a word...I'm giddy like a school girl (and a little frustrated that my flight has been delayed 3 times already)...I can't wait to see my kids, and I'm beside myself waiting to be in my husband's arms. It almost doesn't feel real...like any second someone will come along and wake me up to tell me I'm late for work, and there's still 6 months to go...

A year is an awfully long time to be away from home...from family...in many ways it feels like an eternity since I slept in my own bed. But also in some ways it feels like the blink of an eye...unfortunately, in this blink of an eye my oldest son has grown 3 or four inches...and I don't even want to think about how much the youngest has grown. It's time. It's time to go home and celebrate as my baby girl becomes a teen, and my oldest learns to drive. I've missed so much of their lives...it's definitely time to go home.

Birds in Baghdad

Well, I'm still around, going through the days, and surviving until I can go home in June.

The days are all very much the same here...we usually call it Groundhog Day. Hey, it's Friday, but it's just like Monday...like there are seven Mondays a week. But I reached a milestone today...I have approximately 69 days left here. I can't wait to get home.

It's spring now, and everyone seems to have a little spring fever. We've taken to eating as many meals as we can outside. And I've also taken to running outdoors...it's not raining and it's not yet too hot...

For some time now I've been wanting to tell the tale of this bird I saw. It was probably a month and a half ago, but I haven't been able to get to the site to write this up until now. It was one of those rainy days that are just muddy and cold when you just want to go and sit by the fire with a cup of cocoa, but that's not really an option in Baghdad.

I was walking out of the main palace after having delivered a briefing, and was on my way back to my building when I saw it. It was a pigeon (some folks around here call them doves, but they look like pigeons to me). The poor bird was clearly disabled...I don't know if he had been injured in some way or if he was just old, but his feathers were all out of whack and he was walking with a limp.

In short, he was disheveled. And he clearly couldn't fly.

He was crossing the road and picking at crumbs of bread that folks scatter for the birds...well he was picking at whatever was left by the more healthy birds. That's when a big black SUV with tinted windows approached.

I thought for sure the bird was a goner...he was just hobbling across the street trying to get out of the way. But he couldn't fly...it was perhaps one of the saddest little birds I'd ever seen, and I just knew he was going to get squashed...

But he didn't...amazingly, the driver of the SUV stopped his car and waited for the bird to hobble out of the way...it had to have taken at least 2 minutes.

I went on my way to work and wondered about the bird for the rest of the day. The next day when I went back I looked to see if the bird was still hobbling about...or if he had been flattened...but there was no evidence of either of those events occurring...alas, I'll never know how the bird fared, but what about that driver...I wonder if I would have stopped?

Back in Baghdad

My goodness it's been forever since I posted. So much has happened, but now they're telling me I only have 5 minutes left so this will be the very quick reader's digest version.

I got to go home and spend a glorious 15 days with the hubby and the munchkins. It was the most precious few days I can ever remember. We danced, we did Christmas crafts, we opened presents, and we just hung out together...very ordinary, but very extraordinary.

My schedule is not as bad as it was, but still about 75 hours a week.

And the most exciting thing to happen in Baghdad sincce I got here...on Friday morning, it snowed.

Updates on me

I had a few minutes so I thought I'd pop in...

I have found that it's amazing what having time for only one meal a day will do for the numbers on the scale...no, I really do eat more than once a day, but one meal at the DFAC is all I can manage. Everything else comes from whatever family and friends send to me or what I take from the DFAC during my daily trip there.

Since I got here in June, I have dropped to 146...which is only 4 lbs from my goal. (Did I mention there's no access to alcohol here?)

It's also amazing what drinking 3 liters of water a day will do for that "bottom" line...I went from 158 to 146 in no time flat...

I have a cold this week which makes it extremely difficult to get to the gym, but I'm starting to feel better, so I hope to be back there in the next few days.

Being here and working so closely with the Army reminds me of all those reasons I didn't join the Army 15 years ago. I'm grateful every day that I'm in a service that cares about morale. I have to work for people I don't respect who I think are juvenile in the extreme...but that's the Army. And they make it very clear that, even though this is technically a joint assignment, it really isn't. It's really an Army gig...nevermind that if you get an award at the end, it's a joint award. I hope that I never have to work for the Army again in my career, but I will end up taking whatever they give me. I've loved my time in the Air Force, but when my time is up and it's time to put the uniform away...I will be relieved. It can be very hard being away from the people you love...feeling like you're away when they need you the most...but maybe they need you the most because you're away. I kind of look forward to having a normal life...for whatever that means. My BIL works for a telecom company, and he travels more than I do, though not for as long at a haul.

I'm really not complaining. The Air Force has been very good to me, and I feel like I contribute something valuable. There is certainly something to be said for job satisfaction. But I really would like to know what it's like to be 'normal'....

The family is doing well...Mom was in the hospital with heart problems, but she's out now, and feeling fine. The hubby is still 4.0 material...not that it surprises me. When he wants something he throws himself into completely. The kids are having their foibles, but they're generally having a good year. My daughter made the ensemble choir at school, which I think is pretty darn cool. They are growing up so fast...I wonder if they'll even recognize me, or be recognizable to me, when I finally get home. Of course they will, but I wish I didn't have to miss it...this time with them...watching them grow up, go to school dances, have their first broken heart, get their driver's license....I miss 'em like crazy.

Just another day in Baghdad

It's hot still, but at least it's not 125...only 103 today.

Last week we had our first rain. I walked outside of the main palace and thought the sprinklers had gotten broken...but no that water was coming out of the sky. I couldn't believe it either the first time I saw it...yes they do water the lawns...but only in front of the main palace...I guess it has to look beautiful for all the visiting VIPs...LOL

But rain is pretty funny...you should have seen the way we were all looking at the sky like it some alien was descending...


On another note:

It's difficult being away from the family for so long. My daughter is going through middle school without me...and my older son is having his first broken heart.

My mother has been doing really well about the deployment. She's sent me coffee and pictures from home and even a couple emails. Then she went in the hospital last week with heart trouble. I think she may realize now that ignoring my deployment won't make it untrue...it just makes it more difficult for me.

I know how much my family needs me, and that makes being away hard. But it's harder for them...they just wait for me to come home, not knowing if everything is ok...