Here are a few fun pictures

A Day of Great Mix Ups

Well, today has been a great day!

My morning started at 0500 when I woke up and got ready to head back outside the wire. I had to report to my duty office by 0600. At 0715, or so, we headed out to our area of operation and I basically played until 1130 or so. Today was Human Rights day and I had the privilege of working with the women and disabled today. It was such a treat. I also got to meet some of the other Fijians who are here and learned to say "How are you" in their language. Granted, I royally butchered their beautiful language, but it was fun attempting to learn it!

While we were there, the CDR & 1SG came out to visit and actually put our "combat" patch on us. It was pretty special. A sweet experience indeed. Sorry - no photos, because we were in a no photo area.

I also got to go to Union III to the "mall", as they call it. I just about broke out in hives when they said "mall". Ugh! But it was pretty much a bunch of really small shops cramped in an overcrowded building along with other vendors outside the small building. Man alive, they had some VERY beautiful handmade things there. There was a rug weaver out there and they were making handmade rugs right there! Insane! That is such a great gift! (Honestly, I don't think we "Americans" are domesticated enough... back to the basics people.... handmade gifts/crafts are always better!)

Meanwhile, back at the FOB... ha ha ha - that sounded like a comic book line! LOL! Okay, back to business... when I got back, I ate lunch, and went over to see if I could secure my gear that I left in my transport vehicle. While I was waiting, I ended up sewing some "loops" on a decorated rug for one of our LTs... but the most exciting??? I got asked to be a battle buddy with one of the SGTs to go on a tour of the IZ. (International Zone) Soooo... I went along with them. Needless-to-say, it was pretty fun. Here are a few pictures that we took at the "Cross Sabers". Oh! And the other picture is of some of the guys in our unit posing with their combat patch. Ha ha!

Let's see - OH! Tonight, I had it off since I worked this morning, I ended up going Salsa Dancing for an hour! I LOVED IT!!!! Seriously! Man alive, I walked in, it was only me - I saw the "DJ" who I also met yesterday at lunch, he thought I was Latina and started talking with me... anyway! Sammy was there and he already had music going, so we started dancing, and then Hernandez came and I started dancing on and off with both of them. It was soooo much fun! They were asking if I was going to start coming every Friday night, and I told them that it all depended if I had Friday nights off. (It was random that I had tonight off. Oh, and if I start typing random stuff, it's because I had a long day, and my brain is going faster than my fingers!)

Wait! One more thing... as I was walking home from watching some of my friends sing Karaoke, I smelled rain in the air! It was a beautiful smell!!!! Bring on the rain, baby!

Alright, have to go. One love~

Outside the Wire

Today was one of those days I wish I had a recording device hooked up to my brain and was recording my thoughts and "narration" as I went "outside the wire" today. To be honest, it was quite animated. Now, if only I were able to remember what half of those thoughts were - you'd be highly entertained yourself! :)

Work has been good. I've been able to get quite a bit of reading done since last Friday! I'm on page 184 - 33.63% of the way done! (I haven't even started reading yet tonight, so I'll increase that percentage for sure!) Oh, I began reading "New Moon"... yes, it's a girlie book... part of the "Twilight Saga". But hey... my old roomie: Keaton, got me liking the movies, and since this book was never opened... and FREE, I snapped it up and have been reading away! Tomorrow I have some time off in the morning, and may indulge in more of my girlie book after working out and breakfast. Ugh.

Today, as I was being cross-trained, I was standing in the sun quite a bit, and now have a half white/brown tan on my face. I look like a total freak!... I LOVE IT! (Not really. I hope you sensed the sarcasm in that.) But, I worked with two great soldiers and we had TONS of fun. OH! I got to meet people from Japan, Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, Britain, Italy, Germany, Canada "Eh" (ha ha ha- oh the good 'ole days), Korea.... I had a blast. When the next shift came on, I got to bond and be a dork with the next crew, too. I think they were more in shock to see me surfing and downhill skiing the security gate than anything. (I'll let you use your imagination on that.) Need-less-to-say, my play time came to an end when I had to come back to post. But I'm glad I made it a great day!

Oh, and not to mention.... my sleep schedule is alllll thrown off right now. I usually work from 4 - midnight every night, but had to report at 8 this morning, work from 3PM - 1AM tomorrow, 4 - midnight on Thursday, then Friday morning work 6AM - 4PM. I'm trying to stay up a little longer tonight so I can get my body readjusted to working late... or maybe I'll just take a nap tomorrow. :) Oh yeah.... naps are great! :)

What's new? Well, nothing much. I do pretty much the same thing every day, but I like to mix it up as to not get stuck in an obvious pattern of doing things. My day usually consists of some variation of working out, breakfast, shower, lunch, sleep, work, dinner, work, sleep. And then the random use of internet. There have been 2 days when I was sick that my schedule was pretty much: breakfast, sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, work, dinner, work, sleep. Gosh I love my job!

Okay friends. Sorry it couldn't be more entertaining. I do have to get off the computer though.

Love from the sandbox!