i don't even know what to write.

The root of my good looks

... or ears at least. Thanks Grandpa Merril.

Jamal AKA Rambo

Here's a human interest story for ya....

Read this, it is an article about an Afghan man who just loves the troops and loves Americans. I have only just learned his real name because he calls himself Rambo. He'll do anything to help and everyone knows him. I've heard stories about this guy since the first week I was here and we even went to visit him the other day. He's so nice, but he'll beat up your car if you get in the way.

I have never gone through that gate without seeing him and he always makes me smile. On the Army cammo uniform they gave him, in addition to the "RAMBO" name tape, the soldiers had a custom rank piece made, which is a red and white bar that looks like the stick he holds and beats cars off with.

happiness in 0s and 1s

WAHOOOOOOO! EIIIIIIIEIIIIIII! EYE? BWAZAMO! WOP DILLY BE BOP, A WOP WOOO HOOOOO!!!!! YIP YIKE KABOOOOOOMMMMMMM! YEEEEEEHAAAAWWWWWW! DUSH! SCHMEEE BOP A DOP POP!


I'm pretty sure if I could make my computer to make excited noises when I was happy, it be something like that. more to come....

I’m a mega slacker

Since my Spain vacation we have seen a peak in work load. So I’m just now able to catch up on what has been happening here other than the frigid cold.

Pre Christmas:
Christmas eve and the day before turned into pretty eventful days. We flew out to a forward base where a small group of soldiers work, training Afghan Police and Army forces. We wished them merry Christmas and got to experience the bumpiest of roads. We drove by a string of donkeys each with a 6 foot stack of branches on their back for firewood, which was the only thing in sight in the 30 minute ride from the “airport” to the forward operating base. We flew on a C-130, and when I wasn’t asleep in the back, I was sitting in the cockpit with the most incredible view of the Afghan mountains. The airport we went to was a tattered old runway with a control tower that was really a strange concrete building with uneven stairs and doorframes. I’d be surprised if any type of measurement, leveling or blue print was used. Despite lacking any right angles, that was one sturdy building. This was one of my most favorite forward trips.

The next next day I got something I had been waiting 2 years for… a promotion. Woot woot! I am now a 1st Lt, which means little more than people now expect me to know what I’m doing. Oh…. And a pay raise! High five. My boss put on such a nice ceremony for me and I think the coolest thing about it is 1. I promoted deployed and 2. I promoted in a “joint” environment, meaning all the services were there; Airmen, Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers. Very nice.

Christmas… as you may have guessed, given our Styrofoam Thanksgiving, was complete with a Styrofoam North pole, reindeers and sleigh! No joke, the contractors and Afghan locals are getting quite good with these sculptures! You could even crawl into the sleigh. These guys are dedicated to their Styrofoam creations, working through a heavy snow storm to complete the project. There work made it all the way to a stateside news station (or so I’m told).

The chow hall workers all dressed as elves and on Christmas day, the Generals and their senior staff put on some santa hats and served us our food. It’s a little weird saying to a General, “mash potatoes please.”

I was sent so many care packages that I didn’t open the last box until this week because I had no room for what was inside! My candy and food collection supplied 2 holiday parties and there is still a bunch left over. I should highlight a couple of gems my sisters and parents sent me. I am the proud owner of a “Grow a head” (basically a funnier looking Chia-Pet), a Garden Gnome, the official How to Kazoo manual, a calendar of people doing “extreme Ironing”, and a daily calendar of “stuff on my cat”. Incredible.

Also for Christmas I got my VERY OWN 12 Days of Christmas, which will be another post because you have to hear what my girlfriends came up with. (Ann, I almost peed my pants from laughing so hard cause we were in the middle of nowhere.)
New Years was fun, we pulled a bunch of people together to play cards and try to eat all my candy. We all had these lofty plans of staying up till midnight, but everyone went back to work or to sleep by 1030! I think the sugar high dropped us too hard.

A lot has happened and free time has been spent trying to get a quick run in, or falling asleep in my chair. More to come on the 12 days of Christmas and I’ll add pictures soon but blogger isn't letting me right now.