Kicking Around...

I’ve landed on the hot moon as far as I’m concerned.  As the 747 broke through the Qatari haze yesterday I thought, “Where the fuck are you taking me, Mars?”  It looks like a dryer, less interesting Arizona desert from the air.  On the ground however, the ground up former seabed (that’s what it is) resembles a moon with powdery dust and little rocks.  If the moon landing was faked, and I’m not saying it was, I know where it might’ve been filmed. 

Checking in wasn’t horrible and I somehow cleared customs.  USAirways decided to just not put my 2^nd bag on my flight from Charlotte to the military terminal, so I’m missing some pretty important items that I’m not going to list and I’m convinced that USAir is likely run by AQI from Syria.  Bastards.

I pretty much spent yesterday in periods of nap, panic (I’ll explain in a second), eating, drinking water from *gasp* plastic bottles which I never do at home, and mild exploration of the base.  The panic comes from the incredible amount of water I consumed yesterday in a few hours time.  I’ve woken up 3 times already in my dark tent in a horror over how bad I had to pee.  I’m only sharing this because it’s funny.  I have to walk only about 50 yards to the bathroom, but it’s still a frantic minute or two as I pull on my shoes and grab my already beloved reflective safety belt before hurriedly exiting my tent.  Yesterday I went to sleep around 0900L (2am EST) and woke up around 1300 full to the brim, if you will.  I opened the door with my glasses on and went partially temporarily blind in my left eye it was so damn bright out.  I’d say I’m actually having a pretty good time minus the eye situation.  Vision recovered in the left after about an hour.  Now, if I go outside past 7am or before 6pm I just wear my Wiley-X goggles without glasses.  I have a pretty good idea of what the buildings are if I can get within 15 feet of them; plus I look like Vin Diesel in Riddick.  Extra cool points.

Last night I walked what I’m going to guess is around ¾ mile to the BX with wireless internet and then Frank picked me up and we had some beers at the base lounge.  Erik even rolled over after awhile and the three of us reminisced and obviously talked about people we all know.  It was fantastic to see them both so I was pretty happy.  I would’ve taken a pic, but my camera battery is low and the charger and cord are both in my temporarily missing bag so I won’t be posting anything until I get into Iraq.  No word on when that might be, but I’m actually looking forward to it so that I can have things like more than 1 set of PT gear etc.  I dumped my 2^nd set because my computer weighs 9lbs (its like 12 or 13 w/ the behemoth ac adapter) and there’s a bunch of other crap I have to have on me so 2^nd set made the sacrifice.  I’m hoping to get out of here soon though and get back to my bag. 

Final note: the snuggie light is amazingly effective and useful.  I’ve used it a bunch already.  I ate most of the candy too.  My friends are awesome.