25 September 08 - Thankful Thursday

Check it out. Two in a row. So what am I thankful for this week...

• Salad - I will never grow tired of a good salad. Army food is never very appealing, so a good salad is just about the highlight of a meal. We only have good veggies once in a while, so it's a rare treat.
  

• V8 - Besides salad, the army's veggies are always so cooked it's just about impossible to get any nutritional value out of them. V8 is a huge help.

• IPOD - Army life can be summed up as energetic outbursts of activity surrounded by what seems like endless waiting. Having an IPOD helps that time go by.

• Care Packages - Hint, Hint.
  

18 September 2008 - Thankful Thursday

So everybody these days seems to do this thankful Thursday thing. I've been hesitant to join the craze. However, I've noticed (and some of you have pointed out) that I've been venting a bit in my blog. So I figured that some expressions of gratitude couldn't hurt. Here goes:

• My job: There are over 200 MOS's (jobs) in the military that I could have picked from when I joined. I'm incredibly grateful that at 17 years old, I at least possessed the intellect to choose mine. I've had incredible experiences and have done things that I'll never forget. Not every soldier is able to say that he likes what he does. I'm glad that I have that privilege. There's nothing better than seeing the results of your work.

• Blackwater: These guys often get a bad wrap. Yes, some of them have done some stupid things, but so have members of every community/corporation. The ones that I've worked with have been incredible. Their professionalism, respect, and hard work have contributed greatly to this area.

• Care packages: It's just great when you get a little reminder in the mail that your family and friends haven't forgotten you. (No, this is not a plea...but it wouldn't hurt)

That'll do it for this time. Wouldn't want to list everything that I'm thankful for all at once.

15 September 08 - Control Freaks

Everybody, I'm sure, knows a control freak; they're everywhere. The army is no exception. In fact, if I dare say so, the army has more. It breeds control freaks.

Here's my tribute to the three major control freaks that I most recently encountered:

To the cook who won't let me eat dinner until exactly 5:00 - The foods sitting out in self-serve bins, silly! You'll do less work by letting me serve myself some food than by standing there trying to act like your important enough to tell me I can't eat yet.

To the man who refuses to pass on my request for air support for soldiers taking fire because my request has spelling errors in it - Get your act priorities together man! Your obsession over having absolute control over every report that goes up could cost people their lives.

To the man who won't let me step outside the base gate to help people who just got in a car wreck - They're hurt and they need my help...yours too. Don't try to interdict and stop me from doing my job and my responsibility as a human being just because your afraid of the boogie man.


Sorry about venting. I'm just getting tired of people trying absurdly hard to exert control over me when they have no logical reason to do it.

13 September 08 - It's a girl!

No this is not a repeat of my previous blog entry. My sister recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. The two chose not to find out what the baby was before it was born, but they had a sneaking suspicion that it would be a girl.

Congratulations!

03 September 08 - It's a girl!

Nikki had her ultrasound yesterday. We found out that we're having a girl. I was pretty convinced that we'd have a boy, but I'm just excited that we have a healthy baby. I'm not sure how the doctor could tell it's a girl. It still looks like a little alien to me.


Nikki and I are both really excited for the baby. We're hoping that the army will be gracious enough to let me go home for the birth, but we'll just have to wait and see.