sand, sand, everywhere sand!

Ok, I'm not trying to be a hater of the sand, BUT....it's getting ridiculous with all the freaking sand storms lately. AND with the sand comes more mortar attacks. This is nuts! I can feel my lungs filling up with sand. My eyelashes are coated in sand. My nose is full of sand. Did I mention I hate the sand?!
On another note....Toby Keith was on base lastnight for a USO concert and I was fortunate enough to score a front row pass! Woohoo....touched Toby's hand it was great! Now when I hear American Soldier or Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue I can be like.."Dude, I saw him sing that while I was in Iraq!" I know, I'm a retard, but it's still pretty cool.
My whole night shift got busted for sleeping on shift lastnight by my LT. Whoops. Well, not all of us were racked the hell out, just the vast majority. Have you ever gotten into trouble by your mom and you are just waiting for dad to come home because you KNOW you are in for a whoopin' but you just don't know when? That's what it feels like around work now. We are just waiting for the ass whoopin. I have a feeling we will be baby sat for the rest of the time we are on nights. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I'm out for some much needed sleep (that I didn't get to finish lastnight on shift, HA!)

TTFN!

update

Well, after two nasty sand storms, a couple of mortar attacks and a partridge in a pear tree I'm still alive. I'm starting to settle into my routine of work, eat, sleep, work-out, rinse, repeat. The time is going surprisingly fast, but I'm sure once all the newness wears off the dreaded ground hog day effect will take hold. I'm trying not to see or do all the base has to offer in the first month as to have SOMETHING to do later on since we can't leave the wire (which from what I have been hearing is not such a bad thing). The pool is nice and has VERY nice scenery (wink, wink-I'm thinking of enlisting into the Air Force-HA!). I'm already sick of the DFAC food and thank God for Taco Bell and Cinnabon! The advancement results came out today and I did not advance, but at least I did pass the damn thing so I will have a whopping 1 point to carry over to the fall cycle. Oh well, I was at least in the 60th percentile...which I don't think that is saying much. Thanks for all the well-wishes and the continued support.

NG

I have arrived

I finally made it to this lovely country called Iraq. It's, how should I say it......interesting. Ok, that's not the most descriptive portrayal, but right now I'm tired so just bear with me. I have been here for about 5 days and it's been the most surreal experience of my life. I will save the story of my flight up here and my bags being left behind for another day. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm here, I'm alive and Hadji has been pretty active the past couple of days around here. Well, I'm off to work (nights) so this post will be short and sweet. I still can't get my mind around the fact that Dude, I'm in Iraq!