4 could be a magic number

Ooooh aaahhhh its the fourth post this makes it all official. Well maybe not so much but it makes it new.... So like a ton of things have happened since I last posted but none of them really have any precedence. The ceremony went on with out a hitch it was very long and very boring but we survived. I even managed to keep most of my sarcastic comments to myself. Lets see I 've seen a lot of movies... 4 brothers was awesome.... Deuce Bigelow not so much. It was funny but entirely too short... I'm going to see The 40 year old virgin tonight... Hopefully that will prove to be worthwhile... All of my circle of friends are now officially gone but some of them should be On their way back soon... I am now acting Squad leader and occasional Plt Sgt.... Leadership roles all that really means is if someone is in trouble or needs help I have to wake up and go get them... How much fun is that??? So we have finally finished packing all the 20 foot connex's that will meet us in Iraq.. We did blocking and bracing yesterday making sure nothing would shift during shipping.. That was a long 9 hour day using 2x4's at odd angles and lots of nails that will not be any fun to take apart... So Iraq is becoming more and more real... Its No longer; as far away as it was in march (which I see is obvious but in march it seemed as though we still had so much time and now it seems as though we have none at all... Sigh...) I am trying to plan what I want to do when I come home four mid tour R & R I'm thinking like a cruise or a trip to Orlando, FL... All the fun theme parks are there.... Any suggestions??? My brother Trey went to Jamaica... But I mean I don't think I'm really cool enough to be able to kick it there you know? So there isn't too much going on other than the obvious little worries of predeployment... and I'm a little bummed my friends have all vacated.
Random thought of the day: why does one park in a drive way, and drive in a park way????

Command & Responsibility

I'm thinking that I need a disclaimer for this blog, it has the potential to become my piss and moan box.... So I apologize if I ever come off as a whiner... For the most part I'm really not a whiney kind of guy... Emotional yes... I've heard that I'm sorta fem as well... eh shrug... I think I'm unique and perfect just the way I am.... Hmmm well not perfect but I'm unique anyway... grin... So the last couple of days have not yielded too much excitement, I took Nestor to the Airport as I said I would... And slept in as I new I would... grin... We have learned new ways to slack off at work recently.... I think they feel bad for all the work that we will be doing in the sandbox, so they have been giving us an obscene amount of time to ourselves.... Today was not so great and tomorrow promises to be much worse... In the Army we have rank obviously... And for some reason when ever one or more of the higher echelons does something more exerting then wipe his or her self they feel the need to have a huge ceremony where they can talk about it amongst others of their rank above and below. I promise this will start to make sense as soon as I stop babbling the long and Short of it is: Our Colonel (officer) and Command Sgt Major (Enlisted) are both going to a new place so we are getting a new Colonel and a new Command Sgt Major .... Now this is how I fit into this little celebration all of the people in my Brigade (around like 600 hundred soldiers give or take) have to stand in formation and perform D & C (Drill and Ceremony, ie marching) while the new and old leaders give their speeches its actually fun to watch, it looks all professional and everything. It's just a drag to be in the midst of it... Today was the rehearsal and tomorrow is the actual Ceremony by the by the name of this little shindig is the Change of Command And Change of responsibility Ceremony... Wow so how bored are you at this point??? On the funnier side of things today during rehearsal I made fun of A high ranking officials home state.. (Alabama) directly to the official... I got some laughs mainly I just got push ups.. I saw Must Love Dogs... again today with another friend of mine (female type) it is an excellent movie... Although it makes me kind of worry about on line dating....

Random thought of the day... Everyone thinks their a good kisser, but I have references

... grin

Go for the Border

So here we are, I should warn anyone who actually attempts to keep up with this blog i am not going to be able to post every day but i will do my best to keep you all informed... not much has happened since Saturday night, I have watched a few movies that i suggest you all give a chance, Ice Princess great family movie, Garden State which was great in its complete random humor, and today one of my few guy friends and I went and saw Must love dogs. great movie complete chick flick ... John Cusack is an awesome actor.... so yeah... we did alot of nothing today, as i said previously most people start their leave this week... so i think with some minor exceptions we are going to do as little as possible... sometime after midnight i am driving aforementioned friend to the airport so he can head back home to Boston (go Red Sox) he has to be there by 3:30 am and the airport is about an hour away... so how boring is this rant.... Oh i did find out where ill be in Iraq... well thats a half truth i found out the name of the little taco stand i'll be running while i'm there... apparently there were 4 places that we could be staitioned and somehow i managed to be sent to the smallest site with the fewest personel. The name of my future abode is Camp Echo which sounds rather ominous but i don't think there is too much to worry about. if you have any questions please feel free to ask...

Random Side note of the Blog: Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme oh so good...
James

First and foremost

So this is my first blog, which means it is probally not going to flow very well but i will do my best. The basic reason for this blog is so that i can keep everyone updated on what is going on over in Iraq.... My unit leaves in appox 2 months, so this will give everyone a chance to see what happens before a deployment and the goings on while i'm in iraq... this will be my second tour of the sandbox. I was there in Feb of 03 which is about a month before the actual war started... this tour promises to be much different as i am with a different unit and i will be in a different location. My first tour had many surprises and i don't expect any less from the current trip, My unit is starting block leave this month, meaning that people are given leave to go spend time with their famlies before they ship out. A few of us are staying back to make sure we are ready to go when the time comes. And i am one of them... this week we started packing and labeling our connex's (big metal boxes like the one Jackie Chan was stuck in in the movie
Medallion) with our footlockers and MWR (Moral/welfare/recreation) supplies these are basicly things like our Xbox's Ps2's TV's and other such not so nessessary nessessities... next week will probally be more of the same with alot of moving crap around to get the best fit... ill try and tell you all a little more about myself in my next blog... tell me what you think...
james