A drunken stupor

I think that these ceremonies are either becoming easier, or I'm just starting to understand the traditions, So yesterdays ceremony was a Deployment Ceremony and although it wasn't for us directly they tried to include us. This is the second deployment for my unit although I can only think of only two maybe three people in the senior leadership who were there before. Since the units return to garrison we have A new Commander and a new First Sgt. We are working on Our 4th Platoon Sgt since the deployment. Our Executive officer was in Iraq for about 6 months with our unit, and the Master Sgt. Was there the whole tour he even managed to take wound in the arm and is still one of the toughest NCO's that I know. This is my second deployment as well but as most of you know I was stationed in Germany before and served in Iraq with them. There are maybe a handfull of Sgts and below, that are still here, many of them have either left the Army or they are pursuing their careers at other venues, basically as boring as this all is, it means that everyone is slightly on edge. Don't get me wrong they are excited but no one really knows what they are getting into. Oh the Drama. So last night the group got together and had a little shin dig.... Which translates to we hung out and got kinda buzzed. I don't normally drink, in fact the running joke is that I'm the guy you call at two in a morning because I will be both sober and alone. So last night I promised the Twerp that I would drink with her and after our little ditch effort. ( We had a guy who invited himself along with us and we came up With a plan that entailed a Hodgie (a friend of ours) the Mexican and my self.) I don't want you to think that we exclude others from our goings on infact if anything we normally invite all but last night was only for a select few. I wont go into complete details but the effort included a lot of Cannonball Run-esqe kind of hijinx. At one point we were driving backwards up an on ramp past one of Lakewoods Finest. A sad fact at this point is that the only person up to this point who had been drinking at all, is the Mexican and he was sitting in the passenger seat very amused. Long story short we all came back to the house and as soon as we walked in the door we had a tequila shot, followed by a screwdriver which was then followed by a white Russian which was then followed by yet another tequila shot... I vaguely remember some smirranoff ice that I might of consumed. Amazingly I woke up this morning (after some admittedly vivid and very odd liqueur induced dreams) without any traces of a hangover. Go Me! Sometime later today we are supposed to go see The Corpse Bride Which is Tim Burton and Johnny Depps 5th time working together. I will try and keep you all up to date...

Random Thought of the day: White Russians are actually a creamy brown color

A Roommates Rant

So I think I might be the worst blogger in the recent history of bloggers, how often do I post? Once a week if even that.... It isn't that my life is all that busy really, Well that isn't true my life is very hectic. I think that I worry about boring all of you out there all though I'm not altogether sure that there are that many who actually read this blog, I don't want it to be a bore. I'm gonna cover some adult material for a second so if you are not of consenting age please skip down a few lines. I have a little less than two weeks left stateside. We are to be boots on ground in early Oct. My roommate has taken this to mean he has to bed every available female he can get his enormous .... Eh.... Hands on. Now that is altogether fine I understand the whole, while in Iraq sexual relationships are verboten (Deutsche or German meaning forbidden, and you thought you had stopped learning) and you need to get while the getting is good. I get that I do ... My problem is that he doesn't care where (I came home from a movie about three weeks ago and he was fully making out on my bed) or when (the night before last it was well past three a.m. and their labored breathing woke me, can I say ewwwww) he is accomplishing these conquests. I mean I haven't so much as kissed a girl in the room and especially not while he was there. Am I over re-acting? I know that roommates often face little snafus like this but isn't there like a code of ethics? So that's that for now, I think all of you out there looking for a great date movie should go see Just Like Heaven It's Reese Witherspoon's newest chick flick... I loved it. The premise was cute and imaginative... And did I mention that Napoleon Dynamite kid is in it???? Paul heder I think his name is... Any way go see it. So this next week is going to stink because all the false bravado from the newbies is fading and the very real idea that we are actually leaving is starting to set in. We have a deployment ceremony tomorrow ...Oh yeah can you feel my enthusiasm??? No? I didn't think so... Who would of thought there would be so many military ceremonies while in my fifth year of Army servitude... So my food has been delivered McDonald's who knew? Hope you are all in good health...
Random thought of the day: Chicken is the new pork.

A celebration of life and a season of change

So I am completely exhausted. A really good friend of mine had a beautiful Baby girl last night at around 6:55 pm she was in labor for something like 22 hours.... I was watching her first born Anthony since Saturday he is two years old and full of questions... So needless to say I had virtually no sleep. Anthony is a great kid and very lovable... So I didn't mind too much... So before I start ranting and raving let me tell you about the new bundle of joy.... Her name is Robin Mya Villegas-Creadick (her mother and I will be calling her Mya) she was born at or around 6:55 pm on September 11th (which means that no guy will ever have an excuse to forget her birthday) interesting side note Mya's 21st birthday will be the 25th anniversary of 9-11 which is kinda cool, If your me. Mya is 9lbs 2oz and 23 inches... I just want to point out that baby is huge.... I was only 9lbs when I was born....( I say only cuz 9lbs was so much smaller.. LOL) both of her parents are the skinniest people you have ever met so I have no idea how she got to be so big.... The important thing is that she and my friend Cynthia are in good health... And now onto the ranting and raving.... Today marked the first day we wore DCUs to work... (Desert camo uniform) we had to be at work at 0445 which wasn't so great but we survived. I think for everyone Iraq just became a little more real, we are leaving in less than a month and it is dawning on all of us in small ways.. For my group of friends one of the biggest blows is going to the movies an activity we all enjoy doing and have a habit of going at least two or three times a week... We are starting to see previews a lot that aren't coming out until months after we have left for the sandbox... Luckily for me the Iraqis are very good at pirating the American movies.*
Hmmm I know that someone out there will be offended by that so the disclaimer you will find below is for you... So as I said in the previous post I went down to San Francisco for the Labor day weekend. It really was a blast. I think my favorite part of the trip was just the people, there were so many different types out that we really got to see a detailed glimpse of The City. I mentioned the scary guy on the Tram car, and the last night we were there we were walking back to The Edwardian Hotel we passed a guy who was how do I put this delicately, he was relieving himself towards the passing traffic as opposed to toward the building, a middle aged couple walked by him and he asked the lady if he was imposing on her evening stroll... Or something to that effect with his member in his hand as he was talking to her... Needless to say she scowled.... Although or hotel was obviously not in the best of neighborhoods it really wasn't all that bad... Slightly cramped and the elevator felt like the cable was about to snap at any given moment so of course we hopped up and down because we're all not very bright...The drive back up was rather eventful accept for the fact that one of our drivers is a complete tool and literally had me white knuckled when he drove... I did manage to read a great book that now has me three books into a series.. J.A.Jance Is an amazing Author. Speaking of Authors I was at Borders a couple days ago and I made this really nice couple buy three Harlan Coben books... If anyone hasn't read one of his books I greatly urge you to do so. The man is a fantastic author and a hell of a nice guy. I first wrote to him the last time I was in Iraq and a couple of months ago I had the pleasure of meeting him...So that is all for now folks things are starting to move fast so stay tuned.

Random thought of the day Mil-Gahn means Anglo or white man in the native language of the Papago or Tohono O'Othham people.

* Spc James Brooks in no way supports the pirating of major motion pictures and thinks it is a crime. Which is why he purchases all DVD's as soon as they are made available by the distribution companies.

Cruisin' the Bay

So I realize it has been like a hundred years since I last posted and I apologize for that... A lot of things have happened and I have been very busy..... Most noteworthy of them and the reason I am posting, is that I am currently sitting in a Bistro in little Italy, San Francisco... A couple friends and I decided it would be fun to drive down here (12 hours and only got really lost once) We have been doing the tourist thing... We went on a cruise around the Bay and then managed to find a scalper with tickets to tour Alcatraz.... Very cool... I sat in an actual prison cell... I feel I have so much more in common with some of my friends, granted most of them spent more then just five minutes in their cells. We are staying in the Edwardian Hotel which for three of us is like way too small... I don't know if any of you have ever stayed in a European hostel but it is a lot like that.... I don't have too much time to go into many details but suffice to say my next blog should stock full of entertaining content... I do want to mention this one drunk guy we met a couple of nights ago... He found out we were soldiers and kept asking us a lot of really uncomfortable questions... How much do you make? What is your favorite weapon... And then kind of randomly he asked me if I had killed anybody and I was like "Today?" he didn't say too much after that, we sure got a kick out of it though.... We went and saw some stand Up comedy last night and we plan to see a different guy today... We spent half the morning looking for another comedy club... I hope you All are well and enjoying your labor Day and I will post again soon....

Random observation of the day.... San Fran Smells a tad fishy.....
James