Happy Easter Sunday!!!

Let’s see first and foremost Happy Easter Sunday to each and everyone of you... I was originally going to go into a fit about how Easter is by far one of the most skewed Christian holidays... I mean honestly how do you go from a 30 year old man on a cross dying for our sins to a creepy 30 year old man in a pink bunny costume hiding eggs for our kids? Robin Williams has made this argument before and I am sure I could not possibly say it better so I am going to quote him, “ Nobody wants to bite the head off a chocolate Jesus, .... or look for the cherry jam in the grass... Find the blood of Jesus kids!...” Sheesh! So as I said I’m not going to rant about that (at least not any more than I already have.) Instead I’m going to tell you about the events of yesterday that lead into today. As you all know in a little more than a month I am scheduled to be sitting on a beach sipping an exotic drink out of a cocoanut with a foofy umbrella. Yesterday I was given a second leave form (I had signed the first the day prior) and I had noticed that the dates were wrong, according to the new form I was supposed to be starting leave May 2nd. Now don’t get me wrong under normal circumstances earlier would be better, but in this case I have reservations set for the original dates. Obviously I was not a happy camper so last night I called the hotel to see if it was even possible to switch to the earlier dates (the receptionist very kindly replied that they were sold out for five of the fifteen days that I am allotted and lucky for me it happened to be in the middle of my trip.) Needless to say I was very nervous about the whole situation. I asked my NCOIC (or NinCompOop In Charge) to see if he could get them to change the dates back as it was obviously a mistake since the form I had signed the day before had the correct dates. I was up until about 4am pacing in my room stressing and at 830 I got a knock on my door and the NCOIC said he talked to the higher ups and since I had signed the form the dates were final. (He told me to sign it and he would take care of it... jerk face!) I didn’t take this very well (read I told him where he could shove the leave form.) And told him I was going to IG (Inspector General, it’s there job to make sure the people who have control are fair) it was an empty threat, but he didn’t know that. I didn’t even know where IG was until about thirty minutes later.. Anyway After I calmed down I remembered that Barbie, The Mexican and a few others from my unit were running the Iraqi Boston Marathon today. Barbie and three others did the 26.2 mile course as a relay... (Barbie had the longest leg and managed to run exactly 7 miles in 42 minutes... how sick is that?) The Mexican attempted to do the entire 26.2 by himself but had to stop after 20 miles as he just couldn’t go any further... (Why didn’t I run you ask... I’ll tell you, the tires around my midsection are designed for rolling not running.) But I digress as I was waiting for Barbie and the Mexican I ran into our head honcho here at Tallil he out ranks the NCOIC I dealt with that morning. I explained to him my situation and the issue with the hotel, he told me That the first SGT would be around today between 13-15 hundred hours He said he would talk to him then and told me to come by some time in the afternoon. I managed to get a ride over there (our main office is like a billion miles from where I live... In the two months that I have been at this post I have been there three times counting today.) As luck would have it the First Sgt was running late and The Honcho said I could talk to him my self, once the first sgt arrived I explained my situation once again (at this point I had a script designed to pull at the heart strings. Grin) He in a rare act of kindness said he would work it out and jumped on the phone and told me there shouldn’t be a problem but I will know for sure by tomorrow. Talk about a load off my mind. So as it stands the original dates are still in effect, I should be arriving in Honolulu on may 28th. I think. I’m kinda iffy on how long it is going to take me to get there from here. Today we were lucky enough to be given a free concert by the country rock group The Charlie Daniels Band... (among other songs they sing Sitting on a barstool up to no good and The Devil goes down to Georgia.) It was an awesome concert and we had a total blast... there were close to 5 thousand military personnel there (Army, Air Force and a few Navy and Marines) and as someone brought to my attention 99% of them were red necks. There was a black guy sitting a couple of seats behind me that made a crack that he had only seen two other black guys the whole concert. Some people just don’t appreciate good music. I learned that Charlie Daniels have been a band for over 36 years... Man that is a long time... I mean that is ten years before I was even a sparkle in Mr Brooks’ eye. LOL. They had a soldier come up in the beginning of the show and sing Garth Brooks’ Friends in Low Places with the band to open the show. Much to my surprise he didn’t do half bad (we helped with the chorus) All in all it was a good day... hope you all have a wonderful Easter... be sure to enjoy it... And try and Avoid any chocolate in the shape of Jesus.

The Completely non Random Countdown:
40 Days