Catharsis

an escapist by nature, i always enjoy a chance to get away from myself. writing has always been my way out. im really surprised it has taken me this long to start sharing my deep thoughts with the entire internet, but i suppose it is as good a time as any to begin.

as i mentioned, i'm on my third tour to iraq with the army. the first one was fine; it was what i signed up for. the second two have been with the national guard, and have been horses of different colors. i started my military time in a tough, demanding unit that expected the best and enforced every standard. now the standards that are enforced are the petty little things, because they are the only things the command knows about. no one bothers to spend a day with the troops, seeing what they see and enduring the long hours (rarely hard work, just repetitive and boring) to get a feel for what we go through. that means that when decisions are made, they are generally rash and ill-informed. sigh.

this tour has gone fairly quickly, mainly because of the ability to connect to the internet from my bed. i am able to stalk people via facebook, write emails to my loved ones, and check my bank account daily. now add a dumb blog to that, and i lose hours a day in my computer. it is one of the two things that have kept me going here, the other being the gym.

we work closely with some air force personnel in one of our missions. there is a new AF crew that just took over, and they have little idea of what they're doing. today this worked out much to my benefit, as i found time for a 90-minute nap in the middle of my workday. i hope that their continued incompetence leads to more unexpected rest for me in the near future. if youre going to fuck something up, at least make sure some people benefit.