Another Day

Its been a few days since I've had time to post anything. Mainly I've been training. I can't talk about most of it because its secret squirrel type stuff but I've been learning a lot and having a little bit of fun. My work days are long, from 6am-6pm and after I have to fit in a little gym time too but overall it makes time go buy pretty fast. We got approved for a pass. Ana Laura is going to come out for a few days and we are going to stay in Seattle. That will be in the middle of March. I'm looking forward to it. Besides that I know that we leave sometime in March, April, or May to the middle east. I can't be specific on a time or place but sometime in the next month or so I will be in Iraq. Here are a few pics to catch you up on the past few days:

Army Training and Shots!!!

I'm here at Ft. Lewis, Washington. So far things are going okay. I haven't had much sleep lately since we've been waking up at 3:30 to 5:30 every morning. Other then that the only trouble I've had is eating while trying to avoid my wisdom teeth holes. The place we are sleeping isn't that nice. I'll post pictures at the end. It has asbestos insulation so it's kind of scary since the buildings were slated for demolition. The only events we have completed thus far have been in-processing, including shots and the dreaded small pox vaccine as well as a couple general classes. Today we finally got wi-fi in our rooms. A far cry from the days where the only communication was hand written letters. Today we also got our first chance to head to the PX (like a walmart). I picked up some toothpaste and some Mac software but besides that I don't really want anything else. I'm sure that I'll start buying beef jerky once my teeth heal up though. I'll post pictures now but unfortunately I can't write anymore because I have to go have my turburculosis test checked.












I'll post pictures of my small pox shot tomorrow.

This Weekend

This weekend started out great, but quickly descended into a dull pain that accompanied the extraction of all 4 of my wisdom teeth. On Friday my coworkers held a happy hour for me; it was nice I got to see a few of my coworkers from years past and we remembered some of the good ole times. I almost cried when they started talking about Marc Cooley's sand garden and his meticulous grooming of it. Besides that there was a great laugh about the Kid Stoned after the dentist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjMRydqBSJ4 That video is hilarious, especially when he stands up for no reason. Watch and you'll see. Overall it was a great time and I got time to hang out with some of my closest coworkers from past and present. I really do appreciate them all and I know that I have been lucky to have some great peers and bosses that I am able to share a laugh with and that always like to: "give me shit"

Following the happy hour on Friday I went to dinner with my family. At least whats left of it. If my mother were still here it would've been a huge event at my house with dozens of relatives and friends. However things change so instead my cousin and sister put together a dinner at Chino Latino for the new family. It was great though. I got to spend time and have a few laughs with the closest people in my life, the people that I would had spent the most time with anyways if it had been my mother throwing a party. We talked about our lives and enjoyed some great food. However I couldn't partake in any sort of drinking because of my dental appointment Saturday morning which I will go into detail very shortly. After a couple hours of eating and talking my family went their separate ways. I went home and went straight to sleep, to prepare for my wisdom teeth removal.

On Saturday I woke up about 7:00am, 2 hours before my appointment and I was immediately nervous. For one I had never been put under before and secondly, and most importantly I hate the dentist. So after taking a shower, getting dressed, and pressuring Ana Laura to wake up to drive me we arrived at the dentist. It was give a kid a smile day so there were free cleanings to lower income kids so the office was full of little kids running around screaming. I was luckier than Ana because I didn't have to sit with them. But on the other hand she didn't have someone cutting her mouth open and crushing teeth. After talking with the receptionist about how everything was going to proceed and how my Ana Laura would have to take certain steps with me after the procedure they hauled me back to the chair. As I sat there scared, my dentist and then the oral surgeon went over the procedure and told me all the scary risks and then told me that everything would be fine. They put the oxygen over my nose and inserted the IV. The surgeon said that I would start to feel funny. I told him that I don't think stuff like that works on me because I didn't feel anything. Then I felt myself doing a backwards somersault, I remember telling them it felt kind of good and that I did feel funny. The next thing I knew I was sitting up in the chair and they were telling me it was done and went fine.

So I went home with some help from Ana Laura and got immediately into bed. My mouth felt horribly uncomfortable. I tried to sleep but between the gauze, my numb tongue and lips I just couldn't manage. So I laid there with ice and listed to Ana watch Seven Pounds, which sounded like a good movie. The rest of the day I spent taking vicodin, eating ice cream and watching movies. Once I regained feeling of my face and took the vicodin, it wasn't so bad, but definitely something, given the choice I would never repeat again.

Now as promised here are some Cancun pictures and a video of me getting pushed by dolphins:

Last Day at Work

Today is my last day at work. This morning started out the same as always; Ana took her sweet time and made me late to work ;-) I then arrived to work and Joel berated me as usual for my slight tardiness. I'm going to miss him, even though he promised to take my dog while I was gone then backed out at the last possible minute. Moving on though, yesterday my coworkers put on a great potluck. There was tons of food and I really felt appreciated and I know that I'll be missed. Today for lunch we are going to Benihana, then after work my coworkers and I are going to happy hour at JJ's, finally tonight my family is taking me to Chino Latino. Today is going to be a fun calorie filled day that will hopefully balance out my wisdom tooth pulling, painful, unhappy weekend that starts tomorrow.

FYI, I will post Cancun pics on Sunday.