extension of Part 1

a couple more memories from my trip from Iraq to the US for R&R

Marine Corps guys are funny
While waiting for hours on end in Kuwait to finally load a bus to take us 10 minutes away to stand out in the hot night for 1 hour to then board the bust to drive 1 hr 45 minutes to the airport, I was sat next to a couple Marine Corps guys...a lieutenant and warrant officer. The warrant officer started talking to me and before long, we were all buddies. One memory of the warrant officer that stands out is our discussion of the Twilight series of books. As you all know, this book has been a huge hit in the teenage population and female demographics to include the movie that brought about a new heartthrob. The warrant officer was a forty year old married with 3 children man. Not typically of the demographics for the books/movie. But after telling me how his wife sends him a book every deployment and this time she sent all four books in the Twilight series, I was a bit surprised. He loved the books. I then recalled one of my male medics saying the same thing after his girlfriend sent him the books...only difference is my medic just turned 20.

It was soon time for our flights and the very last movie shown was Twilight. It was really good and I was enjoying the movie, however, we landed just as the plot was thickening. I mentioned my amusement with the movie to the warrant officer. He then paused, looked down at me with the most serious face I had seen on this man yet, and said sternly "read the book first". This was said with such conviction that I'm now scared to watch the movie.

FOOD!!!! sort of
Although food at my base isn't horrible, there are many times where we walk in, see the stand repeated menu and get bummed out. Granted it is still waaaay better than the end of my Rustamiyah gig, but none-the-less, it could get old. When we finally boarded our commercial flight out of Kuwait, I was not expecting to be eating any fancy meal. However, the first meal came by...I chose cheese manicotti. OMG! It tasted so good. I could not believe how good airplane food could taste. My next meal was just as scrumptious. To this day, I will never know if that food was good because it was just better than my base food or that it truly was good. Food just got better and better on my R&R and we had a different carrier the flight back, so I may never know.

Brrrrrrrr
Finally I'm on the final leg of my journal from Atlanta (a.k.a. Hotlanta) and I'm excited that I have just 1 hr 30 minutes until I am in Michigan to relax at my parents house and enjoy some poolside sunning. Shortly before landing, the pilot makes his routine statements about landing which ended in "Temperature in Flint is 55 degress F". 55 DEGREES!!!!!!! Does he know that I've been acclimated to 110 DEGREES!!! That's half the degrees I was used to. Needless to say I was cold..in Michigan..in June. I have no more words to say.