Numbers are Numbers

Have you ever watched Stranger than Fiction? In the start of the movie you get to "see" how an OCD individual views the world. Numbers pop up every so often measuring steps and lengths and such.

I am not that cool. I don't have a mind that can display numbers everywhere as I calculate the distance between my desk and the desk in front of me (38.5"). I do find myself counting and measuring when I'm bored and tired. Here are some nominal numbers of where I live. I can't tell you EXACT numbers, and if you know why, well then you know why I cannot.

From my doorstep to the bathroom door is 150 steps. Bathroom to Cafeteria is 175 steps. Marketplace to  my door is 250. From bathroom to work is 180, across a stree and around the corner. My desk is slanted at a 15 degree decline (away from me, so that my chair gets sucked into my desk.) the refrigerator is 4 steps away from me, and is filled with an average of 8 12-packs of soda, and 72 500mL water bottles; combine that with my double serving packets of Kool-Aid I recieved from Ashelyn, and I drink about 3 bottles a day, and pee about 5 times in 20 hours. (Yes I am up for 20 hours a day).

Just a few numbers to crunch on durin you day. Enjoy!

Just a short list

The word “plagiarism” doesn’t really work in my line of work. So, I did not plagiarized Ashelyn’s blog idea in making this. I’m simply ‘rebadging it’ to make it my own.

The List of Things I surely do miss, and the things I can’t wait to do.

• ·         Snuggling on a couch.
• ·         Fighting for covers.
• ·         OTTERS!!
• ·         Outdoor adventures.
• ·         Shooting soda cans. (Next time will be more fun!)
• ·         Showing off my computer creation, and having the girls look at me like I’m speaking French. Scratch that, not French, German, or Italian, because Ash knows them.
• ·         Museums and Zoos!!!
• ·         Traveling
• ·         Finding Ghost Towns.
• ·         Looking at the Stars (both on my ceiling and real ones)
• ·         Columbus Day!
• ·         Trying to dance like a Mexican woman as I cook. (but only when no one looks)
• ·         Watching Ash cook, cause we know I can’t.
• ·         Big Bang Theory!
• ·         Family Dinners (the kind with smelly kids… not old farts)
• ·         BUILDING BIONICLES!
• ·         “Hey Honey, can we make…..”
• ·         PASTA carbanananana
• ·         Random Restaurants
• ·         Listening to 10 seconds of every song in the playlist.
• ·         Afternoon Naps.
• ·         Hugs AND Kisses.
• ·         Antiques!!!

Pier

I was going to bore you with a monolouge that seemed to come from J. R. R. Tolkien. (honestly describe a valley with three pages?! ridiculous) My monolouge was going to be a vague reference to my working area here. Lucky for you all, Mitchell took me to the Piers today. Now, I have something to talk about. Thank him later.

We live like 30 minutes from the beach, but you wouldn't believe it if you were here, its too dry and hot and well deserty. I had a day off and Mitchel used it to his advantage, claiming there is rare communication systems to be seen on the boat, we easily got a pass out side the wire.  Plus side was we needed to be in casual clothing BONUS!

It was a short day, so we weren't in too much trouble. We played on a beach, got sand in between the toes, felt the warm water of the the Gulf. We went into the market place and mingled, found a few stores and bought a few things (I found a replica Omega watch that was too good to pass up, it is James Bond's watch after all)

Now to fully appreciate what had transpired, you must know three things about me.
1) I cooked for a living in Utah.

2) I struggled with the concept of eating Hummus until I went to Mazzo a few months ago, and with Ashelyn to draw strength from, tried Hummus and Grape Leaves for the first time citing "when in Rome...."

3) I ate Oysters with my sister in February, drawing strength from Lacie, I slurped down my first round of Oyster, citing "when in Rome...."

Now that these key things are known about me, we fast forward to the Middle Eastern man slicing chunks of chicken off a rotisserie and mixing herbs into in.... Oh did I forget he was bare handed? Well the thing he was making is called a Shiwarma, Its a pita bread taco with panini grill lines and herbs inside. Add the potato/chili paste/ mayo dipping sauce and you got an authentic fast food treat. So what do you do as you look at the concoction?

When in Rome you say as you step up and struggle through the Language barrier. Then you sit down and try your meal, Is it Good? That's for you to experience, When in Rome

Many months ago I was standing in a formation in front of my family, I hoped they got goosebumps  as I did when the commander rolled up the unit flag "it will stay that way until they start their mission" noted the narrator.

Yesterday, I saw this action come full circle as I stood, in the middle of a formation, in a gym with not even ten spectators. Even with the minimal on-lookers, we still went through the Pomp and Circumstance that you would expect a military ceremony to have. The one difference was that the unit we replaced rolled up their flag, and we unrolled our flag.

It literally happened over night, as if the night gnomes navigated their way into our operating area and changed all of the signage and flair. The TOC went from a room of Mcdonalds scheme of red orange and yellow, to a subtle Blue and white, the color of our Double Diamonds we wear on our shoulder. Now I am not longer a foreigner tip-toeing around someone else's house. It is my house, it is my mission. I own it. And own it I will, untill the send another group of soldiers here to unfurl their flag and post their colors where we stand.

Sandstorm

When I think Sandstorm, I think of that old Techno song that came out 10 years ago.  What I have found out, however, is that A) no one cares about that song outside of the U.S. and B) there are real sandstorms. Barring all the technical data that I'd grab from Wikipedia, I'll simply say that its now the time of season where the winds and heat blows enough sand up to cause a problem. (Think WATER CYCLE, but with Sand).  Today was my first sand stormy experience, so I was eager to run and grab my Shemagh that Ashelyn let me buy a couple of months ago in Utah. Donning the high speed head dress, I ran outside to realize I suck at tying it. I can breath just fine, but the seal between my glasses and the cloth allow little sand bits to attack my eyes. Mission: FAILED

So what does any self respecting soldier do during lunch when it blows? Why, he goes to the MWR Rec Room!! I was not the only one who had this brilliant idea, there were many people there, I was about to say 'Soldiers' but there were Marines, Sailors, Airmen (Grrr) AND Contractors... Norman and I resolved to playing some pool (rematch from when we went bowling and beat him 2 games to 1) What we didn't know is that some Seamen were on the table before us, and we were to mind read the fact the were coming back. The ensuing conversation escalated until the little Asian on the ping pong table told us to play doubles best 2 out of 3 for the table. Fair enough, at least I won't be playing against Norman.

We didn't plan it, we didn't even know it was going to happen. We kept missing easy shots one after another, and the first game went to the NAVY. Second game was going about the same as the first. when they removed their balls off the table, it was easy for us to scoop ours up and won just by the skin of our teeth. Last game, Norman and I hustled them out with one run each. The games were good, but we had to go back to work, so we let the others play ( if there is no water near by, what is the navy doing here besides playing pool anyways?) Norman and I have a respect for the Boat boys, at least they are as bad as their Flyboy brothers at the Air Force.

FLYBOYS

As you can Imagine, there are many a different types of Units act differently. Like the group that we flew over the pond with was a combat engineer unit. To me, the looked like the Army's version of Pikeys. Even in my mind heard Jason Statham saying "freaking Pikeys." in his wonderful British accent like he does in Snatch.

When you move into different branches, the stereotypes and the general way people conduct themselves greatly differ. I can never understand why the Navy is always in there exercise gear, yet never really exercise.

And then you have them FlyBoys. The look like ken dolls. All of them have the neat comb over blonde hair and their bleach white teeth. (Zaren would look at all of them and state that they would survive WWII Germany.) The are always wanting to argue, but never want to fight. We found this out when Norman and I started cracking on them without knowing they were in ear shot. Needless to say, I won't be going back to that laundry facility for a while now. Just so that I don't give Norman any excuse to go 'roid rage.

TIMING?

So in all of sci-fi geekdom, we know that time and space are just relative terms. That means that they are not constant and consistant as we think, its all about where you are and how you look at things. Real world disagrees with this only because we cannot space travel yet (that is the pinnacle of applications for the space/time continum) Well, I have found a place where time has been altered, right here on Earth.

As you may guess by my previous blogs, I am outside the United States. Don't be alarmed, I'm still alive. In this place that I am in, you have to be really careful about the time, because it is different then it would be in America. I don't just mean and 9 hours and tada! you have the time, remember Time is relative. Out here its a little different. Firstly, our housing doesn't have windows, that way if you are night shift, you aren't bombarded by the sun as you sleep. Which brings me a to my next strange dealings. When I wake up before the sun rises in Utah, that typically means I wake up at 5 AM in the summer (9 AM in winter?) I walk out of my housing today at 0500  and the sun was already beating down on us like "Hello! Are you finally awake and ready to go?" Out here in the vortex of time, It seems as the the daylight hours are longer, which provides more time for you to enjoy the heat (might I add, it feels like I'm standing in front of an oven when I'm outside). Soon enough I'll be done with this place and back to where Time marches to a steady beat. Until then, I will enjoy contemplating this Time/Space shift.