Just Call me Super Woman

Today is Friday, February 27th. I think my first paycheck comes today. Yesterday I had "one of those days." I didn't work out so after I used the computer I walked back to my "apartment" to read. The electricity wasn't working on our pad (in our "complex") and since one of our war-lockers is in front of the window (acting as a curtain so people can't see in) it was dark in the room. I tried to sit out on the step to read, but since it's wire that was uncomfortable so I just went and took a nap. Woke up at 1:00 which gave me just enough time to make it to the DFac for lunch. About 1/2 way over to the DFac (6 minutes into a 10 minute walk) I remembered that I did not bring my CAC (ID) card. Remember: NEVER go anywhere without your CAC card; so I walked back to my room and then walked back to the DFac for lunch. I walked back to my room and discovered that although my key worked I couldn't open the door. So then I took an 8 minute walk over to Command Cell (the administration building) and told them about my room. Then I walked back and waited for maintenance (Doyle and Greg in a golf cart with boots) to open my room. By then I was almost late for work, although I did manage to walk fast and arrive on time. Today is the day my roommate Ritz is leaving so the girls from Buhering came over and we took a car to get her stuff out of our room. Since the car was then full I walked 6 minutes back to work. The schedule called for me to work by myself between 1800 - 2200 which wouldn't have been a problem except at 6:30 all heck broke loose. GI after GI after GI walked through the door. It was like a flood. Joe had been in Kuwait City so he brought me really, really, really good Persian food for dinner. I took 10 minutes to eat in the office and then back to work. I carried boxes of water into the USO and loaded the water fridge, probably 1200 bottles of water, so by end of shift at midnight I was exhausted. Walked back to room, went to sleep and now working at 0800 this morning. Let me run through this again: I really wanted this job. J/K. It's all fun, the troops are fabulous and very appreciative and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. Let me know how you're enjoying yourself too.

A Day in the Life

So after two weeks here, this is the routine I've settled in to.

I get up at 6:15 a.m. and put on my gym clothes. I go to the USO for a little while to use the computer. The computers are busy when we are open (1000 to 0600) so I need to use before hours. About 7:30 I head over to the DFac for breakfast. That's the only meal I have issues with the hours. They serve breakfast from 5:00 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. WTF? While I eat I watch AFN/CNN for the news. After breakfast of oatmeal or grits with nuts and raisins, one bottle of nf milk and two pieces of fruit I head back to work on the computer some more. At 10:00 a.m. I meet my personal trainer (Joe) at the gym (which is right behind the USO) and we work out for 90 minutes. I do 50-60 minutes of cardio and the rest weights and machines. Joe is a great personal trainer; almost, but not quite, as good as Carol M. If Joe doesn't show up then I do 60 minutes of cardio on the treadmill, reclining bike and/or eliptical. After the gym I stay outside for a few minutes to dry off, then I head to the library to read or go to the PX to buy something.

Lunch for me is at 12:45 p.m. I have turkey/dry tuna/roast beef/mystery meat, vegetables, pita or rice, yogurt and fruit or some variation thereof. Sometimes I find someone to sit with; sometimes someone sits with me. We watch CNN/Larry King Live on AFN. Since this CNN is from "Africa" when they talk about Obama they always say "United States President Barak Obama."

After lunch I go to my room to read and/or nap. At 3:00 I get up, take a shower and get ready for work. My shift (I don't know if it's permanent or not) is 4:00 - midnight. I take one hour for dinner at 6:30 or 6:45; eat what they have if it's reasonably healthy with rice or potato, veggies and fruit. When I get off at midnight, I read and go to sleep.

Now tell me that's not an exciting and challenging routine.

I'm getting to know some of the regulars around here and they are starting to recognize me. I'm difficult to miss, being the oldest person at Camp Virginia and the only one on base with hair. The guys are all jarheads and the women have long straight hair that they put in a tight bun; the African American women have braids that they put in a bun.

Gotta get off the computer. We're opening soon. More, more, more later.
Hugs and kisses to all.

3/18/09: Did I mention I had started boxing. I love it!!

What's Going On

Today is Thursday (I'm sure), February 26th (I think). Camp Virginia is normal for Camp Virginia. We have troops coming in and out at all times; 6, 8 or 10 huge white busses. They always have the curtains drawn so that we (or anyone) cannot know if the troops are coming or going. That's one of the big secrets around here; troop movement. We have been less busy at the USO but the guests (we call them customers; I need to put a stop to that) seem more appreciative. A few times a day I get a huge "thank you," or "we appreciate all you do for us," or "what you're doing is wonderful," or something like that. Some of the guys are trapped here for 3-8 days with absolutely nothing to do so they like hanging here watching movies, using the computers and playing video games.

The other night I was covering the desk with Jordan, my 21 year old co-worker. Jordan was sitting on the counter next to me. I was using the computer and helping three people so I reached out to Jordan's leg to ask him to help me do something. Unfortunately I did not find his leg, but put my hand squarely on his other parts. Jordan, me, the 6 people on the computer and the 3 people waiting at the counter were in hysterics for 20 minutes. No one could stop laughing. Obviously we're easily amused and even more obviously we take what we can get here at Camp Virginia. The next day at our USO staff meeting Jordan said that he wouldn't let "what happened between Bonnie and me last night effect our work relationship." We're all still laughing.

Jordan and Joe went to the Radisson on Wednesday to pick up a cake for Maritza, since she is transferring to Camp Buhering today. They filled their car with gas at the camp filling station. By the time they returned about 90 minutes later the guy who had helped them was dead. Word is that he just keeled over and died from natural causes. Most of the camps have signs that say this many days since an injury, this many days since a weapon was unintentionally discharged, this many days since an injury or this many days since a death. Joe says Camp Virginia does not have one of those signs because there are too many deaths here; two that I know of in the past two weeks. The casualties are not combat related, stuff that would happen in Kuwait or Long Beach or anywhere, but it's still sad.

I'm going to take a nap. Later.

National Lampoon's Camping Vacation

WTF!!! It's Thursday, February 26th (I think that's the date). It took me 20+ minutes to figure out how to log on in English. Grrrrr.

Anyway, about the camping.

When I was driving with Jonathan from the Renaissance Hotel to Camp Virginia we passed a lot of huge sandy areas sparsely occupied with tents. I asked him if those were Bedouins. He said no, those were Kuwaitis enjoying their favorite vacation of camping. There were no streams with fish, no forests, no trails, no toilets or showers, just tents with sand, sand and more sand all around. Looks like a lot of fun to me.

Weather you think you can, or you think you can't

So far wheather has mostly not been an issue. The temperatures are very much like Southern California, reaching high 60s or low 70s during the day; probably low 60s or 50s during the evening/night/morning. Our apartment has AC and heating, but we have not had to use either so far.

The reason I write "mostly" is because we have had a couple of sand storms. One occurred just before I arrived. It feels like you're in a fog except you're not cool and there's no humidity. Everything is beige. The other day I took a shower, put on moisterizer and hair gel and then stepped out into a sandstorm. The wet hair with gel, creamy face and hands worked very well. The sand stuck to me like plaster. I surely don't need St. Ives Apricot Scrub for my face; just rubbing the sand in leaves my skin soft and baby-smooth.

It's difficult to breath with sand all around. The people here told me my nose would do weird things and sure enough a couple days after I arrived I started sneezing; don't feel bad, just sneezing all of the time. Now I have laryngitis; don't feel bad, just can't talk. I'm sure it's all due to the weather. Everyone has scarf things that they put over their mouth and nose during a sandstorm. I'm going to try to buy one today at the PX. The USO is air conditioned, as are the barracks, gym library and DFac. Hopefully the summer and winter will be as manageable as the fall or spring or whatever this is.

February 21, 2009: Strangness and Sadness

The other day, I was here by myself and right in the middle of the day an officer came in and asked me if he could make an announcement. I told him we did not have a PA, so he went through the USO facility and kicked out anyone from his unit. Then he posted a sign on the front door and at the front desk that said no one from his unit was allowed in the USO. Turns out there was an "information freeze" meaning no one from that unit was allowed to call, write or e-mail. Mike C. aka Big Mike, one of my fellow USO workers who was in the Army for 20+ years, said that there was either a death or serious injury in the unit and the military didn't want anything getting out until family members had been notified. Saw in the Stars & Stripes this morning that one 19 year old girl from that unit had been killed in a car accident. Three people with her were badly injured. There's a memorial service for her today in the Chapel, which is right across from the USO.

Now I know when there's an information freeze it's probably bad news. I also know why they don't want us driving into town. From what I've seen, the people in Kuwait drive like maniacs, Jonathan Matthews notwithstanding.

The USO

As you may have seen on DIY/ManCaves, the USO at Camp Virginia is large and quite well equipped. We have 5 Playstations 3, 5 X-boxes 360 and 5 Wii portals. There is a "cinema" with 24 reclining lounges on which we show movies on a large screen. The seats are usually full with troops watching the movie and/or sleeping. The most requested movie by far is 300. Most of these guys have seen that movie 5+ times. The most requested games are Call to Duty. We have 4 copies of each and they are almost always out. The guys like Tiger Woods (on Wii) and John Madden too. Too much useless information?

We're now open 10:00 to midnight, but soon our hours will change to 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m., with the two hours closed for cleaning and cooling off the computers. There's usually 20-50 people waiting for us to open in the morning.

We have a soundproof music room where soldiers can jam on electric guitar. It's not used that much, maybe 2-3 times per day, but the people that use it just love it. They are surprised to find they can play music so far from home. We have 6 computers with Internet and four phones. By far the most popular items we have are the phones. There's always a line of people waiting to call home for free. There's also two TVs, one tuned to AFN and one for movies. If you want to watch the movie TV (TV1) you need to wear headphones. There's enough noise in here without one more TV. Yesterday we were playing "Superbad" on TV1. It was pretty funny to hear everyone laughing at the silence. There's a game area with lots of games, but unlike USO and LAX we do not have many snacks, just what we buy at the PX. I bought 4 bags of Werthers at the PX yesterday and all were gone in 4 hours and that's because almost no one was here and because RJS didn't steal any. SEND FOOD. SEND SNACKS. SEND GIRL SCOUT COOKIES. SEND MICROWAVE POPCORN. SEND SEE'S CANDY. I will not eat it all by myself. I promise to share.

The USO operates like one very disfunctional family. There were 4 guys plus the Center Manager (a guy) and one girl ("Ritz") here before I arrived. That's five egos way out of control. Ritz is leaving on Thursday to transfer to Camp Beuring USO, but we are getting 3 new people; all women. Hopefully things will settle down when we have more of that gentle female touch. Of course it's a long story that I cannot go into here, but suffice to say we're all in need of a good whuppin'.

Food, Glorious Food

Food here is pretty good. Aside from the fast food places listed in the Camp Virginia section, there is also a huge assortment of groceries at the FX. My meals are paid for at the DFac (Dining Facility/mess hall). They serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight chow. I've never been to midnight chow, but I assume it's very much like the midnight buffet on a cruise ship. Or maybe not.

There's lots of choices for breakfast including fresh made omlets with ingredients that you pick, bacon, eggs, waffles, cold cereal, hot cereal, fruit, etc. So far I've had only hot cereal with nuts and raisins mixed in. The coffee is good too.

In addition to the main dishes for lunch and dinner there's also a fast food section with chicken nuggets, hamburgers and/or hot dogs, pizza, french fries and onion rings. Every meal also has a pasta bar (spaghetti and meatballs) or taco bar (tortilla shells, beans, cheese, ground meat), fajita bar (chicken, beef, vegetables, sour cream, guacamole), Chinese food bar (rice, spring rolls, noodles, orange chicken) or a soul food bar (greens, ribs, black-eyed peas), etc. Two main dishes (beef, chicken, lamb, pork) are served at every meal with sides of vegetables and carbs. The military has obviously gone healthy because there's steamed vegetables, a salad bar with fresh ingredients and tuna, turkey, roast beef and lots and lots of fruit. The fijata bar has whole wheat tortillas?! So far I've managed to stay away from the dessert bar where they serve pie, Baskin-Robbins ice cream with lots of toppings, soft-serve, cakes and cookies.

Water is everywhere. Every building you walk into has a refrigerator filled with bottled water. It's free; you just take it. The DFac also has: coffee, tea, decaf, packets of Crystal Light (!!), juices, 4 kinds of milk, including chocolate milk, 4 kinds of soy milk, including chocolate soy milk, a soda machine, milkshakes (at the dessert bar) and water, water and more water. Signs are posted to drink water, more water and then some more water. The world is right if we all stay hydrated.

February 12, 2009 - In Country

Met with Jonathan at 8:00 a.m. to get me situated and run some errands. Also met Terry who is here to start up the USO in Baghdad. Terry is retired military from Raleigh, NC where his wife is behind selling real estate. Terry graciously took the rear so I could ride shotgun next to Jonathan. We went in the dustmobile from base, to base, here to there, back and forward again, where I was picked, prodded, fingerprinted, photographed, interrogated and analyzed. Got my status mostly straighted out and obtained a CAC (military ID) card. Turns out Terry was not so gracious. Driving with Jonathan is a cross between Magic Mountain and a Wes Craven movie. I sat in the front with my teeth in my cheeks and my fingernails in the upholstery, while Terry settled into the back seat with his iPod. I learned some new words and a few new ways to use those words. I discovered that the phrase "douche bag" can be used as an adjective, noun, verb and expletive. Also I was checking out the other cars and told Jonathan that I hardly saw any women driving; mostly men. He told me that I should be careful because if a man in a car caught my eye he would think that I wanted him to follow me home and he would indeed do that.

We got to Camp Virginia about 5:00 in the evening where I was introduced to some of my fellow workers, met my roomate and given a tour of the camp. Ended up working for 2 hours since the USO was pretty busy.

February 10/11, 2009. If This is Tuesday, It Must be Wednesday

Got to Dulles at 4:00 p.m. for my 10:00 flight to Kuwait City. Checked out the USO and met the Volunteer Coordinator (Pam) and a couple of the ladies/girls who worked there. Dulles terminals are one straight line so I walked the length for about 30 minutes. That was my activity for the day. Got a really good turkey sandwich and yogurt (not nearly as good as Golden Spoon) for dinner (1) and went to wash up. When I got back to the gate it was empty and everyone had pretty much boarded the plane -- 40 minutes before take off. I again had an aisle seat with the entire Buffalo Bills Chearleading Team across from me. Very amusing, since all these guys on the plane would walk by and flex their muscles. It might have been for my benefit, buy maybe not. The guy next to me (Tom T.) is retired from the army and is going to Kuwait as a contractor. That's the same story for most of the people on the plane. They are former or retired army/marine and are now going back to the Middle East as private contractors to assist the military and make gobs of money. Since we had been at the airport for so long, about an hour after takeoff they gave us dinner (2). We had one crying baby and one yelping dog on board. I watched one episode of "House" (the one where he takes a 25 foot tapeworm out from this young girl), took 3 Ambian and tried to rest. I was awaken by my seatmate trying to go to the lavatory -- 9 hours later! Ambian -- the only way to fly. Since we were arriving at 6:00 p.m. and would probably spend some time going through immigration they gave us dinner (3).

I was met at the gate by a 20 year old girl in a red jacket. These guides are arranged ahead of time to help people navigate immigration. We was very nice and took me without waiting (since she had gotten in line and pulled a number before I arrived) to the immigration agent, a VERY ADORABLE young man. The VERY ADORABLE young man asked me my name a couple of times and transliterated it into Arabic (I'm guessing that's the first time Bachenheimer has been changed to Arabic), checked out my orders from the USO and my passport and then things proceeded downhill very quickly. The VERY ADORABLE young man was nice, but this girl really gave me the evil eye. She took my papers to someone else, who took my papers to someone else, who took my papers to someone else. I asked her what was happening and she said that they would have to obtain approval from her superior to allow me into the country. She accused me of being born in Israel. She said if her superior did not approve my papers I would be deported. Anyway, this went on for a couple of hours while I hung around with John, another retired military contractor on his way to Iraq. The girl came back and forth a couple of times and try to deport me with her stare. Finally, she went to talk to the VERY ADORABLE young man and left. I asked him what was going on. He said, "It's OK. Don't worry." A couple of minutes later a nicer young lady in red jacket arrived and handed me over to a very nice young man who got my bags and then handed me over to another very nice young man who called the hotel shuttle and waited with me and then handed me over to another very nice young man who took me to the Radisson and then handed me over to a very nice young man who took my bags and me to the front desk where a very nice young man checked me in. Whew!

All the people I spoke with in Kuwait said that the weather had been very bad, which means that they had a couple of windy days of sand storms. It looked like beige fog. Many of the people working outdoors, parking cars at the airport, etc., were wearing surgical masks. The sand is very fine, like powder, and there's at least a thin film, if not more, on everything.

Anyway, I got settled into my room and then met with Jonathan Mathews, Programs Director for SW Asia. If you saw the DIY ManCaves show on Camp Virginia, he's the guy they were talking with all of the time. I recognized him right away. He's from Liverpool and sounds exactly like the Beatles. Jonthan gave me a rundown of my job, USO, etc. Since it was now about 11:00 p.m. and I had been "in country" for a few hours, he suggested I eat some dinner. I was hungry so I did (4).

Yes, it really was that much of a day. And I lost Wednesday altogether.

February 10, 2009. I Have Arrived

One day orientation in Arlington. Met by the people I had been e-mailing; Maggie and Allison. There is a new CEO at the USO so everything is in flux which is why it took them so long to get the information to me. Everyone is really nice. Did orientation with one other person (Kerri). We're best friends now. Two of the girls took us to lunch and then they had a reception for us after lunch with cake so we could meet everyone in the office. Really a nice group; people seem to like each other and enjoy working at the USO, although everyone is new. I think the person I met who had been there the longest had been there two years. Like KY&L, but not so much.

D-Day; February 9, 2009

Leorit took me to airport. Checked in with computer and changed seat on the plane to aisle seat; last row (but you can lean those back now). Plane was full but seat next to me was empty and then some kid from Cal Berkeley near the window. Just when I was getting to baggage claim at Dulles I heard my name on the intercom (first time to be paged at an aiport). The driver picked up my bags (first off plan) then I hopped in the car and he drove me to Hilton Courtyard in Arlington. Simple as that. Went for a walk for dinner; probably 60 degrees.

D-1, February 8, 2009

Got packed. Returned car. Cleaned up a little. Freaked out. Just the usual Sunday in Southern California.

Saturday: D-2 (February 7, 2009)

Spent a little time getting ready, not as much as one should before a trip of a lifetime. Went shopping with Tal. Tried to convince him that he should call of the salesgirls "sweetie." Hopefully he's stopped doing that or he's been slapped at least once. Went to dinner with Leorit/Ariel, Bo/Frankie, Toby, Bev, Tal and me. Was a totally fun walk to the restaurant and dinner. And yes, Bo, if someone has been assinated and/or murdered and/or killed, then that person is probably dead.

My first blog

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