Jellin' - February 27 - March 2, 2009

Seems like we’re getting some semblance of normalcy around here. Two of the three new ladies arrived. One (Bettie) is my new roommate. She’s a southern belle from Alabama, a couple of years younger than I am. Another (Joan) was previously working in Kuwait and wanted to stay, so she applied to the USO. For some reason Kristine’s papers got messed up and she didn’t arrive until yesterday (four days after the others). My usual shift is 4:00 p.m. to midnight. I’m growing into that too. I have most of the day to fart around. I was going to go to midnight chow and get a take out box so that could be my breakfast for the next day and I wouldn’t have to get up. However, midnight chow is less like the buffet on a cruise ship and more like what you’d get at midnight after a night of drinking; lots of fried foods, pizza, etc. So I guess I’ll need to get up early if I want to eat breakfast, and heaven knows I never miss a meal. Except yesterday when I slept until 1300.

I’m feeling more confident at the USO and talking to people. Played Scrabble with a couple of guys; lost dismally. Played Skategories with three from Hawaii. Won!

Spoke with one kid for 3 hours the other night. Seems he’s got a wife who’s cheating on him, one kid that’s not his and one kid that might not be his. Unfortunately, his story is more common than it should be. The other day Big Mike told us that there was one guy who came in desperate for a phone card. He said his wife was having a baby and he really needed to be with her by phone. Mike said that he gave the kid one of our extra phone cards because he felt sorry for him, after being in Iraq for 15 months. I said that if the soldier was in Iraq for 15 months and his wife was having a baby, he might have bigger issues than finding a phone card. No one laughed. (Actually, the soldier had been home on leave, but the joke still should have been funny).

There’s one guy I talked with at the USO (Sam) and then ate with him a couple of times. He eats really healthy, so he's good inspiration. He wanted a ccalender that I had, so I told him I had one in my room and I would bring it to him tomorrow. He said, no don’t bring it tomorrow, I won’t be here until Thursday or Friday. Me: “OK. Where are yuou goiong?” Sam: We’re running a miission in Iraq.” Me: “Huh?”

I was writing this on Word in the dark because the power is off. Now the power is back on so I can transfer into my blog, I hope.

Later.