27 In Georgia

What did you do for your 27th Birthday? What do you think... I got an Anthrax shot, a TB test, had blood drawn and sat around doing medical SRP (Soldier Readiness & Preparedness) at Fort Benning, GA. Like there was any question of how I would rather spend my 27th Birthday... Oh... wait... that's not a good Birthday... well dang, why don't you just ship me off to Iraq for a year and call it a day then... what?.... wait... huh... you are? Geez. Sometimes I think I know just how Charlie Brown felt.

Well it's not so bad, in fact it could be a lot worse, so I am thankful for my current situation, I just thought it would be funny to start my "Birthday Blog" out with a very sarcastic tone. Anywho I am looking forward to getting this show on the road, and all in all it looks like we got a very good road ahead of us, so I will continue to let you all in on the bits and pieces that I can. Thx for all the support and prayers, they are felt. I love you all!

In Christ

-Chris

The Long Haul starts Today

Well... in typical Army fashion, someone got involved in the travel proccess last minute and changed everything... and not for the better! Our flights were changed last night... we found out this morning, and instead of driving for an hour and already being at Fort Benning my team and I are now sitting in an airport for a 5 hour layover... why? Because aparrently this is the way it is usually done. Wow! Way to go there buddy. Way to waste several hours and raise the price by purchasing 7 more tickets in less then 24 hours before our trip so that we can show up 7 to 9 houtrs later then we would of if you had just let us handle the job ourselves. This is the type of fearless leadership that scares me oh so often when working with the Army. On the flip side, everyone of the 7 on my team realize how ridiculous this is, and it's good to know I have 7 intelligant, fully functional thinkers on the team. Anywho... 3 more hours in Atlanta before we fly. Love You all!

The Plan Has changed... For The Better!

All my hard work has paid off in the biggest way possible, I have now been selected to go with 10th Mountain Division and deploy in country a month earlier then the rest of my BN. Why is this good? Because now I will be living in a hotel room with internet and cable T.V. for a month in NY instead of living under lockdown in a make shift tent city that is run by non-deployed trainers who don't know what it's really like in Iraq in NC. I still feel bad for the rest of the BN that has to go through the two months, but it will be motivation to work harder, so that when they arrive in country they are fully taken care of. Well, I am in a chipper mood now and I have a pretty relaxing weekend ahead... Thank You God. Love you all!

Still Going...

Unfortunately = ( I officially lost all my nrg and desire to be productive yesterday after being awake for 21 hours, and finishing that 21 hours with a visit to the doctor, followed by 5 hours of sleep and then going back for my shift... needless to say mentally, physically, and emotionally I am done with NY. I cannot wait to come home even if it's only for a week and a half before I leave for good
= ( Dang, this stuff is depressing. I still love you all though, thank you for the support!

Love in Christ
-Chris

Back Into It

Well I was told to come in at 1700 (Where I would normally work 2000 to 0900, but what's an extra three hours to a normal 13 or 14 hour day anyways right?) Anywho, I did not need to be in until 2000, but my chain of command forgot that I worked 2000 to 0900... guess that makes sense, since they never see me anyways =( SO I lost about 3 hours of sleep that I probably could of used, since it is 1115 here and I am having real trouble staying awake. The power went out at my hotel 8 times this weekend; I found out the high speed internet is really NOSPEED internet, and that when it snows they cancel the hotel cleaning services because no one wants to drive out in the middle of a blizzard... so I drove out in it to go see 10,000 BC. which turned out to be not such a horrible movie, but I still want to see the Bank Job. As it stands right now I may be flying home early, but that has already changed three times, so it will probably change back yet again. Anywho let's talk about driving a rental car with really bad breaks in a blizzard... it's only fun when you are not sliding through red lights =) I was going 25-35 on the freeway and having a blast using both lanes of the highway to skid a little to the left and a little to the right.... Skidding donuts in an empty movie theater parking lot at 1:00 a.m. in a blizzard was also fun, but then again there was the crappy breaks that you had to pump for miles in order to stop, pray that stopping didn't mean getting stuck, and also that if you didn't stop in time that God would make it so no body would hit you (Believe it or not there was a good number of cars on the road at 1:30 a.m. in blizzard like conditions, and I am pretty sure the ones who got stuck behind me were pretty scared of me... the rental car I borrowed was horrible! but that's what made it fun =) Lol, it helps that no one got hurt in al the winter wonderland fun, because that would of ruined the good moments like skidding around an empty parking lot =) So I just wanted to put up a quick update... my shift is a lot harder tonight, because my sleep schedule kind of got all out of place over the weekend, but I will drink lots of soda and hope to survive it. Love you all!

-Chris

10 AM Bed Time

Yup, I wake up between 3 and 4 p.m. and get ready and go to work from 6p.m. to 9a.m. which is longer then the 8 and 12 hour shifts everyone else does, but when you are the one of the few that really gets what CMO is and you are the only one that can produce the products that the CG wants answers to, you kind of have to work longer to make sure nothing gets messed up, which it always does anyways because I cannot be their 24/7 to keep things straight. So my schedule is killer and I am exhausted, but for some crazy reason I really love the job... except for the whole briefing CMO to a room full of 04's and above... believe it or not I get really, extremely nervous when I brief, but I think it's because there are so many high ranking officers and what I do here will effect how we do CA in Iraq... No pressure right??? WRONG! Anywho I am getting tired so I will say goodnight now.

Love In Christ

- Chris