Great Day!

How many times does a person ever have a day that no one could ever ruin?! I had one of those days today. A very good friend and fellow warrant officer deployed last year to Iraq. Tracy is from the San Antonio area, and has the same type of job I do in the Army. During her year of deployment, I've been able to keep up with her through emails, and an occasional phone call (when she could get to a phone line.) This morning (after my 5:00 a.m. gym workout) I was in the shower trailer, and Tracy walked in. She arrived at the same camp that I'm on yesterday, and we'd been communicating by email to try to find each other. The lack of cell phones is definitely a deterrent. It was great to see her, and I actually was scheduled to have my first morning off duty. So......We went to Starbuck's and attempted to catch up on a year's worth of stories. She is due to redeploy back to the States soon, so I'll definitely be picking her brain for all her "lessons learned".

It was great to see her -- we shared laughs among the tears -- a relief to see someone we both know from "home".

Another thing about this place -- it's not necessary to EVER turn on the hot water faucet. Since the temperatures are soooooo extremely high -- the cold water NEVER has a chance to come out of the tap in the desired state -- COLD! Showers become a quick dip under the water and something to get used to the scalding water.

I put $.50 in a soda machine today for a diet coke, and had a flashback in time. The soda cans (pop cans for all the friends and family up north) have the old "pull tabs" -- like we had in the 60's and 70's. I laughed when I saw it -- what a trip down memory lane.

Til later ~~ Candy