i just got back from a weird trip. it's been a long couple of days. two of our teams were engaged yesterday, and we almost lost 4 guys, but fortunately we're all safe and sound. i didn't hear about any of this until today when i got back on base. we're a small unit, and we live next door to the distant cousin unit, and they're kinda small, so we frequently pair up for missions. we've been doing this now for almost eleven months, so we mesh amazingly well. anyways, they needed to go to another base and needed to do some stuff at one of the local cities, and needed some extra help with security while they did their thing in the city, so me and another guy went along. we ended up spending the night at this base that's about 2.5 hrs from here.

it's funny, when we first got here, we were living on a fairly small base. if i ran the perimeter it was maybe 3.5 miles most of the way around. we closed that base down and moved to a bigger one, and the base we're on is getting bigger all the time. this is actually not as good a thing as you might think. more people just means more hassles. there's a longer line to do anything, becase we're bigger we've got more higher ranking people here, which means that alot of the rules no longer meet "common sense", they're in place "just because". this is an active duty division that runs the base, so they bring alot of rules from back in the states down here with them. alot of the rules are fine back home, but are kind of stupid down here. anyways. the base we went to is even bigger and more established. while there were alot of the normal headaches that come along with being on the base (guys got tickets for not wearing reflective belts while walking around the base after dark, we had to let people inspect our weapons to prove that we actually know how to unload them and make them safe, etc) it actually ended up being alot of fun.

the guy that i traveled with was the same guy i went on the road with last week. we travel well together. make fun of one another, laugh at alot of the same stuff, fine the same types of girls attractive so we can gawk together... anyways, the last trip was pretty high-stress. since we were really only along for the ride this trip, once we got to the base, we cut lose and went our seperate way. well we found a REAL movie theater on post. and it sold popcorn and hotdogs and ice cream and movie theater candy and soda in PLASTIC BOTTLES! for two hours we were like little kids, giggling and being stupid. the movie was "just friends" and to us, last night, it seemed like the funniest movie ever. was it really that good? or were we just so wrapped up in the moment? i dunno. but it was fun.

the other unit had to be up at 6am. we didn't. so we slept til 11:00am, then proceeded to a new popeye's resteraunt and proceeded to have po'boy sandwiches. i haven't slept that well in awhile. we've all been passing a flu bug around, so someone is always snoring really loud at night because they're congested. then one or a couple of us leave for a couple nights, come back, catch the slightly mutated bug again and the cycle just keeps going.

today was a little spooky coming back. we've traveled on these roads alot. and some of the villages were like ghost towns. where we're normally threading our way through traffic, this time we were the only vehicles on the road. the hair on the back of your neck stands up, and you're wondering if it's like in an old western. the locals have hidden behind shuttered windows because they know the bad guys are in town and trouble is brewing. fortunately we made it home safely though.

i'm not sure what the next couple days are going to bring. but yesterday was great!