all new episodes next week! summer isn't a total bust. now how much do you want to bet i'll either be in such a crappy hotel next week that i don't get fx or i forget?

the hits keep coming...

so the deployment thing is a little hassle. i totally feel like a jerk as far as my company goes because so many things pop up that i have to deal with. i'm supposed to do training thurs, fri, sat and sun (one weekend a month my ass). well last week "hey, why don't you come in wednesday and do some prep work?" sure. no problem. so then "hey, we need to send some people out to north carolina next week and uhm. you're going." "okay, when do i leave?" "sunday". "what. uhm. we're supposed to do training on sunday" "yeah. not now. now you're just going to fly out there sunday, and oh, you'll be taking 14 other guys with you. keep them in line". so with virtually no notice my employer is stuck one short for the next ten days. and it's just going to get worse and worse as we get closer to the date.
so for all of you guys out there who are employers or supervisors of guys who are in the guard/reserve just let me say "thanks". sometimes we get so wrapped up in what a pain in the ass it is for us, that we forget about what a pain in the ass it is for you guys to deal with us. thanks for not piling on the guilt, thanks for being supportive of us... it helps. it really, really does.

so far there's at least 2 weeks spread out through the rest of the month i'll be gone, then another ten days in july, at least four days in august and i'm still waiting to hear on a 2 week class.

next week won't be too bad. ft. bragg is definately my home away from home and the class is a good one. it'll be nice to drop down to sea level and get some good runs in in the backwoods there and hopefully i'll bump into some old friends.

in other news those books that were going to last me for two weeks or so? yeah. i'm done with all five of them. sunday and monday. i have ZERO self control. and to be honest? they're not the best plots. but the characterization is so great.

weekend...

one of the best parts of the deployments is the reading. all of these great people in the u.s. collect used books and send them overseas to the soldiers. unfortunately now that alot of those bases are built up and there's relatively steady power, alot of the guys over there spend their time watching movies and if they're really lucky they get satellite t.v. or AFN. so there are just tons of books in the red cross lounges or the r&r areas. and when you're flying around the country there's usually a stack of books in the different waiting areas by the flight lines.

while i was flying over to iraq i found a "sam mccain mystery" by ed gorman. i liked it so much i carried it around with me and brought it home. i looked in the different bookstores for more books in the series but struck out. finally i just bit the bullet and ordered some. they showed up yesterday. lucky me!

yesterday morning i ran some errands and then came home and took a nap. i was feeling pretty bad (i think i've got an inner ear infection) and i'd committed to running downtown last night. i was pretty irritated because the majority of my guys have failed their p.t. tests and i don't think they're putting in the effort to raise their scores. so i sent out an email to everyone to tell them i would be downtown at 5:00pm and would be running and anyone who wanted to join me would be welcome to do so. none of my guys that needed the extra runs showed, but a couple guys from other groups showed up and we had a good time and a good pizza and beers after. then when i got home i found the books waiting on my front stoop.

today when i woke up i was feeling pretty bad. just kinda dizzy and i didn't want to do much of anything. so i didn't. i read about 2 and half of the mccain books and am even more hooked than i was before. he does a pretty good job capturing small town america. and relationship angst. his main character carries a torch for the girl who doesn't return the favor. and finds himself chased by a girl who should be perfect for him but who he can't make himself like. we love our betty-veronica-archie love triangles... and his character loves his convertible and riding along with the top down. who can't relate?

not a great weekend. not a productive one either. although it'll be hard for most weekends to compare to last... but since i've got to spend 5 days this week on active duty (wed-sun) it's kinda nice to not have a ton going on.