Army Post Road

I found this on a friend's MSN Space.  

Being Irish means…

* your attention span is so short that—oh, forget it. (Uh, no)

Groom:  Bart Simpson
Bride:  Lotta Cooties

Well I got an exciting e-mail today.  I got invited to apply for a COTTAD (Co-T-Tad is how it's pronounced; that's Contingency Operation-Temporary Tour of Active Duty).  I can't talk much about the details, but it's an individual mobilization where I'll be working at CentCom headquarters.  That's probably all the more I should say.  I'd really like to do it.  I'd get to spend several months in Florida and elsewhere doing some cool stuff.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII just wanna fly.  (Sorry, I needed to throw that in there.)

Commercials are the best source for the most random sounding shit. 

Today was wholly uninteresting.  I came home from work (which other than being drag-ass tired) between work and the meeting at the division office.  I hadn't been planning on it, but I spilled coffee on my lap (ouch, but not bad enough to burn me, like last time) and needed to change my pants.  I went to the meeting (it was short, I was out of there and back across town by 10:15) and came home checked e-mail and slept from 11-7 (sleeping eight hours during the middle of the day is fun ). 

I didn't get a chance to hatch my ingenious plan to move back to Iowa City.  Maybe tomorrow I won't sleep so much and will be able to do more about it.

Time to prepare for work.

I think I've figured out an ingenious plan.  It involves moving in with Jen, the girl I was talking about botching the relationship with. Mwahahahahahahahahaha. As long as she hasn't moved, she's got a two-bedroom apartment in North Liberty that I could split with her for a little while (until who knows when exactly: I find a place of my own, her lease runs up, blah blah blah), without a security deposit mind you (I hope, why would I have to pay one?).  I haven't been able to run this past her yet, but hopefully tomorrow.  We'll see where it goes.  Heehee, it'd be interesting to move in with this one.  Maybe I've hatched a brilliant plan to get back to Iowa City AND not miss what I thought I had. 

My parents essentially told me I cannot move out last night.  They don't think I've paid off enough of my bills to be able to finance a new apartment. 

What brought it all up was that I traded another e-mail with MSG Heckart telling him that I wanted to move to Iowa City and he replied that he couldn't advise me either way because the situation with our deployment is so FUBAR'ed and secretive and that I can only decided on how well I could handle the risk that a deployment order could come just as soon as I'd gotten to Iowa City (or earlier even).  I passed that along to my parents and they basically said, “So?  You don't have enough money, you can't.”  And they said it so matter-of-fact that I should feel stupid for not agreeing.  When I added that I wasn't thinking I'd be able to get a place and a job secured for at least a month, they still said, “So? You won't have enough money.”  And that's about all the further they were willing to discuss it.  That's where everything stands.

I got an e-mail from MSG Heckart today with the implication that there isn't anyone in our entire brigade (let alone our battalion) who has a legitimate idea what is going on with our mobilization.  Not who, not when, and not for how long.  I can't be the only person in this situation that they've basically frozen someone's life until we have answers.  I just want to be able to know if I can move back to Iowa City.  I don't care if I have to go to Ft Riley, I just want a final answer. 

I'll whine more after dinner.

First of all, I really hate all those assinine phrases people have about Iowa.  Please, stop saying, “In Iowa, if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes and it will change,” and STOP quoting Field of Dreams.  It was logical that the dead ghost of a baseball player may ask whether where he finds himself after death is heaven or not.  It's just obnoxious when anyone else runs around, “Is this heaven?” 

And….. I had some beer today!  It was so yummy, I was so happy.  I had it when we were at my grandparents' house for Easter.  It was a Leinie's so not bad.  And the real kicker was I sat right next to my mom and drank it.  And she knew what it was and I even made the comment that it was going to be a funny taste combination when we got to dessert and it was strawberry shortcake (don't you like beer and strawberry shortcake)?

I'll add more later.

Ok, I actually thought through what the sum of the seeds of the two teams in a game in each round of the NCAA tournament would be if the high seed won every game. (First round, 17; Second, 9; Sweet 16, 5; Great 8, 3; Final Four and Championship, 2)  Yep, I'm THAT COOL. If you still don't follow, I'll break it down with the 1-Seeds: 1 vs 16, 1 vs 8, 1 vs 4, 1 vs 2, 1 vs 1, 1 vs 1.  However,  since the higher seeds don't always win (albeit a 16-seed has NEVER won a game), it breaks down after the first round. 

You see stuff like that when you're cool like me.

On another note, do you realize how many times I've been told I'd make a good cop (haha, how 'bout I just make it with a hot cop? the hot one was in the store last night)?  By cops none the less (I've been told that by 3 cops on separate occasions).  I suppose considering who's all said it it's always been a compliment but sometimes that's like saying “You'd make a good person who much of our society calls pigs and feels are an organized, legitimate arm of oppression.”  Haha yeah, but I'd get to pull people over and arrest'em.  That'd be fun.

Speaking of cops, I've mentioned it before but CPT George is a cop and last month at drill when he came into the classroom for the CIP Out-Brief someone had brought donuts and he came in and pulled a Homer and went “Oooh, donuts.”  Set down all his papers and his coffee and grabbed himself two. I watched it from across the room and was laughin' pretty heartily. SGM Elcan didn't know what I was laughing about and kinda looked at me like I was off a bit.  I mean it's funny when a cop walks into a room and lights up at the sight of donuts and re-arranges all the things he's holding to yoink himself a few. 

I don't know why I wrote that headline when I've written a couple times about girls from high school. 

I am so ready for the Army to hurry up and let the rest of us know who is going to Ft Riley for however long.  But I got another clue yesterday that I'm probably going.  MSG Heckart had me write an employer impact memo.  My guess is that they're trying to identify those people whom it would be catastrophic for their employers (or their business if they're self-employed) for them to be mobilized so they can scrub them from the list and make their final adjustments.  Or they could be looking for those of us whose employers wouldn't be affected (or hardly affected) if we were mobilized to replace those who're in the former situation.  I wish I could write a memo something like “Dear Sir,  I had a few personal tragedies (screw you if you don't think they were tragedies) in December and have now largely gotten my life back in order, save for being able to live in the place of my preference and to return to school.  My personal mental health and career preparation, both civilian and military careers, would be greatly enhanced if I were permitted to return to life as a full-time student sooner rather than later.  You have identified recruiting more officers as a top priority and my being permitted to return to college and ROTC would be another step towards my commissioning and becoming an officer in our brigade.”  

Don't think it would do me any good, might earn me the reputation as a whiner.  Wouldn't hurt to run the idea past MSG Heckart just as a trial balloon.  But who knows.  Maybe I'll get to Ft Riley and like Manhattan as much (or more) as Iowa City and decided I'd rather go to school there after we're done than return to Iowa.  Long shot but positive thinking helps.  I have no reason for it, but earlier today I was struck with the intuitive feeling that I'm not going to Ft Riley.  I don't know why and it's probably me deluding myself.

Ok,  I have to get ready for work now.

I now officially own my car again.  I came home from work this morning (and after a short nap [who naps at 8:30 in the morning]) I told my dad we were going to switch the title back to me today and this morning we drove down the the Administration Annex and did it!  That goes a ways towards making me feel like an adult again.  I own it and it's mine. 

Alright, I'm going to be base now.  I want sex.  I've gone since October (I think, I'm not exactly sure on the date.) without it and that's no fun.  Alright so that isn't really being base but gaaaaah.  I'm gettin' tired of it all.  I'm not saying I want some weekend of wild debauchery (ok, that'd be nice but it's not my measure of relief), c'mon… this ain't no fun. 

I'm not making any sense anymore.

Yes, I was really listening to En Vogue.

I hate wrestling with the fact that I totally bungled relationships (or potential relationships) with three different women.  I outright just threw away what I had with Kelsey and something essentially paralyzed me from being able to create relationships with Bethany and Jen. 

Everything fell apart with Kelsey because I for whatever assinine reason (which I don't know to this day) didn't think I wanted to be exclusive with her and when she wanted to talk about it, I didn't make myself clear that I still wanted to be involved and the whole deal essentially dissolved at that moment and I've only seen her maybe 4 times since. 

I've written about Bethany and Jen before.  Jen is more depressing since the situation is more recent history than Bethany. 

Alright I don't feel like going on about it much longer.