As of 1300 this afternoon I am no longer a part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Afghanistan is now a figment of my past and I hope to god that I'll never have to return.

That is all.

I just finished the final exam for the last class I need to take before the transfer to VCU next Spring. These last two classes reminded me how much I dislike the 16-week system. With an 8-week class there's the rush involved which stresses me out, but the class is always over right before I'm about to break. With these recent two I felt it ( Read more... )

I don't get along well with others.

In the past week I noticed that it's becoming increasingly difficult to have a conversation over the phone, or read an e-mail, or stand with someone else in a room, without wanting to scream, "shut the fuck up!" at every single person.

For the rest of the month I think I'm going to close up shop.

For the first time in my life I feel like I have my shit together. I'll be 100% out of debt in a couple months and I'm roughly 18 months from being a college graduate, give or take a semester.

I'm going to try an hold off from having anxiety until I'm back home. Then I can start worrying about how I'm going to pay for luxuries like beer and

One particular reason that I've always fantasized about being a professional writer is the amount of traveling that takes place to find inspiration. Even though Stephen King wrote many novels from his house in Maine he also lived a few months in Arizona, New York, Virginia, Colorado, and various other isolated arenas. Hemingway and Kerouac pulled ( Read more... )

We celebrated Christmas the best way we could, which included opening our care-packaged stockings after midnight, eating the second Hickory sausage that I received this year, and listening to Trans-Siberian Orchestra and those two Xmas songs by Third Eye Blind, as per request from Rivera. Cooper left after getting upset that we were using the TV ( Read more... )

I didn't expect there to be anything special tonight considering that it's Thanksgiving and all. When I talked to the cooks this morning they said that all of our turkeys were stuck in Gormach and we would have to work with what we had. To my surprise however, walking into the dining tent I saw a large selection of foods and desserts to stuff my ( Read more... )

Back on Ft. Lewis we used to pray for snow because it usually meant that we were getting off work early, or not coming in at all. Over here that's not the case. What I find fascinating is that it was sunny a couple days ago. I was able to walk outside in PTs and feel comfortable in the soothing breeze. However, this morning when I stepped outside ( Read more... )

I took a break from packing my bags yesterday to step outside for a smoke. In case I didn't mention it before, I always thought that Muslims had strange rituals like every other religious group. Afghanistan takes idea to a whole new level. As I'm lighting up a cigarette I take notice of a group of Afghan construction workers looking over the ( Read more... )