I'm so flippin bored

Everybody says a deployment is what you make of it. Well, I don't particularly feel like being friendly with anybody today. I don't want to play bingo. I don't want to watch some black people bad comedy live play on the movie screen in the theater. I don't want to sit in my smelly room. I don't want to go back to work. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't feel like running. I'm not interested in any praise Jesus chapel crap. So I found myself in the media center because I realized I didn't do a blog today... not that I didn't have time to do one, I just didn't do one. I didn't do anything today productive because my one tasked I was criticized for immensely, which was a downer... I can take criticism fine, but don't expect me to perform later if you criticize me degradingly. So I watched the movie Ray on the movie server.

I'm now 10 minutes into my 20 minute computer time because this computer is wacked up, so I guess I should figure out a topic to blog about.

Tonight, my boss needed to take her laundry in, so she gave me a ride back to my trailer on the other side of base. On the way, she asked me... so, a week in, what do you think? I asked her "Honestly?" She said yes... so I told her we don't do what we should be doing because we are too bogged down with the small scale stuff. She told me she agreed perfectly, that its all been tried in the past and that I have all the flexibility in the world to make anything happen if I want... so, I guess I'll try, because up to this point given previous direction, I had decided not to do anything unless specifically told to do so. We'll see what happens. I'll bet anybody a million bucks that the first product I bring to her she won't like or agree with. Mind-screw continues...

So... back to the movie theater topic. I, for the first time, went into the theater here tonight. A movie starts there every couple of hours and I happened to be walking by. i've been wanting to see Spanglish or Ladder 69... I've seen them advertised, but who can go to the movies at 1300? I didn't know what was playing. I thought it might be that dumb "Are we there yet" movie I saw advertised for sometime today. The guy at the door said some comedy. It was, according to the previews, by the same people who did "Diary of a mad black woman" which on the surface looked funny so I thought I'd give it a shot. Well, given that I'm in a place where there is mostly young enlisted people... and when you put enough young, inexperienced and under-cultured people in the same room, (not that all enlisted folk are... just a general observation of the young ones here) you get the hickville NC movie theater experience... Watusi talking on her cell phone to Daquante giving the play-by-play of the suspense flick you are watching, using her outside voice--while Jesus throws popcorn in the back. That's what I was expecting... let alone the fact I went to into a movie whose target audience is primarily Ghetto. I think the movie was called "Meet the Browns." After about 3 minutes, all the white people in the audience got up and left. I'm just reporting what happened... I wasn't finding it a bit of funny so I left too.

I guess I should find other ways to occupy my time. Read? It is nice outside... but I am bit up head to toe from the bugs the other night... my fault for not putting on bug juice. Honestly, I hadn't noticed the bugs up till that point... now, everywhere I go, I see them... And of course I've now noticed the loaded fly strips in the chow calls. GROSS.

Breakfast: eggs, sausage, hashbrown, banana
Lunch: chicken stir fry
Dinner: Tuna Casserole... but it was taco night. I wish I had seen the taco bar!!! Oh well.

Well my time is about up. I suppose I should send this on and finalize it.

Cheers
d

People are people

I’m going to not talk negatively about people in my blog… My mom pointed out that’s not a good idea… so here are the people I can talk positively about.

The 2 enlisted folks I work with in my office make me laugh and obviously know their stuff… I’ve always operated on the fact that the Air Force is built on its enlisted corps and we would be best served if we trust their judgment and listen to their advice. They can make or break an officer by how they work and if we want to make life hard for them, they can make life exponentially harder for us. Isn’t it just easier to listen to them in the first place since they are the ones doing the actual work? I don’t know if others around me don’t feel the same way, or just fail to remember that fact… but it is obvious that people don’t pay attention much to these particular people.

John, the guy I replaced is an excellent officer with a lot of potential. I feel bad he had such a horrible deployment, but he spun the negatives into positive lessons on how not to act. He’s one of those guys I know I’ll see again in the career and won’t mind grabbing a drink with.

This morning, I had my base inprocessing appointment… 2 hours of mandatory briefings about the chapel, equal opportunity, safety and all that other crap that is practically the same at every base you go to, but they have to tell you again because god forbid somebody commits suicide or wrecks their car or falls in a trash can drunk – and the Air Force didn’t tell them to not commit suicide, drive safely or stay sober. These briefings are the Air Force’s scapegoat. They do marginal to no good and benefit few, but take up such an amount of time. I would so much rather be sent an email with various services available and let me choose to go to AA because my 3 beers a day I’m allotted are causing me to drive our office vehicle through the BX front doors.

At any rate, there was one benefit to this morning’s mass briefing… and that was to hear the Command Chief… talk about a character. He was probably the most motivational person I’ve ever heard speak… he got his message across, he was funny in ways that a lot of people would avoid because of that military equal opportunity crap without overstepping bounds, but still not exactly being PC… it was great. I’m glad to see there are people like that here  to take care of the young troops…

Breakfast: burritos (ick… never again), bacon and fruit loops

Lunch: chicken salad (they take the grilled chickens for the sandwiches and chop them up for those of us who like the salad bar… yum!)

Dinner: Swedish Meatballs, green beans and rice.

It's the little things

Walking back from the cadillac (bathroom), I realized there are a few very small things in life that make all the difference to my attitude on how to approach a situation. For instance... It is hot as balls here. I hate hot. I like a nice 75 degree year round temperature. I don't like sweating and having to use powder on my feet and drawers to keep from stankin' etc. etc. But when I go to the cadillac and wash my hands, I don't dry them. Instead, I wipe them on my head and get my buzz cut hair all wet. And when I walk back the 50 feet to my building, and there is a breeze, however hot it is... goes through my wet head and makes me feel good. It's that kind of little things that makes my attitude positive about being here.

Today I had lunch with my buddy Chris, who I graduated college with. We caught up on all kinds of things... he's married with a kid now. That made me feel old. He and I used to go to Mexico and get into all kinds of trouble, and here we are in the middle of absolutely nowhere all grown up. Funny how the same old stories pop up though and how people don't change at all sometimes.

Watching the movie "Ray" on our movie server at work and about to leave for the day.

Cheers,
d

An evening run

I was told before I came here that if I had a goal or two, that my time would pass faster. So I made the goal of cutting my 1.5 mile run time down for my AF Fitness Test. I'm a crappy runner. I can run all day long, but I can't run fast. I don't know if it has to do with my flat feet or what... I run all the time, so you'd think I could do it faster with no problem, but nope... So last night after work I decided to go for a run. Where? well... I could have run around the base, but they have this safety rule here about wearing headphones anyplace near where a car drives... so I decided to go to the dirt track. Normally I have such issue with running around in circles, because it gets boring looking at the same stuff. Well, not such a problem here, because the things I would look at 6 times around the track are the same things I would look at if I ran 1 lap around the entire base... nothing. There is dirt and rocks and more dirt. The dirt is more like talcum powder though... and it is on everything. I can even taste it in my mouth. ick. It's all over me. Anyway... my iPod and I went out last night for our run. I plugged in a little techno music and managed gaged myself for around 2 minute laps for a 1.5 mile run in 12 min, which is my ultimate goal. I didn't want to push, just take a slow one for my first time here... not knowing the track or running in the dust. I managed a 13:23 time, so that means I have 1:23 to shave off in the next 4 months. I think if I work at it, I can do it... Although with the Air Force fitness test point system... running it in 13:23 is just fine for me. So long as I'm under 13:36, it doesn't matter a hill of beans.

Yesterday I also went to the BX for the first time. I guess I assumed they wouldn't sell Febreeze there because everybody's room absolutely reeks. But they did. I emptied a bottle on my dorm room's carpet, curtain and A/C filter... and what do you know, the room doesn't stink. Who'da thought.

It is amazing how negative some of the people are here. I thought there was bureacracy at the Pentagon, but nothing like there is here and it has caused a synacism among the lower ranking folks in my office that although completely warrented (I've witnessed some of their frustration first hand) -- is really to the point of overboard. Its just too bad that peoples' eccentricities can get in the way of communicating effectively... I'm not going to get in the mix of all that because I'm new and the folks I'll be working with will be completely different personalities within just a couple of weeks.

John, the guy I'm replacing, is out of here tomorrow. Tonight we are going to the "bra" to hang out and have a few beers with his friends... yippee... meeting more people and making friends who will be gone in a couple of weeks. I really hate that I'm here so much earlier than everybody else.

Well, I'm going to go downstairs and scrounge for a calendar... I want to start marking off my days.

cheers,
d

18 hours on my first day

Yesterday was long. Periods of absolute boredom punctuated by a few really cool things… My day started at 0730 and didn’t end until almost 0100. Okay, so yes in the middle of the day I played pool for an hour waiting to volunteer to unload the beer truck that never came at the rec center, and then around 9pm, I went to the “Muff” – the Brit bar – and had a couple gin and tonics – something I didn’t think I’d see here.

The coolest thing about yesterday though was I went to a wedding. This Major who works downstairs casually mentioned that she was getting married to her fiancé over the phone in order to apply for a join spouse assignment. Her fiancé was at the Pentagon, so we connected the media to the story and I went to take pictures here. The hallway of the dorm was packed with her friends and passing dorm rats as she said her nuptials over the phone. I was moved when she announced “They just pronounced us man and wife.” I threw some ripped up legal paper as confetti and that was it… The pentagon had some reporters on the other side of the call, so we’ll see where this story goes, but it was fun to be a witness to it.

At 10pm, a rotator came in with another Public Affairs person… Unfortunately we were given incorrect info that she would be done with her inprocessing at 10pm… instead, that’s when her plane arrived. By the time we got her bags and got her checked into transient lodging, it was 1am. The best part of the long wait was discovering the “grab and go.” It’s kind of a mini-mart where you can take a brown-bagger with 2 pieces of fruit, 2 cokes, 2 sandwiches and 2 snacks. I was in heaven… they had fresh bananas and peanut M&Ms. I grabbed a couple diet cokes too, which I get a kick out of because they have Arabic writing on them.

By the time the ordeal was over, I was sweaty, tired and hungry, and needed to crash. Low and behold though… my roommate was at home in bed despite his working night shift. He let me mash on the light to get situated… I wonder how long that’s going to last without getting on my last nerve. When I was still tossing and turning at 3 am, I decided I was just to dirty to fall asleep, so got up and showered. I had made the executive decision to not come in remotely on time today because of working so late… so I wasn’t worried about the morning… but even after my shower, I couldn’t conk out. So I plugged in my sound baffling headphones to my iPod and was sung to sleep by Sting. That finally worked.

Another day… I went over to the wing this afternoon where their PA office is in a real building instead of a warehouse. They don’t have dust on their keyboards and everything else. I was incredibly jealous. I also found out my old Wing Commander is going to be there shortly… I’m sure I’ll see him at the Muff.

John sent me the paradise donut… a calculator that tells you how much longer you have to “serve.” According to it, I have 10,404,660 seconds left.

Cheers

Observations on Day 1 of work

I was given a whopping day to get used to being here and switch my body to 9 hours time difference. I spent that time mostly sleeping with the aid of Ambian... my new favorite pill. I did wake up sometime last night for dinner and I watched a movie on my laptop in my room, but because they have 220 power here, until I buy a converter, that will be the only thing I watch for a while.

My room smells like whatever man-smell permeates the entire trailer. I guess I don't understand how my house back home doesn't smell like this since I am a man and apparently this smell follows men where they go. It is a mixture of feet, wet dog and ass. Just being in my room makes me feel like I've got athlete's foot on every patch of exposed skin.

The whole top-bunk thing isn't going to work for very long. Thank god my roommate isn't going to be here but for another month, because I'm moving downstairs the second he is gone. I know I'm only 29, but climbing up there in the middle of the night is near impossible. Last night I about broke my neck with the stupid foldy chair I used to hike myself up... I've decided that my neck is more important than my roommate's wishes to not step on his bed... I won't be using that foldy chair as a ladder again.

So far, the guy I'm replacing, John... has done a great job of taking me around and showing me the ropes. Everybody I meet though, including an old college buddy I bumped into downstairs, feels sorry for me being in my office here. Apparently not everybody in my small organization is well liked. I guess that is the benefit to having such high turn over... I'll only have to work with these folks for a short time. So far though, I've not seen anything bad.

I got my first piece of mail today... a card and letter from my mom. That was nice... although since the mail takes 2 weeks, I've heard just about everything in the letter she said to me already, but to get a piece of mail with a note made me feel a little closer to home.

I don't remember if my last posting (since they block blogger.com) mentioned my man purse and disco belt... these are 2 pieces of clothing everybody has to have here. The man-purse is your ID holder, but it has a couple zipper pockets to carry your crap around in. I find it incredibly convienent. The manly-men wear arm bands around their "guns." Being that I don't have a "gun" aka huge bicep, mine would fall off... plus, the man purse can hold all my necessaries... you know -- lipstick, eyeshadow etc. lol. The disco belt is a reflective belt for at night... I just like the name.

The only thing so far that I can't stand... its not the smelly room, it isn't the dust everywhere (and I mean everywhere... thick layers on computers, chairs, inside the car... everywhere), it isn't the time difference or being away from home or the inconvienences and prospective long hours... it is the complete lack of indoor plumbing. I have to pee right now, but to do so, I have to walk downstairs, outside and to the cadillac... Last night when I was watching the movie... I had to treck out twice... such a bother. I mean you have to wait till you REALLY have to go to make a cadillac run. That's what they call the bathrooms. I don't know why, because those toilet seats are not covered in leather. But they do smell better than my room.

So far, the most I can make out of my real job is that I'll basically be doing the same kind of thing I do at home... a little more logistics and a little less bureacracy. Shouldn't be too difficult.

Well, that's it for day 1 of work... Tonight, we are going to the "Muff" which is the Brit bar here for some beers and bonding. Oh joy... That's one sucky thing about arriving so much earlier than everybody else... I'm meeting all these people who will leave in a week or month...

Cheers,
d

I finally made it

I finally made it to my base. After 7 hours of lay over in Germany in the USO lounge, I was pretty ready to get back on the jet. We took our same seats, which was nice, because I liked mine, even though I had to deal with the odd smell of airplane bathroom toilet water. The big guy sitting on the otherside of my row announced that he requested the in flight movies... Fast and Furious II and Napoleon Dynamite. Somebody told me Napoleon was a good movie. I wish I'd remember who said... And the guy who requested it slept through the entire thing. I took the head phones off after the uncle threw the steak at the kid as after 45 min or so, that was the only remotely funny thing in that movie.

Fast forward 5 hours...

As we were on final approach, I wasn't sure if I was looking at water, desert or clouds. turns out it was desert because ... SMACK... all of a sudden we touched down and you began to see "buildings" and runways. This is a huge base.

They got us off the plane and through inprocessing pretty fast... and then a little manual labor for the bag drag. Thank you Thank you Nancy for the bag tags. They stuck out among all those green bags. My favorite though was the guy who tied tennis balls to the outside of his bags.

The guy I'm replacing, John, was there to meet me with our Ford Explorer, which was nice... I think I was the only one on that plane who didn't have to throw my bags in a big truck and wait for a bus or something... He had already scouted my room and made sure I had sheets... so we headed there.

My room has a funny stench, which my roommate, Don, a Navy LT Hornet pilot, said was there before he got there so he keeps the window open when he's not there (as we're not allowed to have the A/C running if we're not in the room). I thought that was a good idea.

The rooms are small... my hopes of unbunking the bed were squashed by the amount of floor space. And I have a large locker with shelves on one side to organize my things... that made me happy.

Don works nights, but despite that... didn't come in all day. I popped a sleeping pill (thank you Doc!) and snoozed for a while. The bathrooms are a short walk... which is what woke me up. They are okay... pretty big. Not near as filthy as my friend Jim had described. And my shower was hot. The showers provide some semblance of privacy as they have a curtain over a private changing area and then a glass door into a single stall shower. The stalls have full length doors too...

This base is just like anyother base... all the modern convienences and most things seem open 24 hours. There is a huge plaza covered by what looks like a woman's bra affectionately called -- surprise -- "the bra" Around that and the BX are a knock off starbucks, pizza hut, dunkin donuts... you name it. Tomorrow I'm going to catch Spanglish at the movie theater...

Well, that's about it for initial impressions... It could definitely be worse. I can picture Ric here with his 3-wheel bike with horn, flag and beer cooler riding around...

Cheers,
d

I think it is Sunday

I know I was in the AMC terminal at Norfolk on Saturday. I remember having dinner at Panera with Brad and Jeff and zipping to the base by my 8pm show time. I remember being in an under-air conditioned room trying to read my book, but giving up for all the distraction. And I remember the joyous cheers around 11pm when they said we could finally board the plane and everybody mashed together by the door. We stood there like that for about an hour I suppose and then boarded our airplane headed for Frankfurt Germany. It was a very long hour packed like sardines only to have to unpack ourselves so the E-8s and above could get to the front of the area to board first... it was kind of nice to have some rank privalages. I mean, being a lowly Captain, there isn't much RHIP... but to get to choose my seat in front of all the other folk -- although not seeming much like a perk -- really was after having endured discomfort of that Air Terminal.

I don't remember anything about the flight here except the fact my sound-baffling earphones are the very best invention ever. They served us 2 meals... french toast and a ham sandwich... I was zonked for just about the entire time so I missed the in-flight movies... but I did wake up in time to see some gag show where a cop kicked a fake dust-mop of a dog in a park and everybody thought it was real. I guess you had to be there... and have been on this plane for 8 hours, to be in the mood to laugh at such things.

So we FINALLY get to Germany, only to find out that as we are leaving the plane, that our 2 hour layover is going to be 7 hours. There was a mad rush backwards because pretty much nobody was bringing their things off the plane... So we grabbed our crap and headed off. My second best purchase for this trip was my U-ring neck bean bag... my neck isn't even sore. I plopped on a chair, put my feet up on the other chair and made a bed... only to have to get up 20 minutes later to get a briefing saying we could go find food on base... food? We just ate 2 meals which in my mind were in the middle of the night. How could anybody be hungry?

I declined... and saw this sign which is now my new idea of luxury... the USO. computers... couches... comfort. I've been sacked out for I don't know how long on one of the couches in the computer room. When I awoke, I tried to do the calculations to figure out what time/day it was... the best I can figure is my body thinks it is near 11am Sunday... So if that's the case... where is my mimosa?

Locally... it is 5:30, which means only another 5 more hours till I get back on the airplane. I see USO danishes... I think that will be dinner.

cheers,
d

Test

I've just been told I won't be able to access my blog from where I'm going, but that there is this handy-dandy email-it-to my blog way of publishing... lets see if it works!

Had a great lunch with my pal, mentor in the marketing/Air Show rhelm, and drinking buddy Dale. We went to the Baker's Crust in Norfolk... one of my favorite lunch brunch places. I had the soup and sandwich special with the corn crab chowder. yumm-e

While we were there, I brought in one of this year's Air Show posters to the restaurant to put in their window... I figure it allows me to say I've had some part in the Langley air show since it became a 2 day show in '99??? Gosh... has it been that long? Check out this year's show at: http://www.langleyafbairshow.com/main.htm.

cheers,
d

Day 2

I just realized that my titles... Day 1, Day 2... really are not the days that the Air Force is going to count as my being there... my 123 days starts on 29 April... the day I'm supposed to get over there. I wonder if come August, when I'm doing these blogs and counting the days on my own calender of interupted life, if my count will depress me and make me even more anxious to come home...

Sitting here listening to 80's music on my iPod... the best invention ever. Much like grape tomatoes to a salad a couple years ago, I'm very happy with my little upgrades in technology I allowed myself to splurge on for this trip.

I guess if my grandpa can have a tomato garden in his Vietnam hooch, then I can have all my gadgets.

I bought a new digital camera... my old one's battery stunk the zoom was sticky and it was too heavy/bulky... my new one carries 1 GB of pictures/video... which I don't think I'll ever be able to fill... I took some videos of friends and family saying good bye to me at the last minute before leaving... I love that I can take these little images with me for a pick me up when needed. Mom... Hannah, Jackie... all did one and I love watching them. Thanks!

My iPod is my new best friend... and thanks to Darryl's countless donations to my music collection and Todd's "mix tape" DVD... I have years of music to keep me occupied in a credit card sized device. How did all those boys in Vietnam ever survive without one of these?

And my biggest unnecessary/necessary splurge is my little 5.5 lb paperthin laptop. I never knew how propogated wireless is now... I can access from starbucks, my hotel (which is where I am now), the airport... etc. the Internet/email... how convienent is that? When I get over there, if I hand over this machine to the comm nazi's I'm told they will connect it to the base's internet and I can surf in my room and connect to the movie server to watch DVDs over the net...

I just got a call on my cell from "over there" the guy I'm replacing... I emailed him from the road to tell him of our little delay... How on earth did people survive before all this technology? Maybe they just did less... or were less efficient. Pretty soon, maybe deployments will be unnecessary and I can just be deployed from my laptop in the starbucks drinking my Grande Soy Chai Latte... I'm going to miss those over there... but where I'm going, maybe there's a starbucks... There is a Chili's... Imagine that, deployed baby-back baby-back baby-back ribs. If it provides me comfort, I'll never knock a chain restaurant again.

Anyway... off to lunch with Dale to catch up on AirPower over Hampton Roads... my old stomping grounds etc... I miss airshows. This is the first Langley air show I'm going to miss in like 5 years. Oh well...

cheers,
d

Pre deployment thoughts... Day 1

I'm on my way overseas with the Air Force to an undisclosed location to work Public Affairs for Central Air Forces (CENTAF). Today was my first day embarking on this journey.

But first... some pre-go thoughts...

There are so many little things that us single poeple have to take care of that the Air Force doesn't care much about... like who takes care of my car/house etc. Thank God I'm stationed near my mom who offered to take my car for the summer... Married people get extra money -- separation pay -- when their spouse deploys. This isn't the "no-nookie" pay... this is supposed to be to help out for the extra things that are missing around the house while the spouse is gone... I guess me as a single person who had to hire a lawn man to take care of my yard for the summer... something I normally wouldn't have done... doesn't fall into that catagory. Ticks me off that we "recruit the individual but retain the family." bull. My family is broadly defined. If they want to retain me... they best figure out how to retain my version of a family.

My last day was spent with my mom, sister and step-dad who took off work to see me one more time and take my car for the summer. It was nice to to see my family before I left. For going so out of their way, I took them to a Nationals/Braves game. My dad and sister really like baseball... I can't understand why they don't make the outfielders who catch a fly ball throw it in to get the runners out. Seems like the game is just too easy. Imagine how much more cheering and excitement it would cause to get rid of that "yer out" rule when you catch a pop fly... who doesn't catch a pop fly? dumb game... and the Washington Nationals chicken strips at the statium are terrible.

Mom carried on the tradition of giving something from a loved one to take to war... in the old days, they gave a scarf... in the new days, my mom's friend gave her husband her kid's umbilical cord. GROSS... how absolutely nasty is that? Well... mom gave me a cherished gold heart necklass that was her grandmother's. I was very touched. and glad it wasn't my umbilical cord.

So with mom having dropped me at the airport a bit earlier than I probably needed to be there... I was ready to go. I wanted to be there early because I had 3 giant bags. One for Chem warfare, one personal bag, and one that is supposed to have my protective gear and sleeping bag in it... and 2 carry ons. I'm going to someplace that if I need protective stuff, they'll issue it to me there... which is nice because I don't have to carry 100 pounds more of crap... and I won't be in immanent danger. It is annoying that I have to lug 50 lbs of chem crap though. I mean... it's kind of like "in the event of a water landing, your seat cushion doubles as a floatation device." First off... if you ride a plane into the ocean, how many people are going to be able to find their seat amid the 10 degree water if they are even conscious from having been hurled downward at hundreds of miles an hour. Grabbing my seat cushion to float around the shark infested water is the last thing I'm going to think about... Same with chem gear... I can't get that crap on in 9 seconds and it is 120 degrees over there. I'll die of heat exhaustion and exposure in the first 9 seconds before I'll need the stuff in the unlikely event that those people will even do a chem attack... Why doesn't the government leave that crap over there instead of making us lug it all about...???

So I fly to Norfolk, where I'm supposed to get on a rotator headed for my location. I'm taveling by myself... most people travel in groups from the same squadron... I feel like an odd ball. There are 210 people on my airplane going over there... there are like 5 of us not in some group of at least 20 or so... Upon arriving in Norfolk, I found out our rotator is busted. Damn... had I known that, I wouldn't have left DC. I could have had 2 more nights home. instead, I'm stuck in this hotel in Norfolk for 2 days till they fix the airplane. what a bother... so I decide to shove 2 of my unnecessary bags in a locker at the terminal and carry just what I need... mind you I have 2 pair of civilian clothes with me, both of which are ugly and unworthy of going out... Thank god I have 2 great friends here... Brad and Jeff... and more importantly... that Brad and I wear the same size... he let me borrow 2 days of clothes. How nice. Anyway... back to the story. From the terminal, we board these busses. Our bus driver looks like the Rev. Al Sharpton or one of Eddie Murphy's characters from Coming to America. Everybody on the bus is chatting about and I'm thinking we are taking a mighty interesting route to go downtown where our hotel is. I am familiar with Norfolk having lived nearby not too long ago. Anyway... the Reverand pulls into this crap Sleep Inn miles from downtown with not even a Burger King around. You could see how big the desk lady's eyes got when she saw the bus pull up... all the way from the bus. We told the Rev he was at the wrong hotel... how bad at your job do you have to be to be a bus driver and bring your passengers to the wrong place?

So finally all checked into the hotel... dinner out with the boys... and wide awake at 3:30. maybe that's good... adjusting for my new time zone... not.

It was nice to not have to say I went to a baseball game for my last night in America for a while... although when the acapella choir from armpit Iowa sang the national anthem to open the game, it was a bit touching and I almost felt a tear.

Yes, Dave has a sentimental patriotic side... who'd have thought?

I'll leave day 1 at that... tomorrow I'm having lunch with my old buddy Dale who I worked the Airshow with... then out to dinner/the club with the boys again.

Cheers,
Dave