Pogs and PAs

Another day, another dollar… well, actually $3.50. That’s what I get extra each day for being here for incidentals. Today, my incidental was my shower scrunchie because I left mine in the shower a couple days ago. Went to the BX to get a new one (that wasn’t white, so I would see it when I cleaned my products out of the shower stall). The new one set me back a whopping 85 cents… It was the first time I had purchased something here that wasn’t a round dollar figure and I got these “pogs” back. Apparently they think they are saving airlift by not shipping coinage here to use, so a pog is legal tender at any AAFES location. So let me ask this… if they can’t ship coinage to/from the theater because of the weight, why in the sam hill do they make us cart our chem warfare equipment here and back… costing money in excess baggage… and you can’t fill up a rotator plane because the cargo area would be too heavy. We don’t even use our chem. Gear. They should just keep it for us in theater and issue it if we are ever in a chemical warfare environment… but seeing as we blew up the chemical warfare environment in Iraq, that is an unlikely scenario for the time being.

Tonight I have to pick up other public affairs people transiting through this base to other bases forward. Since they are coming in the middle of the night, I flat out told my boss I was not coming in on time tomorrow. Her response was for me to just take my rest and recoup day tomorrow then… fine by me! Although I actually have work to do, so quite honestly not coming in tomorrow is inconvenient. I’m sure I’ll get over it. Today I actually did good work… I started doing my media relations role here, which is what I was sent here to do… and I wrote a story for release… Kind of a boring story, but it was cool to write again as I’ve not done so in over a year now. It’s about the search and recovery efforts my organization contributed for the 2 Marines who crashed in Iraq. I used to try to write something for the base paper at least once a week. It got me out from behind the desk to learn everybody else’s business… Being a public affairs officer is great for gossipy big mouths like me because I like to know everything about everybody… and not be stuck in some cubby hole matching the green wire to the yellow wire like was my old job in the communications field.

I’ve been bitching this entire time about how I was one of the first people here and everybody I’m meeting is leaving… well, today I realized its cool because the new people don’t know how long I’ve been here. Yes, only 2 weeks… but they think I’m old hat. Today I had a major ask me how to get out of the door… you have to push this big red button… I think it should be green… nobody wants to push a red button for fear of an alarm. I have made a few friends though, but they are all leaving as I feared they would.

Anyway, I have the car tonight and others are beckoning me for a ride.

Breakfast: ham and veggie omelet

Snack: rice crispy treat and trail mix

Lunch: Chicken Pasta and an ice cream sandwich

Dinner: Really nasty calzone that tasted like hot pocket and a salad.

Cheers,

d