Day 0 - Last Day as a Civilian (Ft. Leavenworth, KS)

After what's seemed like weeks of preparation, I am finally formally kicking off my adventure tomorrow morning which is my official reporting date to come back onto active duty. It's not Iraq yet, but it's the trainup phase at Ft. Leavenworth, which is home to the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL), the unit I will be representing downrange.

My first impression of KS, unfortunately, was not a good one. It's cold, about 42 degrees, wet, and windy. All the trees are stripped of leaves, the terrain is pancake flat, and there aren't a lot of people around, creating the overall impression of a desolate place. On-post housing wasn't available, so the CALL guys set me up at a place about 30 min south of Ft. Leavenworth, which is in the middle of nowhere off the highway.

The past week since I've been at home has been a whirlwind of seeing friends and family, prepping my gear, and repeating why I'm going to Iraq and what I'll be doing. The first thing I did was to meet up with 3 college buddies for our annual roadtrip. We've done this male bonding ritual for the past 2 years and this time we had a little more reason to get-together. Not only was I going away, my buddy Anton is getting married, so this was also a bachelor party. We drove up to Tahoe for 3 nights and got 2 good days of skiing in. Sadly to report, the affair was fairly tame, because we were all a little tired, either from the skiing or jetlagged from having flown in from Asia, NY, and Boston, but it was great to see these guys. Anton's still running his two restaurant/wine lounges though the economy is taking its toll, Jaime is doing the IT thing with the same law firm, and Joe is proving to be the excel geek at the pharma company he works at.

After that, I headed down to Mountain View to stay with my brother, his wife and my darling niece. They live in a little apartment, which is cramped with 3, not to mention 4, but it was great to be able to play with her and catch up with Loren. "L" hasn't grown too much in the past 5 months since I last saw her, but her face is capable of a lot more expression than just hunger and delight. She is such a happy baby and is a good "role model" for us long-time married hold-outs without kids. The last night I was there, Loren and I practiced a little brazilian jiujitsu moves (he used to train a lot and got me into it and I've been training in Shanghai). What was supposed to be just reviewing a couple moves somehow turned into 3 hours after which the little room we were in looked like a tornado had hit it and felt like a sauna.

While I was in the Bay Area, I also got to catch up with Evelyn and Esther, two old high school buddies I hadn't seen in years. It was really nice to spend some time with them. Also, I visited cousin Karl and his wife Jennifer and their two button-cute kids Eli and Willow in their huge new house. They are both really getting the hang of the parenting thing.

Flew down to S. Cal and spent 4 days with the folks. Both were same as always except that Dad needed rotator cuff surgery. The timing was good so I could accompany him to the hospital. They apparently reattach the muscle to the bone by inserting small anchors, all with just a tube in a 2 cm incision in the shoulder. Amazing... On the last night, I got to meet up with San Jiu and Xiao Jiu and all the kids except Allison. It was amazing that as they've aged, those two uncles have grown almost indistinguishable -- like twins. Wai Gong's hearing is nearly gone, but he is as sharp as ever. We had a discussion where he talked about his favorite US presidents (Washington, Lincoln, FDR) and why we were in the financial mess. He really does read a lot. He also thinks it will be another 10-20 yrs before Chinese business mentality can change sufficiently to reduce all the different scandals and corner cutting that go on all the time now.