Sergeant Major in charge of the section, and he had not passed along the
commitment to save me a spot in the new office area to his replacement.
So, all my stuff was piled in a corner, and no empty slots in sight.
Not a nice feeling -- I didn't expect a welcome back party, but a place
to sit would have been good.
The new SGM is more of an admin type -- maybe I'm reading him wrong, but in an admin environment, maybe that's what's needed. In any case, he is more approachable. Although he didn't know anything about my situation,
he made some calls, looked around and bingo, there was a nice desk still
in that area. It's around the Air Force folks, but that's not a problem
-- I'll play with any of the playground kids.
What was strange was that there were none of the packages that I expected. By now, I thought there should be about half a dozen that had arrived. Only three letters were waiting for me. Happy to have gotten those, but nothing else.
Today, I was calling about a finance issue and I noticed that the finance SGT was also listed as a mail NCO, so I asked. She knew me by name and said, "Sir, we've got some things down here for you. A LOT of
things." So I sent the mail guys back over to pick them up, and a guy
came back with an armload of boxes. He said that there was more in the
truck. All in all, about 20 boxes (a lot were small stuff that I
ordered online and shipped separately), but still, it was a surprise.
So, now I feel like the fat spoiled kid at Xmas. I never went hungry, but I don't think I ever had so many presents before at one time, except at our wedding and even then, most of the stuff was boring house stuff that Sarah had requested. (ooh, look, a silver ladle!!!) Well, except for the radar detector...and the golf practice net....um, yeah.
So, I think I'll sort of treat them the way I treat cards, which is to
packrat them and open them one at a time later on to stretch it out. If they've waited this long, any food will have gone bad already.
I just opened the first one, from my little bro. Lots of office supplies and a super cool stapler. Did you buy the stuff at Staples? Awesome -- thanks Is!
About my living situation -- I got back and although I don't think anyone even lives in my compound anymore, my stuff was still there. It's pretty lonely. The best equivalent is if you lived in a crappy trailer park and then one day a mass eviction notice came saying that
the place was going to be demolished. Most people left. You held out with a handful of holdouts. Then you went away for a while. When you came back, no one was left. That's me right now. Probably also not the safest thing, since I'm right by the Iraqi Air Force and Iraqis come and go all the time. The first month I was here, two soldiers were kidnapped while on base. But, I just found out that a room has opened
up, so I'll be out of Ghost Town tomorrow. Sweet. Will have a roommate, don't know whom yet, but it will be better than what I have now. Plus, my next door neighbor is going to be someone who is probably the cutest person in the division headquarters (this is a test to see if Sarah reads this blog).
So I broke my earlier rule and opened up another package -- one from Susannah. Seaweed and Dunkin Donuts coffee! I don't think I'll have a lot of competition for the seaweed, but the coffee will be perfect for helping sweeten up my new neighbors in the office. Susannah, thank Gao
Ya for me!
Have a great weekend everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment