Cuddle-Bug

This morning we were released early because there is a company pre-deployment party this afternoon for the soldiers and their families. I got home after work and Calvin and Violet were very excited to see me because no one else was home to keep them company. Violet loves to cuddle and when I sat down on the couch she wanted to get up and sit by me. She ended up falling asleep snuggled next to me and I was able to snap this picture of her with my webcam.

Peaceful Run

This evening I went for a run around the neighborhood and decided to run through a portion that is under construction.  Though I've lived in this area since June, it was the first time I ran in this area and I wish that I discovered it sooner. The developers hadn't started building houses and only 1/2 the roads were paved.  If I faced West I realized that I couldn't see any buildings in sight, which I found incredibly peaceful. I immediately felt some tension and stress leave my body as I ran further away from the developed areas and civilization. Though I had only planned on running 5 miles, I ended up running 6 miles because I was enjoying the calm and the scenery so much. It reminded me of my favorite portion of I-35, the Flint Hills.  All you can see is prairie and rolling hills without a man-made structure other than the freeway in sight for miles.  I looked forward to that part of the drive on my three trips along that route this year.  Perhaps I should move to Wyoming or Alaska some day.

 

 

Flip-Flops Make Good Pillows

Since I don't have kids to write about yet I am instead going to write about Calvin and Violet.

This evening I ended up dog-sitting Calvin and Violet while Karen went down to Austin for the night with Kristen, our other roommate who just got back from Iraq on Friday, and their friend Matt, who is back on R&R from Iraq. I had planned to stick around the house and do more packing anyway, so watching the dogs wasn't a problem for me. What I didn't think of when I agreed to watch them is that both dogs had slept all afternoon. Calvin was tired from a run that Karen and Matt took him on, but Violet was sleeping because Calvin was sleeping. The result was that Violet had a ton of energy while I was trying to pack later in the evening. She tried to get that energy out by chewing on anything an everything, to include my watch (while I was wearing it), my pocket zipper on my pants (while I was wearing those pants), a pair of fluffy bunny ears attached to a headband (fake, and I was not wearing them), and my pony tail if I happened to by lying on the ground. Thankfully, though her teeth are pointing she doesn't doesn't actually do any damage to anything with them...yet.

Dinner was another issue (theirs, not mine). Violet has puppy food while Calvin has big dog food, and both of them seem to prefer the others. Calvin isn't a very picky eater and so he eventually eats any food in his dish, but Violet was only interested in chewing on the plastic bowl her food was in and didn't appear to be interested in her food at all. If I left her alone then the food would get spilled all over the floor and Calvin would gladly eat all of it for her. I'm not sure how much she has actually eaten the past few days because what I just described seems to be the general trend. I finally figured out that if I put her food in my hand and hold it out to her she'll eat it that way (with a few nibbles on my fingers), but if I leave it on the ground then she's not interested in eating it. I ended up feeding her her whole cup of food from my hand while Calvin tried his best to get to her food anyway he could.

Below are a few pictures I took throughout the evening of Calvin and Violet:

Flip-Flops make good pillows.

Calvin trying to reach the blueberry muffins I just baked.

Calvin and Violet asleep in the Couch

Calvin and Violet in the Kitchen

Back In Texas

Happy day after Valentine's Day. Yesterday was quite a momentous day for me with none of the reason having anything to do with Valentines day. Now that I think about it though, it being valentine's day yesterday did ruin my plans to enjoy a nice steak and mashed potatoes dinner followed by a movie. Traffic was horrendous because everyone was out trying to get to their valentine's day date destination and the wait at the restaurant was 80-90 minutes, so I went to Denny's instead and had breakfast for dinner followed by watching TV in my room instead of trying to endure the crowd at the theater.

Back to the reason yesterday was momentous. First of all, though not the first momentous thing that happened, I graduated from my course and left Fort Leavenworth. Unlike the other 4ID people in the course I can not say that I was looking forward to going back to Fort Hood. If I could've stayed a couple weeks later at Fort Leavenworth and then deployed straight from there I would've gladly jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, no genie pops out of a lamp for me and says "your wish is my command," and so now I am back in Texas. The nice thing is that it is a four day weekend for President's Day. Since I graduated yesterday morning and then departed right after graduation it is more like a 5.5 day holiday for me, though I now have plans to go to SRC (final pre-deployment records and medical checks) at 6:30 am on Tuesday morning with my XO.

The other event in my life that occurred yesterday is that the Army decided that, since I haven't murdered anyone or gotten any DUI's, I am promotable to Captain. They posted the promotion list yesterday morning and, if the trend from the past two years holds true for this year, 1 July will be the date of the big event. Iraq must be my lucky promotion spot since it is where I was promoted to 1LT on my last full day there in 2006.

There have been a few changes around where I live that I immediately noticed driving in to town. For one, there is now a starbucks in Harker Heights, which makes two for the greater Fort Hood area. Another change is that across the freeway from the new Starbucks they are building a Barnes & Nobles. I actually let out an audible cheer in my car when I saw the under construction sign because the only other book stores within 20-50 miles are a Family Christian Bookstore (which I think I've bought out), and a Hastings Books & Music. Of course, my joy was short-lived when I realized that it is highly unlikely that they will have the store finished in less than 2.5 weeks. Oh well, it's something to look forward to when I return (if it is to Fort Hood to which we return and not Fort Carson).

There was one other major change that really surprised me. When I opened the front door of the house I expected to be greeted by my roommate's rambunctious yellow lab, Calvin. Instead, I was quite surprised to see a little yellow lab pup (8 weeks old) sitting in the hallway and no Calvin in sight. My roommate wasn't home and so I took to calling the new pup "little guy" (though it turns out she's a girl) and was so distracted playing with the puppy that it took me awhile to get around to unloading my Jeep. My fears of Calvin having died or been given away were put to rest when Karen and Calvin walked in the door later. Apparently Calvin is a bit jealous of Violet (the puppy has a name!), but Violet adores Calvin and tries to imitate everything he does. Karen lets Calvin sleep on her bed, but since Violet also sleeps up there Calvin now refuses to sleep on the bed and instead crawls under the bed to sleep. Violet, wanting to be like Calvin, follows him under the bed whereupon Calvin growls at her. Unlike Calvin, Violet is an angel save for the fact that she started gnawing on my running shoe while it was still on my foot. Hopefully Violet will be a good influence on Calvin and they will one day get along.

Mostly About Running

Today I accomplished something that I haven't done in quite a while, I ran a mile in 7:20. Last year that wouldn't have seemed like a huge accomplishment because that was a pace I knew I could run at, or faster, but I've slacked off running in recent months.

My original goal was to see if I could sustain an 8mph pace or below on the treadmill for two miles, but almost halfway through the first mile I realized that something I ate for lunch wasn't sitting very well (I'll leave it at that) and that I was pushing my luck with trying to make it one mile on the treadmill in that condition. I somehow managed to finish the mile, perhaps because I wasn't focused on how much I dislike treadmills but instead focused on finishing the mile so that I could make it to the bathroom as quickly as possible. It was a bit disappointing because running-wise I felt great and wanted to keep going, but I felt weird for the rest of the day, especially after I ate anything. I'm not sick, but something isn't quite right.

I talked to Heidi today and found out that she is sick :( Get well soon!!!! I also read Karen's blog and am saying a prayer that her family gets over the flu soon, or whatever it is that is making them sick.

As I stated above, I really dislike running on treadmills. I find them boring and the time seems to drag by while the distance crawls by even slower. However, I've found that if I do intervals or hill workouts on the treadmill I can at least get myself to run for 30-35 minutes at a time. I suppose I should get used to treadmills because they will most likely be my only option if I want to run in a couple months.

There is one other thing I've found that helps me while running on the treadmill for which I can at least partially attribute to my friend George. A couple months ago George let me borrow a cd/dvd talk by Dr. Ray Guerendi. I really the talk and found it both entertaining and informative. I decided to look Dr. Ray up on the internet and found a podcast on iTunes of his "The Doctor Is In" radio show. Now I listen to that podcast while running on the treadmill because it keeps me more entertained and less focused on my dislike of treadmills than when I listen to regular music, which means that I am able to run longer. I've downloaded a couple hundred of his podcasts in hopes that they will continue to help me while running on a treadmill in Iraq.

Pre-Deployment Thoughts

I have less than a month left before I board a plane and head back over for round two. The closeness of the deployment is starting to hit me more frequently. My feelings about deploying are different this time than they were last time. Last time I was purely excited and couldn’t wait to go. The only ideas of what it would be like over there were things my imagination could come up with, and the majority of my preconceived notions were wrong. This time, however, I have my past experience clouding my vision of the future for both the good and bad.

Part of me is still looking forward to being over there largely because I feel like I am slacking off somehow by being back in the states when I have friends and classmates who are deployed. I am also looking forward to getting away from Fort Hood and garrison life. The past year was entirely focused on training and getting ready to deploy after having just gotten back from the first deployment. The optempo was quite fast and a lot was asked of the soldiers in terms of time and training. I’d rather be in Iraq than stuck at Fort Hood training for Iraq.

As the deployment draws nearer I’m finding myself looking around and trying to take in the things I normally take for granted, such as the ability to drive my car down the road, sleep in late on the weekends and be lazy if I want, wear regular clothes and my hair down, have a bathroom and shower a few feet away from where I sleep that doesn’t require me going outside to reach, and so many other things.

From what I’ve heard recently, Iraq is much quieter than when I was there last time. Most likely, the worst things I will have to deal with are trying to overcome the groundhog effect of the days as well as making sure that I don’t get fat from all of the food at the dining facility. I don’t know what life will be like this time around, but if it’s anything like last time than I can’t complain about a lack of creature comforts.