Friday, March 20, 2009

My stay in Iraq thus far

Iraq is cool and I'm enjoying it ... 

Wait a minute, did I just say that??

Yes, in fact I did. By cool, I mean the weather, which has been blessedly temperate and even cold at night and in the mornings. It doesn't mean that I bundle up or anything, but I definitely feel it. 

I spent the first month or so sitting behind a desk in the command center. While it is kind of cool to see everything going on in Baghdad as it happens, the coolness was decidedly short lived. Basically I stared, zombified, at a computer screen for twelve god forsaken hours every day. 

Then someone came over and told me I didn't have to do that anymore. I was so excited I did numerous cartwheels ... actually I didn't but I felt like doing it. 

So here I am, back in the fold, doing the job I signed up to do. I haven't done anything particularly glamorous so far, but I'm enjoying the work and the freedom that only a journalist in the Army can fully appreciate. 

I love my job ... there, I said it. I love it so much in fact, that I am about to give Uncle Sam another three years of my life. I'm not giving it away for free, however, my dear uncle is sweetening the pot for me. So there's that.

So this is my deployment thus far. I can only hope that I keep having fun for another however many months I'm here.