i guess i'll start with the situation for those of you who don't know me.
in january, i deployed from Fort Bragg, North Carolina to Baghdad, Iraq. i'm a graphic illustrator for the Psychological Operations Task Force. the work itself is both fun and tedious. that's about all i can say about that.
the team i'm with are a great group of people. i'm the lowest ranking soldier on the team, but i'm well taken care of. most PFCs in the Army, are typically younger and and not quite as mature as me. being a fresh 28 years old, they know i'm slightly more mature than the average 18 to 20 year old fresh out of high school. there's 6 guys and one female in our office. sometimes i feel bad that she has to put up with us. to pass the time throughout the day, we'll play pranks, and make jokes about each other. it would seem like we have sophistication of steve martin in the movie The Jerk. we even have a game we play.
we get all kinds of care packages that contain a bounty of personal hygiene products. tubes of toothpaste, floss, chapstick, shampoo, sunblock, bite-sized pieces of cheap candy, deodorant, and lots and lots of lotion. first, i would like to say that we, as members of the Armed Forces of the United States of America are perpetually grateful for the things that spouses, friends, volunteers, veterans, and retirees send us in these care packages. not only do we require these simple necessities to get us through the days, but it raises our morale through the roof.
now back to the game. we'll take these bottles of lotion and find ways to get an unsuspecting party to touch it in some way or another. it first started when one of my superiors was showing me appreciation for a job well done. he extended his hand for a well-deserved handshake, and i gleefully reached for his hand. he grabbed my hand with a firm grip let his claw devour my girlish, limp paw. he had this smile on his face that reminded me of the original Joker from the comic books.
apparently he had squeezed half a bottle of Jergen's Dry Skin Therapy Calming Creme with natural oatmeal, non-irritant, fragrance-free, rich moisturizers into his palm. at first, i truly melted on the inside. my hand was now a sticky, moist, greasy mess. of course, i emulated his sense of entertainment and took the liberty to play the joke on someone else. after everyone in our office got creamed every which way but sideways, we decided to put lotion on keyboards, mice(the computer kind), on desk drawers, coffee mugs, door handles, anything that you'd normally touch on a daily basis. try it in your office! i would love to hear how it turned out.
i have wi-fi internet in the office, but not in my room. so i'll update this when i can. it's also very, very, very, slow. we're talking 3kbps uploads at top speed. also, since i work in a restricted, classified environment, the photographing policy is very, very, strict. so due to the low bandwidth and the sensitivity of posting photographs, i will try my best to inform/entertain you as much as i can without compromising security. i can also update my myspace/facebook/twitter/email from my iPhone.
so it's now May, and i'm more than halfway through this tour. i'm due to return to North Carolina sometime in august. i'm not allowed to say the exact date. and i'll be able to visit Tulsa several weeks after. so be sure to check the usual "social media outlets." feel free to add me or contact me through those venues.
edit: added photos
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