weekend, 21-22 april

Saturday 21 April. Since I didn’t get into bed until 2 am or so, I woke up a bit late on Saturday. I met with my base contact, then met with a couple of other folks and then headed over to the base engineer building to do some work. The day was pretty uneventful. I did work, bought a sweatshirt and hoped that my team would make it in later than evening so I could catch up with them for the briefing the next day. We made plans to meet each other at the building since they would come in late and my lodging was across the base.
Sunday 22 April. When I went to the engineer building I didn’t see evidence that my team had arrived. I checked transient lodging and they hadn’t checked in. Darn it! I guess they got bumped from the flight. This meant I would be flying solo all day and through all conversations. No worries, the folks at this base are some of the best Base staff I have ever encountered hands down. I got coffee at Green Beans and sat a little bit enjoying the pure sun. The weather at the base both on Saturday and Sunday was gorgeous. The sun is pure in the cloudless sky, but it’s not so intense that it cooks you. The temperature was probably high 70s or low 80s, just like Spring in Atlanta, but a lot drier and with a lot more dust in the air. Later on, I worked on my brief, skipped lunch, downed a Powerbar Harvest granola bar, and went to the brief in the Brigade HQ conference room. The room was pretty nice and had big overstuffed leather-ish chairs. It was a fairly informal brief that turned into somewhat of a discussion, which was nice. Actually, I don’t know if it is officially a discussion if I’m the only mostly listening and asking some questions, while everyone else does most of the talking. At one point I thought to myself, “Geesh, Erika, look at you. You’re in a room with 7 Army guys (3 Majors, 3 Lietenant Colonels) and one U.S. Corps of Engineers civilian talking about big picture stuff in Iraq. Crazy.” Then I thought to myself, “This is crazy, but you are crazy...look at all the things you volunteer for and the situations you end up in.” It kind of made me giggle and chuckle inside, and I don’t know if it was nervous giggle or an I’m-glad-I-don’t-take-myself-too-seriously-chuckle.
One of the neatest tidbits from the meeting is the discussion that came up about bases getting stuff. This wasn’t specifically bases in Iraq or this base, but general discussion that it seems easier for a base to get stuff if there is a General Officer there. I think I agree; a General just innately provides a higher amount of visibility. A LTC suggested that they should make up a General for this base.... me! They would paint a door that said General McGinley and put a sign outside the building. That really tickled me and I don’t know exactly why. My mom has a saying where she says she (and therefore I, since I’m her daughter) have a General’s attitude and taste, but with a Private’s amount of influence. We think big and want big, but sometimes this is bigger than reality. The allusion to General McGinley made me think of this and also made me think that finally someone had recognized my potential! I’m kidding, of course.
Two hours later, we concluded the conversation and, since it was Sunday, most folks took it easy for a couple of hours and went back to their CHUs. I went back to mine as well and dropped off my stuff with a sense of relief that I had some time to unwind a bit before my next required travel.