11 May 2007

Last night I went to bed pretty late (early in the morning). I creeped into the room I'm sharing with my two team mates, changed in the dark and pulled myself like a cat up to the top bunk. Luckily it's a wooden bunk bed so it doesn't creek and squeak. I crawled under the covers so exhausted and as soon as I did all I could hear was deep, loud jet blast overhead. It seemed like it lasted for a few minutes, but my exhaustion blurred my sense of time. I think it only lasted a few seconds and was then followed by a second one. In that foggy state of mind I couldn't distinguish if the sound was of a fighter taking off or of a projectile overhead. I remember moving closer to the edge of my bunk and surveying the floor below planning my landing stance if I had to take cover. What a crazy thing to have to think about, but when you're over here, you have to be aware of the possibility.

We had more meetings today. This morning Mylinka and I tried to get some coffee and Grean Bean and we were denied when we walked in and were told the power was out and the coffee machines couldn't function. What a shame.

It actually rained a little bit today and it was cooler than usual, although somewhat windy and overcast. What this means is that it was probably only 100 degrees today instead of the 110+ degrees that it has been. We welcomed the respite from the pounding sun rays...especially when we ride in the back of the pick up truck.

On another note, our living trailers are pretty nice. We have to walk through gravel about 200 feet to the shower trailer and pretty much the same distance to the toilet trailer. Although it's cumbersome at first, you get used to having to get dressed just to get to the shower. You also get used to showering with flip flops on, not shaving, getting dust on your flip-flopped feet as you walk back from the shower, and just simplyifing your morning routine. It's all about function and time efficiency. There's no room for excess over here, and one finds a much higher priority in sleeping a couple of extra minutes than performing non-essential grooming. It's always a culture shock to go from this mode of operations back to the corporate life in Atlanta; wearing high heels, putting make up on, and walking through a stone-tiled office building to arrive at my cube. I like both, but can only take so much of either at a time.