ok, i figure i would re-start my blog! now it seems i may have a little bit more time...easy to do when i was deployed, but i would get so bored and the days were monotonous, it grew a bit tedious.
so today, i have the day off, because i worked on saturday...yesterday we did the LONG distance paddling race from Hawaii Kai to Wainae...32 miles and wild seas! our canoe hullied (aka flipped) while racing....i was in the support boat at the time but jumped in to get the bailers to the girls and hats and other items that were scattered. we did well overall I think, we caught up and passed the boats that passed us, but we could have done better overall if we did not flip!
Needless to say, today i hurt. my shoulder is REally hurting me, although it feels better today than last night. ICE rest...
i think i will start focusing on biking for a while!

2.5 weeks left...until i am FREE! i turned over my clinic several weeks ago, and spent a few weeks in qatar covering for the arcent surgeon doc who was going house hunting in hawaii..he is doing a psych fellowship via the army...he and his wife are animal lovers and bringing 11 cats and a dog with them!
i met some really great folks in qatar...contract PA's and nurses who i really had fun hanging out with...
NOW, i am back to kuwait, living in open bay ward with 150 other women transients like me all ranks and services...and sad to say, it really doesn't seem to bother me a bit. i mean there is INDOOR PLUMBING for goodness sake, i can't ask for more. i don't have to go outside to pee, or walk several blocks in the freezing cold to shower..everything is inside..i am still thrilled about it. my gawd, what has become of me? no privacy, loud noisy people..lights out at ten, whisper...but i am so delighted about the indoor plumbing piece, i can't get over it.
they(the powers that be) wasted NO time in putting me back to work...so i am busting my butt seeing 18+ patients a day..but all i can think of is i am almost out of here!
the new group showed up yesterday...which really means we are really getting to the end of this stint in the desert...and i can put it all behind me.
just loook to the future!
although, i am starting to stress a bit, my new orders to san diego have not been processed, so i am getting nervous that the navy may have different plans for me...scarey.
so, here i lie in my bed lower bunk with blankets all around as a fort for my privacy...it is like building a tent inside.
all i can say, is that i have been so demoralized that the indoor plumbing makes me happy!

ok, i am not great about updating my blogg this go around....so, i just noticed it has been just about a month when i last wrote, and michele made a note to me to update my blogg, so I AM!

christmas was actually nice for being deployed, christmas eve we sent the staff on a wild scavenger hunt --they had to wear santa's hats and have pictures taken for proof...which were hysterical when all was said and done....they were running around the base getting crazy pictures for example: eating french fries at mcdonalds (we do have a mcdonalds, believe it or not); with the command commander, saving a life on the ambulance, on the fire truck, in the dry cleaners with certain people, a picture with ANWAR, who works at taco bell....inside starbucks --which had not opened yet (YES, they put a starbucks on my way out)
while they were running around, i bought a stocking for everyone and ordered chocolate coal to put in as a joke....we stuffed them with other odds and ends....later we did secret santa followed by a white elephant...then off to church for early service. not much on christmas day. we did serve the troops again, note the picture!!

the best part of the holidays, was susan my replacement showed up teh 27 and i started turnover with her! so we did just that...meanwhile i moved to a really crappy place to live with toilets and showers even farther away than my last home! UUUGGGHH, i hate having to go to the toilet in the middle of the night in the COLD 30 degree desert. so after that painful ordeal, they move me to camp cupcake, arifjan, where i get to live in an open bay ward with 150 other women....boy the army sure knows how to take care of senior officers! they navy would not treat an 05 like this at all....but, to be honest, i don't care because, THERE IS INDOOR PLUMBING...and i can walk to the end of the ward and there is showers and toilets...no complaining here. now i find myself jobless, and homeless, and THEY won't let me go home....so i managed to get to go back to qatar to cover for the arcent surgeon while he is house hunting in hawaii...and yes, this is where i am today.
not much to do. BUT i do get to swim! i did swim at camp arifjan last week, but in this country of plenty of oil, they don't have enough to heat the pool so the temp was 62 degrees, JUST like la jolla cove! although, i am not prepared for that, and after 40 minutes i was done and hypothermic i passed out early.....i am hoping they have fuel to heat the pool or NO more swimming for me in kuwait, rumor is it is 57 now...way tooo cold.
SO, here i am just swam in qatar, the weather is like san diego, so i am loving it. the funny thing is that conrad kress, the pa from hawaii who was here and passed through camp virginia 2 months ago is here now on some secret squirrel mission he has alot of hair...it is funny running into him as much on this deployment.
anyway, just biding my time till i get home in LESS than 30 days. i hope.
i will try to update this thing more frequently....how do you like that michele?