Time Flies When You Are Having Fun

Multiple times last week I meant to post an update to my blog. Then it was, I'll do it Friday...okay, I'll do it Saturday...definitely Sunday... So here I am on Monday finally doing it, and this isn't even what I intended to write about. But since I made an issue about the week flying by, I thought I'd talk about what happened during it. There's surprisingly little considering I felt I never had time to write.

I've been having some health issues off and on lately. Mainly sinus pressure, but also nausea, headaches, fatigue, etc. Last Sunday I ended up sleeping about 7 hours during the day. When I was awake I mainly laid in bed and watched the US Open golf tournament. Nothing special happened Monday and, really, looking at my notes from last week, there wasn't a whole lot going on throughout the week. It's the little pop-up jobs that take up so much time. However, there were two projects I worked on last week.

Starting on Tuesday I coordinated a visit here by two colonels from Baghdad. Basically, I coordinated their schedule for while they were here and which offices they would visit. That took up a good amount of time right until Friday evening when they cancelled just before they were supposed to fly up here. Oh well, hopefully they can visit another time.

The other main project I worked on last week was putting together an application package for the squadron commander's selection board that meets next month. Squadron command is the opportunity for 2 years to lead anywhere from 100 to 800 people on a specific mission. Although not required, it is considered a key step toward making the higher ranks of colonel and general. I'm not so concerned about the chance for promotion (although it would be nice!) as I am the opportunity to lead a group of people and see if I can do it. The idea of being a commander is a little scary but also exciting. Putting the application together required me to write a paragraph explaining why I think they should select me and write a paragraph on behalf of my commander about me. I loathe writing self-promotional pieces and struggle through the process. That's why it took me 3 days to get it done when the instructions say it should take 60-90 minutes. My commander reviewed it and made some changes but kept most of my material. I resubmitted it and now just have to wait until about September for the board results to be released. This is my last chance to apply to the board, so I'm hoping for good news.

Saturday, what did I do Saturday? What did I do that is other than oversleep. I set my alarm but forgot to turn it on. I woke up that morning about 4:30am but that was way too early to get up so I went back to sleep. I woke up again later but didn't look at the clock so I had no idea what time it was. In the last few weeks there have been a few times I woke up in the middle of the night, was wide awake, and couldn't fall asleep for over an hour. I thought this was one of those times. After tossing and turning for a few minutes, I decided to look at the clock and see if it was close to time to get up. There was a good reason why I was wide awake, it was after 9am! I finally rolled into work around 10am. Thankfully it was a slow day, so no one noticed.

Saturday evening we had an awards dinner for the people on the staff. There is a small group from the staff who I usually eat lunch and dinner with. I enjoyed the chance to have dinner with the other people on the staff in addition to my usual group. After people were given their awards, we watched a video that was made for the outgoing wing commander. It was hilarious! Well, probably funnier for us here than it would be for any of you. After the dinner, a few of us got together to smoke cigars (I passed on that), have some near beers (I had one of those), and talk. It made for a nice way to end the week.

Sunday morning I woke up and planned to go for a run. I stepped outside though and it was like pea-soup fog, except it was dust not fog. I didn't think it would do my body any good to run in that, so I went to the gym to run on the treadmill. I showered afterward and went to church. I wasn't needed as a Eucharistic Minister, so I filled in as an usher since our usual ushers were gone. I definitely get more out of the service when I have a role in it. After mass, I returned to my CHU and called a friend. We talked for a while and had a great conversation. After I hung up the phone, I was playing on my laptop but my head started to hurt. I decided to lay down and ended up sleeping for 2 hours. When I woke up, my head hurt even more. I popped a couple of Ibuprofen and then went to join some friends at the movie theater. We saw the movie "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. If you like romantic comedies, you'll like that movie. It is cute and there are some very funny moments.

I meant to do some work after the movie, but I just couldn't get motivated. Instead I went back to my room, played some video games, and worked on my bike. I talked with my mom when she called at 8pm and then went back to working on the bike. I finished it up and took it out for its maiden voyage around the housing community. I have a light on the front handlebars, so thankfully I didn't hit anything. The bike is nothing fancy. It only cost $200, I couldn't even buy wheels for a road bike for that amount. However, I really enjoyed riding again and am looking forward to putting some miles on it.

So that catches you up with what I've been doing other than writing in my blog for the past week. I will try, emphasis on try, to write another post later this week.