A NEW LEAF (or maybe it's New Leaves?)

Here it is, a week since my last entry. I’m amazed at how fast time goes by over here. I’ve been keeping in touch with my son and his wife on a pretty regular basis, it’s sort of odd, this time around I’m talking to him and emailing with him a lot more than last time I was here. She has been working a lot so it has been harder to keep in touch with her. As of Saturday I’m on nights, which under normal circumstances would put me on the same schedule as everyone in the states, except my daughter-in-law is also on nights, so until she starts her maternity leave, we manage to keep in touch for a short time when I get off work or just before I go in. Not having chat at work puts a damper on a lot of interaction. Funny when you think about it. It used to be that you had to either call or use snail mail to keep in touch, then computers took the world by storm and email was the way to go (or cell phones), NOW email just isn’t fast enough. If you don’t have a chat program, you kind of are left out to dry. People are much more inclined to chat than to answer emails, for the most part. There are some exceptions.

I think that either I grew up while I was home or just had an epiphany, I’m not really certain what happened, but I got so involved in politics and news that I feel like I’m starving if I can’t find new information on the candidates. I’m surrounded by republicans, many of whom are extremely pro-Bush and pro McCain. No one in my family is on that side of the fence so I just never gave thought to the possibility that anyone else would be. How strange to see that there are so many anti-democrats. For one of the first times in my life I understand why you don’t talk politics with people. They take things very seriously; it’s like a religious thing. I love a good debate, and to me politics is one to have good debates about. Why do you like Bush? Why do you want to see McCain in office? Why are you against Obama and Clinton? But it’s not that simple. If you question, you seem to be attacking. So here I am after 10 months at home having deep discussions about everything with my family, and now I have to take a vow of silence. I inadvertently may have already severed friendships with people because I never gave a thought to the fact that my views might not be shared over here. I never intended to offend, but I know I did. So that narrows the field a bit. My new found passion has to be suppressed, and I find eggshells hard to walk on. Always did. I’m passionate about my support, but if someone wants to question me, I’m so ready to just debate, not heatedly, just as a friendly informative conversation. I love to find out what makes other people tick. Oh well. Nuff on that.

I just got home from the gym. It was my very first time over here… well possibly my second, the first bring about 3 years ago. I didn’t feel out of place, but I was a bit lost. All I did tonight was the bike for 15 minutes, and then I left. But it was a start. I went. And I’ll go again. Maybe next time I’ll ride longer or try some other machine. But I feel it was a break through.

When I got off work this morning I walked to the mail room and picked up a bunch of books that I had ordered, then I walked over to 98C, then I walked to the laundry, then to my trailer. I chatted with my daughter-in-law for a while and then went to sleep. I was proud of myself for all the walking I did. I think I must have put in a good three miles. And I still got up to go to the gym. I’m determined to make these new knees strong and regain my balance and overall health. I know I have a long road ahead, but I’m not planning any detours. Full speed ahead!

The lady I work with traded lists of movies with me. We marked what ones we wanted to borrow. She brought me the ones I asked for, but I need to get on the ball and get her the ones she wants. It was funny, we had a lot of the same movies on our lists, so we sort of have partially the same tastes in movies. There were some I loved that she hated and vice versa, but in general we will probably have some good stuff to watch.

Well, I believe I’ve covered most things. If not, they will end up in my next update. So for now, I’m still Crazy in Iraq. Mostly because I’m happy here. Maybe I should change my email name to Insane in Iraq. It’s probably more appropriate. Anyway. I’m out. Or as my daughter so aptly says… Peace, yo!