Friday, 4 June 2010

Today I woke up at 1100. It is nice to sleep in.. altho, when you don't go to sleep until 4 or 5.. I'm not sure if you can consider that sleeping in.. LOL.. working nights is definitely something to get used to. I get off work and am still wired.. no matter how tired I feel at work.. so it usually takes a few hours before I am ready for bed! So this morning, up at 11, went to PX, got a swimsuit, walked next door to the gym/pool and went swimming!! yes... It was nice. The weather here is soo hot that I would swim, get out and within 10 minutes be dry again, and get back in.. yea, I did that for about an hour.. but me + high temps don't get along. I am so glad I am going to Kabul.. the temps are soo much cooler there.. I can't wait! This heat is horrible. It is soo hot that I don't even and usually don't go to the DFAC for lunch because its too hot to walk there.. and its literally 1 block away.. but that's how hot it is.. So, anyhow, went to the pool, then came back to the barracks, showered and waiting for my ride to work. Today started off slow. The power went out a couple times, which meant no AC either.. errgh.. but about an hour or so into the shift, the power and AC were back on! I brought my Kindle with me today, so I did a lot of reading. Literally, we just wait for emails.. when they come, we process them and wait for the next - so this evening was slow. I forgot the damn phone number I was given yesterday so couldn't call my mom today - I was a little disappointed about that.. its a number to a base where they will connect you to any number and you get 1/2 hour of free talk time.. Wont forget that tomorrow.. thats for sure. Today I was able to log in to my email/FB on one of the other girls computers (since I dont have my army.mil email set up yet and can't log in to any of the puters). BUT - here's the cool thing.. the ARMY does NOT block Hotmail, AOL or facebook. That is awesome. Even YOU TUBE.. yes, we do get bored here.. :)
SO I was able to check email, and browse the net a few times today during the slow time. AND of course, as murphy's law would have it, the influx of business came to us in our last half hour - which led us to working 2 hours past our shift to complete the necessary initial reports required. I am surprised at how fast I have picked up the routine and process.
And, I will tell you this, I have a new perspective tonight on this job. Yesterday I said I might like it.. today.. well, today I decided to read the pending reports we had, for Afghanistan and there are several - these reports are morbid. Not only can I read what happened, but of course I always flip to their NOK (next of kin record) to see if they were married or have kids... It IS DEPRESSING. It can hit you emotionally and it did me today.. I had to stop. I had to not focus on the emotional part of it.. because if I did that, I would probably be a WRECK by the time I got home. Compartmentalizing; that will be difficult. I am a nurturer who empathizes and thats really not a good thing to have in this job.. because then it hurts to read some of the reports and can get depressing. This is ONLY day 2 for me, so I need to learn this now because I have not even begun my job in theater yet..
Anyhow, basically I am saying the job is going to be a little harder emotionally than I realized yesterday (I didn't read reports yesterday, like I did today) Yesterday I really didn't know what I was looking at.. Today, I discovered it. Someone was telling me that weekly they put pics in the paper here as a tribute to the casualties and he said that he sometimes recognizes the names.. and it makes its even more emotionally painful when you put the face to the name.. knowing the circumstances.. errghh.. will have to watch out for that.. try to avoid it..
Okay.. its 0453 and I do need sleep.. more tomorrow when I am not soo tired..