On All My Motions

 
So, now that I’m finally back, in place, got a decent night’s sleep and burned everything I was wearing on the trip in (okay, not yet, but I have the lighter), I can perhaps manage a brief account of the process.

It actually went with decent smoothness, at least on my end, until the very last. We got out of Baghdad relatively quick, and — blessedly — transitioned through the base at Al Asad rather than the one at Kuwait. We’d managed to get out of there in just over a day, and the only real complication came when we were told we’d have to pack our body armor in the standard two-duffels-and-a-ruck … along with the first set of body armor that the Army replaced a year ago but never took back. Much cursing … but, you know, I made it work, because I’ve done this dance a few times already and I’d left some extra space and I knew some tricks, so it got done and we got on the plane and into the air.

(The airliner had one of those big screens that showed our position on a map and our projected flight course. My first question was, Why are we pointed toward Tehran? Fortunately, we turned and swung onto another heading shortly thereafter.)

A positive note was that this time, when we stopped at the airport in Shannon, Ireland, we were allowed a two-drink maximum at the Guiness pub in the terminal. Less positive, with several hundred of us waiting in line, it took me almost an hour to get my first drink. (But, oddly, not much over five minutes when I went back for my second.)

It was six hours to Ireland, and another six hours to the U.S. All good, right? No. At the last moment, weather made it impossible for the pilots to see runway at the Air Force base abutting/consolidated with Fort Dix, so they diverted to the airport at Baltimore. Then, because we were an unexpected international arrival, well before daybreak, we had to sit on the plane for another two hours till customs agents could arrive to check us in. Then sit at the Baltimore airport for another four hours till Fort Dix could send some buses for us. Then another four hours to ride the buses back to Dix.

The diversion threw us monstrously off schedule. We were assigned to barracks, picked up our baggage, turned in our weapons … and that was all we accomplished our first ‘day’ back. It was past 9PM before I got the opportunity to take my laptop to the dayroom and get on wi-fi to check on RemixRedux …

… but that’s a different post.

 
I try, every day, to click on the “Random Journal” link at LiveJournal Home, just to expand my horizons a bit. Generally I have to keep clicking for awhile before I get a page that isn’t in Cyrillic, but I persevere.

Today, I landed on a journal that had this post at the top.

Ouch.

 
I continue my editing/revision of my current Buffyfic. Would anyone be interested in acting as a beta? It currently runs, I think, just under 17,000 words.

 
Quick list of recent developments:

Good stuff:

1. My son is going to China again
2. My daughter is getting married in four months
3. My current deployment will end soon (back home to family)
4. I’m signed up for this year’s RemixRedux
5. I’m at 15,000 words on my current Buffyfic, and expect to finish it this week

Not-so-good stuff:

1. My wife’s mother is in a nursing home for rehabilitation, and probably will never be able to resume normal living
2. My current deployment will end soon (Army pay stops coming in)
3. While I was out of the country, the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government conspired to limit my freedoms, and exercise over me power I never agreed to grant them

And that’s the way it is.

 
Minor stuff since my last post.

I picked up a mild chest cold, which I expected to last for about a day, with another day before I felt back up to speed. The first part went about as expected, but recovery stretched out ridiculously: five days before I was ready to do anything except crash and sleep for twelve hours.

I was nominated at the Absence of Light Awards, right at the absolute end of the nominating period. Whoever submitted my name, thanks. That’s the good news. Bad news, my story — “Walking After Midnight” — was entered in Best Gen, a category that has me up against waddis’ “He’s No Jack Sparrow”. Heavy competition.

One of the people on my team is on leave, and the other will soon be transferred to a field team. Meanwhile, another guy (who’s already been moved twice) is being housed with us. Sometimes I wish things would settle down for awhile.

Is it just me, or does the strip below make anyone else think of liz_marcs?

– Both the kayaking and the acerbic commentary. We don’t socialize anymore, but hers is still a singular voice.

Finally, a rec that doesn’t have anything to do with fanfic. “Girl Genius” (the link takes you to the first strip) is an online comic that has won numerous awards, including two Hugos. It has more than seven years’ worth of strips stored, and is updated three times a week. Funny, entertaining, and visually stunning (the first six months’ strips are mostly black-and-white, but it goes full-color thereafter), this is a delight.

 
Being as today is my leave date, I was supposed to be on my way yesterday. Didn’t happen. When I showed up at the airport yesterday, it was 23 hours until the next available flight. I won’t depart till late this evening, and at this point there’s no telling how long the transition in Kuwait will take; people who have gone before, advise me that a 13- or 14-hour turnover is common there.

On the bright side, my leave doesn’t officially begin until the midnight after I arrive at my destination; I’ll still have the full two weeks, it’ll just start later.

Also encouraging, on a slightly different subject, I’m past 8,000 words on my current Buffyfic. I’ll write some more today, and more tomorrow in Kuwait. Maybe, maybe, I can complete it while I’m still in-theater. Twice now, I’ve finished — in Iraq and in Afghanistan — stories I had begun back in the States; once, I started a story in Iraq, went home on leave, and then finished it while in Kuwait on the trip back. This could be the first time I finish, back home, a story I began in-theater.

( Political observation under the cut )

So that’s where I stand. With luck, my next post will be from home.

 
Two things.

First, I’m now past 5,000 words on my current Buffyfic.

Second, I had one of those ‘last flight of fancy while in the process of waking up’ semi-dreams, and it gave me the idea for a meme. I’ve participated in several, but never originated one before, so this is a new experience. So, here we go:

The Letter From the Future Meme

Premise: a letter from the future, any fandom.

Rules:

1. One fandom, no crossovers. I would prefer the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: the Series, but don’t insist on it. Buffy/Angel doesn’t count as a crossover — two series, same reality — but Buffy/Firefly would.
2. Name the fandom and the characters. (You can do so at the end, under a cut, if you want to preserve a surprise.)
3. Both sender and recipient must be actual characters in canon. This can include characters who were referenced but never seen, such as Milo Rambaldi of Alias or the ‘kooky shaman’ mentioned in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Obviously, neither sender nor recipient can be an OC. Just as clearly, the sender can’t be a descendant of the recipient unless said descendant has been seen — or at least mentioned — in canon.
4. The sender can be the future self of the recipient, but for variety’s sake this should be avoided.
5. Post your response on your own LJ, citing this entry as the meme source, and post a link to it in a reply to this post.

Enjoy!

 
Today, another member of my unit re-enlisted, in-theater. This is at least three, maybe four, and of the three I remember, all have deployed before, are here for another go-round, and have now agreed to give their country a few more years of their service. Further examples of our ‘broken’ military.

I’ve done not quite 500 more words on my current Buffyfic.

And that’s pretty much all for now.