I have never experienced insomnia before...

Maybe because I am not running around and being worked to death with 20 of my own patients every day? Who knows, but I have had the worst trouble sleeping for the past three or four days! I even killed myself on the treadmill at 4:30 this morning with 4 1/2 miles of hills at a 9:30 minute mile pace, after being awake all night, and I am STILL wide awake at 10:30. I watched a movie and tried to go to bed with no luck, then read for a few hours and tried to go to bed with no luck, and now I am blogging... This is a huge deal for a girl who NEVER has trouble sleeping!

Anyhow, things are just moving along... I have been away from home for a little over a month now, and in theater for a few days shy of one month as well. It is strange, for as long as the days seem, time is going rather quickly. We have had a couple of good dust/sand storms now and I finally got some quality daylight pictures! And voila... Here they are! As you can see, the visibility is pretty bad sometimes. I almost got run down by some Private in a humvee that was driving far too fast at night in extremely poor visibility about a week ago. I was very upset and yelled at him, but of course, he couldn't hear me. Good thing I am quick on my feet and was paying attention! Unfortunately, the color that you see in the photos, is the everyday norm. Everything is brown and sandy... Wait, I just lied... I will have to take a few pictures of the ring of palm trees that are right outside of the gate... Those are green, but that is about it. Ha-ha.

Other than that, all I have been doing is working, running, eating and catching up on the great American tradition of movies and popcorn...

66HM5 out...

Combat Peeps...

Thanks to my Daddy and Carolyn for feeding the 'Peeps machine' at Easter... Ha-ha.

66HM5 out... (off to put myself into a diabetic coma with some tasty Peeps!)

Of course...

The visibility conditions were completely normal this morning, but I am sure that I will have more opportunities to take pictures of sandstorms while I am here.

Anyhow, today was actually a pretty interesting day. I had the opportunity to attend the Chief Nurse Conference at one of Saddam's old palaces that we converted into a hotel and conference center. It is a beautiful palace on a man-made lake, surrounded by smaller palaces, that you can actually fish on. It was quite lovely to sit out on the porch overlooking the water and sip a cup of coffee between presentations. Apparently, it is one of 90-some-odd palaces that Saddam built, but he only stayed at this particular one about seven times. As you can see, there is another huge palace across the water, because one huge palace for one person just isn't enough! I took more pictures, but unfortunately they just don't do the real thing justice! We didn't get to tour the palace, but there are scheduled tours of all of the palaces that I will get to go on during my stay here.

Well, I just wanted to pop on and post a quick blog, but I must get to a nap now, as I work later tonight.

66HM5 out...

Nearly zero visibility...

Is what is happening outside right now... I don't think it qualifies for a dust/sand storm, but all of the sand in the air sure is irritating to the eyes, nose and throat. I wish it was daylight out, so I could take better pictures, but if it continues into the morning hours I will post some.

That is it for now, other than getting back on the treadmill today now that my legs and feet have fully recovered from going for gold... Yeah!

66HM5 out...

The first week and some change...

Has been quite interesting... We are surrounded by T-walls (12 ft cement walls) topped with razor wire, which makes for quite the feeling of claustrophobia at times, but of relative safety as well, so I guess I can't complain. I also started regular night shifts in the ER and work with all different kinds of people. The one thing I will say is that it is very strange providing emergent healthcare through Arabic interpreters... I always have to remind myself that I don't need to speak louder; They are not deaf, they just don't speak English. Ha-ha.

One of the best things so far about deployment are the little shops outside of the PX's. They sell cute little things and really cheap DVDs. However, there were some strange looking mannequins outside of one of the shops wearing odd costumes. (I am guessing they are leftovers from St. Patrick's Day? Who knows.) On closer inspection, because Leah and I had to go look, the mannequins were a mix of boy and girl parts, which explained why they looked so strange from a distance. So, of course, being the little trouble-makers we are together, we had to get pictures. And here I am grabbing the stuffed boob of the boy mannequin with a wig and a girl's costume on. Hilarious, I know...

I have already had two highlights for this deployment so far... What are they you ask? Well, the first is not truly mine, but my good friend Leah and I have endured so much together in the almost three years we have known each other, that I share equally in her joy... After a lot of hard work and dedication throughout her deployment, Leah was promoted to First Lieutenant the day her rotation left theater, and I was there to witness it! I am so proud of her, she has turned the corner and is now on her way to Army Nurse Corps greatness! Here we are right after her promotion ceremony in the main hallway of the hospital. Now, the second highlight is truly mine! I competed for, and acheived gold in the German Armed Forces Badge for Military Proficiency. It is a comprehensive three-day competition including the long-jump, shot-put, 100 meter dash, 3.1 mile run, 9mm pistol qualification, 200 meter swim, and a 12.5 mile road-march with a 25 pound rucksack (or assault pack). It was quite the challenge, with the shot-put being the most difficult and the swim being the easiest (go figure)! The unit Public Affairs Officer took massive amounts of photos, so as soon as they are available I will post some. The most interesting part of the competition was the road-march. I can now say that I road-marched across Baghdad International Airport (the actual active runways), which is pretty cool. We started at 4:00 am and I crossed the finish line with a time of 3 hours and 12 minutes. Needless to say, my entire body still hurts... My feet from the 5 miles of uneven gravel, my legs from the 15-minute-mile pace, my low back from the pad of my assault pack, and my shoulders from the 25 pounds of crap I had to carry. BUT, I have no blisters on my feet! For those Army-types reading this, you know how amazing that is... Ha-ha.

Anyhow, that is the jist of the first week and some change of my life here in Iraq... Just living the dream one day in the desert at a time!

66HM5 out...

Kuwait in a nutshell...

Was cold and rainy all three days we were there... Yuck. But we made the best of it and had some fun while we were there. A girl that was at Walter Reed doing the Psychiatric Nurse Course when I was doing the Critical Care Course is deployed with me, so we have been paling around quite a bit and finding every opportunity to make a poopy situation more fun... We found the 24-hour Starbucks on camp and got our caffeine fix on the second day we were there, so of course I needed a picture to post for the folks back home to show them that I am not really roughing it all that much. I call this one "Starbucks combat style." What struck me about the Starbucks was that the inside of it looked exactly like a Starbucks in the states, with the exception of the dual English-Arabic menu. It was so cool! We also went out to the range to test-fire our weapons... And don't you worry mom and dad, my weapon works just fine! But it just amazed me how much of the land is desert in Kuwait. I mean, we were the only thing out there at the range surrounded by endless miles of desert. But the most fun thing we found were the hard-boiled eggs at the dining facility... They have arabic writing stamped on the shells! My only guess is that they must be the Kuwaiti version of Egglands Best. Ha-ha. As you can see, they also have a great fruit selection here. I have eaten Kiwi fruit every day since we arrived in theater... You would never see kiwi fruit in a dining facility stateside, so I am loving it!

Our last day in Kuwait ended very early in the morning with a flight out to Baghdad. It was really cool going out to the flight line and getting on the plane in full gear, but also nerve-wracking hoping that the flight goes smoothly with no direct or indirect fire, which it did, so no worries anyone! Here I am on the plane preparing for take-off... The girl next to me is another nurse from El Paso that is deployed with me.

Other than that, I am just getting the lay of the land here and was in the ER getting a brief orientation today from one of the outgoing nurses. I have to say it is quite comfortable here... Indoor plumbing, 24-hour gym, dining facility with four hot meals a day, PX and a shuttle that runs all the way around the camp every 15 minutes to get to the large PX and all of the shopping you could ask for while being deployed. It is definitely not too much of a hardship tour, if you ask me...

Well, that is about it for now... I am off to the big PX with some friends!

66HM5 out...