Made it safely back to Baghdad, and I’m glad to be back. It’s
funny because I really love both places but they are vastly different. Walking
the three-minute walk from my apartment to the cafeteria the first evening back
in Baghdad, I didn’t see a single person I knew. That’s in contrast to Erbil,
where in a month, you’ve met 90 percent of the people on the little campus, and
you see them all the time.
I was the only one headed from the consulate back, so I had
a whole motorcade to myself. The flight, which is our plane, picked up three
other passengers at the other airport stop, but that was it. One of them was
going all the way in my direction and let me catch a ride in their motor pool
car, for which I was grateful because otherwise I had a 30-minute wait for the
shuttle. And I got door-to-door service, which was nice because I had a 50-pound
bag.
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| The Big Boss acting as photographer |
Yes, I unloaded most of the food but I brought back a bunch
of stuff, too. Now I’m repacking for my R&R, which starts in about a week,
and, without adding a stitch of clothing, the bag is already up to 38 pounds.
This is mostly thanks to Wendy, for whom I have a bunch of hand-me-down stuff
that includes a really nice king-sized sheet set that’s unbelievably thick. Since
I’m not planning on picking anything up on R&R, I’m going to have an
amazingly empty bag going back.
This time next week, I should be in Istanbul, and I have
nothing at all set. I’m looking forward to visiting friends and have a couple
ideas of things to do, but since the bag is already overloaded, it’s not like I’m
going to pick up anything.
I’ve got a few stops before I get to Florida, and one of
those is my Peace Corps reunion. It’s only over a weekend, but because I won’t
have made it to Florida by the time I go, I will still be lugging this massive
suitcase, plus a backpack. My Peace Corps cohort is going to think that I’m
nuts.
Once I get to Florida, I think I should consider playing the
lottery. I’m on a role beating the odds. I got a jury summons for, by sheer coincidence,
for the day after I’m due to arrive in Tallahassee. It’s really incredible. Not
only do I work in Iraq, but I’ve never taken an R&R back to America, so, in
no world should this have happened, but it did. I’ve had people tell me I
should be able to get out of it, but I have no intention to. I mean, why not? I’m
still a good citizen, even though I live away. Really, I could probably be the
most objective person ever because I have absolutely no idea what’s going on;
it’s not like I intricately follow Tallahassee news. Still, I’d be surprised if
I get selected. The only other time I made it to the selection process (Gadsden
County), they seated the jury before they got to me. We’ll see. I will need to
make sure I have a book or something, though. Last time, I vaguely remember doing
Christmas cards. So long as I can get back, I’m fine with it. Plus, any day I
wind up reporting, I don’t have to use as a vacation day.
Once I get back to Baghdad, it’s a long haul until my next
R&R. The current plan is to aim for August, and, unlike my first two, there’s
no potential TDY to Erbil prior. That helps the psyche a lot. It’s still work –
and this time around, it was a TON of work – but it’s such a change of pace
that it makes everything fresh and new again, both up there and upon return to
the 100-Acre sandbox.
But after August, it’s completely downhill. The jury is
still out on my last day, but I’m hoping it will be the very end of September.
It’s either that or Sept. 21, so it’s really just a matter of another week but
I’d like to stretch this out as much as possible. I really do love it here and
hope to be able to get back in a couple years.
The target is to be in Tallahassee for the first couple
weeks in October. Sadly, FSU will be on the road but at least I’ll be in the same time zone.
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