Yeah, it’s been awhile. Since I was here last, I departed Vilnius, went to both Chattanooga and Nashville on home leave, flew to DC and then departed for Baghdad, where I’m about to enter my third week. In addition to trying to get through two course towards a second masters degree.
That’s about to kill me. The classes start out interesting,
but quickly become not relevant to my workplace. Shared leadership? Yeah, uh …
no. The other class, about diversity and inclusion has potential but it’s frustrating
because the papers are geared around “what can you do through your leadership
position?” and “what is the organization doing now?” Well, I’m on the bottom of
the totem pole and not in a leadership position, and have almost zero insight
to what my overall organization is doing; only small bits of it are visible.
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| Just a good ole boy at the Grand Ole Opry |
The 8-week term ends on October 22. The way the courses are
scheduled is that there are two due dates, on Wednesday and Sunday. Every
Sunday, I am a little more relieved to be 1/8 of the way closer to the finish
line. When I hit October 22, I’ll be 70 percent of the way through the program
but will only have about 36 hours off. The new material for the upcoming
classes is posted on Sundays.
This particular 8-week term is especially rough, not because
of the material but that there are group projects. My group is fine, but I’m
seven hours ahead, and none of them can meet until after 5 p.m.
In essence, it sucks to be me right now, but one day, hopefully
in mid-March, I will be able to check a box and look back on the last 11 months
like a blip. And since I am back in Baghdad, I should be able to get tuition
somewhat reimbursed. I just need to get there.
Tennessee was pretty cool both times. I took Z to a softball
tournament one weekend and then 10 days later turned around and drove up to
Nashville with a friend to meet another friend and go to the USA-Canada World
Cup qualifier. It was my first professional soccer game and ended in a draw.
Although I love Nashville, I’d never stayed downtown and oh
my, what an experience. I had no idea it was basically bachelorette party
central. There’s a two-block area that is as packed as the Strip in Vegas, only
7 out of every 10 people are falling down drunk.
But I’m not saying it wasn’t fun. Being a fairly sober trio
gave us a leg up on the loud, obnoxious drunks. Waitstaff, as stretched as they
were, were falling down to accommodate us. We stayed right downtown – I’m
racking up Marriott points – and just had a great time walking around.
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| Went to the old church as well - Ryman |
Although Bluebird tickets evaded us, we made it to the Grand
Ole Opry and wow, what an amazing show. I’d done the tour before but seeing a
show was a whole new level. Of all the acts, I’d only heard of John Schneider –
Bo Duke to me – but all were enjoyable. They did have a guy who had recent song
I’d heard of (Morgan Somebody), but other than that, everyone was new to me.
Well, except for the last group, Riders in the Sky, whom I’d never heard of but
who recorded “Woody’s Roundup” for Toy Story. They’d been Opry members for 40 years
and absolutely knew how to put on a show. They did “Rawhide,” too, and ended
with “Happy Trails,” which is how it was supposed to be. I think I paid $80
each for the tickets, and I thought it was worth every penny.
Other than those two trips, home leave was short; I only had
20 working days Since I’d originally planned on going to a concert in London on
September 18 and it was canceled, I just moved up my arrival date to Baghdad.
To get there, I flew to DC exactly 30 days after I flew from
Vilnius to Tallahassee, so there really wasn’t a lot of recuperation time. I’ll
have another one in a year – the Baghdad tour is 12 months – and by then the
classes should be done, so hopefully it will be a better trip.
I started this program in March and it’s just been
pedal-to-floor and will continue until it’s over. I should get two weeks off at
Christmas, though.
For now, it’s just exhausting because I’m doing them and acclimating to a new position, and that’s so far required 10-hour days and additional work on weekends. I don’t know how long it will last, but I’ve basically announced that I am hibernating in my Baghdad apartment until I get to December. I’d doubled up on the classes because I thought, first, that I’d be in America for stretches of time during two terms, but secondly, because I won’t get an R&R from Baghdad until January. Really, it’s a fairly productive thing to do while trapped in the 100 Acre Sandbox. But man, getting through it is a bear.
