ATL

So, I'm in the terminal of Atlanta airport waiting for another flight back to the sandbox. A big ice storm kept us on the runway for about 8 hours last night before they gave up and shuttled us to a hotel for the evening. With 6 hours of sleep (not done on the floor of the terminal) we again get to play the waiting game that the Army plays so well. Thank goodness that the delay is on the back end of my leave instead of the front part. It's not like I'm in any kind of rush to return to Iraq any time soon.

R&R, just like weekends and vacations, was too short. I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to see or do everything I wanted to do, but it was still just what I needed. I don't have the time to get into the gory details of it all right now, but I will say that I had a good time (great at points and not so great at others) and that a lot of people went out of their way to ensure I had a relaxing time to recharge my batteries.

Although this little break served as a boost to the morale department, I'm now even more anxious to be done with this deployment. I only have a short amount of time left to go when you look at how long I've been activated and deployed. I was called up 1 year and 3 days ago to play this game again and I'm now in the final innings. With my countdown calendar telling me that I have 101 days left to go until I hit the 1 year mark on my "boots on ground" status, I'm hoping that I will get a definite date as to when I will be released from my indentured service in the near future.

Maybe I can convince the powers that be that I forgot how to perform basic PowerPoint skills during my R&R and that I'm no longer useful to the cause. I wonder if that will get me sent home early, or just make them find something even dumber for me to do?