I'm Back!!!

I am home and I can't tell you how great it is to be back. A lot has happened and I will just offer a few bullet points...

-Been home about two weeks. I got to meet up with some friends down in San diego and we had a great time on Halloween weekend. It was the perfect way to welcome myself home. Wish I had had a costume, but in a way my civilian clothes were my costume. I didn't make it to a single formation when we were in San Diego.
I win.

- I bought a car. I got the car I always wanted when I was in high school and early college: a Chrysler Sebring convertible. It has been a dream come true getting to roll around in the Southern California sunshine with the top down. I will never have a hard top again.

- Met up with the guys in Vegas. That was an epic weekend. First bar fight, first damaged hotel room, first time being robbed, first time blacking out. And all within budget. I can't go to much more into detail because I think that my mother still reads this, but lets just say that Vegas is just a wonderful place.

-I went to the beach before I voted on Tuesday. It was around 90 degrees out and just amazing. I love California. Why anyone wouldn't want to live in a place where you can go to the beach in November is beyond me.

-And finally, I registered for spring classes yesterday. I can't tell you how excited I am about this. But not only that, I think that I can make it through my degree by spring '08. Just in time for the 10 year high school reunion. Hahahaha My spring schedule is a light one, only three classes, though I may want to add another simply to get a little more bang for my buck; it costs the same for 12 units as it does 16. I am taking a persuasion class, media and society, and Arabic. I decided that since I plan on staying in the military for quite a while, it will behoove me to learn Arabic. It will be interesting. I picked up some words and phrases here and there over in Iraq, but I couldn't understand any of the writing. I think that I am up to the challenge though.

I don't feel that there is a huge culture shock or adjustment for me right now. I think that I kept my sanity on my deployment so I am moving along just fine. The biggest thing for me right now is that I have absolutely no structure to my day at all. I mean, I am not wishing I had to work, but sometimes I just stand around and don't know what to do. While I may have had a lot of slow spots overseas, my life was still pretty much all laid out for me. Now though, I am just roaming around.

The other tough thing I have noticed around campus is that I don't really know that many people who are left. I have recognized at least a dozen people though, and they are all grown up now. Awkward freshman are now confident, mature, filled out upperclassmen. I do a double take when see them. And most of them don't remember me. Kind of normal I guess.

I'm Back!!!