I was tinkering with my old CDs today getting them onto the iTunes, and I ran across my Gigi D'Agostino CD. In college we used to listen to him a lot after our trip to Ireland because they played him a lot there. I heard this song and thought I better put it on here for P22 because it's just perfect. I can't wait til you hear the actual song, it's so beautiful. :) I love you!

"I'll Fly With You"
Gigi D'Agostino

I still believe in your eyes
I just don't care what
You have done in your life
Baby I'll always be here by your side
Don't leave me waiting too long
Please come by
I, I, I, I still believe in your eyes;
There is no choice,
I belong to your life
Because I will live
To love you someday;
You'll be my baby
And we'll fly away
And I'll fly with you,
I'll fly with you,
I'll fly with you

Every day and every night,
I always dream that
You are by my side
Oh, baby, every day
And every night,
Well I said everything's
Gonna be alright
And I'll fly with you,
I'll fly with you,
I'll fly with you

Dream of me
I still believe in your eyes
I just don't care what
You've done in your life
Baby I'll always
Be here by your side;
Don't leave me
Waiting too long,
Please come by
I, I, I, I still believe in your eyes;
There is no choice,
I belong to your life
Because I will live
To love you some day;
You'll be my baby
And we'll fly away
And I'll fly with you,
I'll fly with you,
I'll fly with you
Every day and every night,
I always dream that
You are by my side
Oh, baby, every day
And every night,
Well I said everything's
Gonna be alright
And I'll fly with you,
I'll fly with you,
I'll fly with you

well... it's been a good 7 months since my last blog. i'll be surprised if anyone even reads this because i think most of you gave up hope that i'd ever write another blog. i didn't even think i would, but i find myself up and unable to sleep. what better opportunity to write a blog than now. i'm sure i could discuss the multitude of reasons why i'm turning into an insomniac lately, but they're not exciting and i don't think it's much of anything besides the normal anxiety and stress related thoughts that keep creeping into my mind just as i think i'm drifting into my dream world. tonight, though, there are two additional factors. the first is that it's salsa night in the MWR tent so i can hear reggaeton blasting at ear peircing decibals and i live half a mile down the road. the second is that i had the pleasure of listening to two ghetto-fabulous soldiers have a fight (i believe they were dating, if you can even do that when you're deployed) about dvds and i don't even know what else. i was three seconds away from telling them to take their marital problems somewhere else but they finally stopped.

what else is new? my dad called from kuwait today, two out of five astphans are deployed. fantastic. as you can imagine, it has my mom a little worried. the other family members say they're concerned and will pray for us, but i know that my mom, grandmother (dads side), and fiance are the only three people who consistenly pray and worry on a daily basis. believe me, i'm not complaining. to have that many people who care so deeply for you is an amazing thing. i worry more for my dads safety than mine. he's going to the worse area and he's OLD. that's right, i said it. dad, you're 50 and in no shape to be running around on the battlefield saving lives (he's an Army Nurse). oh well, try to convince uncle sam of that... once he's got you, he's got you.

on that note, though he may have me now he will have to let go on April 30th, 2006 :) that's my freedom date. i can't wait. i'm already searching for jobs in VA and so far it seems like i'll be making the same as i am now, if not more. i could spend an entire blog devoted to why it is that i am disgruntled with my job and the army as a whole, but who really wants to hear that? we'll leave it at - my family is first and until the army gets some things straight, they'll never put family over work. so off i go into corporate america, briefcase in one hand, starbucks in the other, wall street journal tucked under one arm. i'm ready, willing, and most certainly able. now all i need to find is somewhere to go with my briefcase, coffee and newspaper. any takers?

you know, you'd think a deployment would be the perfect time to write all about my travels, adventures, and life and death experiences. sadly, that's not the case. i haven't actually done much travelling, and the life and death experiences are just about nil. i should be thankful for that... and i am. only, i thought i was going into battle. what i got was a crappier run-down version of fort drum, ny with a lot more heat, sandstorms, and camel spiders (do a google images search for camel spiders and try not to throw up). well, i guess war is hell in its own way. mine is death by powerpoint, but again, i'm thankful it's so uneventful.

last but certainly not least is my relationship. we celebrated 1 year in june, i was home on leave in july, and we're still going strong. i'll tell ya what, this deployment has not been good to the relationship... its like a rollercoaster, between good days and bad days, good weeks and bad weeks. who would have thought we'd make it through 8 months of this? we've both changed so much and our relationship has grown stronger and stronger. we were fortunate enough to buy a house together in Chester, VA while i was home. it's fantastic and most importantly - it's ours. i can't wait to start our life together. it's going to be just perfect...

i think that's enough for you to chew on for the next 7 months. just kidding, but no guarantees on how soon i'll post again. maybe i'll try for next week...

well, well, well, here it is, my first post...
originally i had some posts but since i couldn't blog, the only one that saw them was p22, via email. :( boo. no dice for you all. i guess that means i have to give you a rundown of what's happened since i've been over here.
let's start at the beginning. i left my mom and the love of my life crying (only my mom was actually there with me) as i went to get on the plane. HORRIBLE. got on the plane, and it was just surreal. it hadn't sunk in yet that i'd be gone for a year. we land in ireland for a little break which was awesome because i've been at that airport before on a rugby trip. then, not so awesome, as we were there for 12+ hours waiting for them to fix the plane. we got back on, after sleeping on the floor of the airport (all 350 of us), and headed to turkey. we couldn't get off the plane there which stunk, but were soon on our way again. last stop for this leg of the trip was bishkek, kazahkstan. i can honestly say i don't want to go there again. we were stuck there for 3 or 4 days (i had lost track of time at this point, due to extreme disorientation and little sleep). i did get to shower twice there, go me. finally, we load up on a c-17 headed for bagram, afghanistan. at this point, maybe it's sinking in a little, but still not so much. i'm ready to go though, ready to get my year started. we land a couple hours later and walk off the plane... to my amazement (and the amazement of all 21 of my group that was with me) we were surrounded on all four sides with these huge, beautiful, snow covered, 15,000 ft mountains! and, best of all, it's actually warm... well, in the fifties, but after being at Fort Drum, it was warm.
at this point, not so bad. we got settled in and over the next 4 weeks, we planned the arrival of our main body. that month was ok, some bad days, some good days. then the main body came and things started picking up. work got busy, days started speeding by, my morale was pretty high.
that brings me to today. today i've been here for a month and a half and it's alright. we've slowed down, not much going on, days are not going SO slow, but they're not going fast either.
there's been some rough points with my fiance, there's been some great times. church has helped immensely. i think i've grown closer and stronger in my faith than i ever have been, and i can honestly tell you all, that without Him, i think there were many a nights that i would have gone hysterical.
overall, the living conditions here are good. i live in what everyone calls "the egg shack" (all women live here, so we say we like to keep all our 'eggs' in one basket, hahaha). it's basically a college dorm, real bed, real mattress, desk, dresser, wadrobe, fridge, tv, microwave. not so bad you're thinking. well you're right. it's not so bad.
but there's things that a nice room doesn't fix. it doesn't make easier the fact that i have to eat the same food three times a day for a year; it doesn't help that if i'm not in my room, i'm at work, the gym, the store, or the dining facility and that's it; it doesn't make easier the fact that i have no friends but those people that i see every day at work all day, and after a couple months, people are going to start fighting; it doesn't help the fact that i miss my family and my fiance terribly, or that i won't see them until a two week break in july, followed by another 7 months in this country; it doesn't help that i'm living in a world covered in dust with no greenery for miles; it doesn't help that we have random unexpected explosions or rocket attacks... so as nice as the room is and as easy as the work is, it doesn't always make everything ok.
what does help, are the letters from home, (real, not email), the packages from my baby, the support from my family, and the daily coversations on the computer with my fiance. something else that helps... the big fat paycheck i get twice a month that will finance the down payment of our new house to be bought this summer. (thank you taxpayers)
though this may have seemed depressing, i'm not at all depressed. it's a learning experience, and after it's over, i'm sure i'll be glad to have had it under my belt. i miss you all and hope to see you down the road...
hfbibytifaybid, ilysmimmc, defamp22