Goodbye, Iraq

I should be sleeping, but this is a post that can not wait. Early this morning, the last U.S. Convoy arrived from COB Adder at K-Crossing. I wish so much that I could have been there for it, been a part of it...ESPECIALLY since the 1st Cav got a lot of recognition for it...but they didn't even convoy this year! MY brigade did! We pulled almost every last piece of equipment out of Iraq. But, bitterness aside for the 1st Cav, it was truely a job well-done....for the cav, for the 230th Sustainment Brigade, but most of all, for the U.S. Army. Now that we are back with our mission complete, I feel okay with discussing our mission as we have been stationed here in Kuwait. My Brigade's job has been to organize the drawdown of Iraq, the largest retrograde of equipment since WWII, something my grandfather was a part of. We organized the convoys, managed the bases and their support for our convoys, supplied food, water and fuel to these places in Iraq, kept our TCNs mostly safe (aside from the occassional high-jacking) and most of all, did not have 1 KIA from the roads. This year, other units and brigades may have, but within every unit of the 230th Sustainment Brigade, each Soldier will be returning home alive. At the beginning, I was stuck behind a desk. These last 2 months, I have seen the roads and the threats firsthand. And what we have accomplished is unreal. I wish I could have been a gunner on this last mission...over 500 Soldiers and 100 vehicles came back, but you know what? I was still there. I watched over my battle buddies, I looked for possible dangerous things, I unloaded my 240B ammo at that testfire pit...hell, I scouted and set up that testfire pit! All never to be seen again...hopefully. Will they open the boarder for good? What will become of Iraq? I have no idea, I hope for the best...but as I saw Soldiers standing outside, waiting for their battle buddies to arrive at the motorpool today, I was filled with an over-whelming sense of pride...I too, was a part of this. Lucky me =)

Happy Almost Holidays? =)

Hello all. I apologize for being MIA. Because I'm sure what I have to say is SO interesting and its SO important to the function of the world...NOT. I don't have much to say, was just going to do a real-world update and not a book review, which I finished another one today but I'm not sure I want to review it...I'll decide by the end of this post, I'm sure. I packed all my stuff up to move into the tents! I feel really bad, 2 girls from my section has to move it =( We couldn't move it ourselves because, well, I'm in Iraq again. I love being on the road and not in the office. We've missed a lot of bullshit stuff, drama, etc. Of course, on the road we have our own drama but you can always stay in the truck and avoid everyone =) Its really REALLY not bad though. I have 2 boxes to mail home and then everything else should be able to fit in my duffle and ruck, which we can take on the plane. I'm ready to be home, but if we kept running missions, I could do a few more months and be fine. Aside from being on the road, I've been reading and getting on Pinterest a lot. Pinterest might possibly be the coolest thing...like EVER. Its a website made up of "boards" that you "pin" pictures onto. You pin pictures that inspire you, of things you want, things you want to try, etc. For example, I have a "Things for cooking" and a "DIY" board. I pin pics of yummy food and in the bottom corner of the "pin" there is a link with the recipie posted! Same goes for the "DIY" board, I have a pic of something I really like and I click the link and Viola! There's instructions on how to make the item shown. Yep, I be lovin it. Can't wait to get home and put some of the stuff to use. I am excited for New Year's Eve, hoping all my plans work out for that =) For now, I leave you with a pic from one of our missions! It is of Sadaam's

Book Review - Sarah's Key By: Tatiana De Rosnay

I KNOW I still have yet to do a real life update...but here's another book review =)

Interest:

Not sure what it is about the Holocaust I find so interesting, but it is definitely something I have always been drawn to. I remember choosing books on the Holocaust to read as a 3rd grader...I think its because its real world and my grandpa was in WWII. Anyways, as an adult, same attraction. I saw that it was a Holocaust-era book and immediately attracted to it. The book is not a true story, HOWEVER, the historical content about the Vel' d'Hiv roundup in France in 1942 is true.

Initial Reaction:

The book started off well, ever chapter is between past and present. It starts off on the night of July 16, 1942 when a young Jewish girl's family is arrested by French policeman. The next chapter is an American journalist living in France 60 years later. It is a real page-turner, I read the book in 2 days flat. Nearly 300 pages. I did not like the journalist's story as much, I enjoyed reading about the girl and her journey. However, about a quarter of the way through the book, I started to catch on to the connection between the past and the present.

Overall Review:

I'm trying desperately not to give too much detail and spoil the book, its insanely good. Extremely sad though and I did not feel like there was closure at the end. Or maybe there was closure, just not the kind I'd hoped for. The lady's life was changed, but she did not seem to be moving on to bigger and better things. Maybe the end is a good setup for a 2nd novel, wouldn't be enough material though, I don't think. I just wanted her to be happy and at peace...she wasn't. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars. ONLY because of the ending.

Recommendation:

I got this book here free, I will keep it and give it to my kids to read, good historical context. I would read it again AND I would buy it and buy it again if I had the choice. GREAT book! And apparently its a movie now...or going to be one soon. I will be watching to see the difference in the book/movie. I like doing that.

Bye y'all!

Book Review - Intern: A Doctor's Initiation By: Dr. Sandeep Jauhar

I know I have mucho to update on real world stuff, but lets talk about books since I've done a lot of reading while out on missions lately. First book review EVER is going to be on

Intern: A Doctor's Initiation By: Dr. Sandeep Jauhar

What I'm going to do with these reviews is explain what interested me in reading/purchasing the book, give initial reactions on the beginning of the book, an overall review and then my recommendation (i.e. whether or not I would recommend it or read it again.)

Interest:

I want to be a doctor. I have heard from people I know in the medical field and read that your first year of residency (when you are known as an intern) is one of the most challenging. I enjoy true-stories and memoirs, so this book seemed like something I would be interested in. When I picked up the paper version in the bookstore, the back cover described the book as being a personal account of one physician's intern year. I then purchased the book on my Nook and read it.

Initial Reaction:

Let me explain this portion of the review a little more. I am big on an author "reeling in" me as a reader. If it doesn't grab my attention and make me want to keep reading, its hard to finish the book. I'm sure most people feel this way, but being an avid reader, I also know some books just don't have that "it" factor at the beginning, you have to read a while to see the pace pick up. I would have missed out on a lot of good books had I not kept on reading through the painful beginnings of them. Anyways! On with the review!

It took a lot for me not to put the book down initially. The author comes across (in my humble opinion) as a little selfish. He discusses that he is from an Indian family, which sound pretty oppressive. His father and mother expect him to be the best of the best and to do a job for prestige as opposed to a personally rewarding job. His brother also is a doctor, not much older than Dr. Jauhar. Dr. Jauhar was a top student at USC-Berkeley and graduated top of his class. When he decided to go into medical school, he had just finished up a PH.D. in Physics. His decision to go into medicine he described as essentially being bored with his current career path and he heard about how much people love medicine. So, he decided to give it a shot because he thought he could "find love" in medicine....ugh. WRONG reason to go into the medical field. It had better be heavy on your heart from the beginning. Anyways, he graduates from medical school, still unsure how he feels about it. He chooses an internal medicine residency, which leaves his options pretty open to specialize in a lot of medical fields. Much of the beginning of the book discusses the pressures that he feels and his pity party about his fight with his love (or lack thereof) for medicine. He meets another Indian girl and is also, unsure about how he feels about her even though he feels pressure from his family to marry only an Indian woman.

Overall Review:

I give it about 2.5 stars on a 5 Star scale. Eventually, Dr. Jauhar pulls himself out of his hole, barely making it through internship. He is on the verge of quitting numerous times throughout the book. His father repeatedly scrutinizes him for having no direction in life and just doing things because they are a change of scenery and they amuse him at the time. Medicine is not a field, in my opinion, where you should take it up because you think it will be something cool to do for a bit. Its a life-long journey. You are responsible for peoples lives. So a day in the office when you want to half-ass something is one thing, a day in the hospital when you want to do that and it could cost you someone's life. He ends up marrying Sonia (the Indian girl) and grows to love her, when he gets engaged to her, it seems a little pushed, he expresses being unsure of himself. The book does cover his 2nd and 3rd years of residency, where he seems to find the light and be less detached from his job. He speaks more with patience and develops a heart, which I like. Overall, the book jumped around too much instead of sticking with the year he was in and didn't have good flow. It also didn't offer closure for me, I never got a warm and fuzzy that he wouldn't trade the world for his job, it just seems like his brain landed him in a career field that he enjoys, but doesn't necessarily have that DRIVE I would want my physician to have.

Recommendation:

I would not purchase the book again, it took me a long time to read because he wasn't engaging, he was whining about how hard his life is/was. I wouldn't even read the book again. It just wasn't what I hoped for. I was looking for a more altruistic heart than what he had and that's what made it bad for me.

Hope you guys liked the review, even though the book wasn't that great :( Let me know if you have any suggestions on how to make the review better and what you think. Thanks for reading!

On The Road Again

Well, I write this from...IRAQ! Haha. This is my 5th time out and I'm glad to be out again. We're actually on our way back in and needless to say, this trip has been a DOOZY. But, I'm really glad not to be at Camp...typing away. Even though, my own bunk is nice to stay in. I like being out here and learning and seeing new things. Yesterday ended up being a 30 hour day. When we got to our destination we had to load the trucks up with connexes. We got in at 3am and didn't get done until the afternoon. Slept for 4 hours, went to dinner then slept for like 11 hours and jumped on the road, stood up for almost 9 hours gunning. And amazingly, I'm tired, but its not that bad. I FINALLY ordered a running watch, can't wait to try it out =))) Other than that, just miss my Framer and all the fun we had. Not much else to say, I have a lot to think about writing and I always forget when I sit down. Hehe. Okay that was a lame post, but I wrote, right? =) Byeee y'all.

Ahhhh

I'm pretty sure this is a woman thing BUT something that always makes me feel better is being productive. I was bummed missing the bestie and I decided to get my mind off of it by packing and laundry. I leave for mission early Monday morning and don't get tomorrow off so while everyone did the Halloween party thing I packed and listened to some country music =) It was helpful. I got most of my packing done, all my laundry done and my bed smells great and I'm snuggled up in it writing this. Today I spent wayyyy too much time on Pinterest but I am so okay with that. I can't wait to get home and just be human again. But, I have enjoyed getting so organized with my military stuff. I am going to make a list of the patches that I need tomorrow...my goal is to get them sewn on everything I have before I leave. I wish they would let us sew it on all our stuff, pcs and jackets. Still sooo excited for 68W school, that will for real be a dream come true. Anyways, going to read just thought I'd talk about what keeps me sane sometimes =) Goodnight you guys.

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Saturday Blues

Well. Dropped Mr.Frame off on Thursday, as well as Eddie. They are both in Memphis for 2 days until they get to go and demobilize. Glad they're home. It was very sad to see them go though. I really don't know what to do with myself...I want to run but it's sooo ugly outside and I hate running inside...I can't do it, it's awful. Going to figure out something though, I'm bummed and missing them =( I'm going on mission next week so that will keep me busy. Got lots of preparing to do! I'll post more later, promise promise!


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