I Got Paid Today....!!! Ya

Only here for a short time and at the expense of not being able to spend the holidays with my family. Not my ideal situation, but as the title says I received my first check for the short time that I have been here and I was able to pay off 3 credit cards as well as a few other bills, buy myself a TV and DVD player for my room and a very nice gift for the Mrs. Man I have to admit it feels REAL good having more than 20 bucks in my account. Since I have been with E I have been taught how to manage my money better and I have been doing quite well. Before I got paid I had 17 dollars in my account. And this isn't the first time I have been down this low. I have had nothing but 80 cents in my account and still didn't bounce a check. As a matter of fact I spent the whole year of 2004 and didn't bounce a check. Well I did in December, but there were a lot of factors involved and it was out of my control.

I got up at 3:30 - 4 this afternoon so I'm doing better as far as my time goes I should be completely set for nights in a day or so. Its a big process going from days to nights for those that don't know. You either have to force yourself to sleep or stay up all night as late as you can so that you are so tired that you pass out (that's what I do anyway). As a matter of fact I was falling asleep in our meeting this morning, because I had been up since noon the day before. I took some cardboard and taped it up to the window so the SUN (as great as GOD made it) isn't disturbing my sleep. I am a little sleepy now, but I should be ok. I'm going to try to stay up til at least noon or so then I will sleep most of the afternoon and I wont be so tired at night.

Every once in a while I hear a boom or something similar off in the distance, but tonight was the first time I heard so much in one night. There were multiple mortar attacks off in the distance, but the the blasts are so powerful you can hear and feel them as if they were right across the street. Then or course you hear the artillery return fire to the locations that the mortars came from. My co-worker (who happens to be from Texas and lives within just 15-20 minutes from Me and E and also has a daughter-in-law that works for the same company the Mrs. Dub works for) called to see if I was OK with all the shelling going on and then later stopped by to check on me as well. He is a sweet, dirty, ole man and reminds me of my Grampa D1. They have very similar traits and it makes me like him a lil more because of it. Speaking of which Grandma and Gramps you will be receiving something in the mail in a couple of days. Be sure and call me before you open it. I'm pretty much on the same schedule as you with me working nights and all so you wont be calling at a bad time.

I am 9 hours ahead of you guys and gals back in the states, but here is a easy way to remember what time it is here. Just subtract 3 hours and change the pm to am or vice versa if its the morning and there you have it. Baghdad time based on K-Dubs simple math for dummies (J/K trying to make it sound like those books you always see). For me its the opposite I add 3 hours as an example it 3am here which means its 6pm Central time. Well I'm gonna sign off I starting to drift so I'm gonna take a walk in the brisk air.

Love ya peeps,
Love you Mrs. Dub,
K3