The Wall, The CASH, a Lack of Shrimp and SIGNS

Greetings family and friends!

First off I want to congratulate my sister on another great magazine article which was recently published. Good luck on your future TV premiere. If you enjoy wine, check out her website at www.trywine.net.!

Next I want to take the chance to thank everyone for their gifts, cards, letters and care packages. It really is nice to look forward to checking the mail every day. My friend Arlene in Hawaii sent me a great postcard from a Sandbar that my friends and I always go out to on Sundays. Thanks Arlene! Some of the other gifts in the picture were from the Soldier's Angels organization members. Roger Godseken, my personal Angel, sent me the workout book - and trust me, I won't be returning unless I have Abs like that! Another Angel's 83 year old mother hand knitted the angel that I'm holding (which I hung up on my desk). Still others had their kids make my office cookies (which were delicious). The organization is trying to send a postcard of support from every state in the US. We are making a wall of these postcards in Medical so everyone can see that people all across the US are thinking and praying for us. So far we're only missing 5 states!

So this past week was a little slow for me. I couldn't exactly pinpoint why I was in a rut, but all week I was kind of dragging. I still worked out every day, still saw all my patients, did all my work, and even finished the 3rd and final season of Desperate Housewives, but still nothing seemed to stir any emotion in me. Then today it hit me. To know RJ is to know that his favorite food is shrimp! I love it. Any way you serve it, hot, cold, grilled, sauteed, fried, schrimp scampi, shrimp gumbo, shrimp (ok, you get the idea Forrest Gump) - suffice to say, I really like it. I realized that every Wednesday was Surf & Turf night here in Al Asad, but since the chow hall near us closed, I haven't been able to make it to Surf & Turf night, and as a result, haven't been able to eat any shrimp! (They don't bring the good food like shrimp to our small satellite chow closet). If this truly IS the reason for my slightly unenthused demeanor, I have 2 more weeks to endure before they re-open it. [In all seriosuness, I'm just kidding. I often think about how lucky I am to have hot food served to me everyday, especially when there are many Marines fighting this war eating MREs every day, or worse, not eating at all.]

The CASH or Combat Army Support Hospital's ER sent out an e-mail that any interested doctor could volunteer to work shifts. I think this might be an exciting opportunity to break up some of the monotony, to help out people even more than I am now and to even keep my clinical skills sharp. I'm a little apprehensive because I haven't worked in an ER for quite some time. But I'm optimistic that this opportunity could prove to be worthwhile and meaningful, so I'm going to give it a shot this week. I think it'll open my eyes up to a lot more that's happening out there. I'll keep you posted on how this works out.

Last night I had my first Saturday night here. Let me explain. Since I've gotten here I've been pretty much working most of the time. Most Saturday nights back in Hawaii (and all my life for that matter) have been spent relaxing, kicking back on the sofa or going out with friends, but forgetting about work. I haven't really done that here and so last night, my corpsman by chance turned on the television that just got hooked up, and AFN (the International Channel that gets broadcasted out here) was playing one of my favorite movies - SIGNS, with Mel Gibson and Jaquin Phoenix. To know RJ is to know he also likes Alien Movies (Independance Day, Aliens, Taken, etc.) So I decided to shut down my computers, turn off the clinic lights, and my Corpsman and I just sat on our couch, put our feet up, and did nothing but watch the movie. I got so lost in the movie, that it felt like I was watching it from back home in my living room. The escape was nice and it was the first 'Saturday Night' I had here.

Well, off to bed to rest up for another exciting week!

I enclosed another pic of a recent sandstorm for your viewing enjoyment as well!