Actually, drama is lacking but red tape is plentiful, these past couple weeks. I'm in the middle of out-processing from my current base, in Alabama, in order to be able to drive cross-country to Washington State over the weekend (and the beginning of next week–this isn't exactly a short drive). And the red tape abounds.
I'm almost all the way done, except for a report that has to be done by my boss, and signed by the next two levels of bosses, before I leave here. This report is necessary because it is my package for the promotion board that I'll be meeting next year, to be considered for promotion to major. (Right on time–these things happen like clockwork.) So the report is important, and it has to be done within the next couple days (if not I imagine I'll be trying to coordinate via phone and email; and while I'm used to that, from my time in Baghdad, I would prefer not to have to do it that way!) But I am so glad to be almost complete with this process… However, even if the past couple weeks have had their annoyances in the form of red tape and redundancy, they've been good, too. I needed a chance to unwind a little bit from the deployment itself and also from the frantic nature of the process of getting home… (It was an insane time–turned out the AF had assumed I was going to be heading home in mid-August instead of at the end of July, because no one had checked my paperwork. Then when they figured out that I was getting dangerously close to my 365 days, boots-on-ground, they freaked out and I was on a plane out of Baghdad within the week. Total chaos. I tried not to mind because I know that military travel is like this… you have to put yourself in sort of a Zen frame of mind and flow with it, not worrying about anything that might come your way. The only thing that made it bearable, though, was the fact that a friend of mine who'd been in the office with me–2 AF captains versus the Army!–was dealing with the same thing, too, because we'd come in on the same plane last August. Anyway, we ended up attached to a unit's chartered flight back to Dyess AFB near Abilene, TX, instead of the more ordinary ports of call, and took commercial flights home from there. I am just glad that it is all over and done!) It's been good to have a couple weeks where all that I need to do is to get myself processed in and out of the base here, and on the road to Seattle. As of Saturday morning, I'll be starting the three-day (possibly four-day, depending on how it goes) drive… and I'm so ready for it! I'm ready to get an apartment and get my stuff and settle in, already! (Though since my parents live close by it won't be terrible to crash there for a little while until my own apartment is ready to go.)
This is where I'm staying at present…
Rather different from where I lived in Baghdad! OK, that's my scatterbrained update for the moment. It's weird getting back used to being allowed to access the internet–all of it–again… I keep forgetting that I won't be blocked from the social networking sites!
