I am still here, I just don't want to talk.

Just before Christmas Verizon Wireless sent me a gift. I call it a gift because... well, they gave it to me. We had ordered a battery for one of our phones and when the box arrived it seemed a bit heavy. The latest and greatest Blackberry Storm, kit and kaboodle was accidentally placed in our box and sent. Sheldon was kinda pissed, he called and told them they better not charge his credit card (I laughed, like he had enough on that credit card to cover a Blackberry Storm!) they told him that it was an an accident and that they would send a tracking number to us so that we could send it back to them... ok. Well, honestly, they never sent us anything.

After a month went by and no one came a knocking down the door I was "allowed" to activate it. I have a love/hate relationship with this bit of technology, this brick in my purse. It is a lot of phone. Now, with him gone... I can't let it out of my sight. All email, Facebook, phone calls and texts make this thing come to life. My spam filters are set to max but of course, with a 13 year old email address, some of the shit gets through and wakes me up at 3 am. But I can't turn it off. I can't ignore it. I get no sleep. I am married to a phone.

So, here is the bottom line. I am here. In El Paso. Loving and Hating my phone. Thanks for calling to check up on me, really. Please don't leave a voice mail, I'll call ya back when I am ready. I just can't handle anymore questions.

V

Iraq Bound

I put off actually thinking about how much I was going to miss everybody until 6 hours before my flight and then it hit me pretty hard. The thought of spending one less year with everybody to include pets was what hit me most. I was only living in the moment for the last few weeks instead of looking forward at this deployment. It made it easier to just enjoy everyone's company. I think it helped Veronica too because there were not as many crying times as I thought there would be. She really surprised with how strong she has been this time around. I will miss her most of all. I was doing pretty good on the flight until the movie started..."Marley and Me". A sad movie about losing your dog and with Marley and Gage both being labs. It hits to close to home. The movie made me miss my pets too. Poor Meeks who will be mad at me for a long time. For those of you that don't know, she was my first pet and I am her favorite. If I have overnight duty or am gone for a few days then it takes her a few days to stop hissing at me. I know Flex, our other cat, will keep Veronica snuggled. It's the other thing he is good at. Eating is his greatest occurrence. He is a 20lb cat. I will miss Zoe looking at me with the sweetest eyes. Most of all, I will miss my wife. I guess I am going to have to find someone else to take care of me for a year. Jut kidding honey. I love you. I will try to keep everyone updated on here.