During my trip overseas in September, I…
(Some picture highlights — click ‘more’ to read and see the rest)
September 2006 trip
February 12th, 2007August 2006 trip
February 12th, 2007During my month overseas in August, I…
(some picture highlights — as always, click ‘more’ to see and read more)
May 2006 trip
February 10th, 2007In less than two weeks in May, I have…
Had coffee and tea with a Sheikh (younger brother of the king) (actually the coffee part, for those who know me well, might be the bigger adventure for me, as I went 32 years having never having had a cup of coffee until I took this job — a good guest does not turn down coffee when presented by a Sheikh)
Had lunch with senior leaders from former Soviet republics and an African nation about
the size of Rhode Island
Toured a Navy ship
Been in 9 civilian airports and 4 military ones
Drank beers at the world’s most famous bar
Visited a castle and a waterfall
Danced on the table to folk music in a language I do not speak then sang along with the
lead singer in the language
Had beer spilled on me in a club that only played techno in yet another language
Sang karaoke and later mistakenly voted to give the bar owner’s wife the gong when it
was her turn
Ate dinner with conscripts.
Places I have spent the night in:
A tent
A trailer with 3 other people
A hotel with a view of the Persian Gulf
A shipping container
A hotel walking distance from the world’ s most famous bar
A Hof with views of the Alps
A hotel with a view of the Mediterranean
A plane
5 foreign countries
Transportation:
An Opel on the Autobahn
A convoy in the open back of a Humvee down IED alley holding a weapon I have never shot
(and thank God did not have to)
The door of a helicopter
A C-130
A lear jet
An armored BMW
An armored van
An armored suburban
Eaten
Mexican on the Persian gulf
Lamb kebobs on the Med
Chow hall food
Jaegerschnitzel
A pretzel from a fraulein
Hummous and eggplant in a wine cellar/vineyard
Not slept much.
The other good news is that these two weeks are just a snapshot in a much longer adventure (until sometime next summer probably), and a new trip/adventure starts all over every week or two.Lucky me — I realize it every day.
I get paid to do this
February 10th, 2007Can you believe they pay me to do this? It is only $150/month, but still, lucky me.
My new biggest fear
February 9th, 2007Oversleeping. Working regularly in four or more time zones, 5 to 10 hours ahead, in less than a week leaves my internal clock contstantly askew. Me? Afraid of heights? Old news. Waking up possessed with the fear of God convinced that I missed a flight somewhere? That, my friends, is fear…and one way too real in my life this year. Doing the same thing multiple times in a night? Exhausting. Drinking countless steins of German beer at the Hofbrau Haus in Munich until a few hours before an early morning international flight will make it a bit more than a fear. It will quickly make oversleeping a reality — fueling the fear.
I am conquering it along with other fears. I just need to be careful in Munich.
Dream superpowers
February 9th, 2007For years, I dreamt I could fly — sometimes Superman-like, other times hovering while swimming a flailing freestyle through pudding. Mostly, my dream powers were somewhere in between. Nothing comes closer to flying in the waking world than skydiving and scuba diving. Maybe it was my pursuit of these that stopped my flying dreams. Were the dreams actually premonitions of my future passions and abilities? Now, I have a recurring dream that I have The Force and can summon things to me like Yoda with an X-Wing fighter.
Do my new dreams foretell a couch potato life spent beckoning the remote control from the sofa cushions and cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon from the living room mini-fridge?
Things that fascinate me
February 9th, 2007Spontaneous human combustion
Cults, not to join one, but to know why someone would
Photography
US Presidents
Lightning
Silence
Lower back dimples
Womens hip bones, collar bones, and back of the knee bone
Pro football
Getting hit by a bus
International relations
Foreign trade
Winning the war
Eating something I have never eaten before, the more exotic the better
Things I Cannot Live Without
February 9th, 2007Travel
My family
Friends
Someplace to go
Something to do
Reading Magazines
Something to stimulate my mind
Something new to eat
Exercise
Sex
Seafood
Adrenaline
Cities
Mountains
Challenges
A new gadget
Movies
Tolerance
Sundresses
Long hair on women
Sneezes
Staying up late
Things I Can Live Without
February 9th, 2007Smoking
Bad attitudes
Waiting around without anything to do
People who constantly eat crap food but then complain about being fat
The nicest car on the block
Hesitation
McDonalds
Most fast food
Racism
Parents who teach racial equality but will not allow their children to date interracially
Thinking TV news has all the answers
Vegetarians
Shaving (my face)
Big hair sprayed dos
Cutting in line
Drugs
Cats
Black pepper
Holding your purse
Big Johnson T-shirts
Passive drivers
Tattoos on breasts
Words of the Day
February 9th, 2007One of my fascinations in life is words. I have subscribed to Word-of-the-Day for years. Here are some of my highlights over the last couple months. Now let’s see you use them in a sentence. If you already knew most of these words, please email me. I would love to learn some more sesquipedalians.
Words of the Day
esurient ..ih-SUR-ee-uhnt; -ZUR-.., adjective:
Hungry; voracious; greedy.
recondite ..REK-uhn-dyt.., adjective:
1. Difficult to understand; [1]abstruse.
2. Concerned with obscure subject matter.
sine qua non ..sin-ih-kwah-NON; -NOHN; sy-nih-kway-.., noun:
An essential condition or element; an indispensable thing
gastronome ..GAS-truh-nohm.., noun:
A connoisseur of good food and drink.
quiddity ..KWID-ih-tee.., noun:
1. The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity of a thing.
2. A hairsplitting distinction; a trifling point; a quibble.
3. An eccentricity; an odd feature.
jollification ..jol-ih-fuh-KAY-shuhn.., noun:
Merrymaking; festivity; revelry.
melange ..may-LAHNZH.., noun:
A mixture; a medley.
sacrosanct ..SAK-roh-sankt.., adjective:
Sacred; inviolable.
paladin ..PAL-uh-din.., noun:
1. A knight-errant; a distinguished champion of a medieval
king or prince; as, the paladins of Charlemagne.
2. A champion of a cause.
tmesis ..TMEE-sis.., noun:
In grammar and rhetoric, the separation of the parts of a
compound word, now generally done for humorous effect; for example, “what place soever” instead of “whatsoever place,” or “abso-bloody-lutely.”
lassitude ..LASS-uh-tood; LASS-uh-tyood.., noun:
Lack of vitality or energy; weariness; listlessness.
anodyne ..AN-uh-dyn.., adjective:
1. Serving to relieve pain; soothing.
2. Not likely to offend; bland; innocuous.
noun:
1. A medicine that relieves pain.
2. Anything that calms, comforts, or soothes disturbed
feelings.
alpenglow ..AL-puhn-gloh.., noun:
A reddish glow seen near sunset or sunrise on the summits of
mountains.
sesquipedalian ..ses-kwuh-puh-DAYL-yuhn.., adjective:
1. Given to or characterized by the use of long words.
2. Long and ponderous; having many syllables.
noun:
A long word.