A Day In The Life

Here's the story of a typical day at ISAF HQ.

Most days, my alarm goes off at 0600 and I leap out of bed, singing a happy song. OK, maybe not the singing part, but I do get out of bed almost every single day. That's just how I roll.

After performing my morning ablutions (see, I'm learning the lingo!), I'm at the Dining Facility (aka DFAC - now you're learning the lingo too) with my roomie Alex by 6:30 or so. After using the clearing barrel to make sure my pistol isn't loaded (it never is) and scanning the lunch and dinner menus (look, it's taco night!), I enter the foyer where I scan my meal card, wash my hands at a conveniently located trough-style sink and grab a tray. I've said enough about the food in a previous post, so let's skip ahead a bit.

I'm usually at my desk by 0700, or a little after. Work ensues. Promptly at 1100, my team and I head out for lunch. Why so early? Probably because we're all hoping an early lunch means the day will go faster (and the week & the month) and we'll get home sooner. At the DFAC, it's the same procedure - clear the weapons, scan the card, wash hands, grab a tray, get some chicken. We eat a lot of chicken over here. Once we're seated, since I've got an international team, we say dobra tek (Croatian), dobra hooch (Czech) and/or Bon Appetite (American) before we eat. It's a nice tradition.

On the way back to the office after lunch, we stop at the Post Office - 7 days a week! See, one of the benefits of being deployed is mail delivery on Sundays (one of the un-benefits is having to work on Sundays). Anyway, our Officially Designated Mail Guy goes inside, while the rest of us wait at the back door like cats behind a DFAC, waiting to see if we can get any goodies to carry back to the office.

We're usually back at the office before noon, where more work ensues. If it's a slow day (or even if it's not), the tv on the wall is usually on, tuned in to football in the morning (remember there's a 9.5 hr time difference), the Indian version of the Discovery Channel (you can tell by the commercials advertising cars for 5000 Rupees), or a Polish music video channel (check out Malgoska by Wet Fingers for an example - these guys crack me up).



I hit the gym around 3:00 on most days, then dinner with the gang is promptly at 5:00, the minute the DFAC opens (dobra tek!). Then things get weird - I go back to the office after dinner. It's usually quiet and mellow at this time of day, but I do get a lot of stuff done. I punch out between 7 and 8, and if all goes well I get to see Kim for a little video chat as she gets ready to eat lunch and I get ready for bed. Then I watch an episode or two of Arrested Development, read a few pages of a book and get to sleep.

And that's about it... now you know what most days are like over here. Fridays and Sundays are a little different. More about them - and about my actual job - in a future post.