messiestobjects

The Vacation That No Recent Eye Surgery Patient Should Go On, Really

    Julie got Lasik surgery! Actually, it was PRK, a custom job, which gives you better vision (better than 20/20, apparently!) but takes longer to heal post-op. The Doctor said that it was very important to keep her eyes really moist for at least a month in order to heal faster. So two weeks after surgery, we celebrated by going to the hottest, driest spot in North America! When I took the below shot, 116 °F was the highest temp we'd come across yet, but we later saw it get up to 122 °F. Sort of reminded me of the good 'ol days in Iraq.

    I had my 20th-ish trip to Ridgecrest, CA for work last week, and I can honestly say that I have not gotten tired of the 5 hour drive from Las Vegas through Death Valley. We'd made the decision to have Julie come with me before the surgery, thinking that it would be a great visual feast for new eyes.

    And it was! That's Badwater Basin, lowest point of land in North America and Julie's first glimpse of the beauty of Death Valley. Oh sure, her eyes were red, swollen, blurry, and she had to keep a constant flow of eyedrops dropping to battle the heat and dryness that made the clothes you were wearing contantly feel like they'd just come out of the dryer 2 seconds ago, but to the best of my abilitity to discern the quality of her sincerity, she wholly believes it was worth the discomfort!

    Zabriske Point. It was nice to have Julie along for several reasons, but one of them was that it's been a long time since I stopped to inhale the moistureless dust, other than the occasional surprise visit with desert puppy... I've gotten more into HDR photography since then, and so it was nice to sort of re-tour Death Valley with her new eyes and some new camera techniques. We spent the night at the swanky Furnace Creek Inn near here thanks to a room upgrade.

    More Zabriske Point. According to Wikipedia, the philosopher Michel Foucault called his 1975 acid trip at Zabriskie Point the greatest experience of his life. I can see why, it's really a great spot. Another favorite is the Artist's Pallet drive.

    It's about a three mile one-way loop drive which starts up there, and drives through those technicolored hills. The best time to hit it is during sunset, and we were a little early so we did the loop twice, which turned out to be perfect.

    A Charlie Brown Death Valley! I like the zig-zag that the ground makes with the mountains. Nearly every point along the drive offers a great photographic opportunity...

    ...and in the above photo, the road literally comes to such a point! I love it when a vanishing point plan comes together.

    This is one place where you should definitely pay attention to the squiggly road signs.

    Road boobs! And I remember futilely attempting to capture the way the scrub lights up like little fires in the sunset the first time I was here a few years back, and I feel like this picture captures that a little bit. So yay!

    Death Valley is just huge, and monothematic, and at the same time every bit of it has its own unique perspective to offer. I felt like this picture sort of got that idea. Maybe. Anyway I like it. You can click on it to make it bigger, maybe that will help.

    The eponymous Artist's Pallete. I posted this one with the tiny little French family in it to help with perspective. There were a lot of Europeans bumping around the valley. In fact, I heard only one or two Americans speaking the whole time we were there. Makes sense though: Europeans are horny for the US National Park system. It's the main reason that many of them visit our country. We go there for castles, history, sexy accents and beer. They come here for the amazing landscapes, New York City, sexy accents, and... um. Definitely not the beer, anyway.

    The sunset show is almost over, but I like the yellow that popped mid-range here.

    And that's sunset in Death Valley folks! Anyway, I have more stuff to post about the trip but this post is long enough and that's a good place to stop for now. Here's my parting shot of Julie and I in sepia at Zabriskie Point overlook, eyedrops in tow.

What Damn Part Of This Blog Is So Confusing? All You Have To Do Is Read. 1st Graders And Below, And Short Bus Riders Are Exempt

Dr. Chate, the mad Thai eye guy who performed my Lasik operation, was very pleased with his performance. After my post-op exam yesterday, he said I have 20/20, so, sweet. Apparently, and I knew this going in, but it's actually pretty rare to achieve 20/20, especially if you're starting with an astigmatism, which I had. So today, I feel extremely fortunate, and hope that several months down the road, I am able to appreciate it fully. I'm unable to at the moment, except you know, aesthetically, because there are still some side effects that typically do not go away for up to 6 months, and in some cases may not go away at all. For the last 12 days, since the operation, I've had to use a variety of medicated eye drops quite regularly, but I finished the prescriptions up on most of them the other day. I have to keep using the natural tear eyedrops though, because every morning when I wake up, my eyes are as dry as the desert, and so that's uncomfortable. Also, I am still wearing those eyeshields to bed every night, so that I don't unconsciously poke myself in the eye and all that. It's quite a production, taping those things to my face every evening. I've kind of turned it into an art form; see what creative way I can tape the plastic bug eyes on so they don't fall off whilst tossing and turning in my sleep. If anyone had been around to see some of the more amusing configurations... well, I'm just glad nobody was. Anyway, I only have to do that for two more nights, so I'm looking forward to stopping that. But the best side effects are the visuals. At night, lights get this crazy starburst/halo effect. Like you've been swimming in a heavily chlorinated pool for too long. Sometimes you see it during the day, if the lighting condition is right. If it's a really bright day, everything can get rather halo-y, which is disconcerting from time to time. There's a small small chance that the dry eye and internal starburst filter, as Scott likes to call it, will never go away. Which would be a bummer, but I think I could probably get used to it. The fact of the matter is, when it comes down to it, is that I HAVE 20/20!!! Any side effects, since I didn't go blind, are totally worth that. It's hard to explain, but after Lasik, it's like being able to see with glasses, only without the glasses.

Um... I guess it's not that hard to explain.
(That was a line break, right? See, I can use 'em if I want. Look here, I'll do it again.)

But seriously folks, the next time I go scuba diving, I'll really be able to see everything, because you can't dive with glasses. Even just normal swimming, for heaven's sake! The next time I snowboard I don't have to worry about falling and breaking them, or the next time I walk into a warm room from out in the cold (foggy glasses are irritating), no more falling asleep with them on and waking to find you've bent them, no more smudgey spots to clean, (Actually, sometimes I might miss that one. Cleaning your glasses is a great way to pretend to be listening to someone while in fact trying to tune them out. I learned that from watching Buffy, which, hey! I can now watch TV without glasses. Don't know if that actually will make any difference, as I haven't watched any in a very long time, but I don't care. From now on, everything without glasses is cool.) no more unsightly bridge spots on my nose, or frame arm marks on the sides of my head, no more having to choose out a pair of stylish frames that identify me as an individual from the weak-ass selection the optical center has, no more having to strategically place them on my nose so I can see under my chin in the mirror while shaving, because I now have full peripheral vision! Not that that's as cool as I thought it was going to be. I had this notion that the full range of my eyes would be clearly seeable at all times, but no, it doesn't work that way. Still have to look in the direction you're interested in, at the moment. But still, my spectacles' frames are no longer the limiting factor, and that's pretty nice. There is one dream I've had to give up, unfortunately, one thing which Dr. Chate said I could never ever do again, no matter how well my eyes heal. "Michael", he told me 12 days ago, "I'll perform the operation, but there is one thing, one thing that I'm afraid you'll have to give up, because your eyes simply won't be able to take it."
"What is it, Dr.?" I trembled.
"I'm very sorry, but you'll never be able to box again." He shook his head.
(In Darth Vader's voice, upon hearing Padme was dead) "NNNNOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooo!"
So, my career in boxing is finished, and that Tyson exhibition fight cancelled, but I'll live with it. I asked him if it was still ok to hit a guy, and he said oh yeah sure, no problem. Just don't take hits to the face every day. So, whew, right?
So, now that the credits are rolling, I have to give some mad props out to my peeps. Y'all. Specifically, thanks to Scott, for all the advice on places to eat in Bangkok, the play by play of his own Lasik surgery experience, which certainly gave me a heads up on one or two things I otherwise may have been unpleasantly surprised by, and lastly, even though I didn't take him up on it, his helpful map which he drew in great detail for me of all the best hooker bars he discovered through painful legwork. It's the thought that counts, bro.
(Just kidding. He didn't do that. And Steven, if you tease H. about loose Thai women any more, I'm going to hurt you.)
Also, thanks to all the fine people over at Luongoworld for the moral support... Civil Service forms, my ass.
Anyway, see you soon.

Okay Okay, After This Post, It Should Be Out Of My System, I Swear

So this guy, after seeing a picture of mine that Miss Luongo used in one of her posts, has posted one of my Centralia pictures over on his art site! So that's pretty cool. He posts something he comes across every day, and yesterday I got the props. So nyah nyah, everybody. Okay I'm done being 5 now. Go check it out though, he says really nice things about my mad photo skills (snicker). Okay okay, now I'm done. I've also added a permanent link to his main site on my sidebar, at the artist's studio. Thanks Shawn! And thanks, Miss Luongo, for liking the lonely little tree. Actually, as I recall, I took that picture of the tree and cross because Julie pointed it out to me in the first place. So really it was a collaborative art. (Art, hehee. <Kevin Macdonald sighs> My art...) Okay that's it, I swear.
Anyway, yesterday was a very long day. I went down to the Imperial city, a section in Bangkok where there is some really amazing stuff. Lots of Wats (temples), buddahs, and other really great architecture.

I took a snarfload of photos, probably too many. I think I overcompensated actually. I have a real problem with that. Firstly, it's the first time I've been in Asia, and seen up close some tripped out bona fide Asian insane architechture. I mean really, this stuff is wack, as the kids these days are saying. Secondly, I kept getting eyestrain. I had a real problem focusing my eyes in the viewfinder on my camera after a while... you would think that, after undergoing eye surgery, I'd take it easy, right? Well, taking into account the fact that I'm fanTAstically retarded, you'd know I didn't. Overcompensation man, that stuff'll kill you. Since I had trouble getting a clear view of what I was shooting, I just took 5 of everything. I actually filled up my 1 gig flash card in just over half a day. First time I've ever done that. So, consequently, I got 5 really mediocre shots of everything. Ho hum. It didn't help that Bangkok is a mecca for other Asian tourists, and anybody that's been anywhere knows what competing with them for photographs is like. A teeming mass of chattering little retired asian people and ridiculously outsized cameras, and bags and bags of camera equipment, all just to take tourist snapshots. Here's a shot that makes me want to call these two The Asian Snapshot Patrol, for some reason. I love the fingerless gloves. It's like 90° out.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of tourist snapshots. It's all I do. But I have a very little Canon powershot pro that I got off of Scott at a very nice deal, and apparently I can do ART with it. (Snicker snicker. Okay okay, I'm done for real now, I swear.) (Shawn, if you're reading I'm not making fun of art or your page or anything; I'm just being five years old because I'm jazzed you liked my picture enough to call it art. Hee hee.)
Anyway. So, other than that, I haven't done much. Okay okay, I DID go over to check out the Nana complex... which is not a fear of nannies or grandmothers, but a three story carnivale of bars in the Sukhumvit section of Bangkok, right near where I'm staying.

It's got it all. Pubs with only men who haven't yet drunk enough courage to visit the other bars in the area (which is where I hung out, too properly shocked and apalled to stand for any of it), strip bars, bars that aren't necessarily hooker bars, but that have a suspiciously high ratio of hot Thai women to fat old pathetic greasy western men, and yes, transvestite bars. And okay yes, probably hooker bars, but I wouldn't know. I took a walkabout, and was cajoled at almost every point along the way. I must say that I found this particular brand of tout much more tolerable than any other place I've been to, although my anti-tout instincts remained intact.
So, as much fun as Bangkok is, I'll be leaving in a couple of days for Cambodia. I'm going to take a week or so there to check out Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat before heading back to Bangkok to fly home.

I Say Things Three Times Alot, Because That's Blind Panic For You

I can see I can see I can see! But, whatever anyone tells you, getting your eggwhites sliced open, and then being forced to stare at a tiny red dot which keeps slipping out of focus while your heart is palpitating, quite naturally given the situation, and a mad mad Thai opthamologist is yelling at you the entire time to "look at the dot look at the dot LOOK AT THE DOT DON'T LOOK AWAY DON'T LOOK AWAY DON'T LOOK AWAY! Just relax don't try to help I don't need your help I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!!!! is not, in fact, painless and over before you know it. In retrospect, of course, it didn't actually take all that long, but the waiting and surgery prep that goes on beforehand takes forever, and the quick 30 minute procedure itself is a hundred years. It didn't help that one of my first thoughts, right before he cut my first eye open while he was prepping it with eyedrops and plastic covering, was of that 'Friends' episode where Rachel has to get eye drops, but she has this freakishly weird thing about things getting anywhere near her eyes, and after many amusing hijinks all 5 of her friends finally have to tackle her in order to squirt the drops in her eyes. So at first I was chuckling to myself because I was handling the whole situation so much better than Rachel would have, but then of course once he started cutting, and then during the actual laser reshaping part, (which smells like burning hair, by the way) all I could think about was "Don't freak out and turn your head like Rachel did, Don't freak out and turn your head like Rachel did, DON'T FREAK OUT AND TURN YOUR HEAD LIKE RACHEL DID!!!" And then of course, once it's all finished the hippity hoppity mad Thai eye guy tells you, after putting shields over your eyes and you can't see anything and everything is very disorientating, "Whatever you do, don't squint. That's the worst thing you could possibly do, ESPECIALLY tonight, so don't squint. DON'T SQUINT!" Okay, my eyes are feeling really strained, because they've just been traumatized, I can barely see, and what I can see is blurry, and I've just been told that squinting could ruin the whole procedure. Okay, you try it, with the good eyes you're reading this with right now. Don't squint. I mean it, don't squint. Okay maybe it's easy for some, but all I could think about was don't squint don't squint don't squint oh crap did I just squint? No, that wasn't a squint, I don't think, so okay don't squint don't squint don't squint. Crap, what if I squint in my sleep? Oh god oh god oh god.
Once I finally made it back to my room, I ordered a victory calzone from room service (they have an italian restaraunt downstairs, and a McDonalds. How messed up is it that a world famous hospital and health care outpatient clinic has an on-premises McDonalds? What were they thinking? It's a good thing I gave up fast food for New Years), and then spent the rest of the night trying not to squint. Incidentally, for anyone who gets Lasik in the future, I highly recommend the following "Long Dark Night of the Non-Squinting Soul" music: Lush - Spooky, Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat (super fantastic album, by the way), Jolie Holland - Escondida (also super fantastic), The Cure - Disintegration, and I was getting ready to hit The Gun Club - Fire of Love (for the twentieth time in two weeks; I frikken love that album) but I figured it might ruin the estrogen high I'd gotten off the previous stuff I'd been listening to, and anyway I wanted to sleep.
Another thought I had, while trying to sleep with bug-eye shields on my face, not to mention burning, itching, the deathly fear of squinting, and wondering whether I was going to be able to see in the morning, and of course also the excitement that I would be able to see in the morning, if I didn't squint, was who in the hell was the first guy that ever underwent this procedure, and what kind of insane thrill-seeker was he? I mean come on, of all the risks you run from Lasik, even as small a chance as you have now of going blind or whatever, that first guy, man, he had no statistics to go by! He (or she, sorry) knew nothing about possible side effects! I don't know man, I don't think I could've gone into it blind like that. Oh wait...
Anyway, my two hours are just about up, so later.
I can see!

Holy Fait Accompli, Little Grasshopper!

Mmmm, Thai street food. Looks good, doesn't it?

You know that old adage, "You learn something new every day?" Well, today I learned that Thais like bugs. And I don't mean that they just like bugs, as in having warm friendly feelings towards them, but that they like to eat them. That's right, look closer, those are fried insects of various variety. Actually, it's not true that I just learned that today; Scott told me about it when he was here a month or so ago, and he even tried one. I forget what kind he ate though, because when he told me, all I heard was "I ate bugs today". Isn't that enough? Maybe it was grasshopper. They have street carts full of the little buggers. (Buggers! Ha!) I bribed a street vendor into letting me take that close-up shot by buying a sample bag. I was thinking about getting really really drunk and then trying to eat one or two, but after I stopped and had one Guinness, I realized that there really isn't enough beer in the world. I threw my sample bag away. It didn't help that after showing it to the bartender, who was a local Thai, even he was totally grossed out by them. Scott's a better man than I when it comes to eating bugs, and I'm happy to leave it that way.
Anyway, that was my evening. I just walked around for an hour or two because I didn't get out of the hospital until 6 or 7 pm... it was a very long day of getting poked and prodded, and I can't even decide which was my most uncomfortable moment. See, I had a comprehensive medical check-up which lasted about 5 hours, where at one point I was asked by my Thai physician if I wanted him to check my penis and my anus, while a cute little Thai nurse was standing there watching! (I swear to God that she smirked.) What am I supposed to say to that? Do I want him to? Of course not! But you know, isn't that part of the comprehensive? What if I have a hemorrhoid or testicle cancer or something? It would be foolish to say no, but on the other hand I've never had anyone's finger in my butt and I'd like to keep it that way. I also had an abdominal ultrasound. I got a tube of jelly squeezed on me and everything. The funny Thai doctor lady told me I wasn't pregnant. I told her that's a bummer, I'll just have to keep trying. Then a visit to the orthopedist, because I wanted to find out if there was anything to the lower back pains I've been getting, and I discovered that I have an extra joint-thingy on my spinal column that most people don't have, and one of them is slipped. He recommended excercise. Great. I hate excercise. And then finally my Lasik consultation, where I spent another 3 hours. They gave me a bunch of tests, then eyedrops, and then anesthesia drops to numb my eyeballs so that he could shove some glass lenses directly onto them to have a closer look at them. After all that, the doctor said I was clear for the surgery, and we were discussing the procedure when he glanced at my paperwork and saw that I'm allergic to lidocaine. There was a very bad moment because he then says "But then how will we do the surgery? We must put lidocaine in your eyes! (Lidocaine is a general anesthesia used in lots of operations; dentists use it all the time. I found out that I was allergic to it when I was like 6 or 7 or something when I was given it for some reason or other, and went into a convulsive fit.) So there was a second where I was feeling really disappointed and then it got worse. The cute little Thai nurse (not the same one; the hospital has about 800 of the cutest, nicest little Thai girls running around in very light green hospital digs keeping the assembly-line operation that it is running smoothly) about lost her mind at that moment, actually dropping to a knee and trying to steady herself with a little hand on the desk and her other little hand covering her shocked little "o" mouth; Then she says in a little voice, "You allergic to lidocaine?! Anasthetic drops I put in your eyes before are lidocaine!" At which point all three of us got really quiet, while the doctor kind of held his breath and stared at my eyes for a minute. When my eyeballs failed to melt, explode, or convulse in my sockets, I said, "Well, I guess I'm not allergic to lidocaine anymore, then." So all's well that ends well. My surgery is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, and not only will I not be allowed to wash my hair for 2 weeks (snork! I'm bald!) because I can't get water in my eyes, but I'm not supposed to look at a computer screen for more than two hours a day during that time either. So, maybe you guys will be spared from too much inane bullcock from me for a while.

I Say Tomato, You Say ต้นมะเขือเทศ

Did you know that the Thais don't call Bangkok Bangkok? The west supercedes the name of a place given to it by it's own inhabitants once again. Munich, for example, is not Munich. It's München. Cologne is Köln. Venice is Venezia. Prague is Praha, Rome is Roma, Florence is Firenze, Vienna is Wien, Moscow is Moskva, New York is New Yawk (just kidding), Morocco is Maghreb, (actually, it's Al-Mamlakah al-Maghribīyyah) Austria is Österreich, Germany is Deutschland, and Croatia is Hrvatska. I'm sure there are loads of others, but that's what I've got off of the top of my head. I've never really understood why places let other places get away with stuff like that. If I went somewhere and heard a bunch of A-rabs calling my homeland somethin' funny, I'd be startin' some fights! Oh wait, they do. I am not an American, I'm an Ameriqie. Weird. (Hey Steven, where you been?) Well anyway, Bangkok, falling the furthest from the tree so far, is really called Krung Thep. If you want to get technical, it's actually a Guinness record breaker as having the longest place name in the world, the full name of the city being Krungthep Mahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathani Burirom-udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amonphiman Awatansathit Sakkathattiya Witsanu Kamprasit, (In Thai, it's กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลกภพ นพรัตน์ราชธานี บุรีรมย์อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยะวิษณุกรรมประสิทธ... Thai is pretty, no?) which translates into english as "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam". Now say it three times fast. I suppose westerners stuck with Bangkok because it's easier, and dirty. Understandable, really. Actually, Bangkok is a shortened version of the name of the villiage originally in place which the city built itself around, named Bang Makok, which is even dirtier. Not sure why that one didn't stick.
I haven't actually seen any of it yet, except for this view from my hotel balcony:

Tomorrow I have a health screening check-up thing and then my eye consultation, at which time they'll schedule my surgery. So, depending on when that is, it may be a few days before I get to go and see the good stuff... with no glasses!

Name Calling And Other Green, Black & Yellow Issues

Aha! I was right! About too much water in American toilets, I mean. There's a great post over at Inky Circus about how wasteful our current system is. They also link to another article on the subject worth a further read, which reminded me of how the company of mercenaries I saw alot of in the Interzone in Baghdad, named 'Blackwater', (you should all have heard of them, if you pay attention to news) is named after what the sewage treatment business calls water with nasty smelly human poo in it. You can't make this poop up folks! The other thing it talks about is how in the future men will have to pee sitting down, if we want to solve the problem with urine separating toilets. Screw that; when I finally have my own place, I'm getting a waterless urine-separating urinal installed... I never understood why all houses with men residing in them don't have urinals already, anyway. Much less water wasted in those, and it would stop all fights about having the lid up or down. Another Green issue on everybody's mind is this unreasonably warm winter, and whether it is Global Warming. This article says to expect 2007 to be the warmest year on record, a record originally set in 1998... a quickly moving upward trend if I ever saw one. They're also pulling out the 'ol El Niño defense again. I haven't seen a real snow in 4 years, and now this! Grr, argh. Global Warming is really cramping my style, man.
Anyway, I'm going to Thailand! I was hanging out in my Dad's house, trying to figure out if I should find an apartment, or where I want to work, and all kinds of deep life issues that I am apparently still not equipped to deal with properly, when I realized that there is no reason I can't run off and play for a bit before settling those questions. I've done everything I needed to do by coming back to the US for the moment, and while there are other issues on the horizon, at the moment I have a more or less clean calender and so I decided to go on the trip I'd wanted to go on after leaving Baghdad in the first place. I also wanted to get Lasik surgery, and after some research discovered that it's actually cheaper to buy a round-trip ticket and get it done in Thailand than it is to get it done here! Don't believe me? Check out US prices, and then go to the site of a very famous hospital in Bangkok and check out their prices and add that to the price of a round-trip ticket purchased at least a month in advance from expedia. The total pricing may wind up being more or less equivalent, but then you also get a sweet trip to southeast Asia out of the deal and a nifty passport stamp. It's totally a no-brainer.
I leave at the end of the month and will be gone for about 3 to 4 weeks. Sorry TF, (Can I call you Tim? You always sign in as TF, even though your name is Tim, and I feel kind of weird calling you TF if you'd prefer Tim. Let me know.) I'd love to go oil-drilling in Canada, but I hadn't heard back from you and I get antsy left to my own devices. If it's still an option come March, drop me a line.
In the meantime I am still having some issues with my old company about whether they will pay me or not and whether I am going to Washington DC later this week for a few days to give my deposition or not. I imagine I'll have a better idea of what's going to happen there by tuesday.
Meanwhile, go buy this shirt. My friend Heather made it (I think) to promote a book written by my newest friend, Miss Luongo. (Do you mind if I call you Miss Luongo? It fits, somehow, but if you don't like it I'll stop.) It's called "The Hard Way" and comes out sometime this spring. (Which, judging by the weather, is any time between now and April. I think that in May, summer will be here.) It's her debut novel, and I both painfully admire and jealously despise anybody I know that actually gets something published. Apparently it's a really really good book too, which shoots up my admiration even further, and sends my covetous black heart even lower. I can't wait to read it.

OK Fine, I'll Tell You How It's Going, But You'll Be Sorry You Asked.

Yeah... sorry about yesterday's sermon. It was a tad preachy, I know, and I was certainly out of my depth. I feel pretty strongly about the subject, but I'm not certain how the subject feels about me! Anyway, I got to put up a picture of a hot astronette, and that makes it totally worth it.
I managed to get my flight to Turkey rescheduled for this Tuesday, so we'll try again. I'm a bit anxious, though, because Yahoo weather calls for thunderstorms in Baghdad on Tuesday, and often when there's bad weather, such as light rain or dust particles, Iraqi pilots get nervous and cancel flights. It's as if a light smattering of water is the equivalent of the 'Great White Death' blizzard of '49 over here! I swear if I don't get on a plane again this Tuesday, someone is getting... well, I'm going to misdirect my petty anger at someone completely undeserving, I'm sure. Oh, and, Tuesday is the 31st. Halloween. So that's good.
My Aunt Mary wrote to tell me that "instead of complaining about late night comedy, why don't you actually spend some time writing about your future plans, your goals, what it is that you are actually thinking about doing?" Ouch! Well, I knew I was in over my head with trying to defend Space Tourism. But still, I don't have to be told to shut up and start talking about myself twice, so here it is, Future Plans: Turkey for the month of November. Germany to see friends for Krampus fest the first week of December, and possibly Egypt on a group hypertrek afterwards. And ultimately Thailand. My goal in Thailand is to do some serious beach time, and get lasik eye surgery. Thailand is cheap, so I could conceivably spend months there and not spend very much money at all, which makes it the perfect place to relax and figure out what's next. There are a few other major events in between, which I have refrained from divulging here because I don't want to jinx anything... I think I mentioned several posts back of my distaste for talking about things too soon, and there are so many things that could go wrong that I'm really not going to test the fates here. You will just have to wait until said events are over and done with before I say a word, and if said events fail to come to pass, you may never know what happened, and that's just the way it has to be! Right. Cryptic enough for you? Sorry about that... ask a question I don't want to answer, get a vague response. It's almost mathematical. I'm rather pathological that way. Honestly, you'll all be much better off if you just stop caring, really. It's not worth it. I'm weird and narcissistic, and there are better ways to spend your time.
In other news about me... well I was given the oportunity for one final good deed in Baghdad, so I have to hope I'm not a total lost cause just yet. I was talking to the manager of Freedom Rest, and she mentioned that she was having a hard time finding good people to work here. I told her that I had recently been forced to lay off several Iraqis from GBG, who were likely still looking for a job, people I'd known for years and knew to be good people. So the upshot is I made a few calls and got the last few ladies who were unable to work up north in Kurdistan jobs here at Freedom Rest! So I'm feeling pretty smug and proud of myself, which means I'll be getting hit by a shovel to the face at any moment. Stay tuned for a detailed description of the scars which the spade will leave on my nose.