Cereal

Ah cereal. The lifeblood of breakfast. You may say the breakfast isn't breakfast without bacon, or eggs, or pancakes, or grits, or oatmeal, or sausage, or a McGriddle, or perhaps a horribly disgusting Egg McMuffin, but it is cereal that brings breakfast together.

The fun thing about cereal here at FOB Howz-e Madad, is that you have to be at the chow hall at the right time for it. And that time changes daily. If you miss the first 5 minutes they put new cereal out, you've missed it. And then you have two options: sit and wait until they bring more out, and you don't know how long that is going to be, or just resign yourself to the fact that, once again, you've missed cereal for the day.

But say you are lucky. Say you get cereal, and it is cereal you like (sometimes all they have is non-raisined bran) .... then you have the milk situation.

We had vanilla Silk yesterday, and late in the breakfast period today, but for the last almost 3 weeks, there has only been chocolate, strawberry, and banana milk. Now for the hard decision: which of those goes best with whichever cereal you've chosen? Special K with red berries? Definitely strawberry. Cocoa Crispies? Definitely chocolate. Frosted Flakes? That's a toss up. Low-fat Granola with Raisins? Steal the Silk when you can and hide it outside where it will never get warm (seriously ... it's freaking cold here).

Yeah, so that's the randomness for the day. Enjoy. And count your blessings when you have free access to white milk for your cereal.