An Entertaining Cast of Characters

People are interesting.  There is always something about them that makes them interesting.  Whether it is their personality, their past, the things that come out of their brains, or the way they see things, you can usually find something interesting in everyone.  Naturally, you have to have a little extra crazy in your DNA to want to come to Afghanistan for work, but that little extra crazy makes life fun here.

There is: Nate's carefree outlook on life that I admire and resent all at the same time; Jason's constant battle between liking being the nice guy that all the girls want and being the badass he thinks would be more fun; Lisa's odd desire to convince everyone that Arizona doesn't suck and that Tool is the best band ever in the history of music; Chris' neverending selection of stories about killing things and being a pimp; Jeff's cute way of being terrified of me (no idea why, I am mostly harmless, and I have a little crush on him, so I wouldn't hurt him anyway); Sean's way of being really odd, but really cool at the same time; Justin's ability to look menacing walking down the road, but when you talk to him, you just kinda wanna cuddle him, because he's awesome; the Chief's ability to make everything come back to the Air Force, even though we are working for the Army; Brian's tireless dedication to doing absolutely anything he can to make the lives of the soldiers here a little bit easier; Jim's undying love of telling us how to use the toilet properly; the Mayor, who gives great hugs; the LSO, who I hope will come back at some point so we can eat my queso (of course, I need Papa Bear (not my dad) to get to Wilson so he can get me some Tostitos first); Cute Soldier, who was fun to hang out with for a while; Papa Bear (again, not my dad), who is entertaining as hell and wisely teaches young Privates about mud angels; Nell, who is back home safe now, though I wish she was still my tentmate, because she would have killed the stupid chicks for me long ago; the entire fire department Mafia, who are awesome, but I think they could make us all disappear without a trace; that d-fac guy who memorizes everyone's last 4 when they sign in for meals ... although it might just be the girls; the other d-fac guy that seems to think it a personal affront when I ask for "just a little bit" of anything; Mr. Kim, the laundry supervisor who no one can understand, but is always friendly; Mike, who usually says, "Yup, we'll do that", before anyone can even ask; the short Sergeant Major I really want to pick up and cuddle, because he is so cute and little, though I suspect, he wouldn't appreciate as much as I think he should; the other Sergeant Major who I made laugh when I apologized for "Sir'ing" him, instead of "Sergeant Major'ing" him (my daddy raised me right, I Sir or Ma'am just about everyone); the 101st guys that taught me about the "Manchester" game (it didn't catch on in the fire department like I think it should have); the cute, clueless EOD guy that was helping us fix the internet (Um, that was me flirting with you ... duh); Steve, who, along with Jeff, made me ... *made* me ... look up chili corn dog in the Urban Dictionary; Fletcher, our own personal leprechaun, who could make the most stoic man laugh his ass off; Tali-Dan's mad ninja skills and apparent ability to be drunk, sunburned, and tattooed all at the same time; and so many more.

Of course, *I* think the most important people around here are the ones in camo that keep us safe.  I kind of wish I had the chance to get to know more of them, but then again, I'm not sure I could stay here and do my job if they all had names attached to their faces for me.  Sometimes I wonder how incredibly strong of a man the Chaplain must be.  He knows all his soldiers ... I'm not sure I could handle the pressure of knowing that any of them could be gone at any moment.

There are so many people here that bring such interesting and variety to the world.  It would be difficult to list them all, but suffice to say, they keep me entertained. 


Wow.  Three posts in one day ... hopefully this makes up for being absent for almost a month! :)