Time keeps on tickin tickin tickin

Time keeps ticking and though I am growing older I am also growing days closer to my departure from this hellish land. Excitement does not begin to describe the feeling imminating throughout my body, in fact I will let it remain indescribable. These last few days have been going by extremely slow because my mind, body, and soul is fixing to pack up and jet.

Onto other things, I received another package from the ol pops, thanks dad! I always enjoy the things you send. I was quite confused when I recieved it though, I must say. The last conversation we had was how you weren't going to send anymore packages because it was so close to my departure date so in conjunction of what was previously discussed I was taken back once I discovered a package filled out with my information. To my delite, there was a slew of snacks and a Family Guy DVD resting on top, what a great gift.

I forgot what else I was going to write about so I guess I will end this post.

One love. Ski... out.

Joyous occasion

The time has come and whether or not some people can understand it I have earned the right to train my replacement, sit back and not work for the rest of the time I am here. Of course I talk shit, will I still do work? Most likely but my mood is lifted either way... I never thought I would love to see new faces as much as these frightened bunch had when they stepped off the plane to Kandahar, Afghanistan. They want to talk about mail being a morale booster... I'll tell you what a morale booster is... It is living in a pile a shit for 5 1/2 months and finally seeing an exit, slowly wading through the nuts and remnants of ingested material towards that light. You will eventually get out, drenched in shit but without a care in the world... it is euphoric. So what I am saying is that home is within reach.

Hear the beat, move your feet...

Nostalgia, not just a state of what has been but euphoric, for me at least. I am listening to all the old music me and Chris and Nick made back in the day. The music is terrible but it isn't about that, it was about working towards a goal as a group and improving along the way. All that comes to mind is being with the gang and bullshitting with them. At that given time we met up almost every day as soon as humanly possible and just worked our asses off on creating (or trying to) the next best song. Yes we even did some vocal work too as embarrassing as it is. Actually at that time period Lauren and I were probably 1 year strong and I can recall her, and her friends, being at one of our sessions we called "rapping" and I am pretty sure she considered us gay. In fact, I know my wife, she was definitely embarrassed... doing her arrested inhale and grasping onto Nina in disbelief. So yes, she thought I was gay but she ended up marrying me so I must have done something right.

Anyway onto an important redirected focus. I recieved a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and wanted to share the write up. It is as follows:

PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT WHILE SERVING AS GENERAL DUTY CORPSMAN, NATO ROLE III, MULTINATIONAL MEDICAL UNIT, KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN, FROM NOVEMBER 2009 TO MARCH 2010.  PETTY OFFICER CZAJKOWSKI PERFORMED HIS DEMANDING DUTIES IN AN EXEMPLARY AND HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL MANNER.  AS A MEMBER OF THE CASEVAC RECEIVING TEAM, HE ASSISTED IN PROVIDING EMERGENCY CARE FOR STABILIZING AND TRANSPORTING 200 ISAF COALITION FORCES AND CIVILIAN CASUALTIES INJURED IN COMBAT OPERATIONS.  OUTSTANDING TEAM LEADER, HE TRIAGED AND ASSISTED IN THE TREATMENT OF 1,600 PATIENTS FOR ROUTINE AND EMERGENT CARE WHILE INSTRUCTING FOUR JUNIOR PERSONNEL IN PATIENT ASSESSMENTS AND MINOR SURGICAL PROCEDURES INCREASING THEIR OVERALL CONFIDENCE AND PROFICIENCY LEVELS.  HE ASSISTED IN RELOCATING AND RENOVATING THE SUPPLY TENT WHILE MAINTAINING CURRENT OPERATIONS OPTIMIZING SPACE FOR A SECOND CT SCANNER.  PETTY OFFICER CZAJKOWSKI’S INITIATIVE AND SELFLESS DEVOTION TO DUTY REFLECTED CREDIT UPON HIM AND WERE IN KEEPING WITH THE HIGHEST TRADITIONS OF THE UNITED STATES NAVAL SERVICE.

My first NAM and I am proud. So my rack will now be pretty spiffy.

Pick up my stick and follow the railroad

I think it's time to get the hell out of here. A new group came and as far as I can tell they are prissier than prissy and it doesn't do the medical field any justice because we already have a stigma attached to us for being whiny and demanding. Who the hell goes on deployment and before introducing themselves to any of their turn-overs asks "Where is my office?"

Listen asshole, I don't know if you realized this but... YOU ARE ON DEPLOYMENT. Holy shit... uhhh I'm not getting an office then? Apparently you don't understand.... how about you gauge the seriousness of the reason you are here and understand that kids half your age are dying without a chance to start their lives. When you are able to ring the blood out of your uniform in trying your god forsaken hardest to make sure Jimmy goes home and is able to make it up to piss on his own, that, SIR, is when you will understand that your f*ckin coffee maker doesn't mean shit to anyone. Screw your office space and you along with it. What's the matter, are you concerned that you won't be able to check your bank statements while you are at work? You want to make sure you are making the extra money for putting your life in danger? You prissy bitch, you don't deserve a god damn thing if you are coming in here puffing your chest out and explaining to the guys who have been here how you have done so and so your entire career and.. "Hey you, get me my coffee... extra sugar because I can't stand bitter... it has an undesirable after tase." What's next? Demand that I order a pedicure superset and get a working party to ensure your feet are at an impeccable status at all given times?

Let me get right on that sir and by the way sir would you like to me wipe your mouth while you eat? That is if our dining facilities are up to your standards of course.

People like this never cease to amaze me, what just because you are a doctor you want a red carpet rolled out wherever you go? This guy is in for a rough time if that's how it is.

aaaaaand... YOU'RE OUTA HERE!

So the boss I was complaining about has finally been reprimanded to the point of no return and an executive decision was made to shift him to a different work space, whether or not that was part of the plan, no one will know but all I know is that this department will be 100% better without him. Starting tomorrow we are receiving a new guy and the's 'boss's' last task will be to train him... I say the word 'train' loosely. I know we are going to have to ultimately show the new guy the ropes because when a arrogant worker loses his position and is shifted to a different department for diciplinary reason there will be a lot of half-assed explanations when it comes time to explaining a new guy on how the job is done. For one the job wasn't done to begin with so whatever is going to be taught is going to be an incomplete job regardless.

Now onto some better news and with it comes the question -- New Guy? Do you mean new to the department? Well yes new to the department but also new here... that's right! We have recieved a bulk of replacements and will be dealing with new people... thank god. With new people it's awesome because you know that since they are new they will need a while to get adjusted before they know the job and so they are wanting to make a good first impression.

Now I use the word new loosely as well and I won't give dates of when they got here or how long the turn over is due to the monitoring of these systems.

Anyway I gotta hit the head, I am in pain turtle pokin' this poop.

It was not in vain

The idea of helping someone from back home deal with relationship problems is amusing to me. Not to downplay the seriousness of heart ache but I have dealt with much more than someone my age should have to being on deployment and to listen to problems someone has back in the states, especially with a girlfriend, becomes entertaining. Not because it wasn't/isn't worth something but because life and death is much more important and I have seen first hand that death comes quicker than some people think. Am I putting myself on a pedestal? No, I am merely stating that what I thought was important was then. Experience changes you.

Seeing what I have almost envelopes your person in a patriotic, yet reprising, aura. You go through hardships and see people die, some not even aware of what happened before they died. These thoughts cloud your mind because you sit back and you think... What if this kid planned on Skyping with his familt tonight and he was so excited to get back to base and just let them know he was okay... then BOOM -- IED goes off, but he never knows what happened, dies right on the spot. It's thoughts like that that fill your head when you first deal with trauma in a war zone but these situations are what makes someone more patriotic than the next. Yea of course we have a shitty economy and it's hard to make ends meet but at least you aren't dying, praying to god in the trauma bay to save your legs so that you can play with your daughter who's birth you missed and it you were suppose to be going home next week.

For everyone who has died out here, it was not in vain, for if anything else, we cared the most about saving their lives than anyone else and we tried our hardest.

This is why friends' relationship problems mean almost nothing to me.

It's time to come home... eventually.

Quite some time since my last post, 8 days to be exact. Don't mean to scare you guys or anything but I tried posting two other entries but one of them didn't go through and the other froze on me so I lost all the drafts. It was actually really annoying and I didn't have time to just write another one. The only time I really write is when I get to work because that is when I have the most time to myself and the internet isn't as slow... still slow but not as slow. When I say slow I mean like it literally takes 10 minutes to display the pop up window for me to write an entry. I don't have time for that crap.

So what's new? Well Lauren is enjoying Colorado, she is visiting her mother. Apparently Madison is an amazing girl and is on the best behavior. They sat her down in front of the webcam and we were all cracking up because she was trying to sit up. It was the cutest thing ever. My mother in law would sit her up and she would try her hardest to balance herself the right way to stay up only to find herself tipping to the side and finally just falling, of course grandma was there to catch her. Then grandma would sit her back up and she would do it again. What a warrior that girl, she is 1 month old and is already trying to sit up. She will do special things that girl.

Other than that, been having quite a few rocket attacks lately, these assholes wait until it's overcast or limited visibility and just have a hay day with these rockets, I think we need to get a hold of some CIWS's for this base, that'll take care of this problem. There is a reason I carry my 16 at the ready 24/7... people may laugh at me because I am the only one who walks around ready to pop the magazine in but no one is going to be laughing when there is an incident and they aren't prepared, not trying to jinx it but I am just saying I think a lot of people forget we are in a war zone sometimes.

So like the title says... It's time to come home.... Get me out of this fricken place.