Immunization Shots

Yesterday I had my shots. I thought it was going to be a few in one arm. As it turned out it was a few in each arm. Strangely, my body reacted quickly to them and right after she pulled out the needle, my skin automatically repelled it and drained out. They had to give me extra to make sure I received the minimum dose. The nurse said that meant I had very healthy skin. Not sure if I believe her or not since we all stared in wonder as it drained out.

The symptoms are not as bad as I was expecting. I have slight flu sickness with fever. This afternoon I had a hard time keeping down my breakfast and lunch. Tonight seems to be better and I was starving. I still have the fever and my left arm has a huge lump in it. My right arm is just a bit soar - like someone punched me. I am sure I will be all better by tomorrow.

Yesterday morning Kirk got a call to go offshore. He turned it down thinking he would be a bad boyfriend for leaving me two days before I depart. It was not looking good for him in the eyes of the company so I made him call back and accept the job. He left last night. I am now staying here with his roommate, Nick. It was a very sad day for both of us. It will be about 4 months until we see each other again. This trip is three weeks and then when he gets home he will head out to Mexico for two to three months. Hopefully after that he will be able to fly out to Dubai to spend some time with me. Our first vacation has already been decided - Greece. I am already looking forward to that vacation!

Friday I have to head in to work bright and early. That means getting up at 4:30 am to make sure I am there by 6:45 since I am over an hour away now. Robert, the driver, comes to load up my household around 9. I will head out from work to make sure he gets everything and "supervise". It should not take him that long.

Tonight I started to pack up my foot locker and suitcase. I WAY over packed. I have already filled a large box with stuff that will have to go in to storage. Even with condensing, I still have more than I have room for. I hope I can fit it all in. I am going to be paying a pretty penny at the airport for my luggage for sure. It is hard to pack a household full of stuff in to one footlocker, suitcase and backpack. How do you decide what to take and what not to take. While packing I was trying to think of my trips to Afghanistan and I packed all of my boots. When I arrived at Kirks I realized I didn't have any nice sandals for the office in Dubai. So that created a shopping trip! Yeah, I over did it there too. Tomorrow, in my spare time, I have to go back to the mall and return a few items.

My flight for Greenville is set for noon on Saturday. I already have dinner plans with my boss, Lee, from my previous department. She has invited me over for dinner with her family. I am really looking forward to spending some time with her while I am in South Carolina. It is always nice to know someone in new places. I know a few others that are getting ready to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan so it should make the training go by nicely. One, Bryan, has already hit Afghanistan and he is actually enjoying it. The camps are allot nicer than he thought they would be. He emailed me today and told me that when he was in Dubai for a day he was propositioned by a hooker within the first few hours of stepping off the plane. I have heard they were abundant there so it should be interesting to see if I can distinguish them from others.

Here is what I know so far about my adventure to Dubai. I will be staying in a furnished apartment that is 1/4 mile away from the office. I will have a car and be issued a cell phone and computer. The office is running 7 days a week at 80 to 100 hour weeks. I have never worked that much in my life so it will be quite a challenge. I guess I will be feeling my Dad and Sisters pain since they seem to work long hours at the family business.

I know I will be traveling Afghanistan. I just don't know how often or how long I will stay. Good news is I get an extra 35% in pay when I go.

My arms are tired now, so I will clock out.