I had an early start today, I went down to grab a bite from the continental breakfast. I had a super gross muffin, which I ate really fast because I thought I was running late. Then they had to break us up into two groups to take the van to the base, I was on the second van. We drove to the base and when we got there our guy had already pulled numbers for us and I got the first one. I waited two and a half hours to get my military ID, as I sat there, this Scottish guy Gary who is a mechanic from Georgia, and I were talking. I had to keep asking him to repeat himself, he said “Whaa yeou canney undeertan me ahksent” and I told him it was pretty thick but it was more that he mumbles than the accent. He agreed that he mumbles and we kept chatting. He told me about his three and a half year old son. One night stand who is the bosses daughter, we exchanged phone pictures and he told me about how his son got his Christmas present early, a DS, and how he didn’t eat for two days because he was playing it. He told me that the boy would only eat McDonalds and that for those two days he only ate five fries.
Then it was my turn to go get my card. The fellow that took me back and made my card must have been in his late fifties, beer belly and was rocking the GAP homeless line of clothes; I think it really stuck out against the crispness of his military counterparts. As he was imputing all my info he only looked up from his belly to the keyboard and then reached over and grabbed one of two harmonicas. And whipped out short and quiet prison riffs in-between questions. I was trying to make polite conversation and said one of them was pretty good. He told me that he had to play quietly because someone in a nearby cubical had complained, but since he had a captive and clearly interested audience I got my very own Christmas concert.
Got my card and was the last one on the bus back, shotgun. The hotel driver took us by a house on the way back that was decorated with Miller lite cans, the effort that someone had taken to create a display like that was just unbelievable. When we got back we chatted a little with the others in my group.
The nurse was the first one of the people coming to talk to us to get there. I had five shots to get. The HR lady gave us the gist of what was going to happen. Nobody really seems to know the whole picture, they only know what their part is she told us that we are employees of an off-shore company and that she has nothing to do with them and that we should direct any questions to them. She also said that we should not get over there and forget about our wives and girlfriends because she hates getting those phone calls. She said it’s not fun to have to tell them that she doesn’t know where we are or had to reach us and that she doesn’t know why we haven’t called.
Then they gave us some cash for incidentals and food. And the last guy went over policies and procedures.
I was over about 3:45; I went back to the room and made some calls. Called a guy to make a dump run, called mom and the wife, I love her so much, and I called my brother.
In all I rang up $119 in phone calls.
After that I walked to a bar and had a burger and fries, because I figured it would be my last chance for a while. I had a couple of Blue Moons and chatted with the bartender. She was nice and mostly indifferent until I told her about my trip. She turned up the sincerity after that, she bought me a shot and I had another beer to smooth it out. I had a tipsy walk back to the hotel after that. Got back and made a few more calls. Went to bed kind of late, it’s so awkward to sleep alone when you’re used to your best friend and your son in bed with you.
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