Friday, Nov. 14, 2003 - 9:04 p.m.

SHE'S BACK!! Well, almost.

When we last left our heroine, she was grappling with a tighter than tight schedule. And yes she still is.

So, what has been going on here of late? Several things.

When Ren Fest gets going I always get wayyyyy busy and don't really have lots of time during the week because I am busy taking care of stuff I would normally take care of on the weekends such as chores, running errands and whatnot. Its things I would normally do on the weekends and I just budget my time accordingly. This year has been a total blast in that I have had the best group of people to work with namely Mama Boleyn, George Boleyn, and Chastity Boleyn, a cousin. Anne has been "banished" this year because Nina has been playing another character that has been very good for her. But she shall be back next year as Anne Boleyn and we shall be a force to be reckoned with. In fact, many people have remarked to me over the course of the season how totally awesome a power our group it. I am so lucky!

However, given the redistribution of my time as usual, this has NOT been a usual season. On October 25th Tarik got on board a plane for the happening vacation war time resort of Al Hillah, Iraq. He accepted the position with Brown and Root to go as a civillian contractor performing IT, network and server administration work for coalition forces stationed there, namely Polish and Spanish. So the few weeks leading up to that were spent in preparation for his departure. He had to go through a series of classes to learn how to use his protection gear including gas mask, NBC suit (nuclear [or nucular if you are the Pres.] biological and chemical), and his flak jacket. He was also issued goverment approved duct tape to seal up the suit! The pay is very VERY good and will absolutely get us out of the hole we have been in the last couple of years, which is the main reason he is doing this. Other reasons include it looking very impressive on a resume. It is a one year, open-ended contract which means at the end of the year, he has the option to renew. We shall see.

He is working twelve hour days, seven days a week for four months and right now he is working graveyard, 5:00 pm to 5:00 a.m. We actually are awake and working at the same time. He did say that they are looking to move them to the day shift which would be good since he has sleep apnia and having to be up all night is not good for him.

What turned out to be positive in all of this is that he got routed through Amman, Jordan and ended up having to work in his dad's office for a week, and then it was decided that he would be sent to Kuwai instead. So that's where he is and he is not really liking it too much. He is not doing IT work and says if things don't get better, he wants to transfer to Iraq.

Some of the perks of this are, every four months he gets two weeks R&R with a travel stipend. That means we can meet up anywhere in Europe pretty much. We are looking at either Italy or Greece, doing one week in one of those locations and then one week in Lebanon with his dad's family. I think I want to go to Italy and see Pompeii. I have to experience that. I love the ancient world.

So, in a nutshell, that is why I have not been updating. It sure gets busy when you are by yourself. On the upside, we are able to chat on AIM every moring and before we go off to work and every night before we go to sleep.

I miss him so much and cannot wait to see him again. They are trying to get their R&R switched to every three months which to me is much more reasonable. Four months can cause some serious burnout. And from what he has said, turn over is very high.

OK, I have tons to do to get ready for this weekend. We are closing this weekend and then I will have my Saturdays and Sundays, and well, heck, even my week nights back.

Song virus du jour: "Star Trek: The Next Generation" theme music