16 August 2007: The Curse of Popeye's

Here’s a big advantage of being deployed and having a birthday – there’s no hangover the next day. As a matter of fact, the day after is just like any other day. I was back at the 0900 meeting, back at my office, and back to my normal routine. I did make certain to thank everyone in the unit for the birthday surprise they gave me. On the same subject, I still have cards coming in the mail. I received another handful of cards today. I’ve never received so many birthday cards, greetings, and wishes in my life. I lost count but it’s been a lot.

The team is still in a “rest halt” between missions. As such, we’re much more mundane right now. Although there are things we’re working at our location, they aren’t really that exciting to talk about. We’ve got a mountain of missions upcoming. Once we get busy again we won’t be seeing much of Anaconda for a long time. It’s hard to express how busy we really are about to be. Just keep checking back and you’ll notice that there will be extended periods of travel. It’s all part of our job description.

Once evening fell I made a tactical error. I didn’t finish my workout in time to hit the DFAC. As a result, I had to make a trip to one of the food courts. That meant I went to Popeye’s. Now don’t get me wrong – I can eat some Popeye’s. However, there’s a big difference between eating their chicken and red beans back in the states and eating it here. It tastes basically the same. Once it’s getting digested there can be problems. I think everyone knows where I’m going with this. That’s right – about two hours after eating I came down with a case of the shits. The grumbling pain woke me from my sleep. I had to make several runs to the latrine. It’s really stupid to buy food at the food courts here. The DFAC is free, clean, safe, and has great food. The moral of my story is always plan time to eat at the DFAC. Having a case of the shits AND being deployed is not a good scenario.