Up the Hill

The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still,
And nothing stirred within their silent depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropped
They slept on the abyss without a surge…
-Byron

Well, it’s finally happened. My precious, precious platoon has been taken from me, and I’ve been moved to a staff position. I knew this day was coming sooner or later, but I was hoping it would be after we got out of a combat zone. I feel uncomfortable leaving my platoon during a tour. Not that they have insufficient leadership; I just feel personally beholden to my soldiers. I miss them already, even though I see them all the time. I guess it is the same with any promotion.

I do not believe that I will be working that much harder than in my old job, but I will be working much longer hours. I had gotten a very efficient routine going with my old position where I had all of my work done by mid-afternoon, so that I had the rest of the time to read or sleep. This new job comes with an endless stream of meetings, and they keep me just busy enough to not be able to have free time, but not so busy that I feel like I’m accomplishing much. I used to have three meetings a week. Now I have three and sometimes four a day. I hate meetings so much.

I am pretty excited about going home soon, though. It will not be long now. I am more than eighty percent done with my tour now, according to the pie chart. I had such a good time on midtour leave that I can’t wait for block leave after we get home. A full month to take leave or just half-days, and several months of four day weekends and early Fridays after that. I’m looking forward to seeing Texas again, to walking around my beloved Aggieland again. Hopefully I’ll get to go to a ball game while I’m back. It would be great to see my buddies and catch up.

Speaking of leave, it was very nice. I drank a lot, and enjoyed my new HD television and my new XBOX 360, on which I played Oblivion, which in this lifetime video gamer’s opinion may be the best game ever made. I’m looking forward to wasting lots more time on it when I’m home for good. My parents came up and we did some touristy stuff that you never do unless family comes, which was nice. I always knew my area was historic, but it’s nice to have an excuse to get off the couch and actually go partake of some of it personally. Saw some movies, played with my boys, took long walks with Jen. That was the best—the walks. I love those.

I have to get ready for one of the seven thousand meetings I have today. I will try to get through it without gnawing my own arm off.