Thanksgiving

Things are moving along here at Camp Virginia. With only 3 months left everyone is starting to get the fever to get out of this place. The weather is getting down to the 3o's at night and then as high as 80 in the middle of the day which makes figuring out what to wear a little tricky. The port-a-johns on camp are not heated so when you go out in the middle of the night you are sitting on a very cold seat and washing your hands with equally cold water! I cannot wait to have the ease of rolling out of bed, walking on carpet and then sitting on a warm toilet seat! It will be so nice.

The main units on camp are transitioning. The new group got here about 2 weeks ago which means our camp population is doubled for awhile... making the lines to the cafeteria and the gym quite busy. We are incredibly sad to be seeing all the people that we got used to leaving and it is amazing that you really can make some good friends when you are all forced to stay in a 6 square mile area for months. Even the guys that are chronic "over-utilizers" of the TMC (Troop Medical Clinic) are faces I will miss. It never failed with these guys, once a week I would come out to the waiting room and Specialist So and So would be sitting there AGAIN. When asked what he could possibly be there for now, his answer resembled mine when Brad asks the question "what do you need to go to the mall for?". :) There is a limited amount of things to do here and I think some of these guys are just shopping at the medical clinic... what services can I have done today? Anwyay, I will miss them.

Thanksgiving was interesting here. My CDR from Yuma wrote me before Thanksgiving and told me that having Thanksgiving in theatre will be an experience you will never forget. He was right. Nothing, of course, can beat being with family and having some of my mom's awesome food, BUT as you can see by the pictures, they REALLY went all out decorating gourds, making flowers out of vegetable, and putting up displays that quite frankly were WEIRD? They had flamingo's and donkeys and mermaids and the statue of liberty??? I am not sure the TCN's (Third Country Nationals) understand what all encompases Thanksgiving, but we appreciated their hard work. I think my friend Becky said it best in her caption on face book with the donkey made out of butter..... "and who can forget the timeless tale of the thanksgiving donkey" HAA HAA.

The food wasn't too bad either. The officers served for about an hour which was fun, and then we ate and had PLENTY of everything we wanted. With no official turkey trot, the TMC ladies did an 8 mile run Thanksgiving morning to try and justify the binge eating that would go on later that day. By 8 that night, there was not a thing on my body that didn't hurt, including my gut.

In one week I will be headed to Qatar for a 5 day R&R (rest and relaxation) trip. The nurse has gone already and said it was very fun. We are allowed to drink alchohol (3 drinks) per day while we are there. I am not sure if my liver is going to know what to do!!

As you can see I have decorated for Christmas already. Brad's mom sent me a whole little village that is the envy of all my clinic. It is so pretty and makes it really feel like Christmas.

Well, I better get this posted.

Love you all! I hope you are all having a great Christmas season.

Danika