New Stuff Makes Me Happy

We bought a new couch with my Iowa income tax return. Material things shouldn't make me so happy, but they do. I'm honest-- so sue me!! Love the new couch! Thanks, Iowa! XOXO

February? For Reals?

Really? This is February? I wouldn't believe it for a second, except for the fact that I checked my iPhone and it really is the calendar month of February.

It's warmer at Fort Campbell than it is in San Diego today. It was so humid and warm that I had to run the air conditioner after I walked from the PX to my car. Either I am terribly out of shape and I couldn't hang on a 100 meter walk, or this weather is super warm and I'm still out of shape because it's effecting me so much.

I hope this isn't a precursor to this upcoming summer. Summer 2011 almost killed me with the heat and humidity. Summer 2012 just might get me...!

Seeing the Predators

James and I went and saw a Nashville Predator's hockey game the other day with our friends Collin and Max. None of us really give a crap about hockey, we just went to get out of the house and drink $9 beer in a cold arena.

I don't know who the opposing team was. I don't know what the score was. I don't know who won. I do know I was pretty tipsy.

Another thing I can tell you is that while we were leaving the game, we passed a school bus that was parked right outside the arena. It said Tennessee School for the Blind on the side.

Who the hell brings a bunch of blind kids to a hockey game?

Just Funny

This made me laugh, just thought I'd share it!

Cars In Clarksville

I saw this car in the parking lot of Lowe's and I had to do a double take. I've seen people who put those team pride flags in their windows or reindeer antlers at Christmas time, but this was really different:

Is this something people are doing now?

It has jeweled eyeliner, too. The picture doesn't do it justice. What the heck is wrong with people? Clearly, a woman drives that car. And you can bet her husband/significant other is morbidly embarrassed if he has to take her car for a quick trip to the home improvement warehouse.

Staff Duty Paperwork

I'm winding down a 24 hour shift at work. I have 2 hours to go; I quit chugging Monsters and stuffing my face with Flaming Hot Cheetos over an hour ago in preparation for sweet slumber once I'm relieved of this duty. Now I'm more bored than I can truly express.

I started digging through the drawers of the desk I've been perched at for the past 22 hours. Not a whole lot beside plastic cutlery and old US Weekly magazines in there. But then I found this big green binder that had this interesting sticky note on it:

"This book is useless, see notes inside."

Now I'm interested.

I started flipping through the green binder and it was full of blank military documents, and several other informational sticky notes throughout the book.

"Why is this needed? Why is this at the staff duty desk? I don't think it's needed."



"We are not on a flight line... Why do we have this at the staff duty desk?"

"This is filled out by the 1SG, there is no reason to have this at the staff duty desk."

This is clearly the work of another painfully bored NCO at the end of their shift. Instead of removing the folder and fixing the problem, mockery of the book commenced. This could have/would have been me if I had gotten my hands on this book first. Bravo, anonymous NCO. Bravo.

Iraqi Jackie still?

Well, since we went ahead and pulled out of Iraq (prematurely, in my opinion (what a sexual sentence that became suddenly)), I'm left to make a decision involving my blog. Do I continue to keep the alias of Iraqi Jackie? Not a lot else rhymes with 'Jackie'....

Khaki Jackie? I'd like to think my personality is more colorful than that.

Lackey Jackie? Oh come on, that sounds like a bad Disney villain.

Tacky Jackie? We're getting a little closer, but do I want people to think I dress like an old Asian lady?

Wacky Jackie? Theme park. Definitely a water theme park.

As of now, I'm staying with Iraqi Jackie. Not just because it's familiar and safe, but because I've made it my log in ID for Game Center on my iPhone. You can't just change something like that on a whim.

What a Life

Picasso really leads a rough life...

First Picasso post of 2012! WOOT!

2 + 2 + 2 = Insantiy

Getting promoted to Sergeant (E-5) and Staff Sergeant (E-6) in the Army is based on a points scale. The scale maxes out at 800 points. You earn points in various ways, and one of them is Military Education.

Military Education can either be done in a sit-down in-person course put on by the Army, or you can do it online via Correspondence Courses. Those damn courses used to be so easy until the Army got wise to us and changed it up so cheating is obsolete. Obsolete until Soldiers figure out how to cheat again-- which will happen sooner or later.

For now, I have to actually complete them myself. :( And, of course, this new system is still full of bugs and the Help Desk folks you can call clearly hate their jobs.

My Platoon Sergeant assigned 2 courses to the platoon. Neither course has been short. And several times I have set aside the time to complete a course on Anatomy or Physiology and the course crashed on me. Two times this has happened. Those two tests are 100 questions each, and both times the test crashed on question 99.

2 different tests. 2 hours it takes me to get to question 99. 2 times it has crashed. No credit gets awarded for an incomplete test. I am going to lose my mind. Thank you, Army, for creating such a stellar computer based education system.

New Paint, New Year!

I painted my living room over the 4 day New Year weekend. I am a party animal. The paint still needs a few touch ups and the tray ceiling needs to be painted. I'm so sick of painting right now I'm living with the flaws for a while! My right arm is exhausted!!

Before: Yucky mint green walls.

After: Yummy milk chocolate walls.

I love having a house. It's one of the better decisions I made in 2011.

Oh, and Happy New Year. It's been a hot minute since I posted anything. I try to keep this blog light hearted and funny. And there is absolutely nothing positive about my outlook on my military career right now. No sense writing depressing or angry blogs. I'll find my positive pants sooner or later and get back to blogging. Until then....