Obviously, I still don't have a camera that works. I took this picture of Melissa the day we arrived in Kuwait. We thought it was a rather hilarious "Welcome to Baghdad" article for us. What do you think?

HEY! Guess what?! I got a trailer.

I was at work when I received an email notification that I'd been assigned a trailer and that I was to report to the Dodge City North BIlleting Office to sign for it.

For the past week, I had been very nervous about my impending trailer assignment. Trailer assignment is nerve wracking because you just never know what you're going to get. For the longest time, Melissa and I held onto the hope that we'd get assigned to the brand new trailers opening up near our office. Those hopes were dashed recently when I asked who was getting them and was promptly notified that those would all be for the Army's 3rd ID, only. Bummer. But I still hoped that maybe I would be soooo very lucky as to get a trailer in Red Leg, or maybe Freedom Village, or even Dodge North. But my fear was that I was much more likely to get a hooch way the heck out in BFE, like, near Lost Lake or something.

The last time I was here, I was assigned three different trailers before I finally found one to be satisfactory enough to actually move into it. Actually, the first one I got was way too far away and in the middle of a mud swamp with no internet. After a couple of weeks, I gave up on it, moved back into the tents, and put myself on the bottom of the waiting list. When the second one was assigned, I was sick from eating Iraqi food and missed the 72 hour window I had to pick up my keys. The third one was great, even though I only lived in it for a few months before leaving town.

Well, when I received my trailer notification, Melissa, Shane, and I all went to seek out my fate. When we walked in, I noticed that one of the shower/toilets custodians I used to know had been promoted to billeting. "Nancy!" she exclaimed gleefully as I walked in. "You're back. Nice to see you!" We caught up on old times very quickly while she looked for my billeting assignment. While we were doing that, another KBR lady in the billeting office said, "Weren't you here before?" Yes, yes, I was here before. And I was as difficult then as I am now, so give me a good trailer before I have a coniption fit!

When the billeteer said my trailer was in Dodge City South, I crumbled. Dodge South?! That is the worst, most awful, most desolate, shabbiest trailer park in all of Victory. That's where poor LB lived the last time we were here. The only good thing about her pad was that she didn't have a roommate.

We left with our heads hanging low to go scope out my hooch. Well, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that I was on the end of the trailer park nearest the chow hall, PX, and civilization. Yea! And then we opened the door. NO ROOMMATE!!! Cooool. The only drag would be the long wait for internet equipment so I could get online and chat with Dave at night.

I moved a few items in and rearranged things so that I would have the best mattress and the best wall locker if a roommate decided to move in, and then I went back to the tents. I didn't want to move in for good until the net was available to me. The next day, I decided to spend the night there just to try and get a good night's sleep, as I had been horribly tired (exhausted) and needed some undisturbed rest. After I'd settled in for the night, I tried the internet. IT WORKED! It actually worked great, and without special equipment! (Normally, special receivers/boosters/somethingorothers are needed to fight through the huge T barriers put around the trailers to protect us from indirect/direct fire. Thankfully, my trailer lacks sufficient bomb protection! Yay!)

Well, that settled it. I moved all my stuff in yesterday, and I am never going back to the tents again. I still don't have a roommate, although the billeting lady (another one I know from last year) said a girl signed for the key a few days before I did). Melissa is the very next person on the list, and I hope her trailer is near mine. I also hope she doesn't have a roommate. If my roomie decides to move in, I'll try to convince her to trade with Melissa so that Mel and I can be roommies. Mel would've moved in already if she weren't scared my legitimate roommate would move in later and kick her out.

So, that's that. My new pad is awesome. Life is good. If I want to, I can make it cold enough to snow in there. I love it. I have a new lease on life. The only problem is, I now want to spend all my time there. It's a hundred times nicer than the poo-hole we work in...