Update from Afghanistan

Tucker had some time to email me.  I was thrilled to hear from him and he said I could share the email with you all in case anyone is wondering how he is doing.  This was written on Nov 21st.  He is much busier now as the previous troops have gone home now.

So after 2 weeks of extremely uncomfortable sleeping, I finally got a really good night sleep last night, it started off with getting crab legs and steak for dinner, and then I had a warm shower for the first time, and then we got new tents, and inside my new tent was a old twin mattress against the wall, I grabbed that mattress and put it right on top of my cot.  I laid down a military blanket on top of it because it had a lot of weird spots all over it, and then put my pad and sleeping bag on it.  I laid down on it and every spring went flat and the mattress sucked me down in the middle of it, as gross as it seemed and old as this mattress was, I fell asleep instantly and didn't wake up until 12 hours later, I was out!!!

When I woke up and realized what time it was I got scared that I was going to be late because we only get 12 hours off in between work and I slept through all of my time off, I hurried and got ready, then as soon as I got in to work, my officer in charge of me asked me to do grab some stuff for him, after doing what he asked he told me to go back to bed until 02:00 and that I didn't have to be at work this morning...I get the day off!!!!!!  So I went to work out, eat and read, and so far I am loving it.  I'm not tired because of my awesome sleep last night, but I am sore as ever.  I have been working out twice every day and doing 100 pull ups every day.

I get to talk to Tracy almost every day, But soon that will have to stop,  I am going to be given more hours to work, and less time to call home and read, but for some reason working out isn't a problem, it's actually a requirement...so I take full advantage of this :) calling home is important though and they understand, so at the very least I get to call her once a week.

I have never made so many friends before, and my social retardation is becoming a lot better.  I usually don't associate to much with Marines or other people, but out here, I have become close with a few good people, I help them, they help me.  and since i'm one of two people who knows how to sew, or make things with parachute cord, I get asked to help a lot of people, and in return I get a lot of help, I have found a good friend I go to church with here, and he is an armoror, so he fixes my rifle and gives me extra stuff to add to it.  out here that's like Gold.  I also have a good buddy who cuts my hair and teaches me how to work out, I in turn have become someone he can be honest with, he is an atheist, but his relationship with his wife is very similar as I am with mine.  Marines in general don't like to talk about relationships, but when you have a friend you can be honest with about your feelings, that's priceless.  He tried offering me his Porn, and I gladly and excitedly used that as an opportunity to explain to him why I don't let that be a part of my life.  It's only been two weeks, but he hasn't looked at it since being here.  He now sleeps next to my cot.

These two weeks have been a lot and slow and very fast.  The rest of my deployment can only bring good things.