A Revelation hit me today...

when I was walking around in this foreign country that I never really thought I would ever be in. I don't really know if I am just naive, optimistic, out of touch with reality or maybe just plain dumb. Let me shift gears here for a minute. One of my favorite movies is "She's the One" starring Ed Burns, Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston. The story goes like this: Mickey is a cab driver in New York and marries a customer after he drives her to New Orleans. He doesn't know her all that well, I mean he only had a few days to talk to her, and discovers that she is planning to move to Paris to finish up her masters degree. This poses an obvious problem for him because he is a proud New Yorker with nothing to fall back on. He makes this statement to her in so many words: Why would I go to France, they don't even like Americans in France. His newly found wife says: That's not true, they just don't like stupid Americans. Mickey's reply is this: Well, unfortunately I would fall into that category as a stupid American. My question is this: Am I just stupid or is it these lame brain idiots I see all over this base who come across as snotty and look the other way when you say hello to them. Let me put like this, I was warned by a friend to be vigilant and on the lookout for gangs on my new base. What??? Gangs??? Are we not in Southeast Asia? I do have a very good friend here, along with his wife, that has been great so far. I know things will get better as it goes along. It is a really nice base here.

I had the opportunity to go outside the gates yesterday. It was very interesting. It almost has a Manhattan feel to it, however, it is really filthy. It is neat to see all the manufacturers around.

Adam and his wife Vicki are scheduled to leave in May. They will be going to Lakenheath, England. That seems like a very cool assignment and I am sure they will have a blast. I walked pretty much all over the base the past couple days and it doesn't appear to be all that overwhelming after all. It is a little scary being located so close to North Korea, but we have been here a very long time and it seems to be somewhat stable. I have a few pictures of the Starbucks we have on base. It is called Rickenbackers and they have fruit, pastries, cheesecake and coffee. It really seems to satisfy my sweet-tooth early in the morning.