April Fools

So this year April Fool's Day will likely be the greatest day of the year. Normally people don't think of April Fool's Day as being the greatest day of the year, but this year it's different; this year it's special on a couple different levels. To start things off I want to mention the first reason this year April 1 will be a wonderful day, and to do that I have to use a picture. Yes, that's my upper lip (about two weeks ago or so.) Since it's March, something guys do out here is participate in March Mustache Madness. Personally, I think mustaches are lame and hardly ever look appealing; as such I was really reluctant to actually grow a mustache out this month. But, after being belittled by just about every guy I work/hang out with I decided..."What the hey, who am I trying to impress?" So, for the month of March I will have some nasty fuss on my lip, and thus the first reason April 1 will be a wonderful day. I'm going to shave this thing off at midnight, cause April Mustache Madness just doesn't have the same ring. And time just isn't going fast enough.

The next reason April Fool's Day will be wonderful this year is because it's official...at 00:00 1 April 2009, I will become a Staff Sergeant. No more "Airman Ritchie" for me! I've been waiting for seven months for April 1 to get here and I am currently only 2 weeks from the day. In addition to the extra respect people give you (as in NCOs tend to treat Airmen like dirt) I also am going to be acquiring a higher standard of living on April 1. Not really sure why it is I have to do so, but the Air Force has decided that as an NCO, my standard of living will be higher than it is currently as an Airman. As such, the Air Force will compensate me for that higher standard of living by giving me more every month to pay for my house...and my rent actually went down this year.

I'm actually looking forward to midnight April 1. I've mentioned a few reasons why, but the second reason will come with me getting the crap beat out of me; well not me, per se, but my arms will probably end up black and blue. Even though I know I'm going to be hurting after everyone decides to make sure my new stripe won't come off, I'm really looking forward to getting beat. Would that make me a masochist?

Perhaps in April

Just wanted to make a quick note to announce that I will be making another post next week. On the 15th of this month they will release the line numbers that will be sewing on Staff Sergeant on 1 April, so I'm only about 3 days from knowing if I get to finally sew on my new stripe or not. If they don't promote my number then I will sew on on 1 May. I'm really hoping that I make the cutoff this next month for a few reasons. 1) That's gonna be a really nice pay increase. 2) As soon as I become a SSgt I will be able to move into the new dorms here rather than living in the crappy trailers I'm currently in. 3) People treat me like I'm already an NCO so I might as well be an NCO. So next week I'll post whether or not I will sew on on April Fool's Day.

The other thing, I hope y'all like the Disk of the Month. I'm going to try to have a new album up every month (as close to the 1st as possible) and if there's an album you think is worthy of being called the Disk of the Month let me know.

Talk about a let down

So this past Monday Elder Holland was supposed to come visit Al Udeid for our Stake Conference. I was really looking forward to having him here to speak to us. Well, he got to Qatar (which I can attest to being a really crappy flight) and when he tried to come onto base he was denied access. No, the Air Force didn't say "I don't think we're going to let this harmless American on our instillation." If the decision had been left up to the Air Force then I'd have an awesome talk to send out to everyone. But, since Al Udeid is actually owned by the Qatari government they get to decide who comes on and who doesn't, when it comes to civilians (I'm fortunate enough to be covered by the wonderful contract the U.S. government has made with Qatar, Elder Holland...not so much.) So Elder Holland traveled all the way out here to the world's litter box and was denied at the gate. We were never given a reason, it was just said that he didn't get to come on base because the Qatari customs agents said nope. So I don't get to meet an Apostle after all.

But aside from having that happen, this week has sucked. I was told I had to switch my day off to Sunday because there was an exercise on Wednesday. So I did, then the exercise was canceled. And since I've already had a day off this week I get to wait until next Wednesday to have another day off; so that's going to amount to 9 12-hr shifts in a row. Good thing I have 9 pairs of socks and shirts to wear to work. I don't, however, have enough PT shirts to go that long, so in order for me to get my sexy on this week I had to skip my cardio today and then again on Monday. But now y'all have an update on what's happening with me and it's time for me to go eat breakfast.

Another wonderful opportunity

So I just emailed KayDe and told her that I was working on figureing out how to use some audio recording software that I just downloaded and told her that she had to read this to find out why. Well, all in good time; first the explination of this post's title. I'm pretty sure that I wrote about my expierence in Iraq back in 2007 of visiting the place that Abraham lived when he was in Ur of Chaldea. To walk where an ancient prophet walked was an opportunity that I will probably never have again. Seeing that ancient city in total ruins makes me think of how much we're not in charge of our lives ultimately. There wasn't much left at the city of Ur, and it used to be a major city at that time. Well, this coming Monday I have another opportunity that I personally haven't had, even on my mission. This coming Monday evening we have the honor and priviledge of having Elder Jeffery R. Holland visit Al Udeid for our Stake Conference. I'm really excited about this since there's about 20 people that attend church, so I'm going to have the opportunity to talk to him. I've had the chance to talk with other General Authorities, but never an Apostle. We're going to have dinner before our meeting and then it's off to the chapel.

And that's why I had to download an audio recording program, so I can record conference. You would have thought that the chapel would have had audio recording software on the computer they have there, but all they have are programs that will play audio so they can play it over the sound system they have there. I spent about an hour in the chapel yesterday playing around with the soundboard, mics, and speakers so I had a clue as to what I was doing (since I'm clueless when it comes to stuff like this) but I think I got it. And now that I have the program to record I should be good to go. Let me know if anyone wants a copy of Elder Holland's remarks and I'll turn the file into an mp3 and send it off. But deployments have been really good for me, both financially and spiritually. Here's to deployments!