So here we are, in week 16.
As you may know, a lot has been happening here in Afghanistan. Mostly, we have moved half of my unit from Kandahar to Bagram. As the plans officer in my battalion, this movement was mostly collaborated by myself and my boss, the operations officer. There have been a lot of moving pieces and a lot of effort by many people and my shop has been working to make sure all of those efforts are in line with what the commander wants, tailored to best accomodate the mission and tweaked to fit everyone's preferences. It has been busy, but we are here and our mission never stopped despite the movement of half the battalion.
The living conditions here are much different than they are in Kandahar. Kandahar had lots of space and hot dry weather (talking 115 during this past week). Bagram is a balmy 90 degrees during the day, humid, cool at night and everyone lives in relatively close proximity to each other. There isn't much for privacy here and you never really are alone. And with the weather being better, more Soldiers spend their free time outside than they did at Kandahar. But aside from that, Kandahar looked like a dessert. Most days, we expereinced some degree of a sand storm and it was hot and dry and brown. There wasn't any grass and very few trees and green things. Bagram is practically an oasis by comparison. We are surrounded by beautiful snow capped mountains and there is grass and tress every where. Everyone seems more light hearted here and I hope it lasts.
But on to my usual goal updating post:
Mental: My Lean Six Sigma projected is still going strong, but I am not so much. I find it hard to get motivated right now as I am not entirely sure of my next steps. I have measured all that I wanted to measure and need to have it run through minitab (program lean six sigma people use). Our master black belt (instructor) did a first pass through my data, but we were in two locations and didn't talk before hand, so it doesn't accurately reflect what I am trying to measure. But even still, analyzing the data will be much harder. I know what my data is telling me, I just don't understand why. For instance, if you are paying a contractor for a service and they fail to provide that service, you would expect that they wouldn't get paid, or they would only get paid for the service they provided. But, from what I see in my data, they get paid about the same as if they had provided that service. So I can tell there are things not happening the way I would assume that the would, I have to start explaining why. And with almost 11,000 lines of data spanning about 50 columns worth of data, it is hard to start looking at individual pieces. Probably because that sounds exhausting and I am feeling lazy.
Emotional: I find it hard to provide a solid update here, but I always feel that way. I am finding better balance in my life here and am on a much better schedule work wise. I am not working the crazy hours I was before and I have been trying to take more time to relax. I feel better rested and at peace. But on the other hand, I am hitting the slump of just wanting to go home. I want to sleep in my own bed, with my husband's arms arround me and my puppies at my feet. I want to eat the food I cook and wear the clothes I choose. I have found that having more time to myself leads to more thoughts of home and I can tell by talking to Kevin, he is getting pretty burnt out on this whole deployment thing too. We have been here for four months now with about five left to go. I am definitely ready to see the half way point in the next couple of weeks and am hoping it goes fast after that. I am trying very hard to live in the moment and not wish time away and have to remind myself of that pretty much every day.
Spiritual: So, I have been praying and reading my bible daily for over 100 days, almost 120. I have found that this is the reason behind my joy and peace. It is so relaxing to just stop and pray over my current situations, my family, my friends and my husband. It keeps things in perspective to take the time each night to remember who God is, what He is capable of and what He has already done for me. It is soothing to know that no matter where I go, I am never alone and no matter what I have or don't, I am never in need. My cup overflowth and I find myself so blessed despite my circumstances. I am blessed with a new found love for my Savior, a new appreciation for what he has done, a new perspective on my sin and a new joy that is based solely on him. I am also blessed with good leadership, a hard working unit, and some pretty awesome new friends.
Financial: So, I currently don't own any stocks and haven't been doing any trading in the last couple of weeks. Now that I am settled, I will probably start up again, but probably not with much vigor until the new iteration of earnings reports comes out. I am currently sitting at a 20% profit on my intial investment, which is still pretty exciting. I am wondering how much it will grow as I continue building it over time.
Physical: Since arriving at Bagam, I have decided to run the Army ten-miler. Normally, it is a race run every year in D.C., normally around Columbus Day weekend. Since we clearly can't go to that, Bagram is hosting there own. Ten miles is too easy and I could probably do that now, but not very fast. My guess is that I could do it between and 9 and a 9:30 min/ mile pace right now. My goal is to get that down to 8 min/ mile. My friend, Jeremiah, is helping me train in the evenings. We have run a couple of times in the last week. The first run was 4 miles in 34 minutes (8:30 min/ mile). Whenever I am not sure where my run time is, I start by running four miles. Army standard is 4 miles in under 36 minutes for both males and females. So even though I jumped about 4,500 ft in elevation when I moved to Bagram, I am still meeting the Army standard, so the rest is gravy. The second night, we ran 3 miles in 24 minutes (8:09 min/ mile). Other than that, I have been doing more yoga to help stretch out my legs and hips. We also hit the gym for about 15 min of abs and upper body after each run. I am expecting to see a lot of improvement and am happy to have a solid goal in front of me.
As you may know, a lot has been happening here in Afghanistan. Mostly, we have moved half of my unit from Kandahar to Bagram. As the plans officer in my battalion, this movement was mostly collaborated by myself and my boss, the operations officer. There have been a lot of moving pieces and a lot of effort by many people and my shop has been working to make sure all of those efforts are in line with what the commander wants, tailored to best accomodate the mission and tweaked to fit everyone's preferences. It has been busy, but we are here and our mission never stopped despite the movement of half the battalion.
The living conditions here are much different than they are in Kandahar. Kandahar had lots of space and hot dry weather (talking 115 during this past week). Bagram is a balmy 90 degrees during the day, humid, cool at night and everyone lives in relatively close proximity to each other. There isn't much for privacy here and you never really are alone. And with the weather being better, more Soldiers spend their free time outside than they did at Kandahar. But aside from that, Kandahar looked like a dessert. Most days, we expereinced some degree of a sand storm and it was hot and dry and brown. There wasn't any grass and very few trees and green things. Bagram is practically an oasis by comparison. We are surrounded by beautiful snow capped mountains and there is grass and tress every where. Everyone seems more light hearted here and I hope it lasts.
But on to my usual goal updating post:
Mental: My Lean Six Sigma projected is still going strong, but I am not so much. I find it hard to get motivated right now as I am not entirely sure of my next steps. I have measured all that I wanted to measure and need to have it run through minitab (program lean six sigma people use). Our master black belt (instructor) did a first pass through my data, but we were in two locations and didn't talk before hand, so it doesn't accurately reflect what I am trying to measure. But even still, analyzing the data will be much harder. I know what my data is telling me, I just don't understand why. For instance, if you are paying a contractor for a service and they fail to provide that service, you would expect that they wouldn't get paid, or they would only get paid for the service they provided. But, from what I see in my data, they get paid about the same as if they had provided that service. So I can tell there are things not happening the way I would assume that the would, I have to start explaining why. And with almost 11,000 lines of data spanning about 50 columns worth of data, it is hard to start looking at individual pieces. Probably because that sounds exhausting and I am feeling lazy.
Emotional: I find it hard to provide a solid update here, but I always feel that way. I am finding better balance in my life here and am on a much better schedule work wise. I am not working the crazy hours I was before and I have been trying to take more time to relax. I feel better rested and at peace. But on the other hand, I am hitting the slump of just wanting to go home. I want to sleep in my own bed, with my husband's arms arround me and my puppies at my feet. I want to eat the food I cook and wear the clothes I choose. I have found that having more time to myself leads to more thoughts of home and I can tell by talking to Kevin, he is getting pretty burnt out on this whole deployment thing too. We have been here for four months now with about five left to go. I am definitely ready to see the half way point in the next couple of weeks and am hoping it goes fast after that. I am trying very hard to live in the moment and not wish time away and have to remind myself of that pretty much every day.
Spiritual: So, I have been praying and reading my bible daily for over 100 days, almost 120. I have found that this is the reason behind my joy and peace. It is so relaxing to just stop and pray over my current situations, my family, my friends and my husband. It keeps things in perspective to take the time each night to remember who God is, what He is capable of and what He has already done for me. It is soothing to know that no matter where I go, I am never alone and no matter what I have or don't, I am never in need. My cup overflowth and I find myself so blessed despite my circumstances. I am blessed with a new found love for my Savior, a new appreciation for what he has done, a new perspective on my sin and a new joy that is based solely on him. I am also blessed with good leadership, a hard working unit, and some pretty awesome new friends.
Financial: So, I currently don't own any stocks and haven't been doing any trading in the last couple of weeks. Now that I am settled, I will probably start up again, but probably not with much vigor until the new iteration of earnings reports comes out. I am currently sitting at a 20% profit on my intial investment, which is still pretty exciting. I am wondering how much it will grow as I continue building it over time.
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