2008 NOV 05 @ 0200

It's already 8am on Tuesday, back in Virginia. Except for 2 hrs in Germany and about the same inside a hangar in Aviano, Italy--this seat has been my existence for 31 hours. I've met a friend, a LTC DB. He's a U2 pilot come to OIF to work in FMS. We met at the airport and are almost of an age.

At the airport in Baltimore, the Girl Scouts came to give us cookies. They were so cute. i was able to get the email of one of the leaders. i intend to send them my thanks.

--break--

I supposed I was wrong about being over the Med--as we began to land in Qatar soon after. I must have been seeing the fires of oil production in SAU. I wish the flight had been during the day. I saw nothing of the Med, north Africa or the Hijaz.

I'm in Qatar now, at Camp al Salayiah. i sit in a warehouse, at a picnic table--under sodium lights at a picnic table. Most of the building is divided into small rooms, each having two sets of bunks, four wall lockers and a couple of chairs. It is a quiet place. The people staying here are coming and going to Iraq. This is a place of temporary lodging.