AFE 2010 - Arrival

The trip officially began on January 10th.  It is now 7pm on January 12th and I have yet to see Johnny and Lauren.  So far this trip has been an exercise in patience with the airline industry.  

United Airlines had no trouble checking my bags from my departure city of Denver all the way through to my destination in Bishkek, Kyrgystan.  Unfortunately, my bags were lost somewhere along the way.  

American Airlines refused to check Johnny and Lauren's luggage all the way through to Bishkek and because of this we still haven't met up.  American told them they would need to recheck in London, a task they attempted to pull off but unfortunately the plane wouldn't wait and we missed meeting up in London.  

As I arrived in Moscow I learned that they were ok and that the AFE had rebooked them on a flight to Tel Aviv, then to Istanbul and then to Bishkek.  After a nine hour layover in London they flew to Tel Aviv where the security officials there pulled them aside for an intense Q&A most likely due to the fact that they made a large amount of flight changes to various destinations in a short amount of time.  It was there that they learned that Johnny's bags never left London while Lauren's bags were being ravaged by Tel Aviv airport security.  

The two of them are now scheduled to arrive in Bishkek at 3am Wednesday morning.  Which means that it will have taken them almost 4 days to get to our initial destination.  

At which point at least two of us will still be missing luggage, at least two of us will be exhausted and all three of us will be looking at 6 hours until our first show at Pete's Place on MANAS AFB.  

The good news is this.  We're going to make it.  We might be wearing clothes that say things like, I (HEART) MANAS but the point is we will have made it and judging by the number of troops passing through right now...these laughs are really needed.  

President Obama signed off on 30,000 additional troops.  And almost all of them are going through MANAS.  Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Civilian workers, Red Cross.  Men and women.  People ranging in age from 18 to 59.  

I was riding in a Humvee today enjoying a tour of the base when we drove by the mountains that lie to the north and east of the base.  They were beautiful.  

At that moment I started thinking about my friend Cindy who just lost her mom yesterday to cancer.  I thought about how short life is.  How none of us know how it will end or when it will end and the only thing we can do is live every day.  

I was filled with this great sense of joy.  Every soldier I met today said the same thing, "Thank you."  About a year ago I was working at a job I fucking despised.  I'm not going to mince words.  I truly hated it.  I hated showing up.  I hated that what I was doing had no real effect on the final results or the bottom line.  And so I chose to leave.  And I'm glad I did.  Especially at moments like these when I realize that even in this life I live of relative poverty I am more than anything else, happy.  

I know Johnny and Lauren will get here.  I know that one day I will be reunited with my luggage.  And I know that all of it will be worth it because of the smile we put on these soldier's faces and the experience of seeing those mountains off in the distance.  

Live the life you dream.

In memory of Cow's mom.  You created one hell of a woman.