Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Ares, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

*WARNING, THIS POST HAS LANGUAGE MANY CONSIDER UNSUITABLE FOR CHILDREN, ALTHOUGH NO ONE FOLLOWING THIS BLOG BESIDES US HAS CHILDREN, MY ASS (OOPS, THERE I GO ALREADY) IS NOW OFFICIALLY COVERED.

Yesterday was rough. My roomates got sick a few days ago and I started to dose myself with orange juice and used hand sanitizer every few minutes in hopes of avoiding their fate. I thought I had actually manged it too for a second because both of them started to feel better a couple days ago and I wasn't down with anything- until yesterday when a full out flu assaulted my entire system, giving me a head pounding fever, body ache, upset stomach, the full meal deal.

I'm feeling slightly more human after thirteen hours sleep, six bottles of water and four advil. But that wasn't the worst part, oh no, a little flu bug is nothing compared to the news I got yesterday. I found out what my new job is going to be on staff.

I'm the Public-Fucking-Affairs-Officer. No shit. I'm a goddamn newsletter-writing media handling MOTHERFUCKING PAO! GODDAMN IT ALL TO HELL! This job combines the worst of everything. I will answer directly to the XO, I will work my ass off coaxing stories out of that which can be unclassified- now to tell the truth, that which IS classified (at least at my level) is boring as all hell. What the fuck interesting is there to write about shit that ISN'T classified? Oh, and since it's not directly involved with real operations, I will be an extraneous nuisance with a generic OER and little respect from anyone in the battalion, especially myself. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!

Sigh.

Lord (the real God, not the metaphorical Greek mythological figure), give me strength and, perhaps most importatnly, patience to rise above. I know it's not that tragic and that it's not going to fucking matter when I get to my next post, but if I was listing possible assignments I DID NOT want, PAO would probably be the first one I thought of.

Fuck.

5 comments:

screamy mimi said...

:(

Kellen said...

Hey if you need any help on this PAO thing, let me know since that is ALL THAT I DO NOW TOO!!!

Stacy said...

I'm totally sad for you. But I'm not going to lie and say I don't appreciate the irony.

Who knows, maybe you'll like it more than you think?? (Badly executed attempt at optimism...)

Justin said...

Kellen- true as that may be, your record is going to reflect that you were a fire support officer, not a wothless media-monkey. Sigh.

Stacy- yeah, irony seems to be more common than hydrogen in the composition of the universe, especially in the Army.

Good news is I'm working primarily with Captain Jim Beam (no joke, that's his name) who is a good dude of the first order. Otherwise I might be actively attempting to get relieved.

Anonymous said...

Wow, irony is right. On the bright side, you could use this job as an excuse to go outside the FOB and talk to people. Maybe that sounds pathetic, I dunno. My spirit has been beaten down by 2 years of staff work, and now all I want is to just go outside and see the sun shining and talk to people who aren't pissed-off field grades who couldn't reach my boss.

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