I'm alive

Sorry my posting has been light. It was a looooooong week.

On Tuesday, any plan I had for the day flew out the window as I read the message traffic and said, "Oh crap..." I was at work until 11:30 p.m. that night preparing an urgent memo and had to be at work at 6 a.m. Wednesday to start hand-routing it around the Pentagon.

Thankfully, my friend Nate lives just around the corner from my office and let me crash at his place for the night instead of spending the time driving home and driving back again 6 hours later. It wasn't a very good night's sleep though. It had nothing to do with Nate's guest bedroom and everything to do with my cell phone ringing three times through the course of the night.

Wednesday my sweat pumps shifted to fast speed before I even finished my first cup of coffee. Oh wait... ONLY cup of coffee. I didn't even get to eat breakfast until 11 a.m. when I grabbed a quick bite to eat in the Pentagon. Just as I THOUGHT things were calming down at 1 p.m., the next message hit the boards that had us resume crisis-management mode. I made it home close to 8 p.m. Wednesday night just in time to tuck the boys in for bed and kiss them goodnight.

Thursday was another long day that was supposed to end with a VTC from 4 to 6 p.m. so that it would be daylight on the other side of the world. After the VTC, I was about half-way home when my phone rang. Went back to work and was at work until about 11 p.m. Another not-so-great night's sleep thanks to two telephone call updates.

Friday started once again at a fast pace and before my caffiene level was really up to spec for high speed operations. As I walked into the first flag's office to deliver briefing materials on what happened the night before, I was immediately confronted by another flag officer on a totally unrelated topic that I wasn't prepared to discuss.

My predecessor in this job said he judged how "bad" his week was by how many stars he had to brief.

It was a 37 star week for me.

I was frustrated that I haven't been able to go to the gym since Tuesday morning. At the same time, my ankles and feet hurt from speed walking around the Pentagon multiple times per day multiple days in a row.

My MIL was here visiting us this week, but I barely saw her, and I don't think she enjoyed the telephone ringing in the middle of the night. Sorry Mom!

So what were my high points and low points for the week?

Low points I guess I've already covered, but the worst had to be the Thursday night phone call that the HARTFORD had been in a collision. Thank the Lord that nobody was seriously injured! I'm praying for those guys now as they endure the investigation and repairs to follow.

High points of the week:
- My wonderful wife was VERY supportive this week. I was totally stressed out and having a horrible week, and she had every reason to be annoyed and pissed off, too, but she remained upbeat, positive, uplifting, and encouraging throughout the week. I'm VERY grateful for that. Thank you, Sweetie!
- Last night (Friday night), my wonderful MIL watched the boys and let my wonderful wife and I go out for an AWESOME dinner at Bonefish. Man that was a good dinner - especially the martini(...s). We got back home and I was just exhausted. I went to bed about 8:30 and slept straight through to 7:30 Saturday morning.

It was one of those weeks where I had to stop and remind myself that things COULD be worse and I needed to be thankful and count my blessings. Still, I hope this was the worst week I'll have in this job.