back home, eating salt

This week I've been on vacation with the fam. We hung out in Seaside, Oregon, and did some boogey-boarding and body surfing... both of which involve eating salty sea water in involuntarily large amounts. Tomorrow, I go paint-balling with my my younger brother and his teenage friends for his birthday. Is this really a vacation?

I'm reading Rajiv Chandrasekaran's "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" after getting almost half-way through the 600-page tome "Cobra II" (I got to the end of the pre-war politics and more into the logistics of the battles... interesting stuff, but I'll read it later). Rajiv's book is pretty interesting, but a little more pointed than Cobra II, which has the feel of a fascinating history book. In "Imperial Life" there is the story of a 24-year-old who had no training in economics but was given one month to prepare for a trip to Iraq and then, when he got there, was told he was in charge of restarting the Baghdad Stock Exchange. As you may expect, the guy was bewildered at how quickly he got shipped off to Iraq and at what an awesome responsibility he was given. As I read about this guy's experience, I found myself easily empathizing with him. Hey, that's how I feel, I thought. But I guess that's Iraq.

This next week will be busy. I'll be doing a lot of prepping for leaving to Iraq, and prepping for leaving my job for two months. Pray it goes smoothly.