After last night's pity party I went to bed with a new perspective and woke this morning with hints of departure even though they said Friday. They set you up and knock you down. A no go. Its funny b/c getting emails from the guy I'm replacing in Iraq. He said they had me on a plane and I was suppose to arrive shortly in Kuwait. Typical Army.

Today I am in a great mood b/c of my butt chewing of myself last night. Get your crap together and make this fun. Thats my perspective today. The day started off funny but you guys and girls may be disgusted with us but the humor is whats getting us by. First story goes with the picture below.



I have been telling these guys over the last couple of days that the 2nd urinal on the left in this huge bathroom is mine. So if we get in trouble I can go the people in charge and say "my urinal is clean." With a big smile on my face, of course. So KH2 got a toilet cover and wrote on it "Barry's urinal" and placed it on my urinal. What a piece of work this guy is. A friend of mine compared him to the father off the show Frazier except without the cane. That was a funny show and he is kind of like him. Laughs like him and funny like him. You can't help but laugh at that and if don't I am truly sorry that you have lost your sense of humor. Experiences and friends is what makes life great.

The topic is lets rock it out and as I am writing you this I am rocking it out this am with the ipod. Those of you who work with me in the operating room knows what it is like to rock it out in the or. Haven't done it as much lately and that is what I went to bed last night thinking about. Having fun again. Listening to Nickleback right now. What people have to realize that you must enjoy your job and the people you work with or its a real drag. The people you work with are your family a lot of the time. They spend a ton of time with you. I have a nurse that scrub's with me, her name is Diane. She watches one movie a year and its only a James Bond movie. She likes George Jones and Merle Haggerd(I know I didn't spell that right, hes just about dead anyway). So she has to deal with crabby, mumbly Barry and then rock it out Barry. I feel sorry for her. She has been around me more then probably anybody else over the last seven years. She is like my sister. If you see her or talk to her give her your condolences for having to work with me.

The rest of the crew at Mary Lanning and the Surgical Center, as well as my clinic have to put up with my crap a lot. They are also the people that make this town and my practice work. I am not a big thank you guy b/c I'm just not. I need to be better. i am serious about making this town work though. People don't realize, especially at mary lanning, that there are about 15 nurses that are always working and without them your gallbladder wouldn't come out, your sick grandmother's port wouldn't be placed in, and your broken leg wouldn't be fixed. Without them i couldn't do the work and the amount of work that I have done in Hastings. So THANK YOU. That should be enough butt kissing and thank you to last a year. Probably not though. Miss you guys. Think of something funny today at work for me.

I have to bug somebody today though. I hope you appreciate my humor on this. A friend and coworker of mine has kind of what I think is a unique name. Her husband and family are really good to me and consider them great friends so I hope I don't make them mad. I can't help it because I just don't have anybody to pick on here. Her name is Candy. Come on. What was her parents thinking. She had to get a lot of crap growing up. I find it important to call her different kinds of candy instead of her real name. Just depends on good of work she doing. Most of the time her name is Nerds. It can range from Twin Bing to Nut Roll. If she is silly we call her Laffy Taffy. If she is in a crabby mood(most of the time) we call her Mild Dud. I hope her and her family are doing great. I think we should petition for a new name though.

The KH2 is going high speed on me and his intimidating appearance in this picture makes the enemy really scared to come near us. So don't be worried.



Can you imagine Uncle Eddy with his motor home rolling up and jumping out with those glasses on. Our country is well defended. NOT.

The next picture is KH2 working out:



He thinks that doing 2 a day that by the time we return he should be up to 5. His goal for this trip. Then there is KH1 who is assuming his position of readiness. He sleeps in his uniform and I hope that today we can make a laundry run so that besides the one shower that he has taken that we can get his cloths cleaned up. He has progressed all of 20 pages in his Russian language manual and now speaks English with a Russian accent. We have a good chance of infiltrating the inner most circle of the Russian secret service at this pace.

The rest of my day consisted of getting my haircut even shorter.



If I have spend another week here I think I'm just going to go Michael Jordan bald. That would be awesome. Then went on a laundry run. The clothes I have had to fit in a backpack and I'm running low on the essentials. KH2 wears his underwear and socks for 3 days and then we make a run to the PX and he gets new ones. Wow this is going to be an interesting deployment. He has this fancy hard drive video camera that he brought with us. We are thinking of doing a soap opera segments while we are in Iraq with this thing. Kind of like General Hospital or Days of Lives. I told him I want it to be like Young and Restless. The best show of all time. We need a name for our show so if you have any ideas you might let me know. Be clean with the names.

Like I said last night and what I'm trying to do today. Have your life moved with laughter, thought and emotions. I'm doing well and wanting a plane to arrive but with the help of this blog and family and friends I'm upbeat. Thanks to KHAS Tv and Julie Tork for doing this b/c I feel like it has been making these days so much better. My family also appreciates it b/c they see what is happening and feel close to me.

I have homework for you. I want you to listen or download or whatever you do 3 songs for tomorrow.

#1 One Day You Will by Lady Antebellum
#2 Unstoppable by Rascal Flatts
#3 One by U2 and Mary J Blige

Listen to them tonight or tomorrow if you want. These songs will move your emotions and thats a part of what I want to happen tomorrow. Hopefully my last full day in country.

Play Hard
Play Smart
Play Together