Days Follow Nights, Nights Follow Days

It's already started...the mingling of the days, the lack of awareness of what day or date it is. It happens in a deployment. Soldiers learn very quickly to wear watches with the date on them so they can absent-mindedly look down and go "oh yeah, it's Sunday". In a civilian job you usually have a 5-day work schedule and 2 days off...most people work Monday through Friday and then Saturday and Sunday are the weekend. There is time for shopping, doing chores around the house, sleeping late, and goofing off. Sunday is a day of worship and rest...the mail stops and people are lazy.
Not here. Sunday is just another day here in beautiful downtown Camp Liberty, Iraq. We get a little break on the reporting time (0930 since the DFAC doesn't even open until 0730) but otherwise it's business as usual. A little quieter, but there are still reports to file, meetings to catch, e-mails to open. We even get mail! Our Post Office here is open 7 days a week. Soldiers are working hard on their stories and I'm getting ready to go to the weekly PAO synchronization meeting and then dinner.
We're settling in slowly but surely, working through our "right seat ride" and taking over responsibilities. We've moved into our trailer, or CHUs, and I spent last night finally unpacking the personal bag that I packed in the middle of December (a lifetime ago!). It was nice to finally have different socks and underthings to wear rather than the 6 that I have been using through the mob process and washing. I also found my stash of Bath and Body Works body wash and cream...Enchanted Orchid! My new favorite. Won't last long, though, so I'll have to order some over the Internet. But it was nice to sleep in a real bed last night after a week and a half on a cot. Sleeping on the cot isn't so bad but we sleep in our sleeping bags and it's hard to roll over while in a sleeping bag...the zipper doesn't move with me and it's freaky trying to unzip the stupid bag for that 2 a.m. walk to the latrine. My bed is super comfy, not too soft, not too hard, and I brought my own sheets and blanket. We got issued sheets and a twin-sized comforter, all of which are stored away for when it's time to turn them in. I'm so glad that I authorized us to bring a personal bag..!
I get out of the office every now and then but not off Liberty yet. A few days ago we had to go to Camp Victory to the Aw Faw Palace to get our entrance badges for Division main here (their machine was down). We stopped in to see our sister unit, the 343rd MPAD, and say hello. They were basically one month ahead of us in the mobilization process although we did train with them at RTC back in October-November.