My Top 10 List

Who doesn’t love a top 10 list? We’ve come up with a few here in Baghdad, but I decided to sit down and write one all my very own. Here are the Top 10 Things I Miss While I’m in Iraq. I am going to leave off the obvious…family and friends. Everyone misses them. Well, not MY family and friends, but…you know what I mean! :)
1. Museum hopping on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Or a sunny Saturday afternoon. Heck, just going to a museum any old time of day.
2. Picking my own food. Now, I’m not much of a cook…but at least even in restaurants I knew what my dinner was going to be before it was placed in front of me. Now, some nice guy in a shower cap plunks food down on my plate a mere 3 seconds after I’ve first seen what they are serving. Of course, it’s usually some form of chicken, so there’s not much guesswork involved.
3. Being in the same time zone as friends and family. It sucks to be 8 to 10 hours ahead of people. By the time I get in the office in the morning it’s the middle of the night for those in the US. I miss conversations on Facebook because I’m not in sync with people!
4. Going to restaurants, perusing a menu, having someone bring me my food. I also miss having a cold beer or glass of wine with dinner. I’m especially going to hate football season…not being able to go to the bar, ordering beer and nachos, and watching my favorite teams on the big screen.
5. I miss my TV. My large, HD, DLP television and my HD channels. I miss my red furniture…my big red chair and my red couch and my 4-poster bed and my knotty pine dresser. Well, at least it’s nice that I can remember my furniture, since it’s been 18 months since I’ve seen it. I miss all of my “stuff”…my DVDs, my books, my wine and champagne glasses, my dishes, my pictures, my shoes, my jeans, my scarves, mittens, and heavy coats, my computer. Everything I own, I miss. I can’t wait to get my stuff out of storage, open my boxes, and just roll around in my “stuff”.
6. I miss doing my own laundry. And my own chores. That might sound insane…who likes to do laundry? But when you can’t do your own, you miss it. I miss sorting my laundry and knowing it’s going to get clean. I hate the fact that they just dump my bag of clothes into a washer and then a dryer. That’s why my towels, sheets, etc. are all one color…so nothing fades. I do get to clean my own CHU…sweep the floor and then Swiffer the dust away.
7. Flowers. Greenery. I miss the colors that nature has given the rest of the world and seems to have left Iraq off the list. Everything is brown, mostly because it’s covered with dust. Even the birds are brown. I miss the cardinals and the freesia and the pansies. But mostly the cardinals.
8. Driving my car. I have a truck here, but I don’t drive it that much. I don’t really have anywhere important to go! I miss my car and my XM Satellite radio system, my sunroof, and my heated seats. Kitty and I are going on a lllllooooooonnnnnnggggggggg road trip when I get back.
9. My first name. That’s the weirdest, probably, but I’d be willing to bet that most of my Soldiers don’t even know my first name! They just call me “ma’am” or “Major”. Only a few officers call me by my first name…anyone else is inappropriate. Even the Ugandans and other workers call me “Major”. It’s like Annmarie doesn’t even exist anymore.
10. Wearing jewelry. I can wear a watch…I bought a nice one a few weeks after we arrived. I can wear two rings at the time although most of the time I don’t because I sweat too much and it irritates my skin. A few nights a week I’ll put my earrings in so the holes don’t close up. I just have to remember to remove them before I leave my CHU the next morning! I did forget one time…got some funny looks from the guy in the laundry. I miss picking out earrings, necklace, bracelets, etc. to go with my outfits. I am so buying jewelry when I get back!