My Mood: Meh

Man, it's been an eventful couple of days! Let's see. Both the dogs and we made some new friends, I personally collected about 50 more enemies, and we got to see how the Air Force people live in Germany. Where shall I start?

Baumholder is a small post with a very small PX (PX = Post Exchange = general store +/- a few brand name items). There are certain things we need but haven't been able to find at our PX or on the economy. A few friends tell us that Ramstein Air Force Base, which is located about 20 minutes away, has a much larger PX with a lot more stuff. So we drive there, get to the PX, and still couldn't find the thing we come to Ramstein for. Then we ask one of the attendants, who informs us that clothings are upstairs. I'm sorry, did you say upstairs? It's like a mall, in comparison to what us Army folks have here. And speaking of malls, they are actually building a 4-story building that will later become a shopping mall on Ramstein. Meanwhile, my husband's unit is housed in a condemned building. Wil's sour grape talk is that the Air Force doesn't need to spend its money fixing blown-up humvees and therefore got plenty of cash to beautify their bases. Everything on this particular base looks so pretty and new. And I unfortunately remember that our friends also say that there's a Chilli's there. So I tell Wil. I think I actually see a brief "did I join the wrong branch" look on his face. Naturally, we go to Chilli's to have dinner. Can't beat them, join them, right?

Sometimes I forget how old the actual Baumholder post is. Wil reminds me the other day that Baumholder was one of Hitler's training posts. Its convention center, which now houses a restaurant and a video rental store, was actually his conference center. I walk by a big old mansion everyday, which was probably where Hitler would stay when he was in the 'hood.

We have met a few cool people with their cool dogs. They seem to share our experience of strange and sometimes rather hostile encounter with some wives. I'm not happy they also have been treated poorly, but it's nice to have someone who can relate to our problem. Speaking of hostile, I have caused a minor MySpace drama. There's this group of Baumholder wives on MySpace. I think, "great, a support group." Wrong. To make a long story short, they were posting some classified and sensitive information on their forum, which I loudly protested. If they could throw stones at me for speaking up, I'm sure some of them would. This is the thing that irritates the living life out of me. They know the info is sensitive and on need-to-know basis. Their justification for publicly discussing it on the internet is "well, everybody knows and does it and you'll be able to read it on the Stars and Strips tomorrow anyway." Seriously, people. It's not like the security of your soldiers are at stake here. Grow up!

Ok, no more venting post for now. I'm happy I'm happy I'm happy. Really.