Hello to all of my wonderful readers!  A good amount of you probably know where I've been, but just in case you don't here's the story...

Since my last post, things went from pretty bad to worse for me.  In addition to the divorce, my 45 year old aunt passed away, and I ended up leaving my job at the crazy place (long story- I'll post about it sometime) and finding a new one...in Afghanistan.  I left Tampa in late February to begin the process of deploying overseas (I'm not in the military, I went there as a civilian doing government contract work).  After several weeks of training, medical exams, and other very fun and exciting things, I traveled to Afghanistan and began my job as an Adminstrator there.  Intially things were fine for me.  I wasn't bothered by much at all, but after a while I started to become homesick.  It sucked sitting over there missing everything and everyone here in the states.  It got to the point that I couldn't even look at Facebook anymore because it just broke my heart to see everyone having fun and living life while I sat in utter boredom and misery there, and it made me miss my friends SO much it hurt.

I had an idea of what to expect- I mean, you hear the word "Afghanistan" and the Ritz Carlton doesn't exactly come to mind.  A big part of being there is learning to live without.  We went 5 days without hot water in very cold weather when I first got there.  I lived in a plywood hut with no running water.  The nearest female bathroom was a far hike from my hut.  Ramen noodles were actually a luxury item, and if you could get your hands on a power strip you were in awesome shape.  None of this really bothered me. I had a few comforts shipped over (my bedding was one), but all in all you just learn how to do without. 

The job was great, people were fine (the ones I worked with anyway), but I just didn't belong there.  I decided to come back to Florida, and I've been here about a week now.

I know it sounds crazy but I'm really glad that I went overseas.  I definitely learned a lot and had a while to reflect on my life and what's really important.  Before I went I was just a mess, hanging in limbo and feeling sorry for myself.  While I was there I realized that I have a ton to be grateful for.  Who cares about a big house and a boat?  Those things won't be holding my hand when I'm 80.  I realized that I needed to evaluate myself and appreciate the relationships that I have with the good people in my life.