Mushroom Hunts, Casino Trips, and Settling back into America
I remember trying to imagine what home would be like from Afghanistan. My perception was almost as vague about that, as it was earlier about what Afghanistan would be like from home. Just like I thought Afghanistan would be much worse then it was, I thought home would be much better then it is. I guess everything comes full circle in one way or another. I would say I have more stress upon my return then I ever had during my deployment. There are so many things to do, there is never a day without a full to-do list, or a moment without something else I should be doing instead. But I guess that is life, it is all in the balance.
The book is a much more involved project then it seemed like it would be considering that everything is pretty much already written and simply needs to be assembled properly to tell a story. It was so time consuming just getting everything into a format that could be worked on. Here are a few pictures of the first part of the process.
Step one was to buy a printer and print the entire Xanga archive and my journals out so that I could assemble it first in the real world and then go back and make it match on the computer. It sounded like a great idea in the very beginning, at the point I am at now I am beginning to wonder if I should have kept it to one format so that I wouldn't have to basically do everything twice.
Step two was to organize the mess of journals and xanga entries chronologically and any other way to make sense of the stack.
Step three was to grab the scissors and cut the fat sort of speak so that I could see what I had that was actually book worthy, and also to get a sense of where I sat in terms of my 100 pages of content. Turns out that I had way more then I needed. This was good for two reasons, I wouldn't have to stretch for content, and I could cut even more stuff out which will always make what is there better per capita by the page.
Step four was organizing all the pages into actual freestanding stories that would be in the book. Some were one page, some two, some three. When it was all said and done I had pretty much figured it out as far as what was going to happen when I started laying it all out. That was about the time I realized that I really hadn't even started. That was kinda depressing... haha... so that is where I am now. Transferring those pages and ideas onto the computer and then tweaking the layout, and colors, and pictures, and editing for content, and length...and...and...you see my point. I work on it when I can but I really need a week or so to just focus on the book. But I do what I can when I can. It will be done soon enough.
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The Great Mushroom Hunt with the Family.
My brother and I keeping an eye out for any mushrooms on the side of the road, not very fruitful... but just in case. FYI, the mushrooms in question are not the "make you see colors" kind, but the seasonal delicious kind hunted for in the Northern heartland of America.
Picture of my little brother... occasional protoge, and occasional idol. (with mushrooms in hand)
Picture of the hunted.
Pops and I on the hunt. Mushroom hunting is a family tradition. Being that I am 23 years old now I decided it was about time that I figured out how to pilot my own mushroom hunt so that I can take my own kids someday. This was one of the few times I would be following directly behind the master on this trip. Can't say enough about how fun this trip became or how much I needed something like it after a year in the sand.
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First Ever Trip to the Casino for Me, and My Little Brother, and His Friends
Taking a picture for the possible funeral, in case I never made it back
Sweet picture of me and the other Myers taken off of the TV of the conversion van that we rolled at high speed toward the casino in.
You can sense the excitement in this picture. How had I never been to a casino before?
Long story, hopefully self explanatory.
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Not much commentary in this post be trust me I have plenty of it left in me. Especially on what I perceive to be the somewhat disappointing state of America on my return. Maybe I was just thinking a little to fantastically about the land of the brave when I was gone, but either way I have my opinion about it. It will surface soon, I just had to get this update off of my chest so that I didn't feel behind. Thanks for reading.
-Emerstan
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