Going to summer camp?

Sean finally got his Camp Lemonnier Survival Guide and I feel like I am sending a kid off to camp. I mean, it's not going to be all fun because he is going to miss ME sooooooo much (maybe the kids too?), but I did approve his purchase of a new hand held gaming device to distract him. He would only reveal was "pricey", leaving me to go find the price myself (much like green fees for Pebble Beach). Of course he will be working there, just not what he's good at as I have perhaps mentioned in previous posts, but still sounds like there may be some down time. Let me list a few things that I learned from his survival guide...

- all living quarters are wired for cable TV and internet

- people have been known to gain quite a bit of weight over there, so the food must be decent

- the example address given uses the name Snuffy Smith (Donna, this is for you! do you still have Snuffy???)

- you can check out a car to go off base (unless your wife forbids it- and I do)

- you can send text messages to the US for 30 cents (guess he will cut down on texting me movie quotes during the day though)

- going to need a "man purse" to hold keys, IDs and the beer card

- combat pay for the month is less than one hour of moonlighting

- hazardous duty pay for the month is twenty minutes of moonlighting

- the no income tax while he is gone keeps me from punching the guy who put him up for this mission, though someday we will have words, you can count on that

- MWR offers day trips to the cheetah refuge, the French Market, scuba classes, go-karts, swimming with whale sharks, and bowling. Who puts cheetah, whale sharks and bowling in the same category??

- free movies at the movie theater every night and all day Sunday (Sean's dream come true)

- there is a night club where everyone hangs out... USO shows, karaoke, ping pong and shuffle board (for the senior officers?? don't you have to be 65 to play shuffle board?)

- Poker. Tournaments. Make up that moonlighting money, baby! Yeah, take money from those poor enlisted service members.... that wouldn't be cruel....

- subsidized trips to Egypt (NOPE), France (hmm, I would not be opposed to meeting in Paris) Thailand, Singapore, and Tanzania during the 96 hour "liberty periods".

- fitness center with the "latest exercise equipment" (unlike what we own) and has many classes like Thai boxing, salsa dancing and my favorite... "an abs class". Yes, just work on that 6 pack, forget the rest!

- haircuts are $5 and include a cranium massage, "so if you're sensitive about that kind of stuff, you've been warned". This makes me chuckle, must have freaked a few people out.

- traveling off-camp... "great caution should be exercised when driving off camp since many of the locals tend to ignore traffic laws". And then there is a photo of a man riding a bike with a goat like animal riding piggy back on him. Sean and I agree on our level of adventuresome-ness so do not expect Sean to go out in hopes of seeing that talent in person.

- since this is a Navy base it says that officers should bring their "summer whites" for official functions. Sean has a different army uniform of course but let's all chuckle at the image of Sean in the Officer and a Gentleman white uniform. Now lets add the crazy hat. End mocking.

- there is a big warning about drinking the beer rations outside the beer places... "do not mess around with this one... careers have been ended!" You mean, there is a way out of the military commitment that doesn't involve cutting off part of your index finger so you can no longer shoot a gun?? Oh come on, we've already established that I am not a good army wife. Of course we are rule followers though so Sean wouldn't do either of those things. He probably wants that finger for video games anyway.

The guy Sean is replacing will be gone before Sean gets there which is good news in that there is no "tag teaming". This means Sean's date to come home is pretty set, doesn't have to wait for someone else to show up. There is a clinic there that uses telerad so Sean may have the opportunity to help out there and keep his skills from totally eroding. He will have to wait and see though. After almost 5 years of working many, many hours at two jobs, this may actually be a little break for Sean to recharge, rest up, work out, and get some serious video gaming out of the way. Oh yes, the missions will be eye opening no doubt and great for the kids to hear about for years to come. Sean did just find out that he most likely would have gone in September to Afghanistan for a radiology slot if he wasn't assigned to this mission and we have not heard awesome things about that (especially lately, yikes), so we are definitely not complaining about this one now. Do I need to point out that it's not that some people are "lucky", it's that they have a good attitude? And I know it drives the whiners nuts!