Our Guamazing Adventure

It's finally feeling like Christmas!! We have a tacky light-up-robotic-bright-pink flamingo wearing a Santa hat on our front porch, we have a Christmas tree (my dad sent me a tree from Wal-mart... how awesome is THAT?), we have all sorts of decorations on the inside, Chris solidified our marriage and watched White Christmas (as you know my fave movie ever) with me last night for the first time (!!!!) and yesterday and today I am bake, bake baking. How very domestic of me. And, as routine for most of you on December 16, I have big plans to lay out today before packing for a whirlwind visit to the states tomorrow. Jealous?

So much has happened in the last week - squadron Christmas parties, Army-Navy football game (complete with 5:30am kickoff in Guam), beach time, and something new and different I'm trying: reading for pleasure. When I first started working in DC, I traveled quite a bit with my then bosses, Dr. M and VT. VT and I would usually sit together on the flights (Dr. M was almost always upgraded), and I quickly decided that Cosmopolitan magazine wasn't quite "appropriate" to be reading next to my 60-something boss (who I affectionately called Grandpa when he would give me a hard time.... he called me Cookie since I sent a giant cookie basket when they hired me... first job out of college, I couldn't pronounce half the words in the position description, but they interviewed me anyway. When asked if I was flexible, I detailed him a Truesdell family vacation, complete with 8 people in one suburban, my mom in tears, my older sister and I dodging shoes my brothers were throwing at each other, my little sisters sitting in carseats screaming, all while my dad blared talk radio to try and muffle White Christmas playing on the giant shoebox of a VCR that he had to secure on the armrest with his right elbow. I thought that adequately explained that I could handle just about anything, and that I was willing to learn the rest - reading anything I could get my hands on. I also explained that I was happy to make coffee if that's all they needed me for. When asked if I would be comfortable briefing the Under Secretary and the senior staff, I explained that having to do a handstand on a platform in a bathing suit in front of the IU men's basketball team and thousands of other people at the Natatorium in Indianapolis (college diving) made everything else look easy. When he asked what my background was with Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Explosives (CBRN-E as we called it), I replied with great honesty that I had googled the hell out of it over the weekend. I was hired on the spot. Incredible boss, fabulous job (that didn't ever require me to make coffee but did require briefings) and he loved me despite my penchant for sarcasm, inability to read mapquest (I once drove us by Pittsburgh 4 times - but in all fairness the exit was NOT clearly marked) poor packing skills (I was known to bring 4 pairs of shoes on a 2 day trip and forget something like a blouse for underneath my business suit -- which really just meant a "shopportunity"), and my unending questions of why we did things the way we did.

I digress.

SO, back to reading: on our first business trip, I made the snap decision at the airport that instead of reading the latest celeb gossip or how to get someone to love you in 20 minutes, I would buy a book, appropriate for reading in front of my big, bad (okay actually he's something like 5'5 and the nicest man ever) government boss -- hence I picked up "American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us" (Steven Emerson, 2002... great book) and so it began: my non-fiction kick, that has lasted me a solid 5 years. The next government job I took also required traveling with a fabulous boss, which also prompted the continuation of my non-fiction kick. Some great reads from that "era" were: "Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10" (Marcus Luttrell... absolutely amazing), "Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence" (Mark Juergensmeyer... that's a book that will stick with you), "A Civil War: Army Vs. Navy: A Year Inside College Football's Purest Rivalry (John Feinstein... you HAVE to read this one) and "From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest" (T.Z. Lavine... LOVED it). My last plane ride around the world (with no boss looking over my shoulder) had me reading: "First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan" (Gary Schroen, also wrote "Jawbreaker" equally as AWESOME), "The Last Undercover: The True Story of an FBI Agent's Dangerous Dance with Evil " (Bob Hamer - totally disturbing but a GREAT read), "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America" ( P. David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry - very interesting and slightly terrifying) and "Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic" (incredible). I'm a huge fan of non-fiction. Pushing up my black glasses as I say this (seriously, I am - it's only 7:30 a here and I've already dropped a friend off at the airport and am on my 3rd cup of coffee), but I love the idea of learning while you're reading... that after you have dropped a cool $92 at Border's in the Seattle airport (layover in November) you have something more than just a book for the bookshelf - - you have practical, relevant knowledge for something that is going on in the world (or in "Rubicon's" case, something that will invariably come up watching Jeopardy, or maybe as an applicable metaphor at the next cocktail hour-- although for everyone else's sake - let's hope not).

Anyway, a few months ago, a friend of mine let me borrow "My Sister's Keeper" (Jodi Picoult) to read on the plane. I took it with me and didn't even open it. Having finished all of my non-fictions, and having new found time on my hands while waiting for my last two grad school classes to start in January, I decided a few days ago (with an eye roll and a serious attitude) to at least start it. Holy hell. I finished it last night...have you read that?!?! I was BAWLING. Like a 7 year old who got pushed down on the playground. "Muslim Mafia" did not have that effect on me. Amazing. Worth reading. Go get a copy. And some kleenex. Wow.

And that's about all. Heading to Denver tomorrow to spend Christmas with the in-laws (always entertaining) and then on to Kansas City to see my crazy, wonderful fam. I can't say there will be a road trip (and sadly, mom and dad traded in the old 'burb for a newer one with a fold down tv screen in the back a few years ago), but I can promise at least three White Christmas viewings and maybe even a shoe or two thrown...