I'm Here to Pump You Up

So I almost killed one of the guys I work with today. I was working out in the gym, minding my own when one of the guys I work with asked me to come spot him. Now, I lift weights but I lift for muscle strength and to tone up. I don't lift weights to bulk up to look like this:


















So I don't lift the type of weights he does and I've never spotted anyone before. But I figured it can't be that hard....right?

So I go over there and he is lifting 210 lbs. I'm watching him do this and then he starts to struggle. I go to grab his bar and he says to get off. So I move my hands. Then I see the weights go down on his chest and now he's turning purple. So I freak out because now he can't tell me what to do. Thank gawd some big burly guy came running over to lift the weights off of him.

I can see it now....how did he die in Iraq? Was he hit by a mortar? No. Was he shot by insurgents? No. He died by weights crushing his chest due to having a bad spotter.

But now I know what to do. So....who needs a spot?

Bostick......You Kick Ass!!!!

My buddy Bostick sent me a care package:














Now, I bet you're thinking, "That's awfully nice of Bostick to send Pud some mix and syrup so she can make herself a nice Sunday morning pancake breakfast". But you would be wrong my friends! You see, this nice package was all a sneaky ploy Bostick came up with in order to send me some "special syrup". The man is a genius and I am so thankful for him and his sexy wife to be so caring enough to send me "the good stuff". If you don't know what I'm talking about.....click here

Here is my thank you to you Bostick:

HNT

I'm back!!! I figure that continuing to do HNT is a good way to show you all that I am alive and well. A sort of "proof of life" if you will. That, and I know you all miss my ass! Literally!





















Happy HNT!!

I Am So Blessed......

I am amazed of how Bloggers are the best bunch of people out there. I have had so many people reach out to me since I have been here. It is the best! People who don’t even know me, care enough to take time out of their busy lives to send me a care package with some back home goodies. I don’t think I would find that kind of kindness if I was walking down the street.

I think us Bloggers have a certain je ne sais quoi; our own little culture if you will. We only know of each other thru Avitar pictures and stories of lives, yet we all feel connected…like we are one or something. I don’t know about all of you, but I am so appreciative of it and glad I have you fellow Bloggers in my life.

Okay…enough sappy shit.

Some of you have asked if I will be able to watch the Super Bowl. My answer is yes and no. Yes, they do show it live here. However…seeing that we are 8 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time over here….the Super Bowl will be shown at 2 am here. I think I will just wait till my breakfast time to catch the last half of it. Yeah, they show live football games in our chow hall. Some diehard fans during the college football championship game got up at 3 am to watch it. Only if the Steelers were playing would I get up that early to watch a game. So yes…we do get all the same TV shows as you on what they call The Armed Forces Network. However…I would just have to get up ass early to see it. I normally just end up reading spoilers on the Internet or sometimes friends burn me DVDs of my favorite shows and mail them to me.

It is incredible how spoiled we are in the U.S. We have plenty of TV shows to entertain us, Internet access that is fast and reliable and all the beauty products and fattening goodies you love….all at your fingertips. Ahhhhh….God Bless America!

I'm Okay!!!

I got a few e-mails from folks asking if I was okay because of things they saw on the news. I'm okay and I'm alive and well. Internet connection here is nothing like it is back in the States. Dial-up is better than what we have here. Plus, the Internet goes down all the time. But hey ~ at least I have Internet...........I guess.

Some of you have also been wondering where to send me stuff. Well, I'm not going to put my address out for all freaks of nature to have......so if you want it......send me an e-mail at pudwhipped@hotmail.com and I will give it to you.

Hope all is well with all of you! I'll visit when I can.

Much Love

~ Pud ~

Pictures as Promised

Here I am on the stage before the Australian's did their performance. The pics from that didn't turn out right, so I didn't post them.















Here is a pic of me sitting on Saddam's gift.















This is the trailer I live in. Yeah...how about I had to come to Iraq to be trailer trash.















It's the Winter season here in Iraq. That means it rains a lot. When it rains in the desert....everything turns to mud. So right now I am dealing with mud mud fucking mud!















How about the mud is so bad I had to order these:


















This is the care package that Mr. Fab sent:















This is the care package Flyboy sent:















My dear friend Rat sent me an awesome set of sheets:



















So I thought I would say "Thank You" to Rat by laying on the sheets:





















Now it is story time. Some people have e-mailed me and asked me if I was in the Green Zone. No, I am not in the Green Zone. The Green Zone is where the Iraqi Government and the U.S. Embassy is at. I am on one of the military bases. Someone also e-mailed me and asked if there were any other countries that have military here besides us and the Australians. Yes...there are many other countries here. Obviously, there are more Americans here than any other country. There is a huge British and Australian presence here as well. Other than that, here is a rundown of what other countries are here:
Germany
Astonia
Norway
Romania
Czech Republic
Korea

Those are the other countries that I've seen here. It's interesting to see other countries and what their uniforms look like. Like the Romanian military boots match the same pattern as their uniforms. Normally boots don't match the uniform to that exact detail.

I work closely with the British and Australians. The Australians have a good sense of humor. I have one Australian who sits in the cubicle next to me and always likes to pick on me. I always ask him, "don't you need to go throw another shrimp on the barbie or something?"

The British and the way they do things cracks me up. The Brits will call for a meeting. So us Americans show up 10 minutes early for it ready to go. The Brits show up 10 minutes late, then look at us and go: "Why are we having this meeting?" Of course, all of us Americans look at the Brits like they are crazy and say, "because you guys called for one". Then the Brits act like everything is okay and then proceed to bluff thru the whole meeting because they forgot they set up the meeting.

So that is how my life is going in Iraq. If anyone has anymore questions...feel free to leave them in the comments and I will gladly answer them.

Thank You Flyboy!!!

Flyboy was sweet enough to e-mail me and ask me what I needed out here. Seeing that I am a brand specific kind of girl, I like using certain brands and I don't like to switch. Here in Iraq, they only sell one or two kinds of brands for haircare, etc. Seeing that I just have to have my brand....Flyboy was sweet enough to go out and find it and send it. He also sent Sex and the City the complete fourth season as well as a bag of Chips Ahoy. I have Sex and the City seasons 1-3. So if anyone wants to send me seasons 5 & 6....feel free!

Hey Flyboy....good thing you packed that box well, as it showed up here with a big dent in it. But everything inside was okay!

I took a picture of what Flyboy sent...but again with the no Internet thing....However....my neighbor has Internet connection and we are going to test if running a cat 5 cable down to my room will work or not. So stay tuned...I may have Internet soon! I have so many pics and stories to share with you all it ain't funny.

Mr. Fabulous IS Fabulous!!

Mr. Fab sent me a great care package!!! When I can, I'll post a pic of it.

Mr. Fab sent me a package full of chocolate! I got all kinds of chocolate cookies and candy!!! They don't have or sell good chocolate here. I also got a batch of Mrs. Fab's homemade fudge. If any of you have not had Mrs. Fab's fudge....then your life is not complete! That is how fudge is suppose to be!!

Thank you Mr. & Mrs. Fabulous!!!

I Miss Blogging :(

I also really miss going to all of your blogs and seeing how you all are doing. It sucks that the Internet connectivity isn’t that great here. However, where I was living before had good Internet connectivity….but was not that safe. For example, my roommate asked me if I heard an explosion at 4 in the morning. I said no because I am a sound sleeper. Yeah…mortars would get launched at us where I initially lived. That’s because it was out in the middle of no where, not even close to any kind of base civilization. Now, I’ve moved to somewhere much safer and closer to things….but has no Internet. I guess I just can’t have it all.

So I will blog as I can while at work. But I can’t post any pics from work. Something about work really frowns on me bringing in a camera and downloading pics onto their computers and taking away from work time to do so. How hard-ass is that?

Since I can’t post pics, I will just tell you a little about how the Iraqis are dealing with us. First off, most Iraqis can speak pretty good English. Some speak broken English, but for the most part they can speak it. Second, the whole Saddam thing, it has not affected us…..yet. The Iraqi people right now are mad at each other for how the whole thing has been handled. In other words…the Sunnis are pissed because they feel it was a Shi’a torture event and not a fair and prosecuted hanging. So they are fighting each other for right now and not us.

I would have to say that Iraqis’ level of like for the U.S. is 60%-40%. 60% hate us and 40% like us because the U.S. got rid of Saddam and the military bases here give them jobs. They are hard workers too. Like in our chow hall, it is mostly Iraqi men working there. They are very conscientious when serving our chow checking with us to see how much food we want. They also don’t have us want for anything. If you are in the chow hall and are looking around for anything…an Iraqi will walk up to you and ask you what they can get for you. Like one time I was looking for ketchup and an Iraqi came up to me asked what I wanted, I told him and then he said, “I get for you ma’am!” He literally took off running and came back with a ton of ketchup for me. I don’t see many Iraqi women, but when I do…they usually just stare at me. Some are brave enough to come up to me and ask what beauty products I use. Because to them, America has the best of everything and anything that one could want. If you give Iraqi children candy, they will tell you where IEDs are planted. One time when I went out with the convoy (and it will be my last time BTW), when we got to our destination I saw some Iraqi children and I gave them a bag of Jolly Ranchers. When I came out of the building those same children were waiting on me to tell me: “Ma’am, ma’am…IED…IED”. They tried to take me over to it to show me, but I felt I was already too close as it was. I just told the troops who called a special unit to take care of it. I think it just goes to show that giving kids candy to get them to tell you things works for all cultures.

Well…I hope you enjoyed your cultural lesson on Iraq. If you have any questions…let me know.