Whoever said three's a crowd?!

Certainly not Boston, Riva, or Shea!

Vote!

Provide Free Phone Calls to Deployed U.S. Military Service Members:

http://www.refresheverything.com/callshome

3 phone calls a day...

keeps the separation at bay :)

Alex and I have been super lucky in our communication so far even though it's only been a week (cross your fingers that I don't jinx it). He has had SOME internet access and constant phone access. While the time difference is hard, we've managed to talk about three times a day! In Manas, the phones he used had a 15 minute time limit.. at 15 minutes, a big horn would go off and make us hang up :( BUT in Kabul, endless phone calls!! HOW LUCKY!! If communication stays as is, this deployment will fly by!

Tof-urkey

While it may not be Thanksgiving appropriate, in Hokie land we say, "Gobble Gobble, Bitches" - but of course, it's completely unrelated to Thanksgiving..

This year, I am thankful for my AF husband currently in Afghanistan and men like him, serving our country so that we can all enjoy our holiday season at home, free. Thank you Dr. Rapalje :) Also, thankfully, he got to eat turkey and apple pie at the dining facility on base!

This is my first vegetarian Thanksgiving. I will be filling myself with sides, sides, and more sides (that's the best part anyways!). Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

New York, New York

For our last weekend getaway, we took the train up to New York City! What a trip! Neither of us had been before and we both LOVED LOVED LOVED it!! Our hotel was in a great location - right smack dab in the middle of Time Square! Tons to do and see and lots of places to eat all within in a short walking distance of our hotel. And for the further sights, we took the Metro - gotta love public transportation (remind me of Europe in that way.. and the fact that you hear lots of other languages besides English!).

We arrived in the city Friday afternoon. We had fabulous dinner and drinks at a cute little restaurant near our hotel - some sort of octopus and it was delicious. Then we went down the street to the theater that was playing Colin Quinn "Long Story Short." Tickets were expensive, but it was directed by Jerry Seinfeld, so we both wanted to go. We asked the man in the ticket booth if he gave a military discount. He cut us a major deal. Instead of paying $150/each, we payed $50 total and sat in the front row!! Amazing what being in the military will do for you. The show was hilarious - a stand up short history of the world - good choice on our part!! We were debating on going to another show the next night, but just did dinner and drinks instead - we needed some hang out QT on our last night.

During the days and nights we saw the major sights - Rockafeller Plaza, Radio City Music Hall, Empire State Building, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, etc. On Saturday, we went to the Village Pourhouse aka HOKIE bar to watch the game. One of my friends told me it was Hokie Central and she was right - all hokies, so fun! We even ran into one of my friend's from highschool, a Mill Mountain regular, and a friend from college! Small World! Sunday, before we left, we went and had our own Christmas Day in Macey's! Since A will be missing Christmas this year, we decided to walk around the super-decorated, world's largest Macey's, to get a feel for the day. And surprise surprise, we ran into one of A's good friends from highschool and his wife! Really small world! Sunday afternoon we had to head back to base in NJ to do some errands and from there, to Baltimore for A's flight. The weekend flew by, I wish it could have lasted longer. Overall, awesome city, awesome trip, and would definitely go again SOON!

Book Recommendation: The Healing of America

"The Healing of America" by T.R. Reid. Read it. Informative, interesting, and we can all use different perspectives on our nation's problems and how to fix them.

Tsung-Mei Cheng's Universal Laws of Health Care Systems:

1. "No Matter how good the healthcare in a particular country, people will complain about it."
2. "No matter how much money is spent on health care, the doctors and hospitals will argue that it is not enough."
3. "The last reform always failed."

Kandahar to Kabul

The AF strikes again. Less than a week before his deployment, the AF changes Alex's order to Kabul instead of Kandahar. Although he really doesn't know WHAT he will be doing in Kabul, I 'googled' his title and found lots of related articles. Here is a link to the one I find most interesting/useful/informative.

http://www.ntm-a.com/news/categories/aircorps/1343-afghan-air-forces-first-scheduled-aeromedical-evacuation-flight?lang=