The Ramadi Rhythm Kings live on!

The highlight of my time in Iraq was most definitely being a part of the band, The Ramadi Rhythm Kings. It was really hard to leave my band family behind when my deployment came to an end! Since I have been back in the states I have really missed the nightly practices and all the fun times we had together, but I am just thankful I had the opportunity to be a part of all it and to meet so many talented people.

While online, looking for something completely unrelated, I came across a link to the short piece AFN (military TV station) had done on us:

http://www.dvidshub.net/vjump.php?vid=33527

After that, I found an article on the same webpage (I did not know about this article until today)... it brought back such good memories!

Carolers Compete to be Christmas Champion

CAMP RAMADI, Iraq – It started with four then was narrowed down to two, but in the end there could only be one in the Camp Ramadi Carol Off. The event was held to provide a little competition and Christmas cheer to make being away from home a little more bearable. “It gives us something to brighten the season some, because without something like this, it can be pretty depressing,” said Spc. Jani Soberon, military intelligence night analyst for the Brigade Troops Battalion. The four teams sang two songs each for the first round, and then the judges made their decision on which two would advance to the next round. Not only were the judges looking at musical talent, but at how much the crowd enjoyed their performance. The songs ran the gambit from religious, such as “Mary Did You Know,” to less serious songs, such as “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” and “The 12 Days of Christmas” with corresponding choreography. “We picked the songs (we performed) because we knew we and the audience could have a lot of fun with them,” Soberon, a member from the Desert Alley Cats, said. The first two teams eliminated were the two-man ensemble of Tenacious B and the Desert Alley Cats, leaving the Marine team Front Toward Enemy and The Ramadi Rhythm Kings to compete for the number one spot. In the end, it would be the musical talent that would carry the day for the Ramadi Rhythm Kings giving them the title for the Christmas Carol Off.

So, yeah... the band will be no more, but the memory will live on (with some of us, at least).

Wake Up

Have you ever wished you could just sleep for several days or weeks or months, to give a bad environment time to disappear? I know I have. Well, I got the chance to do just that. I entered my dream world in October of last year. It was called Iraq. All the bad things that went on at work and home were not a part of my reality (I knew about some of the bad things that were happening, but I could not process them as real). Those soporific five months were great (in actuality, very little sleeping took place during that time)! I wish they could have gone on a lot longer. Unfortunately, the return to the real world was much worse than I expected. Very little has changed and all the changes that did occur in my abscence have not been good. Life was not always perfect in my dream world, but I knew that it not be long before I would have to wake, which made the bad bearable and the good something to be cherished forever. In the real world I do not have that luxury. There is no waking up... just the desire to slip back into my world of make-believe.

So far away

I once read a quote by Thoreau that said “Nothing makes Earth seems so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.” It has never been more true to me than it is now. I have too many friends too far away and I just want them home. I want to know they are safe.

So far away
I wish you were here
Before it's too late, this could all disappear
Before the doors close
And it comes to an end
With you by my side I will fight and defend
I'll fight and defend

Keep holding on
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through
Just stay strong
'Cause you know I'm here for you, I'm here for you
There's nothing you could say
Nothing you could do
There's no other way when it comes to the truth
So keep holding on
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through

~ Avril Lavigne

Quote of the day

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.

~ George Orwell

So true!