Slow days

The past week and a half has been really slow. The Afghan people started Ramadan last Tuesday, which is a month long religous period. We only train for a hour or so becuase during this month they can not eat or drink from sun up til sun down, and they pray a lot more during the day. Since this started we have only trained 2 or 3 times. The first few days they didn't show up cause they were doing religous training during our training time. So things are kinda boring right now. Since there isn't a whole to do on this FOB I find myself sitting in my bunk a lot. Sometimes watching movies, sometimes sleeping and sometimes talking with my roommate and of course occasionally talking to myself. I wish I could say that I was talking to myself because the heat was getting to me but I'll admit I do it quite often. I am currently just sitting on my bunk, about to fall asleep but trying not to. I am on fuel detail today. At 0800, thats 8 am, I had to fuel all the generators that power our Toc, and I will do it again at 1900, 7pm. It only takes about an hour but that cuts into my gym time so I really don't like doing it. Oh well, I will just have to work harder tomorrow. Well I suppose I will just watch a movie and fall asleep.

combat

Saturday was the first serious combat situation I have been in. Around 10:53 I was in bed and heard a very big boom. To me it sounded like outgoing fire, meaning that we had shot off something. I heard someone yelling in the hallway that it was not a drill so immediately I put on my gear and got to my position. During base defense I am assigned to tower #7. As I was running to the tower I could hear weapons being shot and had loud explosions going off over head. I did what I was trained to do during those situations and I got down and got as much cover as I could. I moved along the hesco barriers that are next to every building until I reached my tower. Tower 7 is located on the western side of the FOB, we were being shot at from the western side. I could see the Afghan army shooting but did not know what they were shooting at. I positioned myself along the wall of the tower keeping an eye on the hole that is in the ANAs wall and watching the perimiter. Air support showed up around 11:35 and they began to scatter. We were in the tower until 1am and were then released. No US or Afghan soldiers were injured. There were 5 local nationals that were killed. I do not know if they were killed by the Afghans or by the taliban.

My New Goal

As I sat in the tower today I decided to make a list of goals that I would like to accomplish before I leave Afghanistan.
First of all I wanted to say thank you to any of you that has sent or is sending me gift packages. Thank you for the support and love that you have shown to me and to Cassie.
I want to thank you all for the snacks and various goodies that you have sent me, but would like to ask that you refrain from sending to many more. If you have recently sent some or are preparing to send some don't worry I will still eat and share them. I have comprised a new list of things that I would like that will help me with one of the goals I have set for myself. What is the goal you ask. Well I have set for myself a goal of wieght lose. I am currently well over my weight standard for my age and height. That limit is 185. I would like to get to that or 180 by the time I go on leave. So I have about 3 months to work on this. I plan to begin my workout regime that I have comprised tonight and will do my absolute best to work out every morning and every evening. But with all the snacks and junk food its easy to get side tracked. What I need the most is encouragement and motivation. Motivation is probably the hardest thing I struggle with. I have a very hard time motivating myself to do anything, you can ask Cassie and she will agree, in fact she's probably rolling her eyes as she reads this. I have a few other goals but this is one that I have decided to make public so that I may get some outside encouragement. Do not feel that I do not want your snacks. If you want to send them, by all means send them. I will eat thim in moderation as well as share them with other soldiers.
I want to thank you in advance for your encouragement and help motivating me. The following is a list of things that I could use to help me in achieving my goal.

Protien Bars
Meal Replacement Bars
Granola Bars
Creatine
Motivational Music
Fitness Magazines

Some places to buy these things at discounted prices are www.bodybuilding.com and www.prosource.net

I have bought enough meal replacement shakes to last me until I go on leave. So with those and dieting I hope that I can achieve my goal.
Thank you so much
Matt