5/6

I had a very wierd sensation today, I guess you could say it was as close as I've come to a panic attack. I was doing the X-ray today, annoyed as I always am of having to open the temporary baggage holding bin and stand there while people fiddle around trying to decide what to take out of their bag, ask me 20 times per hour, "do you think you can open the holding bin so I can drop off my bags?" ya that, it was a huge issue three months ago. Anyways, i look up and it took a second to comprehend what I was seeing. I saw what was clearly a middle easterner, Iraqi as far as I could see, he was late 40's early 50's, in a cheap light blue suit, taking off his body armor. i just had a crazy visual, that he was a suicide bomber, and his body armor was packed with explosives. My heartrate must've went through the roof, my imagination went crazy, too much news footage I guess, ormovies, the crap happening with foreign nationals in Kabul, whatever,the guys even looked a little like Khalid Sheikh Muhammed, the architect of the hijackings of 9-11, Bin Ladens right hand man. I thought, "this could be it," said a quick prayer that it wasn't. I held my breath, ran it through, to my relief looked like the thousands of IBA's I have put through the X-ray. What a relief, I'm not over-dramatizing any of this, I really felt these emotions very quickly and vividly, without warning. I then felt a little anger but took a few deep breaths and it soon passed.
I met the new guys, they obviously aren't happy to be here. 4 of the 5 are Staff's and this is now their fourth, fifth deployment. I told you we're pushing our military to the max. Hopefully they will relax, they were tense and frowning the whole time I was talking to them. I would definitely feel exactly how they would feel if I had to come to another one of these.
As much of a wave of paranoia swept through me earlier, later it was bigtime nostalgia. I was going to go do my dreaded Yoga session of P90X,(I'm 2 weeks from finishing the entire three month program), when I saw they were having another beginning of the month barbecue at the MWR tent, the one that had no food a few months back. they played a song I hadn't heard of in what seems like years, "Joanna" by Kool and the Gang. What a great song, it was nice to hear it, it brought back a lot of memories of high school, Flagstaff, Kachina Village, Ernest, Monica and Shannon Marburger, Vince Bill....it's great how songs can do that, especially when you need a little escape at the moment. I might have to buy that song for my I-pod. Well, time to eat, read, sleep and do it all over again.