BBQ

Today was the best day in Iraq ever. I haven't been this happy since I got here, and I'll stay happy for another day or so (that's a long long time over here) all because of my lunch.

We had a mission this morning that lasted for a couple hours and on the way back we stopped at another patrol base. On this patrol base they just happened to be having a barbeque.

Let me stop here and explain something - I love barbeque. A lot. It's my favorite food, and it never ever gets old to me. For my first meal on leave everyone knew I wanted to go to O'Boy's BBQ, but that's a whole other story, and when I get home from this place my first meal will be BBQ of some kind. BBQ and sweet tea are pretty much my life force.

So we're all sitting in the trucks waiting at the PB when it comes over the net, "Hey if you guys want some, they got ribs out here." I immediately ripped off my headset and started to extricate from the turret of the MRAP. I took off running towards where the ribs were and lo and behold, the United States Air Force is good for something...those dudes can cook. I will never speak bad of them again, cause they gave me ribs.

So I grabbed a plate of ribs and went back to the truck to eat. I was a little hesitant at first just because food here looks good, then tastes like raw sewage, and if someone had committed such an atrocity with God's greatest gift to the South it'd been WWIII in the place. After staring at the glistening meat piled on the plate in front of me and savoring the scent of awesome I decided that the Air Force couldn't be so cruel as to make ribs that sucked. So I took a bite. It tasted like America! It was like the Air Force had just started Shock and Awe all over again - this time on my taste buds. It was so good. I inhaled those things. They were the best ribs I have ever had, absolutely perfect.

After I was done I just sat there and savored the sweet victory I had just enjoyed over my hunger and the monotony of food in Iraq. While I was sitting there I noticed that my hands still smelled like BBQ. Which was awesome, but what was better was that I could smell Carlisle too.

See Carlisle sent me a bandana in the mail and it smelled like her, and I've kept that thing sealed in a ziploc just so I could smell home every once in a while. Well today we had a pretty gnarly sandstorm so I decided to wear the bandana around my face (bandit style) to protect my lungs and all. Well mix the smell of BBQ, Carlisle, and the fact that it wasn't too hot today - I almost felt like I was home for a few minutes. It was amazing.

Thank you Jesus for BBQ.