  I am back again. Now I am at Coyote Cafe, where I can eat, drink and thanks to the wonder of modern wireless LAN, do work too. Or... Play around on the internet. They call them "Hot Spots"; I call them freedom from my room. :) They are everywhere in Europe, and catching on pretty well in the US as well, I believe.
For a modest fee, less than you would spend on a drink, you can access the WWW for hours on end. Since I do most of my work, both personal, school related, and Air Force required via internet, it is a real liberator for me. So, now that I am liberated, I can be one of the people who sit and play on their computers in public places and look busy....and I am. :) It beats the house, I will tell you that. Deb, I am certain, can relate to spending hours in a room typing tirelessly on a computer, wishing we were somewhere else. Now, I can have both; productivity and freedom to roam.
At any rate, I think it is the best thing since...well, damn near anything. Now I am waiting for my food. They do not know the meaning of customer service anywhere in Europe, so you have to be a snotty ass to get anything, which is right down my alley. I live for this shit. I know just enough German to get what I want, and to come across as knowing a lot more than I do. Whatever.
I work days all of this week, which translates to getting up at 0400, and off at 1400. Somehow, I find I have a lot less energy and motivation on day shifts than I do on swings. I do not know why since the shifts are exactly the same length, but I never can seem to awaken at all on days. Hmmmmmmm.... Who knows. Can not sleep either, so it is a lose-lose situation. Weekends are pretty cool though, since I get off at 1400 on Friday, and do not have to return to work until 1400 on Monday.
Not to shabby, by any stretch of the imagination. I got paid yesterday, and every time I do, I marvel. First I marvel that the government has not crashed yet and still found the funds to pay us, second I marvel that they pay me so much for so little (with the exception of deployments to hell, weekend duty, and 24 hour on-call status, but hey), and lastly I marvel at the rate at which the numbers dwindle. I spent over $1000 dollars on phone bills this month. Not this year, or this quarter, this month. Un-fucking-believable.
I hate monopolies. Frickin' Deutsch Telekom are the last surviving Nazis, I tell you that. They send you a bill, and there is no argument. If you do not like it, you can feel free to switch carriers, except there are no other damn carriers. God bless the good ole' USA, and capitalism. Socialism is a real bitch.
So, I am all hip now with the latest in technology, sitting in a cafe in Europe, and yet it seems surreal. I have traveled and seen so much, there is really nothing overly cool left. Perhaps when I am 50 I will look back and find this novel. As of yet, I have not. I have been to Amsterdam, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, all within the last quarter. Novel, but normal still.
I am so easily bored. Ah..... .WTF mate. Some moron just knocked their little kid's chair over, and now they are screaming like hell. People are so fucking stupid. Why you would take your kid out with your friends while you got shitty drunk, I do not know, but it is pretty pathetic. I have to feel bad for the child.
Stupid people. When will they learn? They should be drug out in the street and beaten severely, as should the guy who cooked this appetizer. What the hell is this shit anyway? Europeans kill me. They take their kids out drinking with them all of the time.
It is custom, but whatever. I have heard that there is a lesser rate of alcohol problems in Europe than in the US, credited to the tolerance they give, and the acceptance that is afforded, but I say bullshit to that. I have been here for 3 years, and I can tell you that all these people do is drink. Everyone, with few exceptions. I guess if intoxication is the norm, then it is easy to skew the numbers. :) Cause the guy who published the report was probably downing a Weisen, or high.
:) 
