Day 2

Well I went to work after the Thanksgiving Holiday. I told a few people about my newest conquest at work and they were skeptical but optimistic for the most part. At one particular meeting one of the non comissioned officers suggested that I just deploy to withdraw myself from the limited retail temptations that Fairbanks has to offer.


Now I will digress about shopping during a combat tour. I think deploying would make this conquest even harder then being in Fairbanks.


During my deployment to Baghdad Iraq I managed to shop quite a bit. I think even more often than I do now. In fact I think I could have called myself an encyclopedia of what Camp Victory, Camp Liberty, Camp Stryker, and the International Zone had to offer. Those were the locations which were in walking/bus distance to where I was. After approximately 1/2 way through my deployment I began to have 1 day off a week. This allowed me to ride the bus and see what AAFES had to offer that week. I bought many things, soda, candy, gum, postcards, and magazines, along with various cool military tactical gear. I had a really cool big knife, several holsters for my M9 handgun and 3 really cool flashlights, all over $75.


There was also a Bazaar which had lots of crap to include overpriced sunglasses, watches, random antiques from Iraq, money, Saddam memorabilia, art supplies, really ugly paintings that you could have made to include yourself and your family, cell phones and prepaid cell phone cards (I was good for at least $60 worth per week because I enjoyed the freedom of being able to call back home from almost anywhere with my unlocked cell phone). I would wander around the bazaar and look and possibly buy a few other things here and there but mostly the phone cards were what I got there.


There were also several sew shops which could make almost anything. The big thing in there were luggage tags made with Arabic and English and possibly a camel motif. You could also get various other things to include combat patches made to order, a few of my favorites that I picked up were tabs that read "fun-o-meter", powerpoint, etc.


There were also some jewellery shops which sold gold that was different than most gold we have in the United States, it was a rich creamy yellow and was very expensive. I bought a bangle which I purchased for an overpriced amount which I cannot remember but I know it was at least over $300.


That takes care of what was mostly on ground. My job consisted of basically being on a computer for my entire 12 hour shift. I was fortunate to have both a classified and unclassified computer hooked together with a toggle box so I was able to flip between both systems. The classified system I used entirely for work and the occasional email to friends there were only accessible by that. The unclassified side I did barely anything work related with. When I was deployed Ebay, facebook, and myspace were not blocked at the time. That consumed most of my time but not all of it. I spent an amazing amount of time at drugstore.com. In fact it took less time for me to get my drugstore.com order in Iraq than it takes me now in Alaska. Drugstore.com is linked to beauty.com and ship together for a flat rate of less than $10 per order. Once we realized that drugstore.com shipped to Iraq quickly then the game was on. About once a week a box would come for me from this website holding the newest and greatest high end beauty products. My Soldiers reaped the rewards of this because if I did not like it I would bring it into work and let someone else have dibbs on it. Since I could not be extravagant on clothes than makeup and high end shampoo was the way to go during this deployment. We soon realised that nail polish would not ship to Iraq. We begged and begged our friends to send us "work colors" I had in possession about 10 different colors of nail polish, 9 were work related and I was a bright red which had the best staying power I have ever seen, I bought it in Tikrit Iraq and I am sure it is illegal in the states and probably would cause cancer with prolonged use. Since I worked nights and did have some down time I was known to do my nails, I had OPI and Chanel nail polish in my desk drawer along with remover (courtesy of AAFES). I also had 2 friends who were known to borrow it during their downtime, so if I could not find it in my drawer I knew where else to look.


About approximately 1/2 way though my tour I was able to go to Qatar for 4 days. Well I went overboard with online shopping. I went to jcrew.com and basically blew $1200 on new attire. I did not have a stitch of civilian clothing to wear there so it was needed but not in the excess of what I purchased. When I got to Qatar in less than 24 hours I signed up for an excursion and made it to a huge mall with 4 floors and an ice skating rink in it. I must have dropped $5000 in 15 minutes. I purchased a new Rolex watch, about $200 of new MAC makeup, about $500 of Chanel beauty products to include 2 really awesome nail polish colors. However I did not buy and clothes, or any lingerie. When it was time to return to Iraq I found myself with a lot of stuff and not a lot of luggage space for it. I shipped it back to Iraq for free and labeled it "dirty laundry" in case anyone wanted to mess with it and I was able to walk on the plane later that day with just a small napsack.

The other major shopping spree I went on was in May. I was going to Europe for my mid tour leave and I found myself with barely anything to wear. This time I went to victoriasecret.com and bought several dresses and bathing suits but surprisingly no lingerie. I spent basically over $1000 again.

Then I landed in Europe, I planned this vacation basically at the last minute and on the fly. I knew I was going to stay in Garmisch which is in Bavaria at the Army Resort which has a discounted rate for Soldiers on midtour leave for 7 days so that was the first stop. I took the train and lugged a huge green duffle bag of all my belongings. I had also asked my husband to pack several things as well. After Garmisch we went on a 7 day cruise which started in Spain. While I was on the cruise I bought lots of stuff along with the stuff I already had. In fact I think when we returned to Garmish for a few days I shipped home approximately 5 flat rate boxes back to Alaska with clothes in them. The big ticket items were the vacation, plane tickets between Germany and Spain, and a 7 day rental of a Mercedes Benz to travel the Audubon on. Months later my husband revelled to me that we spent over $10,ooo on this vacation. I was in shock.


This is all for tonight . . . I hope you enjoyed a glimpse of my tour to Iraq . . .

Welcome to my Blog

So I have decided to start this blog, as you can see by the boring appearance I am not very good at this sort of stuff right now.

During my bi-monthly indulgence of getting completely pampered by getting a spa manicure and pedicure I came up with this idea to start this blog. Actually I made a bet between several friends that they did not think I could do what I am going to blog about for the next year . . .


What I am going to do for the next 365 days is . . . discontinue shopping . . . for myself anyways. This means I am not going to buy a single thing for myself to include jeans, shirts, bras, shoes, $1000 shopping sprees to Nordstrom's, etc.


However, I am not going to limit my purchases for work. I am a Officer in the United States Army and I have to keep my appearance up at all times. So new combat boots, running shoes, sports bras, random items for my dress uniforms are off limits to the challenge.


Then, I am going to blog, as often as possible to let my friends and family know how I am doing for this challenge. Please let me know your feedback and thank you for your support.



Meegs