Slugain

Like an old, comfortable shoe that saves you gas money, I have returned to the world-famous (thanks to a recent CNN story) I-95 corridor "Slug Lines", driving but a few miles to a park-n-hitch lot, then being temporarily kidnapped for the thirty-mile drive up to the Pentagon. I broke all sorts of protocol by actually speaking to someone in line, just to ensure that the pick-up point at the end of the day was in the same place it was three years ago. Save a few different walking routes due to construction, it was deja do all over again. In fact, I chuckled to realize, when I was dropped off back in the parking lot at the end of the day, in my mind's eye, I was looking for my Thunderbird.

The day was a bit of a cluster, unable to get a computer account or badge access to my office, so I had to keep ringing the doorbell to be let in. Plus it took me three tries to even get my badge, since the first time it was closed and the second time I didn't have the DD Form 2249 no one in my office told me I needed. The guy the third time asked if I wanted to keep my photo from four years ago, and I said, "No, let's go ahead and take a new one," and he proceeded to print out the old one. So I have the face of some 33-year-old Major walking around with me all the time now.

Still, it's cool to be back in the ol' Headquarters. First person I saw off the escalator was the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. I can't shake a stick in the hallway without hitting a general or being told to put the stick down, and I'm sure I'll keep running into people I know, like today's guy from Minot and a girl who was in my ROTC detachment at IU.