Chewin in the Chung

Too weird. A couple of weeks ago, I had one of those vivid dreams- the kind where you wake up kind of confused and not sure where you are (I'm assuming I'm not the only person to have these kinds of dreams.) Anyway, in this dream I was in the army again and in Iraq. I think I was protesting that I didn't know how to drive a Humvee or something- the details have kind of faded by now. But I do remember waking up and thinking: "That's ridiculous. I'm too old to join the army now. The cutoff age is 35." Turns out I was wrong on a couple of counts, the cutoff age was 34, not 35, and the army has upped the enlistment age to 39 (For the Reserve and National Guard)

Now I am not particularly enamoured of the idea of serving in Iraq, but let's see. I turn 38 in five weeks... If the U.S. has a go at North Korea between now and say, December 2005, then I could head back and bust through training in time to help out. And I bet they'll need Mandarin speakers. Even better, I got my degree in the intervening time, so maybe I could be an officer. Hell yeah, Second Lt. Smith. I wonder if the food has gotten any better since the eighties?