On The Road, Part One

"It was a dreaded day for a good deal of procrastinating Americans, up to their ears in 1040 forms, envelopes and doom. For my girlfriend Lauren and I, April 15 stood for a lot more than getting felt up by Uncle Sam. It was the beginning of our long journey across the country from Seattle to Austin, Texas in search for a new life.

It was the phoenix effect. It's been four months since I left the Army and seven months since returning from Iraq, rising from the ash of a fifteen month combat tour and immediately processing out as fast as humanly possible. Those who got out with me either stuck around in Washington or went back home within a few days. I found myself milling about the Seattle area while Lauren completed her necessary classes for a transfer. Within a few weeks, I was terribly bored with sitting around the house (odd, since a great deal of my time in Iraq was spent using my ass as a seat). My friend hooked me up with a full time customer service job at a prepaid cell phone company. Though I only spent a few months there, my soul was thoroughly crushed by the people calling in, disputing the use of their own phones and arguing to get as little as two minutes back on their plan. Thousands of miles away, our countrymen are in varying degrees of prolonged danger and exhaustion in the mountains of Afghanistan and the streets of Iraq, away from their families and any semblance of normalcy. Back in the states, these people were hounding me for pennies like it was a great tragedy. I never felt so out of touch with fellow Americans in my life."
Army of Dude