Sorry I haven't written anything in a while, Mr. Daniels wouldn't let me.

     So, there I was in Korea, in a bar I was very comfortable in, drooling over a bartender who was VERY sought after.  How could I possibly compete?  Some of these guys have known her for years; I'm the new guy in town.  Sure, it is my second tour to Korea, but I only spent two or three weekends in this area during my last tour.  I know what I can do...be like a nerve agent, persistent!  That was my plan, and by God it worked!  Every chance I got to spend time around Chong Mi I did.  Since Companion was a non-SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) bar we had to close at midnight.  The SOFA bars were allowed to have GI customers until 0200 hrs.  We would all leave the bar together and invade another club.  These club owners loved that, as we were usually at least 15 to 20 strong.  Of course, I would try to get a seat as close to Chong Mi as I could.  I even resorted to the "Tell your friend I like her" bit.  That worked, too.  Just as I was beginning to believe I was having no effect another one of those life changing moments" occurred.

     We had all gone out to eat at a little place called Dave's Deaf Rest Stop, a place where most of the staff was deaf.  They would bring you a menu and you would write down the quantity of which ever items you wanted.  All in all a unique dining experience.  In the middle of this, one of Chong Mi's would be suitors arrived and said he needed to talk to me.  I moved to another table to talk with him and he just snapped.  He was accusing me of trying to move in on his "girlfriend", but of course that was all in his head.  He didn't have a girlfriend...and would never have gotten Chong Mi, even if I wasn't involved in the hunt.  He began to yell and cuss at me.  I took this rather well, those of you who know me probably expect that I snapped also, but I kept my cool and told him to act like an adult.  Keep in mind that this guy is several years older than me.  Finally I told him we didn't have anything to discuss, as it was her decision, not ours who she dates.  He left the restaurant while yelling "F___K YOU!" over his shoulder on the way out.  I said "Wow, that's really mature." and joined the rest of my party.

     I was a bit put off by the whole thing and decided to just go home instead of to the bar.  I had a feeling that if I went out I would end up kicking the crap out of this guy and that would do neither of us any good, however much fun it might have been. 

     The next morning Steve Oder woke me up.  He told me what I had missed.  I won't go into detail here, but pretty soon the guy I had had the run in with the night before came by to apologize to Steve for being such a turd.  Basically he said "Steve, I'm sorry you had to kick my ass last night."  What a man!  I couldn't help but laugh when he wouldn't make eye contact with me and left shortly.  I was a little angry with Steve, because I felt like I owed the ass kicking.  Anyway, I'm still friends with the guy these days.

     That night Steve and I went to Companion.  I tried to stay quiet, because I felt responsible for all the tension, but that's just not me.  We all ended up going out to eat after the bar closed.  After we ate I started to head back to the barracks alone.  Steve had hooked up with one of the barber shop girls and was heading to her house.  As I walked away Chong Mi came up behind me and asked 'Well, are you coming or not?"  Yeah, she didn't have to ask twice!

So begins the saga...more later!