Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Dexter

I've come across a few people here whose personalities make it a surprise for me to find them here. Not wanting to use any real names I've chosen to use the euphemism "Dexter".

If you bring a (large) set of matching luggage filled with mostly clothing that needs to be dry cleaned- you might be a Dexter.

If you can't stand to have your living quarters inspected/electrical work done in your corner of a shared room... you might be a Dexter... (see below)
Apparently the Dexter in this case couldn't handle the idea of his area being violated in order to install internet in the room...
... so he made these feelings clear by spelling them out with sticky notes on his walls.
If you make more or less a speech about how much you've grown in your experience in Afghanistan especially in your teamwork skills, and then not more than a half an hour later say that you don't care what the majority opinion is, or the fact the no one else wants it - for movie night we are watching an artsy french movie that my girlfriend sent me because it's my choice and only mine... you might be a Dexter...

If you are so passive-aggressive, that one might call you aggressively passive-aggressive... you might be a Dexter.

I guess it's not too surprising that personalities like these crop up downrange. You have to be a little wacky to even consider doing something that takes you to Afghanistan for 4-6 months at a time and the people who are a little wacky in one way may spill over in their wackiness into several other categories of wackiness.

That having been said, to successfully traverse a situation in which you may be both working 12 hours/day with the same people AND sharing living quarters with the same people, one must have impeccable compromising and accommodating skills. Skills that I've found are not possessed by everyone.

2 comments:

  1. You forgot to add that, if you cut off all your hair, leaving what looks like a nasty case of chemo, and send it to your girlfriend because "That's what the Roman Legion did.", you ARE a Dexter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I remember you talking about doing this. Glad to see you finally did. So where is Dexter now? Can you give up an update?

    ReplyDelete