When in Iraq don't....

First see the don'ts...then see the becauses

When in Iraq...

Don't
1. watch Brothers and Sisters
2. subscribe to a cooking magazine
3. watch the movie Julie & Julia
4. text your friends and family constantly to find out the happenings of their day

Because
1. the whole show is about family, cooking, chaos, and home. This isn't good when you are 8,000 miles away from your chaotic family and home. Nora, the mom, reminds me so much of my mom. She is totally consumed with her household, kids, and grand kids and is always in the middle of all their problems whether she wants to be or not. :) Plus all the brothers and sisters makes me miss my own siblings even though most of the time I could just kill them.
2. you get great ideas for recipes but you are constantly tortured because you can't cook any of them!!!! I guess this is my own fault but at least when I get home I am going to have plenty of recipes to try out...about 2 years worth. LOL
3. this movie has now inspired me to do my own Julie/Julia project. I want to find a cookbook that fits me and my style of cooking and try the whole cook a recipe a day for so many months or whatever thing. So if anyone has any good cookbooks that has an ample amount of recipes shoot me the name. I don't want anything Martha Stewart-y I am more of a Paula Dean or Rachael Ray type cook so keep that in mind ;) for Christmas time.
4. then you really start to be even MORE homesick and you are jealous of their overly normal lives. I mean just the idea of running annoying errands like going to the bank, grocery store, and dry cleaners sounds so exciting to me. LOL Which I get great joy from the simplest of things to begin with but it is just the point of not having access to those types of things.