Rob Otteson

This is Rob Otteson. He was one of my students my first year of teaching. He's serving in the United States Army right now and is stationed in Iraq.

Funny thing happened today. I was sitting at my desk and eating my lunch, and the phone rang. I didn't recognize the number, but knew it was long distance. (Based on the area code)

I answered the phone by saying, "Hello?"

The voice responded, "Hey, what's up?"

I said, "Who is this?"

The voice replied, "It's Otteson, Rob Otteson."

I thought to myself, he must be back on leave or something like that. I said to him, "Where are you? You back for a while or what?"

He said, "Baghdad. Baghdad, Iraq." "No way. Seriously? Nuh uh. Really?!"

"Yup," he said.

How cool is that. One of the all time legends from my first year teaching called me from Iraq?!? That's extremely cool, in case you couldn't figure it out.

It sounded like he was doing well, and based on the picture, has been lifting some weights. It was an absolute treat that he would call.

Go, Rob!

And here's a picture of his company.

By the way, he said camel spiders, portayed on the web as overly aggressive, wildly marauding, and excessively sized, were way over-hyped. I asked him to send me one in the mail. He said he wasn't allowed. Oh well.