23 June 2006 2103 EDT
Things aren't quite over yet, though. I have a big to-do list of things for next week, including the following:
- Go back to South Lakes to wrap up everything
- Report to Manassas Armory on Tuesday for some changeover details
- Visit FCPS personnel office to confirm leave and licensure paperwork
- Fill out tuition assistance paperwork for Fall semester and turn in GI Bill stuff for Spring semester
- Transfer Dish network and Verizon accounts to the new house
- Call customer service about my MIA water cooler
- Visit the gf
Yeah, between all of that, I'll have to pack up my things and move. Seem ambitious enough? We'll see how it works. Tomorrow morning is my PT test and then inventory and then it's off for summer vacation. Go me.
21 June 2006 2135 EDT
Not to jinx it all, but everything has been running pretty smoothly, and things look to be falling into place just as we start to clear post. We took care of a few tasks today already, leaving just a couple of things on our list for Friday morning before we load the freedom buses. I'm not gonna type too much though...gotta get ready for tomorrow. MTF
21 June 2006 0020 EDT
We finished early enough, in fact, that my commander and I ended up going down the street to the laundromat. Like I said, it was amazing how much small things can make a difference. Back when I was a private going through basic training, Sunday was laundry day. While all of the other guys snuck away to church services, I would hang out in the laundry room doing laundry for me and my buddies. That was also the time I would write letters back to my family. I mean, I would write Jennifer every night, but Sundays were even more special because I got the chance to sit down write to the fam. I think I got a lot closer to my parents in my time away...I always seem to, I think. It wasn't necessarily quiet in the laundry room, but the humming of the dryers provided good background noise that helped me to concentrate.
It was kinda the same today. After I put the laundry in, I stepped outside and made a few phone calls. I talked to Ben at first since he left a message, and then I called the gf. (Mom left a message about school earlier in the day too, but I didn't call her back yet. Sorry. I'm bad.) Like I've said, though, I've been really pre-occupied with the gf all week. It's hard to explain, so I won't go into details here. It was a nice feeling though. It was a cool night with a gentle breeze...clear skies...quiet. And I just had a chance to talk and catch up. It's too bad I found my peace with only about 48 hours left to go.
Hehe...and get this. My commander and I finish up our laundry and get in his vehicle to go back to the barracks. Battery...dead. It's one of those times when you panic a little but you also want to laugh at the same time. So he tries starting it a few times before we decide it's time for me to start pushing. This is my payback for not doing PT these last two days. It was fun though. I only pushed it maybe an eighth of a mile before he got is started. Then we drove around post for about five to ten minutes to make sure his battery charged a little. We took a little stroll down memory lane, driving by the old OCS schoolhouse before circling back. And yes, of course I had to come back here and blog about it.
It's time for bed, though, so good night. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.
19 June 2006 2332 EDT
PT has dropped off these last few days as we prep for our final field exercise. That's not good considering that I'm still eating three squares a day. But I'll have plenty of time to make up for it when I get back home. If it weren't for the meetings bogging me down, things might be different. Oh, the rest of my time is spent working excel spreadsheets to track various stats, from PT scores to weapons qualification scores to class attendance, etc. But yeah, if I weren't so tired all the time, I might actually work up the motivation to get some exercise in myself. Oh well.
Two of my favorite officers returned to the battalion in the last 24 hours. First, the BICC completed the air assault course, so it was great seeing him again and catching up. One of my former commanders just completed a course as well...just over two weeks down at Virginia Beach. He recommended that I take that course some time this summer. Hmmm...Virginia Beach...paid for by the Army? Maybe.
But yeah, good things going on...with the best being that we are under 90 hours away from that restful and well-deserved bus ride home. MTF
18 June 2006 2146 EDT
I don't say this to make you feel sad for me...well, kinda...but the like of an XO is very different from a platoon leader or a commander. My job requires me to be in the shadows. I'm supposed to crunch the numbers and make the coordination and turn in all of the reports so that my commander can concentrate on leading the troops. So every day, when I roll up our training numbers and submit my red, white, blue, and amber reports so that higher headquarters will lay off my commander, it frees him up to do his job - one of the most important jobs in the Army. He's the commander. He's supposed to be out there leading troops, not stuck in an office doing reports. That's my job.
So when the guys roll up all drenched in their own sweat, smiling from everything that they accomplished that day while I sat in on a meeting to free up my commander, I can't help but envy them a little bit. What I would give to do those simple things that infantrymen do.
I did finish my fourth book today. No, I haven't been reading them. I've been eating them...books...of matches. You see, one of the guys told me this little secret the other day. The mosquitos and ticks have been having a virtual buffet on us since we arrived, so he shared with me this little known technique. Apparently, when you eat the heads of matches, you sweat the sulfur out your pores, which in turn repel bugs and whatnot. I have no idea whether or not this works - plus I don't have the internet to help me confirm - but I went ahead with my little experiment anyway. I'll tell you on Friday how well this worked out.
Then lastly, I wanted to close with this morning's wake-up call. One of the sergeants opened the morning with, "Happy Father's day, bitches." How delightful, no? But yeah, before I sign off, happy's father's day, dad.
17 June 2006 2310 EDT
Anyway, as he was trying to wake me up, I was in that state between dreaming and consciousness, where you can sometimes see and hear things without having the ability to control your bodily functions. It's your body's way of keeping your brain moving and thinking normally during a dream while keeping your body safe and motionless in bed. So as I was waking up from my third or fifth nap today, I could hear a whole bunch of people laughing at how hard it was to wake me up, but I couldn't do anything about it. Interesting stuff, huh?
Other than that, I've been able to keep up a very positive attitude so far. I've been seeing all of my friends and all of my old soldiers around post this week, and that's been awesome. Plus, the more I smile, the more my soldiers keep a positive attitude, I think. Of course, I don't really have a lot of soldiers these days, but I think of all the soldiers of that battalion as mine in some way. Anyhow, it was a little bit harder today just because I haven't had a good chance to talk to the gf in a couple of days. I know that's a silly reason, but it's amazing how little things like that can have such a big impact when you're out here and don't really have the means to do anything about it. So in that sense, it's been harder to smile while talking to everyone today, but that's something I'm good at. I don't think anyone caught on. Plus, the more I smile, the more I fool myself into thinking that I'm having a good time...hehe. Don't get the wrong idea. I love this stuff. I wouldn't trade it for the world.
17 June 2006 0025 EDT
Anyway, the sleep deprivation is starting to get to me now. I was sitting at my computer doing a roll-up with my commander, and it was pretty funny. He would read out names to me and scores of soldiers who'd qualified with their weapons while I played around with Excel. Every once in a while, though, he would read a name and fall asleep before he read the score. Then the other half of the time, he would read a name and I would fall asleep between finding the soldier in my roster and typing the score. We just went back and forth for about a half hour until we got done with it and decided to finish the rest in the morning. Of course, I'm right back here at my computer for a quick update before I really turn in. Good thing is that tomorrow is a light day and the commander put out that we could sleep in tomorrow. Me, my alarm is set for 0630. You don't realize how much of a luxury that is.
The wireless network here is really weak, so I haven't been able to check my e-mail all week. Surprisingly, I haven't gone crazy from it...yet.
11 June 2006 2311 EDT
I've been having fun though...feeling relatively productive. I ran with the A group at PT this morning, going about three miles in twenty minutes. Yesterday was just packing and driving and movement down here while today was spent on the rappel tower. Well, that's what the troops did. Me, I hung out in supply for a while. Well, let's start with last night's meetings. I honestly can't remember when they started and when they ended. It was around 0130h by the time I went to bed, though, and wake-up was 0415h because I had three reports to submit before 0500h. They give the reports colors, though, so that it's more fun to turn them in. I had a red one, a white one, and a blue one to turn in this morning. There was an amber one I had to turn in at 0800h, followed by a two hour meeting followed by a one hour meeting...which gave me just enough time to do some paperwork for the 1400h meeting before the 1800h meeting which lasted over two hours today. After that, I hung out to wait for my commander sit through another half hour of meetings before we pulled our company together to disseminate the information.
And while that doesn't soound all too exciting, this stuff really gets my blood pumping. Tomorrow, we kick things off with our battalion run. It'll only be two miles and it'll be at a slow pace, but it's cool because you do it in formation with a few hundred other people and it looks really pretty. Plus, we sing cadences, and I love doing that. I'm sorry if I sound a little delirious right now...because I am. Don't worry, though. I won't be handling any ammunition for at least another few days.
09 June 2006 2045 EDT
Today was my last day as a teacher...for a while, at least. It was cool spending it with my mom. Everyone at school seemed so happy to meet her and it felt nice to hear so many people say nice things about me as I made my quiet exit from South Lakes. For some reason, I decided to make today Hawaiian shirt day too. I think it worked for me. It's been a while since I've gotten so many compliments on my wardrobe, to be honest. I don't know...today was nice. Still a bit stressful, but mom was good at taking a lot of that off of my shoulders. A bunch of kids signed such nice things in my yearbook, too, and the science department chair put together a farewell party for me in about 24 hours time.
I feel kinda bad about that. I haven't really been talking to a lot of teachers at school. I mean, I talk, but I don't try to drag them into my [can't find the right word for it]. I'm just not good at sharing personal stuff with these people, I guess. So I didn't really tell people that it was my last day until very near the end. I didn't really want a big production. It's the same with my birthday and stuff like that. I guess it's kinda funny that I can share so much stuff on here, but it can sometimes be harder when it comes to people-people. Who knows. I don't have time to analyze myself tonight. I need to pack.
It'll be another 0400h-ish wake-up tomorrow as I leave for two weeks in sunny Fort Pickett, VA. I won't be sans-computer, but I have a pretty good feeling that I'll be sans-internet. As dreary as that sounds to me right now, I'm hoping that it'll make the time pass faster. Ideally, we'd just spend two weeks in the woods working and sweating, but I know it won't be like that. I'll get through it though. The light at the end of the tunnel is a combination of freedom, a new house, and maybe a weekend with the gf...hehe. Now, that doesn't sound bad at all when I put it that way.
07 June 2006 1450 EDT
Anyway, for all of those concerned about me, I did a lot better today...and with a little luck, things will be very different in a month.
06 June 2006 1644 EDT
So this morning, I thought I was fine until the first bell rang and my students were chatting during the announcements. It wasn't out of the ordinary. I usually walk a few laps during the announcements with my fingers to my lips shushing the kids as they do their typical teenager thing. Today wasn't any different. They really weren't that loud. But they started announcing some important information over the speaker, and I gave the kids a warning to listen up. Usually, I'll give three or four of these, but the magic number was one today. One of my good students started chatting again in the front of the room and I whipped around and erupted for approximately 0.42 seconds. I didn't curse or anything like that. I would never do that at school. I rarely do that anyway, save traffic and sporting events. But I yelled today...not your typical Mr. Louie yell that told the kids, "hey, I'm really a nice guy on the inside, but I need your attention for a few minutes." No, today, I yelled with pure anger. I forget what I said. I think it was something like "quiet down" or "be quiet;" but in the six years I've been teaching, I've never gotten the looks that I got today. I think I scared them because it was really quiet for a while...through the pledge of allegiance, the moment of silence, and the few announcements I had to open the class. After a few minutes, it was back to normal, but it took a moment. Part of me thinks that I probably could have apologized, but another part of me wants to keep that little weapon in my back pocket for one day when I really need again.
Anyway, the rest of the day at school was relatively calm. Most of my first two periods were gone because there were election speeches today....you know, the whole Vote for Pedro-type assemblies. That was followed by field day, which this school termed "June Jam." So me, I had a lot of time to get work done. I even spent an hour or so cleaning up my classroom at the end of the day while helping out one of my students staying after to study for the final exam. I had a chance to chat with a lot of my outgoing seniors this morning too. Since they don't have elections for student government next year, they were stuck in class with me for an hour or so.
I am going to miss teaching next year though - I know it already. I mean, there are a lot of positives about what I'll be able to accomplish next year, but there is just something about teaching. It lets you feel just a little bit of what it is to be young again...and for me, someone who'd fast-forwarded through much of his youth, I get the opportunity to indulge in a little of the variety of life, something I'm slowly realizing that I didn't experience growing up in my homogenous circle of like-minded friends and family.
Was that emo enough for you without being too cryptic? All of this, and I'm just two days into my twenty-day-long work marathon. I leave for my 15-day annual training on Saturday in my last surge of structure and productivity before my year of freedom. For now, I just want to get through the rest of the school year (yeah, all three days of it) unscathed and having not let down too many people, myself included.
04 June 2006 2111 EDT
Oh well...there was something that I wanted to write about today, but I forget what it is now. Oh! I stopped by to my parents' this afternoon and found that my Praxis scores were sitting on their coffee table. I guess ETS never got my address change, and sent my scores to my old address. Anyway, there were actually two envelopes for me, and I started by opening the small one. The test is scored from 100-200, and I missed 17 out of 100 questions, giving me a scaled score of 179. Next to my score, however, was a special code, (E). What could it stand for? Error? Well, considering that the average performance range (50% of all test-takers) was 136-168 and the passing score for Virginia teachers is 147, I'd say that I did pretty well. It turns out that I did well enough to place my in the top 15%, and the (E) stood for excellence, which I found out when I opened the big envelope. Inside was a certificate with the word "EXCELLENCE" stamped in gold foil on the outside. I haven't been so proud of a certificate or a test like this in years. I mean, it is a little disappointing not being in the 99th percentile like I'm used to; but considering that only physics teachers take this test to begin with, it makes me feel like a moderately large fish in the big ocean.
03 June 2006 1100 EDT
Like I said, though, we went until 0600h this morning, ending approximately five hours ago. Since then I've had about two hours of sleep, a handful of phone calls, a quick visit from my sister, and some QT with Thuy just talking about life and money and family and whatnot. I'm still supposed to go to Herndon Fest with Ben this afternoon, but we'll see how that pans out. I think I'm going to have to squeeze another nap in there somewhere.
02 June 2006 2044 EDT
01 June 2006 2237 EDT
Oh, then when I came back, I cleaned the dozen or so dishes/cups in my sink and then started thinking about what to eat. It was then that I remembered what my sister had told me earlier in the evening. Apparently, my parents stopped by my house and left some food in my fridge. Interesting how my sister was aware of this and not me, right? Well, I opened my fridge and what did I find? Yes, it was some sweet rice that my grandma made for me...the same rice she'd been calling me over to eat the last few days. I feel bad about that. I should visit some time during the next few days.
31 May 2006 2238 EDT
I feel kinda bad for not hanging out with my grandma these last few days. She keeps on calling, but I'm usually sleeping on the sofa and too tired for much of anything after school. Today, I didn't get my planning period because I had to proctor for these SOL exams. I was so jealous of the kids. They have a two hour block and they get to take a nap after they finish. Like they're not allowed to leave and they're not allowed to write or do work because the commonwealth is so paranoid about test questions getting out. Understandable, but that leaves the students with two choices. After they finish their test, they have to either read or go to sleep - nothing else. It makes me wish that we had SOLs when I was back in school. Oh...I had a point to this too. I was really jealous of the kids napping while I was proctoring because I was practically falling asleep as I was watching them take the test. I was standing up and walking, but that didn't help much. Seriously...two hours of watching kids take a test on a computer. How exciting is that? And they weren't my students either. Oh well.
30 May 2006 1941 EDT
Joe, Quick FYI - I decided to sell the house. Give me a yell when you get in. -Sonny
Joe ended up walking in the door around ten last night. Before I got to the door to say hi to him, he'd turned around and read the note. He started laughing out loud...exactly the reaction I'd hoped to evoke. I'm such a good people person.
I stayed after school for about an hour today before realizing that I was stood up by one of my students. First my girlfriend and now my students...what's up with that? If I weren't so good looking, I would probably have self esteem issues. Geez...hehe...while the gf is off in Florida enjoying her week off with her best gal pal, I'm being a good bf though. I haven't been calling or texting or anything. In fact, I even wrote a letter and made her a mix CD last night so that I could get it in the mail in time for it to be waiting in her box when she gets back. Nothing says I love you more than a mix CD, I know. I'm such a romantic. It was actually the first mix CD I've ever made. Ian lent me his CD-R spindle, so that helped...and the good people at Aquafresh gave me a few free tracks, so that helped with my playlist too.
And no, don't worry, I won't ruin the surprise by posting it here. She barely ever reads my page...which is strange to me. I mean, I'm such an entertaining writer - everyone reads my page. I like when people read my page. Oh well. That just proves that women don't make sense. I don't have time to worry about it though. I'm finishing my final exam review packet for my students tomorrow. MTF
29 May 2006 1749 EDT
The plan was to get back to use the truck to move some of my things over this afternoon, but it seems like God had something else in store for us. The truck overheated about fifteen minutes out from Yenny's house due to a crack in the radiator, and we pulled over in some business park in Maryland. Yenny called the Uhaul hotline and they said that a tow truck would be dispatched to our location within an hour. Cool, right? I ended up leaving with mommy to grab some lunch over at Subway to bring back and we sat in this little eating area until an hour went by. Yenny calls again and they say it'll be another half hour. Hmm...right? Yeah, eventually...about an hour later, the truck finally shows up. The guy seemed nice enough, but he spent about half an hour diagnosing the problem before signing off and sending us along on our way.
After that, I just came home and chilled. Something about sitting out in the sun for three hours just sucks the energy out of a person, you know? I have no plans for tonight, nor do I intend on making any. I'll try to rehydrate and squeeze in a workout if possible and then get started on some work. We'll see how that goes.