26 April 2007 2200 EDT
26 April 2007 2200 EDT
So I was listening to the radio on the way home today and I heard that the Gin Blossoms are playing a free show in Crystal City next weekend (May 5). Arun will be in town too. Anyone up for going? Just a thought.

Anyway, since complaining about my incredible weight gain over the last few months, I've been ordering an incredible amount of salad when going out and I've been able to work out for at least three straight days. It's a step back over towards the light. Other than that, the lack of sleep and overworking still remain a staple of my daily regimen. I'm looking forward to this weekend to relax though. Saturday will be a half day as I get up at 0500h to head to Richmond for the officer conference. It'll be worth it though. I'm looking forward to getting pinned captain and I'll get to hang out with all of my fellow alumni from class 43.

Other than that, nothing much has changed. My final day before heading off to my train-up and mobilization looks to be June 5th though. I leave on June 6 for our final check and then head from there to mob station for a few months before saying good-bye to the US of A. Interesting day for me to leave, huh? Anyway, that pretty much leaves memorial day weekend as probably my last time to really get together with everyone before the send-off. So with that in mind, what say you to karaoke jam at my place? Hehe...just a thought.

23 April 2007 2123 EDT
23 April 2007 2123 EDT
I guess you know my day couldn't have been too rough if I've actually got time at the end to blog about it. Granted, it started off when my alarm clock went off at 0500h this morning and followed with a three-hour drive down to Fort Pickett. In the end, I got out of the office with the sun still up, and I even had a chance to take a leisurely stroll around the Wal-mart in town after stuffing myself with chinese take-out.

I came down here to Fort Pickett this time to start the first phase of what I think is the most important part of my job for this deployment. With me being the personnel officer (for the most part), one of my most important roles is making sure that we have all the right people in the right positions when the whole thing kicks off. That means sweeping our rosters clean of a few hundred non-deployable soldiers and filling our ranks with qualified ones. The first transfers took place today and will continue going up to and through our mobilization. But the biggest steps will occur in the next few days here, and it is kinda exciting for myself and the rest of the HR personnel down here.

Speaking of exciting, I had a chance to watch Disturbia with the gf yesterday. It was funny because the ticket counter girl told us about how the movie wasn't all that suspenseful until that last fifteen minutes or so...and it was so true. The movie itself was a lot of fun, but not really scary or suspenseful until the end. But when that part came...boy did it come. You should have seen the gf squirming in her seat and talking to the characters on the screen, pleading with them not to open the door or walk down the hallway for fear that the killer would get them. It was almost embarassing how emotional she got over the movie. Good thing there weren't too many other people in the theater...maybe a dozen or so. Oh, and yeah...when I say that it was the gf doing all that, I guess what I really meant was that it was me. Go figure.

21 April 2007 0045 EDT
21 April 2007 0045 EDT
It felt so good to pull into my parking spot at home tonight...just a little past midnight. It was the third of the last four weeks I've spent on the road, and this last trip around the state really took its toll on me. It started in Staunton on Monday when we sat down with the G-staff and brigade headquarters to brief a whole bunch of things. I think there were three or four full-bird colonels and a bunch of other high-ranking officers there, along with lieutenant promotable/captain me. I basically worked all week staring at a handful of spreadsheets before screwing up an early morning brief to the brigade commander on Thursday. I just stumbled a little bit because I was a little excitable. But fortunately, I was to redeem myself with a redo a few hours later with the XO by my side. In the end, I think we got what we needed to get done in order to get the 70-80% solution to the manning piece for our upcoming deployment.

With that done, though, it was off to the beach to join the rest of the commanders, executive officers, and staff of the battalion. I showed up around 8:00 on Thursday night, just in time to grab dinner with the crew at a little Japanese steakhouse where I ended up having to tell the 85% story again. We talked a little shop, too, which was to be expected. In all honesty, that was the point of the whole trip down to the beach - to be able to talk the personnel piece with all of the commanders.

Anyway, I got a little bit of sleep after that, and spent the morning preparing some documents to hand off to all of the commanders before the two-hour impromptu meeting we had before departing the beach. A few of us grabbed lunch on our way up to Fredericksburg from there. I changed into my civilian clothes when I got there...in my car in a parking lot behind Best Buy or something. It was our "big night out" with all of the commanders and primary staff at the Melting Pot there. It was a lot of fun...though it did kinda last almost four hours before I snuck off to head home. It was a cool hourlong drive home from there. I talked to the gf on the phone for a little bit to help keep me awake.

And of course, I'm home now. I'm tired as anything, but I did take a few seconds to weigh myself. The scale dialed in at 180 lbs...very interesting considering that I ate out for almost every meal this last week and only exercised once. Next week starts off with Monday at Fort Pickett and who-knows-what after that. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that I'll get a chance to spend at least a night or two in my own bed. MTF

15 April 2007 2255 EDT
15 April 2007 2255 EDT
Four hours may not seem like a long time, but it's about as much free time as I've had in a while. After leaving the armory today, I spent my four hours accomplishing the following:

- visiting the parents for dinner
- spending $50 at Target on nothing that I really needed
- finding out that TurboTax does not let you file electronically for an extension
- searching the irs.gov website for about half an hour before figuring out how to file electronically for an extension
- talking on the phone a little bit with the gf
- importing the new Ataris album into iTunes
- doing one load of laundry and packing for another week of travel

I should probably have thrown in a workout and a haircut in there, but whatever. I'm pretty happy with what I accomplished and it's time for bed now. One of these days, I'm gonna sleep in.

14 April 2007 2231 EDT
14 April 2007 2231 EDT
It is now official. As of yesterday, with our mobilization order and subsequent press release from our state public affairs office for the Virginia Guard, I am now free to talk about our unit being mobilized in support of OIF. Most of you know already, but I've been working full-time at the armory for the last two months now for pre-mobilization stuff. At the same time, I've accomplished such great things as the following:

- putting an average of 110 miles on my car every day
- reducing my average nightly sleep from eight hours to six
- gaining seven pounds
- earning an income for the first time in about eight months
- skipping class after class after class for grad school
- averaging at least four meals a week at Sheetz

I've also become the target of some very friendly ribbing, some of it based in small part on the following story. You see, as mobilization creeped closer and closer, the time I've been able to spend with the gf has become less and less. If you can imagine my previous life of being an unemployed student and contrast it with the hectic lifestyle that is the mobilization of a guard unit, you can imagine how much of a change that must've been for the relationship. Anyway, over the last few weeks, we'd talked about relationships and whatnot, and the topic of how well our relationship would hold up over the course of an overseas deployment seemed inevitable. Having been through one deployment already and seeing the impact it had on the marriages of young soldiers within my unit, I talked about my expectations and concerns. You know, I've read my relationship books, so I think it's important to be open and realistic about this stuff. Anyway, for reasons which I can't remember, I found it necessary to quantify the odds of our relationship holding up. In the end, I produced what I thought was a very generous number that all would be happy with...85%. Let me tell you - not the right answer. For you guys out there, the best answer in a situation like that...100%.

Anyway, I have to get up early again in the morning to head in for PT. MTF

13 April 2007 0021 EDT
13 April 2007 0021 EDT
One thing that tends to be sacrificed when I fall into my workaholic habits is my diet. Second is my exercise regimen, but diet...bad. I've eaten way too much Sheetz over the last few weeks. The gf gets mad at me whenever I do that. I've also had way too many burgers and I've had way too much sweet tea over the last few weeks. I've gone from averaging 2000 Calories or so every day to bouncing back and forth from 2000-5000 Calories per day. It all depends. Tonight was a pretty crazy night for me. I stayed at work until about 10:00 or so and didn't get home until 11:30 or so, after a stop at Sheetz to fill up on gas and to pick up dinner/breakfast and another bottle of extra sweet iced tea. I've gained about seven pounds or so since I started a few months ago and gone from working out about five or six times a week to just about twice. I'll start PTing with my guys more once things settle down, but it really has been kinda crazy. Right now, it's looking like I'll even have to drive down to Virginia Beach again next week, once drill is over this weekend.

Basically, with the gf heading down to Florida this next week to hang with her sisters, I'm gonna go balls to the wall this next week and work crazy hours so that I can maybe take a day or two off in May before it's too late. It's bedtime though. Who knows when I'll update again.

06 April 2007 2148 EDT
06 April 2007 2148 EDT
*Deep Breath* Wow, I feel like I've been at an all-out sprint for the last two weeks or so, and I've just now had a chance to catch my breath. I know it's just been paperwork that I've been doing; but I've been learning so much, and it feels like this stuff is the most important paperwork I'll ever do. I've been on travel since what seems like forever, and I've only spent a handful of hours in my own house over the last few weeks. There was the trip to Pickett, followed by Shelby, followed by Virginia Beach. It's been crazy, one after the next, with just a few hours in between here and there. Most of that time, I've tried to spend with Anna or family or both. I haven't had a chance to keep up with Ben and Thuy much though...and it's crazy because I just talked to them on the phone today, and so much is going on. Ben got accepted to UVa business school, and Thuy's parents sold their house and are moving in with him for the interim. In addition, Craig is in town for the weekend and we're gonna try to get together tomorrow for an all out chill session.

There is just so much going on. Oh, and my promotion orders came through on Wednesday. I'm not gonna wear the rank until they do a little formal thing, but I've had a bunch of people calling my Captain over the last few months and it definitely feels good. Um...and Lenny and Steph and Elie have decided that they'll live in my old house, so that's awesome news too. Just so many good things going on at once. I'm almost afraid to bring them all up right for fear of jinxing it all. But yeah, good stuff. Baptism is on Easter Sunday, so I'll see the rest of the fam this weekend too. Can you ask for anything more? Oh yeah, Lenny mentioned will-writing party and I need to do that too. Anyone up for it one of these upcoming weekends? We can talk it over this weekend. for now, I need to catch up with Anna and her sister for a celebratory dinner at Outback.

27 March 2007 0031 EDT
27 March 2007 0031 EDT
I should really be asleep right now, but I thought I would share my exciting day before turning in. I'm in a hotel in Mississippi right now, and the Tonight Show is playing softly on the television while the A/C is humming in the background. I just finished downing a plate full of cheese fries and half of a salad at the Outback about a block away with two of the other officers on our staff. We only ate so late because the flights and connectors took so long. It'd been nearly eight hours since I had eaten my lunch of leftover lasagna from almost two weeks ago. I'm not sure if it was the lasagna or the big bowl of cereal with milk, but something gave me some pretty bad gas throughout the flight...it was pretty uncomfortable.

On the last connector flight, I ended up sitting next to the S4. It was fun; he showed me a few fancy excel functions before we started working together on the crossword puzzle in the airline magazine in the seat in front of him. Our XO was sitting in the seat in front of us as wel; and sadly, he had about 50% more of his puzzle done before we all gave up. Oh, apple juice was good, too, and free. It was my first experience with airlines charging for stuff too. Alcoholic drinks were five dollars and a half-stack of pringles was two dollars.

I guess I'm a little all over the place tonight because I'm actually a little tired. I think I'll head to bed and share more tomorrow. MTF

25 March 2007 0104 EDT
25 March 2007 0104 EDT
And the hits keep on keeping on. The battalion training meeting was tonight; and though a few of the field grades were out conducting other business, it was a great time. Two officers who we hadn't seen in over a year came back to go through the SRP with us. And while I'm sure it was a bit of a pain/inconvenience for them, it was nice to see the familiar faces. In fact, we got together with a bunch of the O's and just sat around a picnic table and talked for the rest of the night until now...almost 1:00 in the morning.

Anyway, I'd stay and type more, but I'm actually packing up to head back up North after class tomorrow. I think I'll try to stay the night back in NoVa and try to change my flight leaving from Richmond to either Dulles or DCA. We'll see how that works out.

23 March 2007 2235 EDT
23 March 2007 2235 EDT
Sometimes, I have so much fun, I forget I'm even working. Okay, maybe not. But honestly, I've been having a pretty good time these last few days. And tonight, a whole bunch of other officers arrived, and we got a little bit of staff work in before heading out to Mitchell's for dinner. I had a healthy dinner consisting of a gyro w/salad, wings, bloomin' onion (non-trademarked), nachos, shrimp, and more. Hmmm...it doesn't sound so healthy when I put it that way. Anyway, months from now, I can see stories of tonight being told, to include gay references, stripper stories, and little folding fans.

That said, I feel a little bad about the amount of work I ended up getting done today because I was caught up in class from about 0700h this morning until 1700h this afternoon. We even worked our class straight through lunch. I got a bit of stuff done afterwards and before dinner, but I'll probably have to cover down on a few things tomorrow when I'm face-to-face with everyone at the training meeting.

Oh well...I'll head to bed a little earlier tonight and we'll see how things go tomorrow. MTF.

22 March 2007 2139 EDT
22 March 2007 2139 EDT
My apologies for the lack of update last night. I actually ended up staying out with a bunch of people from the class after our evening session and had a bunch of drinks and mexican food at Aculpulco's. That and the one chinese take-out place by Wal-Mart accounts for just about all of your ethnic cuisine here in Blackstone unless you count Brother's pizza as italian. Anyway, it was a good time yesterday, but I didn't get home until nearly 2300h. From there, I just did a little bit of work returning e-mails and working on handouts and stuff until just a little past midnight, and then I went to sleep.

Today was actually very low-key on the class side of the house. A bunch of our classes ended up getting cancelled, so we really only got a three-hour block of instruction from the G1 section followed by a brief about chaplains and their employment within the Army. We also had a class cook-out in the late afternoon, but that was about it. While that seems somewhat unproductive for a day of class, I ended up with a lot of time to work on issues from my regular job.

This evening, though, I ended up going to Pickett Lanes with a bunch of the guys from our battalion. Unfortunately, I had left my bowling bag about three feet from my front door. It is almost always in the trunk of my car, but the last few car trades with my dad had me leaving the ball and shoes in the house. Not to make excuses or anything, but I got off to a slow start. I finally hit my stride in the sixth frame of my first game when I switched to my third ball, and then I was on fire after that. My first game was pretty sad...something like 80 or 90-something. My second game was a 130-something, though, and I finished strong with a 160. I think 382 was my total for the series, not too bad considering I did it all with my left hand. I'm getting pretty comfortable with that these days, and I can pick up a good majority of my spares now.

Anyway, I'm starting to get a little excited because the rest of the battalion starts rolling in the next few days and we'll have our battalion training meeting on Saturday night. Gotta love it.

20 March 2007 2122 EDT
20 March 2007 2122 EDT
So after two days down here in Fort Pickett, I've been declared fully medical ready and deployable...should the need arise. I was most scared of the little dental screening they had set up for us, but that turned out okay. When the dentist was going through the guy in front of me, he was just yelling out numbers representing the position of each tooth and then some scary dental term describing what was wrong with each one. When the dentist finished up with me, though, it turned out that I was cavity-free, but he added that it was probably a good idea that I go in for a cleaning...pretty good considering that I haven't had a cleaning in about five years. But yeah, I was okay.

It was actually nice to get my shots today too. I got my flu shot as well as my meningococcal shot to finish up my vaccinations today. My tetanus and all of my hep serieses were still good from the last time, as was my smallpox. Anyway, it was cool because I just barely squeezed in donating blood with Ben and Thuy this weekend. If I'd waited any longer, I wouldn't have been able to donate because of the shots...so that made me happy.

That was about it for the exciting stuff. The rest of it was your standard waiting in line to do your standard paperwork. When I finished up with my SRP, I went back to the computer and finished with a few hours of extra paperwork and e-mail correspondence chasing down lots of little issues. My only real relaxing break for the day was actually this morning. After going to bed at 9:30 or so last night, I got up at 6:00 and snuck in a 3-mile+ run in the morning. With some luck, I'll be able to get a few more of those in during the next week. It makes a big difference when you don't have two hours of driving to do every day.

19 March 2007 2155 EDT
19 March 2007 2155 EDT
I write to you today from beautiful Fort Pickett, VA. I came down early today, ahead of the rest of the battalion so that I could go through all of the soldier readiness processing before starting the pre-command course on Wednesday. I head down for a trip to the gulf coast after that. Of course, the flight I'm taking has two stops along the way - so what should be a two-hour flight ends up taking closer to eight. Go figure. Anyway, I'll be down South for a few days before flying back, and that'll take me all the way up until next Friday. Then it'll be one more day to get things set for SFC Shouse's retirement party and then I'll have one day off before going back to work.

Oh well...that's my life these days. I've got about a week or two of travel for each of the next few months and who knows how much after that. And sometime in the middle, I need to catch up on my homework and do my taxes. We'll see how that works out.

17 March 2007 2240 EDT
17 March 2007 2240 EDT
Pretty cool day today after having a little sleepover at Ben's yesterday with him and Thuy. I went from Ben's place to Lenny's to hang out with the fam for a while before linking back up with the boys at CentreMed to donate blood. Then I came home and the gf came over before heading over to work for a release tonight. We had dinner over at the Blue Water Grille where we had an awesome dinner while my new favorite cover band was playing at the bar. The Paul Miner Band started their St.Patrick's day set with 3am by Matchbox 20, and followed up with songs from BTE, Tonic, Pearl Jam, Train, Mayer, and Jack Johnson. Yeah, and dinner was good too.

Oh yeah...yesterday night, we ended up going to Blockbuster to pick up a few movies after Tech rocked their first round game. Anyway, we ended up watching the movie Vampires vs. Zombies because the title just sounded so awesomely outrageous. After 70 minutes of viewing, though, we realized that the movie had very little to do with vampires, less to do with zombies, and even less to do with being a movie with anything resembling a plot. Yeah, it sucked. But hey, you're more than welcome to come over it and borrow it if you're in the mood for something really sucky.

Anyway, things are getting busier and busier for me this next few weeks. I'll be down at Fort Pickett and beyond for a few weeks while I skip class and miss out on some homework. I'll be back at the end of the month though. Hopefully, I won't have gained too much weight from travel.

13 March 2007 2133 EDT
13 March 2007 2133 EDT
It's always nice to sit back on a work night and do nothing when I get home. Usually, there's class or a conference call or I try to squeeze in time with the gf...all worthwhile things, but stuff that tends to drain me. Tonight, the plan is to stuff myself (already done with lasagna and pie), work out, cut my hair and sleep. I also got a chance to go through a few hours on my DVR, clip coupons from the last two Sunday papers, and install Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 on my computer...compliments of Microsoft and the US Army. Lots of little stuff, I know. I just need to work on cleaning up around the house one of these days.

Hmm...wow, look at the time. I'd better get started on my workout. BTW...I would've blogged about this, but everyone else already has. Lenny and Steph had a little baby last Friday, my niece, Eliana.

07 March 2007 2133 EST
07 March 2007 2133 EST
I do get excited about humpday these days as I've started to recognize the days of the week again. Even better today was the fact that my prof went ahead and cancelled class tonight, allowing me to come home, eat leftovers from meals that the gf cooked for me this week, and catch up on episodes of the daily show and colbert from the last few weeks. I was tempted to do work out a little too, but I opted to eat more chocolate instead.

Anyway, I guess I'm a little excited tonight because I had such a productive day. I sent out a bazillion e-mails, sat in on a two-hour con call, typed up two pretty complicated memos, and did a bunch of other random tasks. And now, I get home and I think I'm going to maybe even get to bed early enough to squeak out eight hours of sleep. I just hope the weather isn't too bad in the morning. It took me almost ten minutes to clear the ice off of my car before heading home today.

03 March 2007 2150 EST
03 March 2007 2150 EST
Seriously, my blogging has been so erratic as of late. I can't believe it is March already, and I only made half a dozen entries last month. It's been a tough transition for me going from nearly a year as an unemployed student bum to working full-time with two hours of commuting every day. I feel kinda bad that I haven't been able to spend as much time with the gf either...and that I've been slacking a little in my classes...and I've been eating very poorly while my exercise regimen has severely turned for the worse...and my bank account is nearly empty. Hmm...that doesn't sound so good, does it? Seriously, though, things will get better.

There are actually a lot of positives to point out, so here's a little list to get me back to my optimistic self:

- my nametapes finally came in so I have been wearing my new uniforms for the last few days
- my name showed up on the captain's list that came out at the end of last week, so I should be getting promoted soon
- I'm staying in a nice hotel room with a king-sized bed this weekend, all paid for by the Army
- I had a chance to go out with Tommy on Thursday and catch up on everything...he actually had a friend in Afghanistan who randomly saw my fight too...that was a neat coincidence
- I got a comment from one of my seniors from last year who's now a hokie
- I caught up with one of my friends from the old ultimate blogger days

Oh, Joe moved out this weekend too. I feel bad that I didn't really get a chance to say goodbye. But I will be on travel down at the beach in a few weeks, and I might be able to grab lunch or dinner with him, depending on whether I end up with day or night shift for the warfighter. Also, Roo will probably be leaving country in the next week. I haven't really caught up with him since he got married. I feel bad about that.

Things have been going well though. I didn't want to end this entry on a downer. I'm about to head out for a wild night with the guys out here in Staunton. Hehe...we'll see how that goes.

27 February 2007 0013 EST
27 February 2007 0013 EST
So they didn't cancel class today, but something good did come from this snow storm. You see, there's this really annoying speed bump in my neighborhood. You hit it when you turn from Stone and then on the Stonepath and then on to Creekstone. Well, you used to hit it. After the plow came through sometime yesterday, the speed bump was gone. I love it.

Today was pretty laid back at work as things are slow on Mondays with a lot of people taking four-day weeks across the State. So with little distractions, I actually got a lot done before heading to campus to cram in a final two hours of studying with Charley before the test. I'm thinking I got somewhere in the 80s or so, pre-curve. Not bad, but we'll see for real next week when I get my test back. After the test, though, I just came home, worked out, cut my hair, and then ate a bowl of chili. Does life get any better than this?

25 February 2007 2147 EST
25 February 2007 2147 EST
So last week was a lot of fun down at Fort Pickett. Two of my classmates from OCS were down there as well as all of the commanders from our battalion, so it was a good time. I ate a lot of junk food during that three day period as well, with my only PT being a leisurely three-mile run on Thursday morning. I learned a lot though and I took a lot of notes. Of course, it'll probably take me another day or two to consolidate all of my notes so that I can start applying what I learned. The most useful parts of the three-day session were the introductions to all of the tracking systems the Army has to keep personnel information updated about soldiers, from regular enlistment data to finance and medical stuff and security stuff. I mean, ideally, they would all be on the same system, right? But yeah, we know better than to actually expect that to be the case. It was entertaining, though, and I'll be back to work in Winchester tomorrow.

On Saturday, I had lunch at the parents with Anna and then I stopped by Belvoir to pick up my nametapes for my Advanced Combat Uniforms that I purchased a week earlier. I've been so excited to wear them because 1) they don't require ironing and 2) because just about everyone else is wearing them. But I get to clothing sales in Belvoir and they said that my order never came in. In fact, my order was cancelled for some reason...probably because it wasn't paid for, says the lady. This is hilarious to me because they wrote all of the information down in the binder when I went to Belvoir last week. And so I asked her to show me the binder and there is my name, all crossed out. I wonder to myself how this could possibly happen since they require everyone to pay in advance...which I did. But knowing that the cashier could do nothing to help me, I tried to keep from getting too upset and went ahead and put in another order. I also put in an online order when I got home so that I wouldn't have to wait any longer if they're not ready by next weekend when I'll be down in Staunton. Anyhow, I was pretty upset.

Today, there was snow and snow and snow. I just spent the last four hours or so finishing up my physics homework for tomorrow and studying for my test. I'd spent about three or four hours doing the same while I was down at Pickett too. Still, I'm not feeling very well about where I'm at. I'll need at least an hour or so of cramming tomorrow. I hope I can squeeze it in sometime. Even better would be a snow day, but the weather forecast doesn't make it seem very likely at this point. We'll see though. Until then...

20 February 2007 2323 EST
20 February 2007 2323 EST
First off, happy new year, piggies. Jane and Yenny were somewhat missing from this year's festivities, but Ian and the aunt and uncle were around, as well as Juniorita and her soon-to-be-parents. Anyway, I took that particular day to announce my new job to my family...not quite sure how everyone took it, but I'm kinda excited to be making money again. I'm gonna try to keep up with two of my classes while commuting an hour each way to and from Winchester every day, so we'll see how long that'll last. With some luck, until the end of the semester.

Anyhow, I had a few things planned for this week, but it looks like I'll be heading down to Fort Pickett for the rest of the week, and everything else will pretty much be put on hold. I wish I had more to share, but I've just been spending a little bit of money here and there...on CDs and uniforms and on random bedroom stuff. I've done about three loads of laundry in the last 24 hours and ironed what hopes to be my last uniforms until my new nametapes get sewn and stuff. You see, the new army uniforms (not really new, but new to me...about $250 new) aren't supposed to be ironed, so I'm kinda excited about that. Plus, the black boots get replaced by the deserts and that means no more polishing. Good deal, huh?

With that said, I'm going to bed. I need to be up in five hours to drive another three so that I can sit in class for another eight. Don't be jealous.