Days Four & Five

Did I mention I have a maid this time around? Well, housekeeping. Not a mile from where I woke up before the Sun's alarm clock went off all those years ago...used to have to iron socks and have everything perfect. Even with perfection, in basic training...even when you are right, you are wrong. Now I have my bed made for me.

I haven't left the base since I got here, I know the area well. I am in San Antonio fairly often, I just know what will happen if I go off base...I will also go broke. I make a good living but we aren't millionaires in the military, and even though they pay for my room and to eat each day (not much since we are supposed to eat at the chow hall) there isn't any money for incidentals. If I need something else, I pay for it. I like too many things that have lights and make noise, those things are expensive.

Speaking of “too”...yesterday we had a discussion over how “to” and “too” are used, I can only imagine what will happen when we hit the advanced things in class. Oh and then there was a one hour discussion semi-related to the lesson on bullet statements...it somehow evolved, or devolved I guess, into build-a-bear. Then it is hilarious because they will tell us “We know how you would do it” or “how we should do it” but in the same breath they tell us we are going to do it a different way while in school. So lets learn and absorb everything they “teach” us, so we can turn around and dump it when we get back to work.

I just don't understand the processes. On top of the madness it has still been hot. We broke 80 in the class today. How I have stayed awake and/or not murdered someone is beyond me at this point. I think the guy next to me is saving me, he is British and says some of the craziest things on a whim. I don't have much of a filter between my brain and mouth, but this dude and a couple of others just don't have an off switch. At times it is insanely hilarious, but more often than not...it just gets annoying.

Then there is the other guy from Tennessee in my class...me of course being the other. The guy is hilarious, however I think a lot of it is unintentional. I think I have made an serious effort to try and debunk the thoughts that people associate with my accent, and then I meet guys like this...and he completely undoes everything I have done for 31 years and reinforces that “good ol' boy” running around barefoot imagery. Like I said though, hell of a nice guy, would probably give you the shirt off his back...he is just country as cornbread.

I'm just ready to be done with this, academically I am bored as hell to be quite honest. That and knowing people who I have known over the years that made it through...hell, this blog alone is better written than anything they ever did in class. I'm pretty sure I've got this one sewed up, it's just the formality. They should let you just sit down and take a test and write a paper, you blow it out of the water and they hand you your certificate and call it a day.

I like most the people in the class, some are harder to talk to than others, but that is life. As far as the entire school goes...there are several I want to knock out at the first opportunity. You can spot them early on, the ones gunning for recognition. It's just sad, I would love to see a lot of people outside of this environment to see what they are really like. I'm guessing either clueless or...well, clueless is all I can imagine. There was one guy today at our “icebreaker”(which was one of the lamest things I have ever been to in my life, nothing like forced fun with academia and forced esprit de corps mixed in) who took it upon himself to be the noise police and would yell “HEY!” whenever it got a bit noisy. I never saw the guy and no one else seemed to know who it was either, but we could all hear him. If I knew who it was I guarantee we would have met his ass in the parking lot.

Final note and I will seal this entry with a kiss...what is bugging me the most, everyone except one person in the class and just a couple of instructors ARE ALL THE SAME RANK. Yet some seem to think they need to treat the rest of us like were children or just flat our retarded. Again...I would love to see one of these people out there in the real world, or better yet...put them in the trenches. I think we've got a lot of scared kitties or people with Napoleon complexes who would get eaten up. I'm looking forward to the day when one of these people come at me sideways, get your bail money ready.

Sleeping in for the first time since Korea...sweet