Chris' Updates

Ok, quick update before the New Year's Party at Kristen's. I inprocessed with the 651st ASG on Thrusday, and they told me that the next drill was the 6th, 7th and 8th. Right thru the middle of my vacation. So I moved that to the 2nd thru the 5th, Monday to Thrusday. Ashley and I went to the cemetery in Ft. Morgan this morning and visited her father; that was very sombre and peaceful. She's still angry at him, but she's getting better. Tonight is the party at Kristen's as usual, but Jackie's in Georgia with her family, and Kelly's pissed off that we didn't go to her and Will's house. That's ok, we're still expecting Holly and her Chris, possibly Lyssa and her boyfriend, possibly Ed, and lots of other people we haven't seen. Should be fun!

I'm back from New Mexico today. I had an excellent trip. Once again, I got to see the New Mexico tradition of luminarias ; dozens of candles in paper bags lining the streets to lead baby Christ to each home. It's beautiful to see them. We also went shopping in Santa Fe and saw the new Narnia movie. Very relaxing trip. Now that I'm back home, I have a lot to get figured out before school begins. First, I have to inprocess with my Army unit here at home, and find out what's going on there. I have to arrange my CU schedule and finances, then hopefully a job and a new place to live. And somehow, I'm supposed to this all with about a week to work with, since Ashley and I are going to Glenwood Springs for a vacation next Wednesday thru Sunday. That's going to be so much fun! Oh, so much to do.

This week has been quiet. Really quiet. It's so nice being able to do anything. It takes a little getting used to. I don't have to wake up or eat at a particular time, so sometimes I just don't. My room's such a mess, and I'm a little overwhelmed at having so much stuff to organize. One could argue that I have a lot new military gear to throw into my old mix, but I think I'm still not used to having so much personal stuff at one time. I've exchanged gifts with a few people, and I'm pretty happy with the spread so far. The highlight was Ashley's gift; a pair of Bose Triport headphones! Not noise-cancelling, but extremely high quality nonetheless. I tried to drive down to New Mexico this morning, but I got a late start, and then my car was acting up. The steering was shimmying above 60MPH, so I had to take it to a shop and cancel the trip until tomorrow. I guess that's ok, but I still haven't seen Mom or any of my family. It's been so long ...

My god it's good to be back. Yesterday was a frantic rush. The remaining Reserve and National Guard students that were PCS'ing all gathered in Darling hall to outprocess. We waited in a large lecture hall for an hour and a half, only to find out we were in the wrong room. We found the right room, filled out the last bit of paperwork, got a very informative and useful briefing from the liason's office, then got our flight times. My flight was later than I wanted, but at least I'd be back in Denver the same day. I shipped my guitar, which cost me my firstborn son almost. I tired to get my laptop cord back from DS Castillo, but he was busy and the cab was waiting, so I'll have to buy a new one. The flight was excruciatingly long. The faster you want to get somewhere, the slower time passes. Finally, in Denver, I walked up the escalator and looked longingly for Ashley. Turned out, she found me first and walked up behind me. Not the triumphant entrance I wanted, but we s...

Yesterday was pretty quiet. I cleared the library and the PX, so I'm done getting paperwork for Monday morning. Other than that, I shipped my foot locker home and got my uniform ready. Exciting, I know. In the afternoon we had a graduation practice. Today was more eventful. We all got dressed up in our military finest and went to an early lunch. There was a lot of goodbyes and exchanging of addresses. It had finally hit us that this was the last time we'd be all together in one place. Eighteen weeks had come down to this; one little ceremony. We marched over to Alexander Hall beneath Signal Towers. To pass a few minutes, the drill sergeants had a few people do impressions. The ceremony itself was fairly short and sweet. It contained a few theatrical sections with the history of the Signal Corps, the Signal Soldier's Creed and the Drill Sergeant's Creed. Right on cue, we all recited the Soldier's Creed. And just like that, we were fully qualified soldiers. We were ma...

It's been a hectic few days this week. The Safety Show on Sunday was thoroughly jarring, switching from the Signal Corps Band playing a traditional Christmas hymn to tales of stupid people getting killed on Exodus to a live rendition of Adam Sandler's "Hanukkah Song." But there was a high point involving a female Navy petty officer in a scanty Mrs. Clause outfit singing "Santa, Baby" to Sergeant Major. That was nice. Monday I shammed out of school for the first time since I've been here. I got a doctor's appointment in the afternoon and just didn't bother to go in the morning. Instead, I got some hi-speed boot waxes and a heat gun and got a very sexy-looking pair of boots. Boring, huh? Oh, and the doctor's appointment? The mole on the back of my head isn't cancerous, just annoying. Tuesday was rather normal, but after SIB we were herded to the Ops office to pick up our out-processing packets. There are a few places we have to stop by befo...

It's been a very mixed week. The most significant change has been the move from classroom to SIB, Systems Integrated Branch. So far this week, I've pulled up a 40-foot field antenna, been a commo chief and seeing that all systems are up and running, been alternate NCS and kept everybody on the radio net on track and playing nicely, and got to work a radio from inside a rusted-up M60 tank. It's been hella busy, but I'm enjoying the challenges. As for life, I had to move back to the Dawg Pound on Tuesday. I spent 4 glorious days in the overflow barracks, just to have it ripped away from me. The most frustrating part was moving all of my junk back. I guess I accumulated a lot of stuff over 4 months. Today's been more relaxing. Blanski, Allen, Short and I went off-post to enjoy our last weekend all together - Allen and Short get to drive home to Mississippi next Friday. We went out to the mall for a bit, then to the movie theater. We all watched "Just Friends"...

Things calmed down a little bit. Friday, we had SIB orientation and learned how to hoist a 40-foot antenna system. Not too shabby. But Friday night I was busy moving all my stuff over here to the 5+ barracks! Holy crap I'm so excited! The showers are hot and consistently clean. All of the doors are weighted to close automatically, and the supervisors actually perfer that they stay closed. No drill sergeants harrassing us constantly. Five guys to an entire room sized for eight. Its so nice! Yesterday was a bit frustrating at first, because they actually wanted us to do stuff. Saturday morning and here we are, awake and standing outside at 0430, freezing. The entire company had to participate in urban warfare training at a site on the other side of the firing range, about 20 minutes away. There were so many people that we had to be divided into 3 waves, and yet they wouldn't let us go do whatever if we were on a later wave. It ended up being pretty fun actually, and I'm glad ...

This week isn't exactly as I had planned it. The schoolhouse was the same as usual, but back here at the barracks the drill sergeants are going haywire. Monday night they didn't release us and had us clean the barracks all night, or in other words we had a GI Party. Tuesday night wasn't too bad, but we still had training so we were still busy. Last night they were just as pissed off as Monday, so we GI Partied again. They're talking about locking us down almost as bad as Basic. Timed showers. Extra guard duties. Locked down formations. Tonight was vastly eased up because we had a good inspection today. They're talking about more changes still. But this sounds like good news; we might be moving into the old Phase 5+ barracks like we were supposed to a month ago! No drill sergeants in the halls, working heaters, hot showers, and no drill sergeants in the halls. Tell you all about it soon!