Quick update

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!

Back to Life

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.

New Mexico Dreamin'

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 since I've seen them, and I'm so anxious to see them again.

Back to Civilian

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 still had a long moment to ourselves. We drove back to Broomfield, and of course I had to make the rounds and see everyone before I could do anything. Everyone was very happy to see me. Ashley and I spent a few minutes alone to catch up. I went home, laid down on my nice, firm, new mattress, slipped under the covers instead of sleeping on top, punched my artificial feather pillows instead of my drool-resistant plastic pillow, and fell asleep. This morning, I slept in. I'm not sure what I'll do this morning, but I know one thing; I'll decide what I'm doing.

Graduation

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 marched over to the IET Rec Center, and released. Those whose families had watched the ceremony were there to congratulate them.

Right after we all got back to the company, a few people were ready to throw all their belongings in their vehicles and leave. Graham and Justin loaded up and left the room feeling much emptier, but Graham left me a surprise. He had given his guitar to the room at large, and even though Dunn wanted it, Blanski thought Graham had left it for me. So now I have a little piece of Graham to take home. Plus, when he gets famous, I'll be able to show it off and say he played it in AIT.

Now, Blanski and I are hanging out at Godfather's Pizza, just relaxing and reminiscing. We both leave Monday, and couldn't be more glad to leave. Hopefully we can have some fun this weekend, but even if we don't I'll be happy just to be done. I'm coming home!

End of Days

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 before we can finish our paperwork, so I decided to start that this morning. Once again, I sort of skipped school. I was told that clearing medical and dental was a valid excuse, so I went along with it. I got my records just fine, but a lot of people were doing the same as me (skipping school to clear), and there was a rumor that they had moved the test from Thursday to Wednesday, today. So we all scrabled to get rides out to SIB in time for the test.

Getting back to SIB, we learned that they were not, in fact, testing out today. However, they were extremely upset at the fact that half of the students hadn't shown up to SIB, and were seriously considering classing back everyone they could get their hands on, and make them graduate after Exodus. I was very worried there for a few minutes. Eventually, they decided to drop the ordeal. And at the end of the day, they announced that their schedule had changed, so everybody got administrative GOs on their SIB test. We don't have to go back! That's the end of our formal training. We are done!

SIB Fun

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" which I highly recommend if you want to stab your eyes out. It's funny, but almost stupidly frustrating. It has the feel of a family movie like "Cheaper by the Dozen" but its meant for adults. Anyway, we also hit all of the strip malls for Christmas gifts and had dinner at Logan's Steakhouse. After dinner we sort of went separate ways. I didn't feel like getting smashed, so Blanski and I headed back to post. But it was a good last weekend with Graham and Justin.

Tomorrow I guess we have some kind of Safety Briefing that's mandatory across the entire brigade, so there's no way of getting out of it. I just hope they don't make it long and boring like I know they will.

Living it up

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 I went. I'm just saying it could have been organized better beforehand instead of doing this the morning of. That night, there was also a mandatory concert of a country singer who wrote a song about the Signal Corps. Again, fun event, but not exactly what I had in mind.

Today I'm just enjoying the newfound freedom of the barracks. I think I could handle living like this for the rest of AIT.

Hell Week

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!