Love it or hate it

I am beginning to realize that I'm going to either have to love the army or hate it. There really is no in between. Not at this point. The army is in every aspect of our lives. We schedule our vacations around it, our weekend trips around it, doctors appointments around it, basically we schedule our lives around the army and the people who lead it and can arbitrarily decide whether or not we can do the things we want/need to do. I never realized that by marrying Cpl D that I too had joined the army. I mean, I knew my life had changed, but I didn't realize that we were essentially going to have to ask his command permission for everything. Permission to visit my parents, permission to go to the doctor, permission to have surgery, permission to go on vacation and for the location we want, permission to re-enlist and when we re-enlist permission to re-enlist for the 25 crappiest or most dangerous jobs in the army. The army controls everything, and from what I have noticed, the more you try to deny it, the more they take over your life.

Early morning wake up call...

Cpl D is basically a poorly paid baby sitter sometimes, and I have to admit that at times it drives me a little crazy. I have been sick all week, and this morning he had to get up at 4:15 am to be at work by 5:30am. Believe me, I don't envy him. He is so sweet though, he always gives me a kiss good-bye in the morning before he leaves, although most mornings I am up already when he leaves. This morning though, I was still passed out because I am still sick, trying to recover in time for a minor surgical procedure I am having next week. At 4:59am Cpl D's cell phone started to vibrate and it immediately woke me up and in an effort to get to it, as he was out of the room, I banged my head into the corner of the wall, so hard in fact that I still have an indentation. I hate starting my day like that. Now I am trying to concentrate and work, neither of which is easy with the splitting headache that I have...

Another example of life in the army, early morning wake up calls.

Facebook

It's official, I'm on Facebook. I've had an account for a while now, not that I've actually done anything with it, but last night Cpl D got one, and this morning I had a friend request from him and one of his friends. Then I started to play around a little. Imagine my surprise at all the people I found on there. People I haven't spoken to since high school are on there, people I have searched and searched for on Myspace but never found are on Facebook. So now I am on both, Myspace and Facebook. I'm sure for now that I will stick with both. I have already reconnected with a really good friend from college and a couple of really good friends from high school, and even a couple of Cpl D's friends. I put a couple of pictures up and we will see where this goes. I know after I graduated from college I dropped off the face of the planet, but now that I have moved out of my home state, I am beginning to realize just how important community is, and I need to rebuild mine, even if everyone in it is 800+ miles away.

Embrace the Suck

Embrace The Suck. That is what you are supposed to do in the Army when something sucks, like the weather or the overall situation. You are supposed to embrace and deal with it. We went to a battery BBQ on Friday for Cpl D's Battery Commander who is leaving this week for an appointment to go teach at West Point and to get his second Masters Degree. I guess you could say the guy is pretty intelligent. For those of you who don't live in Washington, let me give you a glimpse into our Spring so far this year: Rain, Sleet, Snow, Hail, and Sunshine (for about 10 min at a maximum of 45 degrees). During the BBQ we experienced each of these variations of weather. The guys in the battery kept saying "Embrace the Suck". I kept thinking to myself, can't we just go somewhere warm and inside before we all get sick. Now I'm not sure about that "we all" part, but I know one thing is for sure, I am definitely sick. I guess I didn't "Embrace the Suck," and to be honest I have no plans to so in the future either. The only way I am going to a BBQ in the future is if it is a minimum of 85 degrees out and there is no rain, sleet, snow or hail in the forecast!

Army Whiplash

I am now suffering from a severe case of Army Whiplash, or at least that is what I am going to call it. Not 20 minutes after I posted my blog yesterday did Cpl D call me and tell me that 31B was already filled and it wasn't going to happen. In a matter of 24-hours the army had already turned him down. What I really don't understand, and what I really truly want someone to explain to me, and not one of my readers (sorry, but I want an answer from the army this time), is why are they making it so damn hard for someone who genuinely wants to stay in the army to stay in the army? Every time he finds a job that is open, they close, every time he finds a job that he is interested in, nope he doesn't have the right outside the army training (which by the way isn't even listed on the goarmy.com website). It is downright frustrating and to be perfectly frank it is starting to piss me off. For an organization that is having trouble reaching its enlistment goals, let alone its re-enlistment goals, you think they would work a little harder with the soldiers to make sure that they stay in. All this is doing is making us want to finish up the next year and get the hell out. We are not going to do that because that isn't part of our "plan" but it is certainly starting to rub me the wrong way.

I will do my best to keep you posted on Cpl D's re-enlistment and job change status, and in the meantime I am going to schedule myself a massage for my severe case of whiplash!

Things change fast...roll with the punches!

I received a phone call yesterday while I was at work, Cpl D is going from 13M to 68T to 31B. For all of you non-military folk who read my blog that translates thus: 13M is a Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS/HIMARS) crew member - Cpl D's current MOS. 68T is an Animal Care Specialist - which is what Cpl D wanted to do, but it turns out you need to have vocational training for before you even can be considered for the MOS. 31B is Military Police - which is hopefully what Cpl D will be approved to do by the DOD. Things change fast in our lives, so fast that sometimes I don't know what page I'm on. If you can't keep up, I don't really blame you.

We should find out by May 15th if Cpl D has been approved to go to 31B AIT (Advanced Individual Training), which will consist of 12 weeks of training in Missouri. This means I will be home alone, with the attack cats, yet again. The nice thing about 31B, if he is approved and gets through all of the training, is that all military bases have Military Police units, this opens up our choice of duty stations to a lot more options. Who knows we could even end up in Europe.

Go GIANTS!

I'm at home right now, in the bright, sunny, warm, and DRY state of California visiting my wonderful parents for the weekend. Last night I had a W family Spring/Summer tradition for dinner - frozen yogurt, don't knock it till you've tried it. It really hit the spot when I got off the plane and immediately started to sweat. I guess I have finally gotten accustomed to the 30 and 40 degree weather we have every day in Washington, so pretty much anything California could throw at me was going to feel warm.

My morning today started out so wonderfully. I woke up around 8:30, visited with my parents and ran to the Farmer's Market with my mom. Then dad and I went up to the San Francisco Giants game against the St. Louis Cardinals. We took the train up, seeing as I've never actually taken taken the train to a ballgame before it was fun. The game was a pitcher's battle until the bottom of the 6th when the Giants scored 5 runs in the inning. It was starting to look like the Giants were going to run away with the game, but alas, they blew it in extra innings.

While at the game my dad and I did manage to find something that I have been wanting for a very long time, which I am very very excited about. We bought me an "I See Orange People" t-shirt. I have wanted one of these ever since they came out, which I believe was about 5 or 6 years ago the last time they were in the running for the World Series. We also got Cpl D a really cool retro blue t-shirt that I think he will really like too.

I must be off as we are about to go have dinner at one of my favorite Bay Area restaurants, Central Park Bistro, on 4th Ave in San Mateo. If you are ever in San Mateo, CA I highly recommend it.

Our First Field Problem

Cpl D just got home from his first field problem since we got married. He spent 10 days in Yakima, which is high desert in Washington, babysitting a radio living and off of less than 4.5 hours of sleep broken up into 2 and 2.5 hour chunks a day. I stayed home with the cats and was pretty much lonely the whole time. My parents were great, they talked to me every night, even on the nights when I'm pretty sure they wanted nothing more than to just eat dinner and veg out, they kept me company. I read three books, watched re-run tv and several DVDs to keep myself busy. It still felt like a good portion of my life came crashing down...sorry faithful readers, but I will not discuss what aspects came crashing down out of respect for my family and also because I have brought some of the issues to the army, and I'm not really sure I can discuss them on my blog.

Cpl D's homecoming was great. We had a pizza dinner on Thursday night, he got home far too late to cook. We have spent the past 72 hours doing nothing but laundry. Every single item from boots to back packs to socks to sleeping bags had to be washed. Not to mention regular laundry. We have tripped our circuit breaker at least 6 times, we have had to give one cat a bath due to his personal health issues (we actually felt really bad for him), and we still need to vacuum up all of the Yakima dust that Cpl D brought home with him in his ruck sack, duffel bag and back pack. While he was there some of the most immature hi jinks I have ever heard of occurred, and let me tell you, I'm glad he is in the army and not me, with my temperament, I know I would not survive.

I am so glad he is home. I missed him dearly, and I am not looking forward to his upcoming temporary duty assignment to White Sands, New Mexico which has been pushed back to sometime this summer. I am looking forward to Cpl D working on his correspondence courses, making his sergeant, and looking for a new MOS so we can get out of this unit!