My physician perscribed me sunglasses cause my future is so bright

Hello all, and welcome back to the show. For those of you who are facebook-less, this was a snapshot of me after I finished running 4 miles for the first time at a 6.0 pace. It only took 3 tries to do it, but we pulled it off. I was walking funnily afterwards for sure! When I walked out of the gym some guys were smoking and I thought I'd have a celebratory cigarette. The cowboy killer did not help, and I about threw up. Thank Him that I quit smoking.

For once the title to a post is remotely similar to what I'm about to write about. As I was talking to my friend in China, my future is only frustrating because of all the positive choices/opportunities which lay before me here. As long as I can stay out of the bars here I think I'm going to be just fine. Yeah, my life is real hard.

Good news! I was cleared to take one class of college this summer! I am lead to believe this is almost unprecedented with my LPO (leading petty officer aka work supervisor) in letting a suborinate start school so early in checking into a command, but I think she saw how serious I was in continuing my education. Though it isn't the four classes I wanted to take, it isn't none at all in the same breath. I think I'll take my hardest class, chemistry with a lab (5 credit class) first to knock it out and get it out of the way. After that I'll take micro economics (3rd time is the charm so they say), intro to anthropology, and then intro to mass communications. When those for classes are finished, because of all the college credit I have obtained through the navy and as a civilian at UWGB, I will have earned my associates degree. From there I will continue to tear up the classroom and by the time I leave Japan I want to have a bachaloers degree with me to my next command. In essence by New Years, I will have at least one degree. Pretty cool, huh?

So I went fishing for the first time today. Japan does not have fishing licenses or age/catch limits which is very convienent. I had to go out to a civilian bait shop to pick up worms. That was a treat, take aside from the obvious language barriers, Japanese worms are not American worms. For one they have much more defined segments, little legs/feelers along its body, and they have a mouth that apparently bit a little bit (which I didn't find out until I brought the worms back to the outdoor center on base). No, I didn't catch anything, but it was just relaxing to bask in the Sun and sit there to think, ponder, and plan my path. There are fishing trips every Sunday and I will capitalize on that when I can.

I passed my driver's test and I now have a government issued license. Not sure what I can exactly drive, but I'm assuming it is for government vehicles only. Because I don't have a car here I'm not too concerned at the moment.

This is the last week that my current roommate is here before he leaves for San Diego. It isn't like I have a problem with him, but because I arrived here after him I in a way feel inferior and the beta rommate. When he leaves I'll be happier and can lay claim to all cleaning, arranging, and walking around the barracks naked is always a plus ;) . Still no word on my Portsmouth classmate, Garcia. Apparently the the navy is really jagging him around. I feel very bad for him, but he'll eventually get here.

Last night a guy knocked on my door to ask me what I was doing. This is a habit I hope becomes more frequent. Unfortunately I had things to do at the clinic, and it was past my bedtime the way it was. Next week I'll be back in the clinic instead of running around base doing indoc stuff; the more face time with everyone can only help me.

Though I forgot to tell this story. On Cinco de Mayo I was in a room with a guy who was playing a video game via Internet with another corpsmen down the hall. The guy who was in the other room, Cintroli, is about 5'3'', maybe 5'5'' but either way very small. I made a small joke about greasy Italians or something to that effect, and they guy who I was in the room with relayed the message (they were talking on a headset to one another). I was quickly corrected that he was Mexican (remember this was on Cinco de Mayo). I then pushed the envelope and said something about the Omppa Lumpa escaping the factory (a nod to Ari Gold in "Entourage," a reference that I only got). I then left the room and before I got back to my room, Cintroli comes walking out of his room and I thought there was going to be a fight between us. I apologized and he told me he was drinking and now was not a good time to be cracking jokes. From that point on he has called me "Rass-hole."

Overall things are on the up and up. Morale is still high and my situation is totally under control.