Grumblegrumble

I think I have grooved into the habit to making one post a week, lest of course something comes up that renders a special blog. Of course such an occurrence will arise when deserving, but as for now, let's just roll with what I just said in the above statement. What we are looking at are Andy Bauer and myself when I was coaching in Seymour. The picture was taken at JV Conference which we both look clueless, but we all know that was never the case (cough, cough). Sadly I don't have any pictures yet of my latest coaching stint, but if you bare with me I'm sure some will pop from the woodwork eventually. I just like this picture cause that was a very special/important time in my life, coaching Seymour. I'm grateful I was able to share it with such a good friend in Andy, but also, it taught me a lot about myself. This is a gig I want to continue.

We can certainly talk about my new job as a coach. I'm officially the Head Coach for the MWR Main Base swim team. There are two teams at the command. Every other week we have a meet with only that team. This is all volunteering mind you, and with that comes some drawbacks. For starters we only practice 2 days a week. This is good for my work schedule, but a killer to maximize improvment and success potential. For two, the kids are young, and very inexperienced. Complex sets and times are non-existant as I'm trying to teach kids how to start without belly-flopping and flip-turning without rolling over on their sides. As a pharmacy technician for the base, I know what drugs the kids are on, and Ritalin is very common which shows when I'm trying to explain the next drill. I've talked about it more than once, but the commanding officer's kids' are on the team, and a master chief has some kids on the team too. This can be political pressure though they may say it doesn't/shouldn't ,but it does.

One thing though I really like about the swim team is the other coach assigned to me. His name is Kristoph Carey, and he is the leading example that it is a small navy since I served in the same boot camp division as his younger brother. He is from the Bahamas and he has a very credited swimming past. He has swam for the Bahama nation team, swam at the Pan-Am games, Olympic trials (for the Bahamas), and swam at the college level. He and I willingly get stuck talking about swimming and almost anything. So far he is pretty cool. Today, perfect example, it was lightening before practice started. Practice starts at 6pm and I cancelled it at 5:30pm. He wasn't there so I texted him not to come since all I was doing was baby-sitting those kids already at the pool before their folks picked them up. He texted back and told me that he'd baby-sit with me, and we stood in the shed by the pool for an hour after we sent the last kid home talking about swimming, college war stories, and previous jobs. I'm glad to have him on board. Did I mention that he is a navy diver too? That is another story for another time.

Alright, so the MCPON, or Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, came to visit the command today. This guy is the most senior enlisted personel in the entire navy. Needless to say, he is very important. Listening to him talk you can tell that once you get to a certain level in the navy if just becomes as political as any other Washington assigned job. The MCPON's office is in the Pentagon and he works directly under the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO, a 4 star admiral). What is funny is the entourage the MCPON came with. A bunch of photographers and other khaki running around with him kissing his ass. Good stuff. I looked over his uniform to try and call him out on anything wrong with it, but he was very VERY squared away; fun to watch really, I like these kind of things.

This past weekend was a movie extravaganza. I went to go see the newest Star Trek installment. I found it very entertaining and captivating. Not more than 3 hours later I was back in the theater watching the new romantic comedy "The Proposal." It starred Sandra Bullock (who will always be sexy) and Ryan Reynolds (very funny man in his own right). It too was enjoyed by my group. One thing that is funny/irking is my friends, Laughlin and Icenhouer have no sense of volume control. They talk in a theater like they rented it and took it home. Hill people, I'll tell you. My movie watching didn't end there. I watched a Ken Burns documentary on my boy, Thomas Jefferson. It was good, but I knew most of what they already talked about though. I also watched Friday the 13th (the newest one), Defiance, and He's Just Not That Into You. On tap is something that has been on my back-burner for some time, Scent of a Woman.

I don't think I like being a pharmacy technician. As tired as I am right now it is hard for me to put it into words at the moment, but I feel like I should be doing more. As if I don't belong "trapped" in a pharmacy counting pills. It can get soul sucking. Plus there is no advantage to my 6 months of schooling except I'm put on another watch billet. Sure I can handle narcotics and most other corpsmen can't, but so what? Sure it is a good gig once I get on the outside moonlighting while I'm going to school, but there is no edge while I'm active duty. I don't get paid more, no preferrial treatment, no advantage over the next corpsmen straight out of 'A' school/the 18 year old fresh out of high school. Why did I take this job that I'm contractually obligated to for the next 3 years if there is no incentive?

That is why I've been working out hard. I wake up every morning at 0410 to get to the field at 0430 and get some 4-5 days a week. Don't laugh, but I've been thing about special warfare. Not SEALs, but either EOD or a diver. Possibly a diver medical technician? I need to get in mad shape, put some time in as a pharm tech, and be an all around on point sailor if I want to get a chance to either change rates, or get a new NEC especially before my contract as a pharm tech is over.

In the end, I don't know what I want to do. I want to do something big, not count pills. What is big though? How far can I push myself? What is satisfying to Cal Rastall? The sky is still my limit, but I just need to look at the branded ink in both of my arms, and gather some "patience" and "understanding" because I'm low on each right about now.

My finances are looking in the up and up though. Things are being paid off, and winter plans to a foreign country are still in the works. Sad news though, I won't be seeing Christina "Dearest" Solomon before she leaves South Korea to go back home to the states. We thought about meeting in Tokyo for a night if she decided to take a long lay-over from Seoul to Chicago, but that fell through. For a round trip flight from Sasebo to Toyko and one night at a hotel it would $670. August is a bad time of year to visit Japan for all you motivators out there.

This past Saturday I was talked into going to the little mart on base to get a six-pack of beer. I'd be damned, but they have Leinkugel's Honey Weiss. Of course I bought a little pack. Y'all, I had 3 beers, and I woke up with a hang-over. Figure that one out, and read between those lines.

Morale is a little low because of my latest frustrations with my job, but I'm still trucking forward. It all works out. I've been in country for a little more than 2 months now, and the time has flown by. Only another 22 to go, and I'm either back in the states, or Europe. Failure isn't an option, I'm a warrior, I'm awesome.

Can't live in the past, but I do from time to time

These two pictures are a bit of a before and after snapshot to the evolution of my being. The picture on top is was taken July 24, 2007. I was living in Green Bay then, and living the high life. No literally, maybe not marijuana, but certainly the lady on the moon, aka Miller High Life. Plenty of it too obviously seeing how I'm about to top out of this shirt. As a quick sidebar I'm going to predict Rich and I probably won this game of beer pong. The bottom picture was taken last night at the Corpsmen Ball June 21, 2009. In almost two years I want to say I like the way I look more now than what I did back then. These two pictures were taken because I am wearing the same shirt to give an idea of comparision, or a constant if you will. Thank you to all of my science teachers for that one; yes, I was actually listening. I just thought this would be a good ice-breaker.

Before I move on with trying to tie in a meaning to the title of theis blog, I want to touch on the last two entries, which is actually a single entry just broken into two parts.

First and foremost, it was a peak at a more adult side to my life. I tried to keep it PG-13, but you know how it gets hard to say certain truths. In essence, let's not forget a 21 year old (single) sailor is writing this, and some things are bound to slip. I apologize if I offended anyone out there, but I felt the bottom line was there was a story I needed to share. This is my disclaimer for that, and I think I can leave it at this.

Now let me dip into the facts of what actually happened with my time, and then I'll get to my opinions about random stuff. This weekend was mostly throttling at good, but it had a hiccup or two like any other decent weekend does. The first part was the situation with Laughlin and the boys. Laughlin had his identity stolen. He had to go through the whole nine yards to cancel everything, etc, but in the meantime while he was waiting for his new cards to come in, he had to depend on Icenhouer and myself to financially support him. We roger-ed up and helped him out, and as a repayment, besides paying us back in full of what he owed us, he took us out to dinner at a resteraunt. This style of resteraunt, called a yokineekoo (trying to spell it phonetically), has a wok in the middle of the table and they serve beef which we cook ourselves. Some pretty good stuff especially for the all you can eat deal for only $25. On top of that, there is an all you can drink deal for an extra $10. Put the pieces together there.

Laughlin paid for Ice and myself. There were others though who tagged along. The Filipino is Garica whom I mentioned before. The skinny blonde kid is Campbell. He is 18 years old and just got off of restriction for underage drinking. He is drinking coke here. The goon on the left is Ellis. When he was busted for underage drinking he was only 19, but now he is 20. Everyone at the table is pretty cool with everyone else. We had a great time telling stories and being merry. The action didn't start until dinner was over and it was time to start bar hopping. Ice, Garcia, and myself are outside. Ice is talking to Satski on the phone while Garcia is trying to convince me that I had a chance with some girl back in Virginia who we went to school with. The truth of that is Garcia had no idea that Ganih and I were just friends and that's the way we wanted to keep it.

Eventually we noticed that we didn't know where Laughlin, Campbell, and Ellis went. There was only one exit to the building and we were standing right in front of it. They were no where to be seen. I checked with the resteraunt staff and they said we paid so they weren't being a bunch of pranksters at least. We didn't know where they were, and Campbell was sober! The 3 of us, being the geniuses that we are, decide to look for them. Of course we pick the bar with the $10 cover charge, and the only thing inside was a huge smoke cloud, other drunk AMERICANS, Icenhauers ex-girlfriend, and not Laughlin, Campbell, or Ellis. We were pissed, but were laughing at the same time. We eventually stopped at McDonalds so I could pick up an ice-cream cone and we walked to the bus station to pick up Satski.

As it turns out they somehow ducked out of there and simply wanted to do their own thing. No reason, that's just the way they are from time to time. Everyone was safe and sound, but Laughlin was WAY hung over to come to the Corpsmen Ball the next day.

The next day, Saturday, was the day of the Corpsmen Ball. This is a military function that celebrates my rate (job) as a corpsmen. We are the most decorated rate in the navy, and also we have the most Medal of Honor recipients. So there is a big ceremony and dance afterwards. Well, I really didn't want to be there in the first place. I hate dressing in my dress white uniform simply because it is so easy to get dirty and I love to hate tying my neckerchief. Also, it's a "ball," which in my mind is a dance. I've been to prom and I've been to homecoming, and they all sucked, even when I had dates. On this night of course I didn't even have a date. That's why I decided to utilize the bar at the pre-ceremony cocktail hour. Yes folks, I do like gin martinis, and since working at Victoria's in Green Bay, I know what are good cocktails pre-dinner, during dinner, and after-dinner. It was martinis to pregame the ceremony, then I ordered a glass of red wine to go with my steak meal (which was very good I will add). After dinner and the ceremony we were allowed to change, which I did (see first picture).

Upon my arrival, I stopped at the ATM because I was certain this night was going be one of those nights. I didn't want to be there, I didn't have a date, and alcohol makes the time fly by, right? Garcia went with me to go change, and when we got back the first place we stopped was the line to the bar. I was all ready to order my ice-cream drink or white Russian when my LPO, HM1 Martinez came up to me, and pulled me aside. Remember this was a military function and rank applies especially when we're in uniform. HM1 tells me to go get a cup of COFFEE instead!! I couldn't believe it! Of course I couldn't argue with her because for one I really like my LPO, but 2 of her rank and authority over me. That glass of wine was my last alcohol for the Corpsmen Ball. I drank lots of tea, some coffee, and a coke for the night. In HM1's defense, she had good reason to cut me off. Some very important people were in the room, and she didn't want me to have her look like an asshole if I did something suggestive. That could have happened, but it didn't so I'm not mad. It did put a kink in my courage to go dancing though.

When the ball ended and people were thinking places to go for the after party we ended up just going to the bar on base. It was too late for me to start getting all lit up, so I hung low with only one white Russian and an amoretto stone sour. This was not the case for Garcia. That guy was swinging for the fences and it started to show when we got back from the bar and back in the barracks. All I'm going to say is a) that guy can take four horsemen shots like it's water and b) good thing there weren't any higher-ups around to hear some of the things he was saying. Garcia was toasted, but we've all had those kind of nights. I was sober enough to enjoy them.

Sunday in Japan is mostly Saturday in Wisconsin, which in my opinion makes Father's Day extra long for my old man. Lucky him, but he really does deserve it I think. I'm not about to get all sappy cause he reads this blog, but knowing what I know now maybe I wouldn't have been such a dick to him in the past. We went to go see "The Hangover" at the onbase theater. It is pretty funny, and it's from the same director as "Old School." Really you can't beat the $3 entry fee. .

Now to the story behind the title of this blog. I've been talking to a couple people from my past, and not talking to a couple of people in my past, and the hamsters in my head got the wheel spinning. For one, I called my best friend, Neuman. We talked how we always did. I remember just sitting there and bullshitting with him all day. Going and doing things that didn't make any sense, but it was funny as hell anyways. The second is my friend I mentioned earlier from VA, Ganih. She was tons of fun, and I miss talking to her. We would have the best discussions about pop culture mostly, and everytime I tried to stump her she kept up with me. Mitchell just had a kid so he is all busy and Daddy-like. I hope he won't make the same mistake his father made and make him into a Cubs fan though.

The second big conversation was with my friend, Jen, or as Rich and I called her "Jen Jen." For some reason we grew apart in recent months and it bugs me why. She was alwasy so interesting and she challenged my thought and reasoning which I totally dug. I asked her if she could go back in time knowing what she knows now would she do it, and she said yes. I think I would concur. Starting from my high school graduation. Maybe even before that when I was still living at home. Appropriated money differently, handled relationships differently, experienced different things.

Don't get me started on anyone from Minnessota. One refuses to talk to me anymore and the other I have to salute. So figure that out. There is always Rich to talk to especially via email that I love. Makes the work day fly by. Aaron needs to learn how to live separated, but that is neither here nor there. My list goes on. At times I wish I could go back and do a lot of things over again.

As for Iran, I have nothing to do with that as a member of the military. I am keeping as close of an eye on it as the next guy is. As for North Korea, I'm not sure what I am allowed to tell you what I know. I do know that there is no heightened security here in Sasebo, and I have recieved no new word of potential threats from North Korea. I am not worried.

Morale is high-ish and it's time for the Sconnie sailor to hit the hay.

You are Japan, I am Godzilla part deux

Here I am, again, on watch and writing to everyone out there who is dedicated enough to take some time out of your day to read what I have to say. I really do appreciate it though I may not say it directly. All the comments are good and it's always enough fuel to keep writing. Moving on, I have a story to finish and touch on a couple other things as well.

Darryl and Satski are back in their hotel room at 1730 (5:30pm) and I decide to take a hike to find a bar. Japan really doesn't have a bar time how the states does. Instead of bars closing at 2am, they're open till 6 or 7am especially on a Saturday night like it was. As a quick sidebar, the navy has set up rules that we sailors can't stay out drinking between 2am-6am at clubs and bars, but that isn't the Japanese rule, but we still have to follow what Uncle Sam has to say. Confusing yet? Okay, so I didn't know that bars didn't open up till 6pm all over Kumamoto. That was okay because it gave me a chance to walk around and see what the city had to offer. My camera phone was charging at the time, but I'm pretty sure I walked through the strip club precinct based on the size of the bouncers at the door, suggestive (but not telling) pictures in the windows, and pink neon lights beaming all around me. Good thing there was a cover charge cause at the time I was feeling I'm not sure if there was much more keeping me from meandering on in.

6pm comes and I kind my establishment which is fine because I sort of wanted to drink alone to gather my thoughts. Of course this doesn't happen. The bartender speaks about as much English as I do Japanese and tries to tell me that he visited Los Angeles once in '93. On top of that he doesn't know how to make a martini, so he rifles through his book and gets out the supplies and then offers me to show him how to make it. The end of this is my martini's were only $4 each. This guy just wouldn't walk away from me to do his job. All I wanted was to be left alone, but the last thing we were talking about before I left was about the movie "Lost in Translation" and how Bill Murray was in Japan advertising Suntory Whiskey in the movie. Either way I was well on my way to a productive evening after 3 martinis.

At 730pm I go and get the two lovers and we can't decide where to eat. That was when I suggested the bar/resteraunt I was just at. I order some kind of rice'n'pork dish and an Asahi (brand of beer). From dinner on the night and my money goes kind of fast.

I d0n't know all the bars we went to, and even if I did it wasn't important. What is important to the story plot is I got shit-housed drunk which in turn provided the more responsible drinkers of the night, aka Ice and Satski, a helluva lot of entertainment for the night.

The rest of the trip is best summed up in an email to my BFF, Rich. Some of what is said is not child friendly, then again a lot of what I said about this trip isn't child friendly:

Not sure how many bars I went to. There was this International bar though I do remember that had a bartender who saw my Green Bay swimming shirt andtold me she was an exchange student at Eau Claire. I was too tore up to comment back.

There was one time though I remember walking into a 7/11 (yes, we have themhere too) and getting a coke because I wanted to try and "pace" myself. When I told Ice this, I told him to police me if I strayed from my originalintent. That didn't last long. When he tried to remind me I yelled at himsaying that, "im a grown ass man and I can do whatever the fuck I want!" Ieven bummed a cigarette from some chick. Pretty good looking at the time,but not when I looked at my camera the next morning.

We went to this empty bar to play darts (which I of course won) and theytotally jewed me over. Not only were the glasses tiny and they charged $5 for them, but they had a cover charge, on an empty fucking bar! I about went Clint Eastwood on them. The night ended by going to McDonald's so I couldget an ice-cream cone and vent about Osko jagging me around. You know how I get.

A huge assest to Japan is man-power. They have tons of people lining thestreet with fliers passing out advertisments. Of course I though it'd be agood idea to help them. So I was screaming to everyone to take my flierbecause "I'm American." I even tried to sell doughnuts for some girl.
There was one trio of girls I walked by and I asked if they spoke English,yes, English. Before they could even nod their heads one way or the other, I said "me neither" with a gay fling of my arm as I kept walking. Some of thepictures I'll post are pretty good.

I was in bed my midnight. My mattress was rock hard, everything mini-me sized. God I love this country and hate it even more when I'm wasted.

Next morning of course I felt like ass. McDonald's for breakfast didn't help anyone. I was able to pull off my hung over idiot routine as I'm know for. Afterwards we changed our bus ticket to leave at 1430 instead of the 1900 originally planned. There is just nothing to do in the city we were in,Kummoto (SP?). Thank God we made that change.

The last thing we left was go to a karoke bar. Pretty cool actually except Ican't sing for shit, but didn't stop me from singing some Dragonforce (all the good bands were unavailable). Of course Osko had to show back up which didn't make the situation comfortable at all, but I managed. She gave me therun-around why she couldn't make it out, but in the end, she simply wasn't there which was all I needed to know.

At 1430 we got on the bus and got the fuck out of there. I vowed never to return to that city again.

In other business the swim season officially started on Monday. I'm pretty stoked about it, but I wish things were a little different. It isn't that competitive at all. That alters intensity of practices and planning of work-outs. Also, there is a lot of belly-rubbing going on. Not saying I want to throw another clipboard in the water, but if wasn't any room for that in Seymour, there DEFINITELY isn't any room for it here. I like being able to talk to the kids about stuff, I suppose it's hard for me to get back onto the level of an elementary school aged kid. I wish things was a little more organized too. In the past I had an entire summer to prep for my "mission." I only had literally a weekend from the time I got the roster to the time of the first practice. It doesn't help that the base commanding officer's kids are on the team, a master chief kids' are on the team, and an officer from the clinic has a kid on the team. A lot more important eyes are watching me which adds more pressure.

Also, I have an assistant coach now. He is a 3rd class navy diver (you know, like Cuba Gooding Jr and Robert DeNiro in "Men of Honor") named Kristoph. It was one thing when Andy and I coached because we were such good friends, but with Kristoph it is a little different. Though I am the head coach, I'm going to try to make it as similar as it was with Andy in Seymour. Let's hope for a miracle, and let Kristoph and myself
have a fraction of what I had in Seymour.

Morale is back on high now that I'm back in Sasebo. Though I'm very tired and busy busy busy, I can take comfort that the days come and go fast.

You are Japan, I am Godzilla.

Okay, I'm very mad at facebook right now. There are so many more pictures I want to add, but for some reason it is being a real Eric Demrow. I hope there is someone out there who knows what I mean by that. Above is a picture of me in front of Kumamoto Castle. Don't worry, I'll explain a lot down the page. This was a weekend I'm not going to forget. Below is picture of one of the gardens we went and walked around in also in Kumamoto.

Let's name the players in this game. There is me, Darryl (Ice), Darryl's girl (Satski), and Satski's friend (Osko). Darryl asks me to come with him to Kumamoto because Satski has a friend that needs company while he and Satski do dirty things. Being the adventurer that I am, I agree to this offer against nearly all sound reason. Okay, it is hard to tell the story and dance around the truth, I was going to Kumamoto to meet a Japanese girl, and I was "garunteed" it by Ice and Laughin. Little do these clowns know just who they are dealing with, but more to the story.

So we get on the bus trip at 0820, not even 24 hours notice for me to go on this trip. Was I technically allowed to go since I didn't have an overnight liberty card? Well, no, but some things in life are worth risking and sometimes you just think with the wrong head from time to time. Darryl being the salesman he tries to be somehow convinced me that it wasn't that long of a bus trip. 3 hours later we arrive in Kumamoto. It is here at the bus stop we meet Satski, a good looking girl, but when Osko came from out of the woodwork, she just blew Satski away. I won't get into details, but at the initial time I thought I had the better end of the bargain between Ice and myself. I'd almost be a crime to claim my wingman warfare device with a girl like this, am I getting the point across that this girl was very pretty?

Funny thing that should be remembered about Japanese girls. I'll just call it the rule of 10. However old you think she looks, just add 10 years, and that is their actual age. Why a 31 and 32 year old woman was hanging out with a 21 and 23 year old only screams "GREEN CARD" in my head, but whatever, I was just there for the good time I eventually found out I wasn't going to have.

Soon after the bus stop we hike it to Kumamoto Castle (see above and below picture).

Osko is standing next to me and the wannabe ninja. The spear was a cross between plastic and Wal-mart toy. Anyway, the castle was pretty cool. I'm not huge into Asian history so it was hard to really appriciate what I was looking at. All I was trying to do was the only advice I recieved from the boys for "success" which was, "be nice!" Those who know (at least the boys) me can guess who simple that task was.

After the castle we hiked it to a American-ish resteraunt. Not bad except when I had to go #2 after lunch. No, I didn't have to squat for my stool dropping, but I did have to do my business in very tight quarters. Never fun when you can't relax during your basking in the glory time.

After lunch we checked into my hotel. Mine was tiny. Like a picture is posted but you can't see it because my room was so small. Just kidding, but seriously. When facebook finally starts acting like a reliable communication tool I'll post a couple pics of what my room looked like. As Darryl said on the trip home though when he tried to calm me down from my ranting, "You could have least fit two Japanese girls in that bed, dude."

Following the hotel we hit up the garden. This is when my trip would start to take a turn for the worse. I realized that Osko had to leave before dinner so she could attend a business dinner. This was unknown to both Ice and myself, and it changed the circumstances very greatly.

She promised up and down that she would return before the end of the night. I've been jagged around enough times to read between those lines, and I was not a very happy camper from then on. I was a good sport until Osko got off the tram with us on our way back to the hotel. Darryl and Satski "were tired" and needed to rest for a bit. Again, I've played that game enough to know just what the Hell that meant too.

I have to cut this blog post short. I am extremely tired but I can continue to post tomorrow night when I am on watch. I just won't have any pictures. That is actually probably better because the next paragraph starts with me explaining to a Japanese national how to make gin martini straight up...

All Along the Watchtower

Hello to everyone out there! It's good to be back! I do apologize for the week or so absence between posts, but I was so caught up in life that some things happened to slip my mind. Actually in all reality the truth is I have been waiting for some pictures to come through and get sent to me so I could post them on here and facebook, and I wanted wait until after the frocking ceremony to share my experiences. Make sense? If not then take comfort that I'm here with you now, and that's all that should be important this moment. Cause life is a series of moments. Are we grabbing ours?

As mentioned in the paragraph above, I was waiting for pictures to get to me from the frocking ceremony. Obviously they are not posted on this post. This is because it is 0307 in the morning in Japan and I'm at the ER desk in the clinic technically standing watch. Though I do have the pictures on a disk sitting in my room, I can't put that disk or any other mechanism of communication in a government computer (ie flashdrives) without getting into a world of bad juju if I'm "caught." To minimize this stress, I assume the risk of viruses and such on my computer. I have been getting some gripes (Bob Chasteen cough, cough) about when this post was coming out and since I had some down time I thought I should knock out this post even without pictures. I'll post one or two from my frocking ceremony in the next post, or catch all the action on my facebook profile.

So I wanted to treat myself to some decent computer speakers. I watch a lot of movies on my computer, and I don't feel like ponying up for a new flat-screen TV and DVD player just yet when I have other goals in mind. So I get on Bestbuy.com and get a more expensive set of Bose speakers. One point in my column of awesomeness, right? No, despite the wait to ship the product from Ohio, and then the 10 day wait for mail to get here from the states, I plug everything in and I come to find that one of the speakers does not work. This is after I had Rich help me on Skype, Laughlin who was in my room at the time, and my roommate (I'll touch on later) who is a computer science major. Now I have to mail it back at lunch today only to get a credit refund. No exchanges on mail orders. Needless to say my ass is rather chapped after this incident.

I can't remember if I told you guys about my new roommate. There was the guy who was in the room when I checked in, Carlos, but he left for San Diego. Then I had my room to myself for like 2 weeks or so which was a great gig. Then along came Nick. I would say his last name but it's very long and very Polish. Nick is from Maine, an IT (computer guy-job in the navy), a 3rd class like me, my age, and is pretty sweet guy. He places a high standard on keeping the barracks room clean (which is awesome), he is very extraverted therefore easy to talk to, and he is considerate. Though we don't run together, we get along and that's kind of important when trying to live with someone who we don't know.

Oh yes, I was officially frocked. I don't get paid until like Decemeber because that's how messed up the navy is, but I'm allowed to wear my crow and have the authority it brings. It is cool to hear lower ranks call me "HM3" now. I find myself checking my ego more often too. Pictures are posted on facebook and will be on the next post.

Alright, so check this out. Our barracks' room is not big by any stretch of the imagination. We have our own room, but it is a small room. This should warrant pictures, I know. From what I'm hearing through the grapevine though is the barracks manager is going to be putting bunkbeds in both of our rooms. Translation? 4 grown ass men living in a room smaller than 'A' school at Great Lakes. Needless to say, Laughlin, Icenhauer, and myself put in our chits to move out of base housing the next day. The same day we submitted them though they were denied. Apparentely there is a policy that we can move out of the barracks if you are an e4 (which I am) with 4 years in the navy (which I do not). E5's automatically can live off base. E1-e3 automatically have to stay in the barracks. I'm at a point of transition that is going to be looking at every loophole known to man so I don't have to be be stuck living like I'm in another training command.

Most people know this, but I really enjoyed coaching the Seymour girls. It carried me through boot camp and onwards when things got bad, the dream of coaching again. Well, that opportunity is here now. Maybe not in the degree I dreamt about, but allow me to elaborate. The MWR (morale, welfare, recreation aka a program for sailors and their families in those three areas) has created a youth sports league with a bunch of different sports ranging from tennis to gymnastics to football to swimming to baseball to many more. They are little summer leagues and I'm coaching on a volunteer basis, which doesn't bother me at all. What does bother me though is at least compared to Seymour it was a little more disorganized. Also, the team practices only 2 days a week. Any swimmer can tell you that is not good. "Fun" will be numero uno on my priority list. I just hope they can improve how they could by such limited time in the pool. By disorganized I mean I will get the roster on Friday (did i mention that the Commanding Officer's children are on the team?) where I need to email all the parents about myself, expectations from everyone, etc, and then our first practice is the very upcoming Monday. This could be interesting, but I think I want to make this into my summer project especially since I'm not taking college classes yet.

Speaking of summer projects, Operation Get Some is now in effect. What I mean by that is I'm now on a fitness program that will hopefully trim the fat, literally, and improve my fitness. There is a physician here who recently got back from a deployment in Iraq who is a PT fiend and loves doing operator type exercises to improve fitness. Yesterday was my first day with Dr. Margraff and I really liked what he had me do. He PTs 5 days a week at 0430 and then swims in the afternoon. Add that to my list of things to do, but while you're up doing that, scratch on another tack onto the awesomness column.

Overall morale is back to being high. Lots of good stuff going on. Still haven't figured out some people back home, but time will tell on them, and that is okay. It is very humid here now that we are in the "rainy season." I complain now, and all I hear in response is "it's only JUNE! Wait till late July or August!" Lovely.