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.