Turn the page

Hello everyone and welcome back! For you first time viewers welcome to my page, I hope you enjoy the experience. What you can see to the right is me doing a pull-up. Also in the background you can see some of the Sasebo scenery. Why am I knocking out pull-ups in front of a camera? Funny story, you'll love it. So, there I was getting ready to coach my soccer game, and I was nervous as all heck. I did a couple pull=ups to feel better. Why in front of a camera? Well, as I'm sure you'll see later in the post and on facebook, I needed a camera. Actually in all honesty, I wanted to get a picture taken with the other coach (I'll explain later), but the funny part of the story is (because I told you that it was indeed funny) was I forgot to get a picture with him. Apparentely I was too busy taking pictures of myself instead. That's the way she goes though. Sometimes she goes and sometimes she doesn't. This time she didn't go.

I wish I could make this post quicker. My normal routine is a little jagged up on this Sunday. Normally I like to keep to myself and not do much except prepare for the next week, etc. Well, I got a wild hair up my keyster and agreed to go on a run with Laughlin and Ice. Two hours later we end up back on base. It was a tough run for me for some reason. I was certainly putting out (my pulse was up to 180 at one point I noticed), but I wasn't banging on all cylinders. My point to all of this is this run really backed me up for the day. After this post I have to take a quiz for sociology, clean up my room, get my things ready for tomorrow morning, and got to bed, all in 1 1/2 hours. On top of that, my roommate found me a copy of the movie, "Bruno" to watch. I think it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Speaking of movies, I watched a couple this weekend. The first was "Suicide Kings." I thought it was really good, but a little confusing towards the end. Has Christopher Walken had a bad movie? I mean, has his character ever been awful? The second movie was "The Hunt for Red October." This has been on my to-get list for some time now, and I finally had the chance to watch it. I was not disappointed. Sean Connery forgot he was supposed to be Russian I think, and Alec Baldwin is so much better than that Affleck bitch. The third movie was a Denzel flick, "Fallen." I remember my parents watching it years ago, and I was always curious what it was about. Finally I had the chance. Does Denzel make a bad movie? And when you throw in John Goodman you know you're in for a treat. Plus it is about demons and the supernatural stuff which I sort of like.

As you can tell, my blog title is "Turn the page." This is a subtle reference to the Bob Segar song, obviously. What it means also is the start of the next level in my journey here in Japan. I went to

look at an apartment off-base. Seen below is the exterior of the place. It is on top of a hill, and it

is a newer place. I will post some other pictures in a moment, but I want to let you know, and stress that this is not my final choice, it was simply my first. I look at a place in town on Tuesday, and hopefully after the looking at the two I can make a choice. Pros to this place though: It is secluded, the scenery is beautiful, close to the Hario pharmacy, open-er, convienent parking, better terrain to PT. The down falls to living in a place like this is I'm 25 mins and $1.50 per way in tolls, being called in on-call would suck, and I wouldn't be able to PT at Nimitz Park anymore with Ice and Dr. Margraf nearly as much.

There are a couple more pictures posted on facebook, but that is about the gist of what I I was looking at. The floor is now open to the court of public opinion.

My soccer team suffered it's first loss of the season. We played against the Kansas City Wizards. That part isn't important, but what is important this game was played against two undefeated teams. Their coach is my LCPO. If you refer to earlier posts, we know each other. The final score was 2-1. I think it was the most exciting game of the season. We were simply outplayed. Over the next week I hope to teach the kids that it is okay to lose if the game was fair and fun, which it was. I wanted to get a picture with my chief, but I totally forgot about it in the bustle of the game. One thing that did sort of chap my ass was the kids did not physically come prepared to the game. Some kids didn't eat breakfast before the game and almost all of them came under-hydrated. It was a bright, sunny, hot day and we only had one subsitute I could rotate. I will have to blame myself for not warning the parents to make their kids drink water before hand, but this tells me that common sense is indeed not common. One more game left, the banquet, and then flag football season!

That is about it for now. I have to get going to do some other things. Morale is maintained and I'm looking forward another interesting week. My mock PRT was forgettable. Outstanding-low in the sit-ups (101), out-standing high in the push-ups (88), and outstanding-medium in the swim (6:34). I'm most disturbed about the swim, but that just means I'll have to train that much harder for next time which will be the official.

So it has begun

This post will be in honor of Josh Mitchell. He lived in the other room we shared a bathroom with in Virginia. There is only one picture I have of us together, and it's not very flattering for me to see. I was about 260lbs and getting schwasted. The good old days of Virginia. Seriously though, Josh just found out he was going to have to on an individual augmentee to Afghanistan for the next 6-18 monts. He leaves right after Thanksgiving.

I will say this about Josh though, despite the fact he whines more about the bad hands in life he fears he'll get/has more than his pregnant wife ever did, he is a good guy. I'm jealous of him that he gets the opportunity to be deployed, but then again, I don' t have a new wife and 4 month old kid either to think about. He'll be filling a pharmacy tech billet so luckily he won't be doing patrols, front line stuff. Sounds like a good gig to me, but I'm looking at the half full glass for him.

For the title of this post. Josh is the first one of guys who I know being called up for an IA deployment. When I think about it I find it rather ironic it's him since he was probably the one who feared it the most, but one day he was standing there passing out meds how we all do, and was told he's going. He wasn't taken in another room or prepared for it. I thought it was weird just how nonchalantly they told him. Who is next? How easily could it happen that our number is up? It's times like this when we are rudely reminded that we are in the military and we have sworn an oath to go into harm's way at any given moment.

I wish him luck, and he'll be getting letters/care packages from Japan for sure. Mitchell is top 2 navy friends and even though I give him a harder time than most people, I care about him more than almost anyone in the fleet too. That was a no homo moment by the way.

Onwards to talking about me. What's funny is as I'm writing this I'm listening Toby Keith's "I wanna talk about me" song. Subconscience working its best.

There really isn't that much to share today. Just some maintance news. You know, the typical updates in my life. First of all we have a new addition to our morning PT group in the mornings. HM3 Saylor is the newest causualty. Saylor is a former BUD/S caniadate (Navy SEAL trainee), and he is ubber motivational for me to work out with him. It showed in my times this week. I significantly dropped lots of time when he was able to make it out with us. We also dropped 2 1/2 mins in our 10.5km Friday run which he ran with us. I know he's working hard too cause he's puking after every workout. I collapsed after racing him once, but I did win the race. It's only 6 weeks away until the official PRT, and we have a mock PRT next week. I'll discuss the results in next week's post. Either way I'm very fired up for it!

I can't lie, it's depressing to read the Baraboo News Republic online and reading about the Friday nigh football games. What's harder is one of my biggest (literally and metaphorically) mentors is the offensive/defensive line coach. I'm keeping the faith as I always have in Baraboo football, but it's definetely a rebuilding year. Either way I like keeping tabs on the old hometown; it makes me feel closer to home.

A couple of days ago I posted a status on facebook: "FACE BOOK EXPERIMENT: If you are reading this, even if we don't speak often, post a comment of a memory of you and me. When you've finished, post this paragraph on your own status; you'll be surprised at what people remember about you." So far I have gotten some good posts. It's funny to read what people remember most about me. Some more embarrassing than others, but fun all the same.

Everyone don't be worrying about the whole Genell situation because there isn't one. We had a good talk about what is going on, and we are only accompanying each other to the navy ball. It isn't a big deal. She leaves in November to go to her next command. No need for anyone to be bent out of shape about it or ask any further questions. "It ain't nothing but a thang."

So I failed my SECOND room inspection earlier this week. I was pissed because I knew I cleaned it before I left for work that day. There are a couple of sketchy questions I had to go along with the whole ordeal. I won't go into it, but I was so convinced I didn't deserve to fail that I took my LPO to my room at lunch and had her inspect it. At the end of the story I spent most of today cleaning my room. It was an embarrassment to think my room was failure worthy and I won't be guilty of this kind of thing again.

Speaking of where I live, I went to my off-base housing briefing on Thursday. I'm not looking forward the ensuing month or so ahead of me. So many meetings and appointments I have to schedule and attend. This is probably the worst part of moving. Plus I'm only at mainbase twice a week until the official PRT because Garcia needs to be there to work out with the command fitness leaders on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This limits my scheduling. In other words, this situation is already chapping my ass.

You are reading the blog of a still undefeated soccer coach. With a score of 2-0 we beat the San Jose Earthquakes. I showed up late to the game because I was on duty, and my replacement relieved me 25 minutes late. That did not set my mood right. We also tried to be more disciplined to position assignments which a lot of the kids did not like, especially those playing fullback and couldn't cross the midfield line. I don't like it either for their age group, but they need to start learning for when they are older and play more competitivly. At any rate I'm very proud of the kids and with two games left we hope to do what Tom Brady couldn't.

I'm also taking on swim club. It is on opposite days of soccer which is great for that schedule, but it keeps my week full. Monday through Friday I'm obligated to be somewhere, if only for an hour, but it cramps other plans I may have for the entire night. Oh well, I really enjoy the mentoring and it's nice to be back on pool deck with Kristoph. We like to swim a little beforehand to do some minor PT together/catch up on the gossip of our lives.

Uniform is pressed, laundry is done, blog is posted, room is clean, food is in the stomach, but THERE IS NO HAIRCUT!!! For the first time since I can remember I didn't get a haircut on the weekend. I went in there around 2 and the line was about 3 days long. I'm seriously thinking about just buzzing my head, but I'm going to sleep on it for now. More to come on this.

Oh, I finished my most recent book. Twilight. I'm not about to get into a book report here on the blog, but I was a little frustrated with the novel overall. I will also add that I did not read it for my own enjoyment, but now have a better understanding of what someone was trying to tell me once. Grumblegrumble.

That's it for now. Now to knock out my homework and off to bed! Morale is maintained.

Stories upon stories

This is where the master sleeps. What is more important is the Wisconsin ensign above my bed. I was lucky enough to get ahold of one for my birthday, thank you Mom and Dad. That flag is probably the in the top 3 best birthday presents of all time. Too bad I didn't have this in Virginia, but I look forward to carrying it with me where Uncle Sam takes me from here on out. Down the road I'll have to keep it hung in the "man room" or the basement. Whichever the missus let's me.

There is another reason why I wanted to show my room. On Wednesday I was working at the other pharmacy, Hario, and I recieved a phone call. I was told that my off-base housing chit was finally approved, and that I should pick it up when I got back to mainbase. Though it only took 30 days (note sarcasm) to get everything approved, the main fact is that it was indeed passed. This means I'll have a busy next month going to meetings/appointments in looking for a new place to live. Life every other human being in the world, moving is never a fun thought. I wish I could just be moved in, and not worry about apartment searching, the packing, unpacking, bills, etc. Either way I'm looking forward to this.

My story about this Wednesday is not over. That same day, but later all the corpsmen living in the barracks had a room inspection. 19/21 failed their inspection, and yours truly was one of them. There was one main reason why we failed, and that was because we haven't been inspected for like 4 months. We all became complacent and laxy-dazy. Senior leadership was pissed! The OIC even toured the rooms right after work, but remember that I was at Hario which was a good 35-40 minute drive when you factor in traffic. I wasn't going to be there when she looked at the room, and needless to say it was a bit of an embarrassment. My room was livable, of course, but it lacked the showing abilities for the Officer-in-Charge of the command. So I called in a couple favors and somehow got my roommate and Darryl to help pick it up a little bit before she came over. The story ends with her not inspecting the room at all because I wasn't there, but I spent most of Wednesday night detailing it. All the while I was smiling though because I knew I was moving off base soon. Though on Thursday I was asked by my LPO to "seriously consider not moving out in town." It took me about a half a second to reply that I thought about it and I wanted to move out.

My soccer team remains undefeated. We triumphed again with a score of 3-1. Of course we don't technically keep track of points and standings, but it's hard to not think about it. Each game I think about what we need to work on, and it motivates me that the team will come together and start listening a little more. If it is anything like last week though they will all seemingly forget that we won our game, is undefeated, and will continue try and catch the grasshoppers on the field. I guess what I need to try and do is incorporate more game-type drills at practice. Needless to say I'm beginning to like this soccer gig though in the back of my mind I feel like I was purposely given the most "talented" team to work with. Then again it could just be the coaching.

I have a date to the navy ball. This was a little unexpected, but I'm happy with the this developing story. So there I was on Tuesday. Flowers were delivered to this 2nd class, HM2 (Genell) Cody annonymously. My friend Laughlin delivered them to here, and he knows I have a thing for her/I told him and Darryl I thought she was being abnormally flirty the last week or so. Laughlin was all full of jokes this day because he told her that they were from me, and they weren't. When I walked past her desk she asked me about the flowers, and I flush bright red. There was a moment I thought I actually might have done that, but did not remember it since it was a move I would have pulled somewhere else. Anyways I leave the room and Laughlin follows and pulls me in an empty exam room. He asked me if I heard what she just said, and I asked him if he knew what he just done. Apparentely she asked me to the navy ball, but I was so filled with embarrassment that I didn't hear it. When I left the exam room I found my manhood and asked her back to the ball, and she accepted.

There was still the issue with the flowers. I had not sent them. Down the road we found out it was from someone who she helped with at some function. I had to act fast, so the next day I ordered flowers for her myself and had them delivered to the clinic. Laughlin again delivered them, but this time he told the truth. The rumor mill has it that I did good on deciding to send her sun flowers. So there are now two boquets of flowers on her desk, but I can now say one of them are from me.

My trials and tribulations with Genell don't end quite there. So I wanted to go on date with her before the ball. I'm not going to get into all the logistics of everything, but it took a lot of manliness to muster up the cajones to call her. Luckily she didn't hang up on me, and we went to some base function tonight. We listened to some music, at some carnival food, played some games, and I think overall had a good time. I would do it again.

I placed a $50 bet on the Packers/Bears game tomorrow. It was between another corpsman who is a bears fan. Poor guy, but he is a good guy besides his tendencies to like my two least favorite teams, Bears and Cubs.

Why do I feel that I could talk about more, but I'm running out of things to say as I write here?

Oh, so Garcia, the other pharm tech who came with me from Virginia is going TAD (permorary duty) to Yokosuka for like 8 months. My ass is a little chapped about this because they overlooked me even though I told my senior leadership that I would be the first volunteer to go somewhere. You are sent TAD for three reasons: a) you are shit-hot and you are an assest to the navy to be shared or b) you are a shit-bag and you are not worthy to be shared or c) you are a shit-bag and your command doesn't want to be embarrassed by sending you anywhere. Though I don't think I'm a shit-bag, my command knows I don't like my job, in fact hate it, and really don't care about my job since I do have other intentions with my naval career. Either way I'm happy for Garcia that he gets this opportunity, but I'm a little hurt that they wouldn't choose me. A tw0-sided sword this is.

I'm out of ideas for this post. I know there is more to say, but I can't think of anything right now. College classes are going fine. I wish my psychology book would finally get here. I ordered it on amazon.com in early August, but sociology is going fine. Just make online conversations.

Morale is high and things are looking good.

Death, Blood, and Carnage

What an interesting week at Command Fleet Activites Sasebo (CFAS). The medical department was very busy. I'm not sure what I'm at liberty to share so I'll try to keep to it vague, but I want to keep these two stories interesting. Pictured above is the largest ship at the base, the USS Essex.

(A portion of this post had to be edited due to content)

Back to my poker game. I started with $40 in chips, and I was at one time ahead by like $75-80. I should have done the cowardly thing and cashed out, but I stayed in, and a couple bad moves a couple hours later, and I was taken for all that I had. Rebuying to me is the dumbest thing ever because if you don't have it then you don't have it. Plus there was one friend who had $180 invested in the game and another with $110 by the time I left. The reason I didn't cash out when I was "supposed" to is because that is the cowards way out. Also, we play for the entertainment of the night, but what I should have done was play for the money. Lessons learned I suppose.

Besides that it was a rather boring week. I spent everyday in the pharmacy which just tickles me. After spending an entire month out of the pharmacy in the EMT class I have little room wiggling out to do this or that.

This past week I really sandbagged PT, and I've been trying to figure out why. The conclusion I came up with was I am afraid of failure of my sets. Something inside me thought that it would be better for me to just stay in bed instead of getting out there and getting some. That is detramental to my psychie since the whole idea of special warfare intial training is overcoming that mental weakness. I talked it over with Dr. Margraf and he had a different theory. He thinks I don't know why I want to PT sometimes, and to not have that set goal in mind it is hard to be motivated. He has a point, when I'm not out there with someone to train with I wonder why I'm out there. Yes, it's to one day do something high speed low drag, but I just train at a more optimum level when I'm grinding it out with someone.

Saturday was out first soccer game. We only had two practices. Our first cancellation was because of the Commanding Officer's visit to the clinic, and the second reason was because of "inclement" weather. Apparentally many parents don't want to see their child practice in the rain. To some degree I understand where they are coming from, but on the other hand it was only rain. Then again it was really coming down, and not just a drizzle. Back to our game. We won 3-0. Unfortunately we don't technically keep score, and for that matter have league standings. I was given lots of praise despite to my observation of lack in self-confidence. It gives me wind to put in my sails though to really look forward to this coming week in practice.

Darryl and I went out to eat at this little Japanese resteraunt sailors like to call "meat on a stick" because of how the food is served. Wasn't too bad, but more expenisive than I would have predicted. I should really get on that, exploring different more community resteraunts.

My command is jagging me around with moving off base. Initially I told them in my career development board that each paycheck is tight because of the things I paying back for. They are not forgetting this, and I have to do ANOTHER finacially councelling session to make sure I'm good to go. It is just frustrating that they are hanging this carrot in front of me. Each paycheck is tight because I pay more than just the minimum payments on things. I won't go into details here, but again, don't be worried nor concerned with my financial stabilities. I am doing just fine, but I'll hope to have better news on moving off base in my next post.

We had a 96 hour (4 day) liberty this weekend. The rest of the base had only a 72 hour liberty because Monday is Labor Day, and the base recongizes that holiday. We had an extra day off on Friday because we, the clinic staff, finished all of our online training in good timing. Get this though, if you have duty during this weekend, it is by order of the OIC that we be given another 96 because we HAVE to have a 96 hour liberty because we "earned" it. Your truly has duty tomorrow so I will be having another 4 day weekend someday in the future yet to be determined, but it's still comforting knowing I have it. Then again they'll probably jag me around for this too.

Some good news from the week. One, Rich told me that I should save up my leave time because I was just selected as his best man. Not sure when that'll happen, but it's comforting knowing what he told me. I told a friend who knows how much I write, and she joked that I probably already had a rough draft of the best man speech already knocked out. I was not expecting to be put in this position for him, so sadly not yet. In other good news, my friend of years, friend through tears Carlee is now engaged! She skyped me about an hour after it happened, and she could hardly breath she was still so excited. Stories like those that motivate me. On the other hand though it is in a way depressing. Friends all around me are now starting to get engaged, married, have families, and here I am in Japan. Meh.

Alrighty, I've been putting off my college homework for too long this weekend, and I will end my night with that. Some things never change I guess. Morale is high and things are looking good.