Cold Showers

Ah yes, here I am back in Sasebo. It has been about 11 days since my return to the island of Kyushu. When I first arrived I was greeted a no-shit rainy season. It was either literally raining in every sense of the word (I like to think of the Forrest Gump when describing weather in Vietnam). Pretty awful stuff compared to the "rainy" season that was being complained about in Yokosuka. On top of the rain, there was the humidity! Now, I'm a huge patriot of Wisconsin where "it's not so much about the heat, but the gosh darn humidity," but I would not have minded trading places. The subject title should be a little self-explainitory. I have no problem taking cold showers these days. Japanese rooms are sectioned off by doors making a bunch of smaller rooms. This apartment I sleep in is no different, and I think this is done because when you want to turn on the air-conditioning or heater, there is less space you need to consider. When I'm home, my A/C is on. Those are the facts.

Let's see, when I came home on a Wednesday, I planned out my 96-hour special liberty (for my PRT score) for the long holiday weekend. I returned to work in Sasebo for just one day when I was off for the next 4. It was nice except for Saturday when I had to run in the aquathon. That was a 750m swim and 7.5km run. I did not place that well, but then again I didn't train that well either. As bad as I did, I learned my lesson never to sign Kristoph to do these kinds of competitions without his permission first!

Later that same day the Carey's and I drove up to Fukuoka for the night. Originally we were scheduled to drive up to Tokyo and climb Mt. Fuji, but after just spending the month up in that part of the woods I really had no interest in going back so soon. Saturday, July 3rd we three went out to eat and then the men went to a club. I feel embarrassed sharing the name of this place, but it is notable: Happy Cocks. How do I describe this place? Open a can of sardines, and that is how the club looked and smelled. It was much too crowded for a good time. For $30 though it was all you could drink...Kristoph and I capitalized on that. The walk home was fun, but the next morning wasn't so fun. Because Kristoph's wife, Emma didn't go out with us, she had little sympathy for how we felt, and wanted to get sight-seeing.

Seeing the sights we did as Emma wanted to hit up the Fukuoka Aquarium. I'm more of a zoo kind of guy myself, but it was interesting all the same. The seal/dolphin show was my favorite part. On the way home we took a wrong turn and instead of going to Sasebo, we took a 40 minute detour to Nagasaki! Japanese highways isn't like the interstate system. There are very few exits and turn-around points so if you get going the wrong direction, you really feel your mistake. I learned I have another pet peeve, and that is when my gas tank gets below 3/4 full I get rather paranoid. Since I wasn't driving I kept my anxieties to myself, but I didn't drive anywhere the next day just to be sure I could get to work on Tuesday.

As for the 4th, the actual holiday I didn't do anything except the aquarium. It was foggy and rainy that night so I just stayed at my apartment recovering from my near-allnighter the night before. Do I regret not seeing the fireworks the base provided? Of course not because in a year I will be back in the states where 'Merica's birthday can really be celebrated. I'm going to really look forward to St. Patrick's day though. Pretty sure that was talked about earlier in the blog.

Less than a month before I go home, and it isn't going unnoticed. I had duty twice this week which is a bummer, but it keeps the clock moving fast so I really don't dwell on the time. Time is flying by so fast! Only two more weeks of work, and then it's off to the motherland, but not without hiccups.
You see, Rich cancelled his wedding with MJ. That put a kink in my plans seeing how I already bought the plane tickets. Instead of going to Buffalo, NY I wanted to switch flight destinations to Burlington, VT where Rich is living. I also wanted to change my travel companion from JenJen to Neuman. You know, I wanted the boys to console a friend instead of just bringing a date. I love Jennifer, but this was a man's mission! Small problems to this. A) the rerouting of the tickets was more costly than the original tickets themselves and b) they won't allow me to change the name on the second ticket. The end of the story ends with me cancelling the flight in general and writing an email to US Airlines public relations department. Could this be karma for when I had to cancel Father's ticket back in March because I thought I was going to Haiti? Grumblegrumble

Had my interview with the master diver here in Sasebo, and things are looking good. He is going to endorse my package which in translation means the liklihood that I'm going to Dive Med Tech school after Japan is about 95%. Do I really need to go into deapth abut how excited I am?! As long as I get on the PT horse again, I should be okay. It also means I won't spend that much time inbetween duty stations either. Unless something happens...well, that can be discussed at a different time.

Last night was Matt Olysk's wedding reception. It was a good time. The same day, but earlier in the afternoon was CDR Service's going-away picnic. There was some good conversation and story-telling, but I'm happy because I get to see them later this week at swim practice. CDR Service has been dubbed the "greatest naval officer you'd ever want to work for." We joke that when he becomes admiral to think of us to put some of us on his staff. I'll go fetch his coffee anyday if it means serving under Big Mike.

That's about it for now. Check facebook for all picture uploads and I'll holler back later. Morale is high.

My New Haircut

If anyone has seen the youtube clip of this, you know what I'm talking about. Not really, but kinda actually. Maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about, and if that is the case then log onto youtube.com and type in "my new haircut." There you would be able to listen/watch the biggest tools EVER! I think they're just kidding, but really, there really is idiots out there. I'll get to what I mean by "my new haircut" on a personal level in a minute. For now, I will begin with the intended start of this blog (minus this paragraph of course).

Nevermind from random, that has already been achieved in the first paragraph. My mind is wondering from place to place, and I'm not quite sure where to start. Oh! the places I go. Let's start with the most exciting news of the week: this past Friday night I finally made my trip to Tokyo. More specifically, the Ropongii District. Now, for many you who don't know what I'm talking about, Ropongii is the bar/club/party district of Tokyo. As we all know, Tokyo is one of the world's largerst cities in the world (actually according to www.mongabay.com it is the largest city according to population of 34,000,000 people). You can only imagine the scale of this place...and I did not go home disappointed.

So there I was (I really do leading off a story with that phrase; thank you HM2 Slyvestor), having "trained" for the past 3 weekends in the streets of Yokosuka. Having spent enough money to make my mother extremely pissed, numerous drunken calls/emails, and more than one hungover morning the next day at work, I was trained. In Yokosuka, much like Sasebo, within earshot of the shore patrol that roam the streets there is a policy of no drinking after 0200 on the weekends. It's a good rule since nothing good happens after midnight. This rule does not apply to where we were going. Yes, I said "we" meaning it was 2 other guys along with myself. My friend John Benningfield could not make it this weekend, so I went with two junior pharmacy techs from work: Jason and Matt. Though not the crew I had originally planned to be with, by the time we got on the train to go to Tokyo I knew the night was going to be alright.

Ropongii is a marathon, not a sprint. What I mean by that is the trains stop running at midnight, and don't start up again until 0600 the next day. We'd be stuck there for the night. Unless you're bringing someone to a hotel room at the end of the night (which I had absolutely no intention of doing for reasons to be discussed at a later time in this post), you have to stick it out all night. The name of the game is pacing yourself, which if you know me for longer than a night at the bars is something I wouldn't call my strong-suit...at all. Good thing I had all those crazy nights in Yoko to prepare for this night!

Because of scheduling we decided on Friday night. After work I dashed to the barbershop to get my haircut. How I miss Sasebo and my "regular" barber, Inowei, but I dealt with what I had for where I was, you know? Any ounce of common sense would have told me to then take a quick nap, but not this guy. I relaxed for a bit facebooking and youtubing. Then Matt calls me telling me that he is coming over to my place to start pre-gaming. It was about 1830 at this time and though I thought this wasn't the best idea seeing how we weren't going to leave for another couple of hours, I invited him in. Matt and I had a good time at my place, and the last 45 minutes or so Jason finally came over. Matt was about 4-5 500ml beers in him when we finally left at 2130 for the train station. I thought I was going to get a chance to skype Danielle, but turns out she was still sleeping and in fact had no recollection of our phone conversation when I called her before I left!

The train situation was a bit interesting. Jason had been to Ropongii only once before whereas Matt and I had never been. We asked quite a few people if we were taking the right routes and blah blah blah. Matt was from what I could tell had a good buzz to him, if not too good for how early it was in the night. Finally we made it to Tokyo, and instead of getting on the metro, we bit the bullet and paid for a taxi to take us to where we wanted to go. We paid $16 instead of the $1.50 subway ride. I guess we were getting a bit impatient! Once we arrived the jaws started dropping.

Now, for the past 15 months I have lived in Sasebo, Japan. It is labeled as a country town which I really never understood seeing how it's 250,000 people. Compare that to the towns of Wisconsin, and it would place 2nd among all of them right behind Milwaukee. Needless to say, I was not about to be prepared enough for what I saw. Next to the overall United States and Singapore, the street that I was on was easily the biggest melting pot I have ever seen. There were people from all over the world! I don't know how many European models I walked by, African hustlers trying to finagle me into the club that hired them to do so, and the girls! I've heard rumors about how many women walked this street, but it was still nothing what I had expected. Lots of eye-candy, but I was on a no-touch policy tonight which strangely enough didn't bother me, not one bit.

Another thing I didn't expect was the amount of peddlers. Remember those African guys I just mentioned? Well, they must have seen the expression on my face that only screamed "Ropongii virgin" and they must have licked their lips at the sight of us. We couldn't walk 15 meters without being bothered to come to this club or that bar. They appeared to be our best friends within the first 20 seconds of meeting them, and I was too in shock-and-awe to take serious note of their true agenda. I had a sliver of this the night I was in Atlanta, but even then it was from a single seemingly homeless guy just looking for a tip so he can go buy his 40 of malt liquor. Anyway, I was finally coarsed into this one club. It was a slight mistake.

Our first club of the night had a $30 cover charge (I converted all the currency charges to USD since the Yen and American Dollar is so close now in conversion rates), and it was all you can drink for an hour, kinda. At first it seemed like a good way to start off the night, but really this place was a glorified Filipino buy-me-drink bar. The girls would come up next to us and start talking and flirting which was really awkward because a)I'm not good at spitting game b) I didn't know what their agenda was c) I have decided to take a path of higher values than to sit here and fall for these working women of the night. In order to protect myself as much as possible I told them that I was actually Canadian, not in the navy, but an exchange student in international relations from Fukuoka University, and I had no family. Just in case they kidnapped me and decided to hold me ransom and tortured me with threatening to kill my family, etc. A bit cheesy and lame, but they really had no reason of knowing my story.

Matt was having a good time, maybe too good of a time. Remember how he had a strong buzz before we even left my place in Yokosuka? Add on top of this many more very-strong whiskey and cokes. I was having supposedly rum and cokes, but really it was whiskey...I decided to not argue because it was all doing to end up doing the same thing for me, the alcohol that is. When we left we decided to go bar-hopping. That was when the fun really started.

The bars were packed, the music was blasting, and everyone was dancing having the best times. Luckily all the music was in English and many American artist. Who would have thunk that Abba would have been a smash hit? How a round in a club would work: we would snake through everyone (took more than a couple of minutes) to the back of the bar. Then we would order a round where each of us were taking turns. We'd drink about half of the beer while we danced and then started our treck outside to the next bar. Luckily we buzzed enough at the very first club we were at so we didn't need to buy many $9 beers.

This one bar we were at I think we were the only Americans. Jason is Filipino by birth so no one knew about him, but I'm 6'2" and Matt is 6'5" and here we were in a Japanese club/bar and Bon Jovi "It's My Life" starts playing. I almost thought that everyone was looking at us! Kinda cool. I didn't care if I was dancing like I was a 1960's history teacher, and no one around me seemed to care either. I only wish I took more pictures of the places we went. I just hope I don't get Alzheimer's within the next 70 years or so!

We did that for a few bars and ended up at our last bar. Here I decided to dance with someone, but if said it was harmless what I really meant by it was it was pathetic to watch. The entire night I only was wishing I was dancing with someone very specific somewhere very far away. After the last bar we walked outside, and it was daylight! We saw the McDonald's arches and we began to long-step it over there, but not before the REAL ladies of the night tried to recruit us for their "massage" services. Jason and I still knew what was going on, but not Matt. The poor bastard was able to somehow look at us in the face and tell us that he just wanted to go to bed, and he went off with 2 women. That idiot! We scratched it off not as leaving a shipmate behind, but the newbie has to learn his lesson, even if that means the hard way. He'd be fine, it's Japan afterall, but he make wake up to be a little less rich than before the night started.

Jason was able to get a phone number at McDonalds. That's how many women were at this place, he was able to get a fricking phone number at a fast food joint drunk as hell, too. I decided to wait for him outside where I saw some guy sleeping in the street, passed out. Two guys were eating their McD's over him, and I asked where they were from. Their reply? "Russia" in a thick accent, it was awesome, and I wish that story could be better told, but it was one of those "you had to have been there moments."

After we ate it was time for the journey home. Waiting for the first train was one of the biggest challenges of them all. Takes real character to push through that kind of adversity, but we somehow made it. When we got on the last train to take us to Yokosuka, I closed my eyes. Only opening them to move out of the way to let someone pass, and to get off the train. We got home at 0720. What's the translation on that? Well, if we had to go stand duty (which neither of us needed to do) we could have in a worst case scenerio. I went home to do a couple of emails, and was off to bed.

This story is not over quite yet. At 1315 Matt calls me to say that he just got back to Yokosuka. Apparently he was blacked out after the very first bar, and didn't come out of his funk until that next morning when he was walking down some random street in Tokyo! Afterwards he spent 6 hours sleeping on the train and somehow made it back. It is Sunday night here, and as of Sunday afternoon he and yet to check his online banking to survey the damage. Poor guy.

Besides that my week was pretty boring. I go home to Sasebo this Wednesday which I am looking very forward to, but that is neither here nor there. What I would comment on is my admission of yes, I am actually going to a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field. I bought the tickets earlier this week. After trying to decide with Danielle what to do, that seemed like the next best thing besides harassing new recruits at Great Lakes. We have logged a lot skype time this past week which is good. I will end here on this subject because this post is getting long enough!

Minor tuffle with my college class. There was some slight miscommunication with my course, and I went to do my homework tonight for my intro to interpersonnel communication class, but apparentley the professor closes conferences sometime in the middle of the week. That wasn't the case for my other 2 courses I have taken from UMUC, and an email to the teacher quickly followed my recent discovery. Grumblegrumble.

Alright, I ahve said my piece for the week. Next weekend is the 4th of July. I was supposed to make a roadtrip up to Mt. Fuji/Tokyo/Yokosuka with Kristoph and his wife, but I now believe that isn't going to happen. There is a 750 meter swim/7.5km run that is rescheduled till next weekend from last weekend due to all the rain in Sasebo (it hasn't rained that much here actually compared to the rainy season I'm used to). Nothing good can happen from that aquathon, but I'll save that for another time. Morale is high, and I'm looking forward to pressing on.

The Good Chief

Now, I've talked about my chief numerous times in previous posts to this, but I don't think I ever headlined with him, nor mention him in my title. Both could be considered quite an honor in my little world. Either way, I'm going to owe someone a beer, and by the time I'm done with this story, you will know why.

So there I was, knocking out some prescriptions in Yokosuka still (remember how I'm here till June 30th). I probably had done close to a 1,000 by then, and the LPO (leading petty officer) came up with a printed email. It had something to do with 'c' schools. A 'c' school is like where I went to pharmacy tech school; it's an advanced training program. Other examples of 'c' schools in the corpsmen rate would be radiology tech, nuclear med tech, cardiology tech, aviation med tech, and dive med tech. It's the last one here that caught my attention as we should all know by now. On top of that, it's what was said about DMT school. It was a hot-fill billet. That means it's a critically manned position. If there was ever a break to be caught, this was my day.

About 5 minutes after reading that I was on the phone with Sasebo's career councelors telling them let's get something started on this. I received an email back saying I need to call the detailer and ask permission if they would release me from my current NEC as a pharm tech. Knowing this would be an uphill battle I emailed my chief and asked him what I should do. He replied back saying that we could conference call the detailer together that night. This got the juices flowing, and rightly so! That night I stayed up till 2200 (0800 in Millington, TN where the detailer was), and waited for a phone call. When nothing happened I decided to take manners into my own hands. I didn't know if Chief was held up, or what, but patience is something I was never really good at. I had to know!

I wish I didn't call. My phone call was maybe 3:30 minutes long. Essentially what I was told was even though it was a hot-fill and critically manned, I would not even be considered because I was only 1 full year into my obligserv as a pharm tech. On top of that I would need at least 2 full years to be looked at. Nothing else mattered. I thanked her for my time, and slept depressed. I woke up depressed, and went through my day depressed. My entire day I was making stupid mistakes that were more uncharacteristic than normal, and I was getting really angry, but no one was to blame or subject to get yelled at except myself. It was all very sad to see me unravel. I was thinking about next duty stations as a pharm tech, and after my experience here in Yoko I knew a big command was out of the question. Possbily a ship in Washington State or New England region. I wanted to go somewhere cold. I even flirted with the idea of a submarine possibly.

Then I was talking to my friend, Darryl. He said he talked to Chief, and was calling me a dumbass for calling the detailer by myself. Chief then told Darryl that tonight was going to be the night he'd call the detailer. Apparently I wasn't the only junior sailor he had to bat for. I was told to expect a phone call from him later on that night.

There I was, in a bar Friday night still depressed watching the world cup with my friends. It was the Serbia vs. Germany game which we dubbed The Battle of Revenge: Serb Jews vs. The Nazis. 2215 rolled by, and sure enough Chief Bennett calls me asking for my social security number. Remember that I was in a bar, and it was very crowded, as most Japanese bars are tiny. I had to quickly dash outside into the rain, stealing someone's umbrella as I went. That phone call lasted maybe 90 seconds, and he said he'd call me back. There I waited in the bar trying to not get my hopes up having just had the discussion with the detailer 24 hours ago.

A half hour later I get a phone call from Chief. It went like this:
Chief: When do you get back to Sasebo again, shipmate?
Me: June 30th, Chief.
Chief: Okay, on July 1st I want a 'c' school package on my desk in the morning.
Me: You're fucking with me, right?
Chief: No, have a good night and don't get in trouble.
Me: Go USA.

I don't know what he said, or what he did, but he did it. HMC Bennett will forever be called The Good Chief. I don't care what anyone said, he has given me a chance at real Happiness in this institution we call the Navy. I want to romanticize the conversation he had with the detailer by him really throwing those anchors around and telling them who is the boss and reminding them that's it's the chiefs who run the navy. Who cares, I owe him a beer, or something. In reality he hasn't drank since 1994 so I will have to dig deeper into my bag of originality. Shouldn't be too hard. If this all pans out (and it's projected to) I owe him a lot.

Besides that, there really isn't much else to share! I watch all the world cup that I can. The USA vs. Slovenia game was intense. Having just heard the news from Chief I was on cloud 9. It got a little hairy, but to come back from a 2-0 defecit was just as intoxicating to all the beers before that. When we scored we had to decide on a shot, how fitting it was to be in Japan and call Kamakazi's for the group.

Tell you what though, the world cup is something else. I don't typically watch soccer, but it's the world's sport, and it's that sport's biggest event. There is a lot of national pride at stake, and it's interesting being in a foreign country where winning and losing in this tournament means something. Too bad the Japanese team sucks. I blame it on them being so short and having to run twice as fast as everyone else, and how that can get tiring I can only imagine. So in other words, world cup is big news here in Japan, but American coverage is limited. Thank you ESPN.com

Haven't gone to Tokyo, yet. Next weekend is my last weekend here in Yoko, and that will have to be the encore. I'm getting very excited. Sorry no pictures posted just yet, and I'm not sure when news will be put up either. I'm a little concerned because my camera software is on my old laptop, and it shuts down after every 5 minutes or so. That is a little worrisome.

Alright, time to go for now. Things are good. Only 8 more working days up here with one more weekend. Sasebo, I'm coming home! Morale is high.

Roger up Sconniesailor, you're not in Sasebo anymore

So here I am, in sitting in my hotel room in Yokosuka, Japan. It is about 700 miles north of Sasebo, and a stone throw away from Tokyo. You may ask what the Hell I'm doing here, and I may tell you "good question." I was sent here to cover in the capacity of a pharmacy technician over here at the big house. Naval Hospital Yokosuka is the parent command here in Japan, and it is the largest US hospital in Japan. Naval Branch Health Clinic Sasebo is a satellite clinic of Yokosuka. Our commanding officer is here, and so is the Director of Branch Clinics. So are the master chiefs, you can't forget about them.

Working here is no joke. It's super busy up here. I deal with more patients in an hour and fill more prescriptions in that time than I did at a full day's work back in Sasebo. I don't sit down unless I'm at the front window bringing patients on the computer. There is no chiving here, and I only check my email when I'm leaving work. When I do check my email, it's when I am released from work, and I am in no mood to be at the pharmacy any longer, so I forward all my emails to my hotmail account and reply in my hotel room. In Sasebo the window closes at 1600 and we go home...not the case here. The earliest that I go home is 1640! On Friday we didn't get to go home till 1700. That warrants a definite grumblegrumble right there.

On top of that I am required to attend command PT. It isn't too big of a deal except that I really don't like command PT the way it is. It's on Mondays instead of Fridays, but the pharmacy opens up at the same usual time. In Sasebo the pharmacy opens 1 1/2 hours later than normal. Needless to say the tempo is high here, and it's all the time.

On Friday though the Surgeon General of the Navy, Vice Admiral Adam Fitzgerald, came to visit. I saw him once at Great Lakes when he visited Corps School. He looks good, like he lost some weight. I did have a question for him during the admiral's call, but I ultimately decided against it. There was a lot of brass in that room, and I didn't want to appear dumber than he had the ability of making me look. Either way it got me a hour out of work. The ability to skate in this place is almost nonexistent, and that's not cool.

I still keep in touch with Sasebo though. Well, mostly just HM2 Oldenburg. We talk a couple times a day on the phone, and send emails here and there. I also talk to Icenhour, Kristoph, and a few other people on skype.

Come to think about it, I do a lot of more writing now that I'm here. I knock out emails like they are a joke. Because of my self-proclaimed policy of not cheating one on a good story they tend to be long. That's why Danielle, if you're reading this, you won't be reading anything you don't already know ;)

John Benningfield is up here, and that is great. It's always nice to see old friends. Last night he took me out, and I got royally drunk. Another clue that I'm not in Sasebo, a credit card was stolen and I had to cancel it after I saw a $1,100 charge! The company was some Japanese name, but that didn't matter. I had a good time, but not that expensive of one! I did wake up to find my wallet empty of all the yen I had inside. It was a lot of fun, but I felt like hammered shit all day today. Just paying for my sins of a good time. Thee is the Wade Hayes song, "too much fun," and I think there actually is such a thing.

I have another friend up here who I know from my time in Diego Garcia. Her name is Sarah, and as it turns out, it may just be a cursed name! We hung out every day this week having dinner together (she was recently stationed on the USS Blue Ridge, a flag ship). She was only in Yoko for 10 days before me, but I've been in Japan for 13 months longer than her. Anyway, she met up with John and I last night, I did something stupid in the midst of being drunk (imagine that), and we aren't talking anymore. It's okay, I'm moving on.

Somehow I found a website that all of the season 6 House episodes, so I was rocking through that. I watched all 21 episodes, so it will be interesting as to what I will do now with my free time. Maybe I will actually start running. I'm thinking about it.

What else is there? Took the bullet train to get up here, and that was awesome. It was the quietest, smoothest mode of travel I've ever had. I can say too I've traveled faster landspeed than anyone I know! Lots of goodbye parties too. Had dinner with HM1 Martinez and her family two days before I left. They will be back in the states before I return. Icenhour will staying at my home for the 10 or so days before he goes back to the states. Normally people stay at the navy lodge before they rotate back to the states, but because I won't be home during that time I agreed to just let him stay at my house. That meant I got to give my apartment intense cleaning before I left. It's okay, I really don't mind. He will be in Japan for one more night the day I get back. It's going to be a hungover day the following morning I can sense it already.

Meh, I still have to iron my uniform. Since I have so much free time in my evenings now I can probably get back on a once a week posting cycle again. In the meantime, I am here and morale is stable. Either way this is a new experience for me, and I'm trying to seize every opportunity that becomes available.

So much so fast

Too bad I am on duty; there are some good pics that could be posted. Then again they are all posted on facebook (for the most part), and that is my plug to say if you don't have facebook then you are missing out on something. My old man and I go back on forth for it's worth. It should go without saying that I find networking to be a huge tool in my life, and facebook has truly made my world a lot smaller. Especially been living in Japan I find all ways of quickly connecting with my world back home of use and great worth. I think my dad only sees facebook as this virus that opens him up to be bothered by people he really never liked, and never really knew. That is true, that is a sacrafice I am willing to pay for exchange of keeping in touch with old time friends, creating new friends, and I may never know when I mean to call upon to someone who I will have to ask for their help. Facebook is the gateway to so many options. Hey though, that's just me.

Wow, 50 posts. It's hard to believe that it has been so many!! I have begun to copy and paste all my blogs onto Microsoft Word, and I was amazed at how much I have written and shared for the world to see. My Japan story is not short, so far I am at 175 pages. Yes, that includes pictures and paragraph breaks, but still the fact remains that no one was kidding when they said that I write too long of posts at a time! Time flies when you're having fun, and I have always maintained everyone has a story to share. Thing is with me though is that I like to actually have people read my story. When this is all said and done my blog will be printed off, and copies will be made. That is something I am looking forward to very much. More importantly I will like my grandmother to read my blog. Grandma Mongin isn't into reading things on a computer screen so I have a feeling she will appreciate the gift I will give her. With that said I know how much Grandma hates gifts that don't come in the form of chocolate, but still I think everyone gets the point especially if you know her, and how much she loves to read.

In a way I make it a point to not read my previous post(s) before I start a new one. I am aware that things may overlap and it may seem like I am repeating myself. This is noted, but remember that everything I say will be again reread in years to come. If it is brought up more than once it must mean that it is weighing heavily on my mind and thoughts. Let this be a disclaimer to my supposed failing mind!

First thing is first. I have decided not to complete my EOD package. This may come as a shock to many of you, and in a way it is shocking to myself, but I feel that this is the best thing for me. To save a lot of already written words, I will post an email I had to a doctor here below. This doctor knew of my EOD ambitions, and periodically would forward me emails of articles revolving around the field. This is my reply to him:

From: Rastall, Calvin W. HM3
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 8:06 PM
To: Locke, Jonathan LCDR
Subject: EOD

Thank you for the emails, Sir. I appreciate being thought of. As much as I
enjoy the articles, I must tell you though that I have changed my mind on
EOD. This revelation only came on Monday night, so you're not too far out of
the loop. On Sunday I was laying in bed having one of those "what do I want
to do with my life/when I grow up" conversations with myself when I was
trying to find sleep. EOD was not on the list. As cool as I think it would
be, and as much of an adventure as I think it would experience myself to, it
isn't something I'm hellbent for anymore. EOD is something I've come to
realize you have to totally committed for, and I'm not sure if that's me. An
EOD Chief came into the clinic earlier this week for a hearing aide
consultation...he's 33 years old. I don't want to be that guy. The wear and
tear and all the traveling might be fun for a while, but I could get bored,
lose my focus, and find myself in a major situation at the most inopportune
time. I don't want to be that guy. It was incredible to see the support I've
had to gain behind me, and part of me feels like I let some of them down,
but the cross-rate has been on my mind for about 13 months now, and I have
reached a decision. Dive Med Tech (DMT) is not out of the question, and I
will continue to my physical/hyperbaric chamber test, etc just to make sure
that option is still possibly available.

v/r
HM3 Rastall

EOD is a field that takes much commitment. As I was told in my interview with the EOD locker, it is a lifestyle. I did not think after much thought that it was for me. I'm not going to be 33 and needing a hearing-aide. I hope this all make complete sense for everyone.

Dive Medical Technician (DMT) is next on the docket. I wanted to become an EOD tech most of all because it could get me out of being a pharmacy technician the quickest. That was the wrong reason for being an EOD tech. Now, I have talked to my chief, and he said he will call the detailer seeing if he can get my obligated service as a pharmacy tech waived sooner than the 3 years I am contracted for. Right now I have 2 years to go. Depending on manning issues (in my favor) and how hard he throws his anchors around (because rank talks in the military as we should all know about now), there is a possibility I could get waived and eligible to go to DMT school after Japan. That is the most ideal. The DMT package and EOD package are essentially the same thing. Wednesday I get pressed (the date has been officially set), and I will have my interview with the dive locker and master diver. That is crucial. If I have his support that can only help me.

What is a DMT? Well, they obviously specialize in dive medicine. I will learn a lot about dive science. Through Kristoph I have become familiar with the dive locker and their DMT. He does more diving operations than actual corpsmen work. He said he knows guys who he went to school with that have been attached to special warfare commands and are now going to jump school. A DMT can do everything a rated diver can do, and they are the complete medical side of the house on top of that. They can get their diver warfare pins, become supervisor qualified, and wherever there is a mission, there is a corpsmen. The sea/shore rotation is also more fair than EOD as well. At first I wanted to be a DMT, but I found out I would need to stick out my obligated service as a pharmacy tech first. I was too impatient to do this. Now I am willing to do what it takes, plus as I suggested earlier my networking is well placed to help me out even that much more.

HM1 Martinez has received official word that she will be leaving in the next 30 days. This is good and bad. Good because that is what she wanted, and a happy sailor is a high moraled sailor, but again it is bad. We have a good team working here at mainbase, and with her being separated she will be discharged leaving the fellowship to be broken. HN Garcia and I both hate working out at Hario. He has his reasons, but I don't like it because it is SO slow and that leads to mediocrity, and that leads to restlessness, and restlessness leasds to complaceny. I'm already not thrilled to be doing what I do for a living so this is just one more stepping stone to overcome. Adversity seems to be my middle name when it comes to working in the pharmacy. It's like a battle I will always try to fight and the monster is always trying to get out of the cage. Learning to contain my disliking has been on the biggest tests of them all. Also with HM1 leaving that shortens the pharmacy on-call watch bill by a week. More on-calls equals more work for everyone else.

Good news on the baseball diamond! Our season is finally over!! Well, at least I'm saying it is. Interesting cluster-fuck here, and I'll try to explain it. We have a team of 7 kids, but one moved away and now we only have 6. As you know it takes 9 players to complete a full line-up. If anything is hit in the outfield it only spells bad news. Well, the trophies were given to us on what I thought was the last game of the season, a 0800 game. After the game, which we won, I handed out the trophies, said my final words, and sent the kids on their happy way. Coach Kim "Meanmachine" Ryan and I then went and had breakfast. We talked for about 90 minutes, and she dropped me off back at my car which was still at the field (we took her car to the diner). I was just about to leave when I got a phone call from Kim saying that Jackie Patterson, the youth sports coordinator, said we had another game to be played at 1100!! No one knew about our double-header that day. Not me, the other coaches, or the parents. Luckily there was one kid on my team who had stuck around (one of the better hitters), and Jackie rallied to have a few other kids from other teams come play for us. Turns out the kids who stuck around were essentially an all-start team of 7-8 year olds! There was nothing I could pitch they wouldn't hit. When we accidently ran up the score, I had purposely strike these kids out so the other team could bat, that's how bad it was. So yes, we won the second game too. My story gets better. Turns out on our schedule that we have ANOTHER game on June 5th!! That leaves me at cross-roads. I want to have my season stay ended, but that will only look bad. I told these kids they were done, and I'm sure the parents were happy about that annoucnement too. Tomorrow, Monday, I will email the parents and give them the "bad" news. I will give the kids off this week from practice, and be back in the saddle one more week for one more game. On the otherhand I could stick to my guns and tell the higher powers that be that we forfeit the game. I will take the temperature of the parents first.

Been logging some really good emails to some good friends. With my computer being shot to Hell (the notebook is still in the mail), I can't call anyone. It is really taking a nip on my calling card, but I'm okay with that. What I've been also doing is writing some long emails to friends. I like doing that in a way, especially when I'm at Hario and I have nothing better to do with my day. I also read my godmother's blog, and I will give a shoutout here and say thank you for referencing me. Blogs are always fun to read.

I did not chaperone the prom. They had enough volunteers the way it was. I was asked though to help out at the next dance though. My work with the school is not finished though. There was a going away party for one of the divers, and Steve Cassner was there with a friend strangely enough. Steve is a major player at the high school as he coaches almost every sport. We have gone out drinking a few times and he is a good guy. I asked him if he was close to the athletic director and he said that he will probably be the athletic director in a couple of weeks. I then asked him on the possibility on making a swim team for the high school. He told me that he'll look into it and bring it up with the incoming principal. Now folks, if this happens, it will have exceeded every goal I have ever set for myself at this point in my life besides being accepted to college and walking-on the swim team at UWGB.

Swimming isn't over. I have began the process of getting registered with the Nagasaki Swimming Association. This way we will have meets and actual competition. No more just practicing. Problem is everything is in Japanese, and I don't quite have the skills to do this by myself. Granted between Kristoph and myself I take care of the administrative ends of the house, but if it isn't one thing bogging me down, it's another. For the swim caps and boy jammers it was a time zone issue, and here it is a language issue. If we can pull this off it will be another feather in my cap. One thing about swimming I hate though is it is hard for people who don't understand the sport to really understand just how much work and time it takes to make something like this work. Espeically for two guys who sat on a couple of bar stools flirting with the idea to begin with.

About the Mt. Fuji climb. I ran the idea past Kristoph. He doesn't want to do the MWR trip route. Instead he wants to climb it ourselves. So we have reserved a van and we will make a roadtrip up there the 4th of July weekend. He is bringing his wife and I have yet to name my travel companion. While we are up there in the Tokyo/Yokosuka area we hope to visit our friend John Benningfield who has recently taken a job at CFAY. Time is flying by and it will be that weekend before we know it.

Have I written enough for one post? I hope so because I am going to bed before my watch!! Morale is high, note that.

Intervention

It's not like that TV show (though I think that program is AWESOME). Get me right, I'm not hooked on cracked, not huffing gas, or drinking mouth wash cause it's cheaper. Maybe intervention is the lack of a better term. I could say "stood at parade rest behind closed door with department head, chief, and work center supervisor in room for 1 1/2 hours." You know, which ever sounds more appealing to the ear. I will say it was not a "no shit" parade rest, but a half-rest. Let it be on the record I am not supposed to consider what happened an ass-chewing, and upon further review of the situation I will agree, it wasn't. We could just call it a recalibration of path.

Excited to know what happened? I'll give a brief review. So there I was, on-call duty. I forgot my phone in a car. Though I called using someone else's phone arranging to get mine back, I did not think about calling the clinic I was phoneless for the hour that it would take to get it back. Well, of course there was a patient in that hour that needed my duty. They called, and called, and called. When I got my phone back I had 9 missed calls. Some of them was from my department head/pharmacist, and the other was from my work center supervisor/mentor, HM2 Oldenburg. When I got on base, he was just leaving from doing my job, they called him into work. Though he isn't much of an ass-chewer, he got his point across very fast he was pissed off, and rightly so. Then the doctor of the duty, the good lieutenant aka Dr. Margraf took his turn getting up to his shoulders in my ass. After that I called LT Quach back and he did his best to eat me out (he too isn't much of an ass eater either). I thought the situation was settled and I learned from my mistake. Of course this was wrong, I still had to go through The Good Chief, HMC Bennett. Now, I've talked about Chief Bennett before in previous posts. I like him, a lot. He doesn't wake up to destroy people, but he is the best in the clinic to go old-school military ass-chewing. He never calls it an ass-chewing, but I left feeling pretty sorry for myself and if I hadn't realized how much I messed up, I really did when I left the meeting on Monday.

There the 4 of us were in the pharmacist's office. It was made public how I don't put my best foot forward when I'm working in the capacity as a pharmacy tech. I agreed to this, but I couldn't tell them why. I don't know why not. Even though I hate my job, it IS my job, and I need to cowboy up. It's my duty. Then something was said from Oldenburg actually that I never said to anyone else here in Japan, and it wouldn't surprise my mother (who says it constantly): if there is something I want or find interesting, I put 110% effort into what I'm doing, but if it's something I despise, it's so easy I lose my concentration. It was like that in high school sports, in swimming, and coaching. I left the meeting asked to sustain my concentration and put my best effort in doing my primary job. I was also asked to evaluate my own performance via our evaluation form, and share it with Chief the next day.

Of course there was more that was said, but those are the main points I felt needed to be shared. It should go without saying that I've put some thought into the meeting. Most of all, get my attitude back in check. My job is very serious, and people actually do depend on me. I love getting credit, attention, and recongition. A problem is my job really doesn't entitle those unless I do something wrong. Is that the way most jobs are? I'm not sure. I can produce 100 perfect prescriptions in a day, but it's the 1 I messed up on that everyone will remember. That's a little pressure on me. My guess EOD is just like that though. That one bomb I mess up on, and it isn't someone else's life I'm putting in peril, but my own. Initial success or instant failure.

I submitted my request to be nominated for the Caduceus's Committee secretary position. The Caduceus's Committee is a clinic-ran organization that internally helps improve morale and welfare of the clinic staff. Up until now I have scorned the organization citing I was too busy and internally too important for it. Why would I spend more time helping out the clinic when I want nothing more but to spend as much time away from it as possible? I have to change that mentality. The Caduceus's Committee could be seen as like the student council of the clinic, and I'm okay with that. I probably won't win because of my attitude towards the committee from before, but I want to show I'm making an effort. I should become a paying member first and start going to weekly meetings first!

Also, I requested I help chaperone the high school prom. I know a lot of kids and parents who are either going to the prom or have kids at the high school level, and it's one more volunteer opportunity. Plus I wanted to put cross it off my list of "things I did." Unfortunately there are no more positons available, but I was given other opportunites. More to come on those.

The Mt. Fuji climb season is underway, and this WILL be the year I do it. One reason or another I did not do it last year, but this year I will be serious about it. Again, my list of "things I did." How cool of a story would it be to say that I was on top of Japan?! I really don't know more information than that. Probably tomorrow I will stop in the outdoor recreation shop to get more information. That climb will probably be in July.

Big week for the swim club. Both the swim caps and men's jammers came in the mail! They both look really sharp. Kristoph and I agreed to introduce them to the team on Monday. We will also bring up the swim meet schedule with the Japanese community teams. Pretty motivating stuff. Kristoph and I also registered for the master's (adult league) swim meet in Nagasaki in June. I'll be swimming the 50 and 100 free and the 50 butterfly. Wish me luck! I think we will have a caravan of swim team members to have come and watch us.

We dropped our last baseball game. Sometimes she goes, and sometimes she doesn't, this week she didn't go...that's just the way she goes. I have a good feeling about this coming week though. The kids have had a good practice. Speaking of baseball, it has been hard to watch some of these Brewer scoreboards. How we could use some decent pitching!!

I'm about 5 minutes away from throwing my computer off my balcony and then going to bed to sleep like a baby. I think my fans are starting if not already fry. The damn thing just shuts off. Wish there was a geek squad around! So, if you wonder why I haven't been as talkative online, that's why. I only have about a 10 minute window before my monitor goes black.

Kiyoko is coming to visit this weekend. That's the girl I met through Darryl's girlfriend. We talk about every night via email. Her English is picking up faster than my Japanese which makes me wonder why I need to learn Japanese at all! I'm just kidding, but seriously. I also went on that date with the doctor. It was a bit of a awkward situation. To be honest I feel like my "resume" is leaving me a bit under-qualified, but I suppose it went decent. We are both really too busy to see much of each other so I'm not too worried. Kiyoko will be coming for John Benningfield's going away party. That will be epic, and I can't wait. I just hope I remember to bring my camera!

This Friday is standard-navy PRT. That's just the normal situp, pushup, swim routine. I'm not worried at all. In fact, I hope to swim my 450m in sub-6:00. My all-time fastest time is a 5:40 yards. It's weird cause the clinic is kinda looking for me to crush the swim time. It's not like they're looking for hope or anything, but they know me as "a fish," so there is some pressure to perform well. Next week I'll be tested in the EOD PST, and that's the test that matters. I've been really swimming to master my side-stroke form and I've been doing plenty of pushups and situps. If there was a pullup bar at the pool everything would be gravy. Again time will tell on this one.

That's about it for me. I'm going to try and see Iron Man 2 with the swim club on Friday. That line is going to be huge!! The doors open at 5:30 for a 6:30 show, but we're going to meet at the theater at 4:45. Hope it's worth it. Other than that I am about good with story-telling for this week. Morale is stable. Just have to constantly remind myself that patience and understanding is a journey.

Crossroads

Before I get into all of that, I want to give a big shout-out to my cousin, JJ, and his new wife, Cassandra!! From what I last heard they were wanting to be married in June, but they decided to expedite the process, and now they are Man and Wife. I am very happy for them both! This marks the 2nd of 5 those cousins born in 1987 to be married. One of these days I'm going to make it one of these weddings. The '87 gang is an interesting group. All 5 of us are kinda really different from one another. I think the last time we were all together was either Grandma Mongin's 80th birthday party or Grandpa's funeral, but either way it has been a few years. I suppose that's just how big families are though, right?

As far as I know, there are only 2 grandchildren of Grandma Mongin's in the military. My older cousin Sarah, who has now separated from the service, and myself. That is fine though, though I think the military is not a bad choice, I do believe it was a last option for me. Now that I'm in I have my feet on the ground for once, and that is a good feeling. It's easier to call myself a man now that I am faced with real responsibilities and "summer vacation" no longer applies to me. Bills are paid every month, a budget is established, and the debt seemingly never goes away!! More to come on that last point in a minute.

A lot has happened, and the best time to write is on duty. The last time or two I was on duty though I did not get a chance to write for one reason or another. One of those reasons was because I was applying to tuition assistance. This summer I'll be taking 2 classes: intro to public speaking and intro to computer based systems. Because I can't remember if I wrote it in my last blog, I am only 14 credits away from obtaining my associates degree in general studies from the University of Maryland University College, or UMUC. I will be very proud of myself when I can finally say I reached this milestone, and it has been a certain long time coming. When I have friends all around me in all around the nation going to graduate school, completing their BA, or establishing careers, I sit here in the navy buying my time. The ironic thing is I may be already establishing my career and I don't even know it yet!

Next week is my standard navy PRT. No run or pullups. Straight situps, pushups, and swim. For the swim I can use goggles and swim freestyle too. This leads me to the EOD PST. I have qualifying scores, but they aren't impressive enough to get the EOD locker excited yet. Last week I had my interview with the uppers in the EOD locker. It could have went better. They could have told me to get the fuck out of their office and see them again in 3 months, but they didn't. Instead they said I would be tested every 2 weeks. This is the most encouraging news I could muster. The philosophy is "stickability," and it's certainly being tested right now, but I also know that's just part of the test. How bad do I want this?

Last night I picked up Kristoph and his new wife, Carlie, at the airport. I'm so glad to have him back. We had a nice talk on the way back to the base. Full of stories and updates. It wasn't a problem at all to pick them up, and I'd do anything like that for a friend all over again given the chance.

My chit is currently being routed to co-host the weekly sports radio talk show, "The Penalty Box." I'm drinking buddies with the two guys who do it now, but one of them, John Benningfield, took a job in Yokosuka and will be needing a replacement. I stepped up, and hopefully my command will grant me permission. You could say it is just another nod to my Uncle Gordie as he used to do just this when he was in the army. This should be already known, but I'm a whore when it comes to attention, and nothing gets my name out there faster than the radio for all of Sasebo to hear me.

This marks the one year to go mark this May. It also marks the last month I can submit my Overseas Tour Extension Incentive Program (OTEIP) request. This is an opportunity where I can stay in Japan for another year...and I'm at the crossroads as to whether or not I want to do it or not. The incentive part leaves me with 4 options. I can either a) A salary increase of $80.00 per month, b) Thirty days Rest & Relaxation (R&R), which does not count against the Sailor's 30 days of annually accrued leave, c) Fifteen days R&R with a free round-trip commercial flight from homeport to point of debarkation in the continental U.S. , or c) $2,000 lump sum.

The pros of this is I can stay in Japan and collect more money than if I were in the states. In the end of day isn't it all about the bread and butter... and Benjamins? I will have more time to train for EOD as well. I will have 2 more chances in Japan to pick up 2nd class as well. Also, for those who are thinking about visiting me, I will extend their window to do so. Most importantly to me though, is my Japan story complete?

The cons is there are a lot of people back home impatiently awaiting my return to the states. How do I tell them that I am staying for yet ANOTHER year? Will they believe that I'm making the right choice?

This is why I've begun my survey process. I've been "talking it out." When I write this my list has been short, just a couple co-workers and one other old name...I called and asked Sarah. Why I asked what she thought is beyond me, but for some reason I had to get her opinion on the matter. Maybe because of all the reasons why I can't/don't want to be with her I also admired her ability to listen to me and help me decide on things. Because she is in a position of zero-authority in my life anymore I had to take what she said into minimal consideration (that is a private matter), but a phone call to her obviously led to other topics. She is dating the guy who I come to not like (his name shall go nameless, but he has been mentioned while we were still talking, and it was a less than tasteful decision of hers in my opinion). Either way she seems to be doing fine, but I'll try hard to not put any pieces of her puzzle together. I did too much of that, but she is just so terrible at keeping things from me even if she never says anything about it. Just by who she runs with, her job situation, etc.

Last Saturday we won our first baseball game. Not sure if we're improving that much, or the team we were playing was that bad. Either way winning makes coaching that much easier. Both in handling the kids and amongst the coaches as well. Only 5 games to go, and then I will probably announce my retirement. I need to concentrate more on the swim club, EOD, and college. Maybe not in that order, but those are my 3 projects lined up for me.

I've been trying to learn more Japanese and going on more dates. Since Nicole I have been on a streak of dating more Japanese girls. One girl, Saaya, is a lifeguard, and I have been asking her on a date since December. She FINALLY said yes, and it was a double date with another one of my friends and a friend of hers. When it was all said and done, I realized that I didn't want to ask her on another date as funny as that may seem. We are too different, and that isn't a bad thing, but she is more of the partying type, and I'm more of the belly-up-to-the-bar type. Besides, flirting with her at work is just as nice in my humble mind. I have also been talking to this girl named Kiyoko. She is nice, lives in another town, and I met her through my friend Darryl's girlfriend (whom is Japanese). She doesn't speak much English, so things have to be taken slow. I won't talk too much about her since there is still so much to be discovered on this one! My third date will be this Sunday. A swim parent has a friend, a doctor from Nagasaki, and we will have lunch together on Sunday. Time will tell on that one too! Though I'm not getting too deep in anything, I'm finally starting to spread my wings a little bit. It is an okay, but weird/different feeling.

Water polo match tomorrow. Polo is pretty much the highlight of my month. Not sure on the participation from the staff, but the kids are almost as jazzed up about it as I am. They have taken a few minutes at the end of each practice this past week to work on their skills from a team parent. No way am I going to coach the enemy!! I have ordered the boys suits, and let's pray for a miracle that the polo caps I ordered on the 16th of April finally arrive from England tomorrow. The swim caps will also on their way...the charge was put on my credit card yesterday actually. Now we just need to get the girls suits ordered and get a meet schedule lined up!

This past Friday the dive locker called on me for their help. I went out with them on the boat and what's called "tended the lines." As the divers jumped in the water and swam to the dive site, I was responsible for feeding the oxygen lines to them. Rather cool experience. Plus I was able to network with the dive locker just that much more even without Kristoph being there. In appreciation for my help, they agreed to press me in the hyperbaric chamber free of charge (it's part of my EOD package, and normally they "charge" a case of beer). I hope I get more opportunities like that. It also got me a free beer next time I saw them out in town.

This past Tuesday was my first sick day since working at the Wilderness. Not sure what it was, but I felt just completely awful! I slept for most of the day, and though I felt better, I'm still feeling the side effects of this cold 3 days later.

Overall I'm a little vexed. Not sure what to do with the OTEIP program. grumblegrumble.

Time is a "tick-eting" away

This has been both a very good week, and a very expensive. Lots of good purchases, and in turn lots of good stuff to share. So, where do I begin?!

My plane tickets back home have been purchased. It did not come without taking a $5,000 loan. Don't worry, it'll be paid in full in 36 months.

On top this, I sold my car. Somehow I sold the car at full asking price, $2,000. I will be buying the LT Margraf's car. He is leaving for the states early next month, and I wanted a small piece of "the good lieutenant." Also this is a profit-seeking opportunity. I bought the car I have now for only $800. I will be buying his car for around $500 (all he wants me to pay is the JCI). Picking up what I'm putting down? I'll be posting pictures of my new car in my next post most likely.

Also, I bought my plane tickets from Milwaukee to Buffalo so I can attend Rich's wedding. Actually I bought 2 tickets. One for my date, and one for myself. Hopefully my date will be willing to pay for the hotel room. That will be discussed with Jennifer at a later time though.

My flight will fly into Madison on the 3rd of August. I had the chance for a slightly cheaper flight to fly into O'Hare International Airpport, but that would mean I would have to take a shuttle bus into the motherland, and that's something I didn't want to do. When I touch motherland soil for the first time, I want to be home, not traveling through Beloit and Janesville first with a couple of stops from Chicago to Madison. I'll gladly pay the extra $200. I'll also be flying out of Madison too. That will make it that much easier for traveling home.

I found it funny that it is only like 40 minutes longer to fly from Tokyo to Los Angelos (returning flight) than it is from Tokyo to Chicago. Must be with the curvature of the Earth or something of that nature.

So there I was, getting the nod of approval from my LCPO to continue college. Earlier this week I stopped by the Navy College Office to create a degree plan. Turns out I'm only 14 credits away from finishing my Associates Degree. Tomorrow I will submit my tuition assistance chit. Classes end on Aug 21st, so that will be a little interesting. I'll be taking intro to public speaking and intro to computer based systems. I'm back motivated again! Then again, that should be needless to say.

Here I am, single again. The Nicole experiment failed. As it comes to be, I should be concentrating on the already over-crowded plate I have. Girls are once again on the back burner. I'm not bothered or irked about it at all. The EOD package is nearing an end. I only have two more things to go. I need to be pressed in the hyperbaric chamber, and I need an interview by a senior rank in the EOD locker. The paperwork in the command is being routed as we speak.

Swim team caps have been officially been ordered. I also purchased water polo caps for our monthy game. That was about $600 total. I'll be selling the team caps each, and I'll try to sell the water polo caps at a discounted price to the gym to help subsidize the costs there. The caps look real sharp, I'm sure they'll be a huge hit.

Suffered a real disappointing week in the world of PT. For the past 8 days, I haven't done anything except a couple of pushups. Total number of miles ran in that time: 0. Not happy about it, and I wish I could offer a reasonable excuse, but I can't. I have just been really unmotivated as of late. I don't know why...shame on me! :(

The baseball team is only improving. I wish I could elaborate more, but to put it bluntly, we're just bad. Our rainy season is coming on, and it's starting to affect our practices. 7 and 8 year olds don't like practicing in the rain, and the parents REALLY don't like seeing their little children get all "cold and wet." I'm considering thinking long and hard about coaching next season. The relationships between the coaches is also a little strained. It's very unorganized, and yeah... is it swim season yet? Better yet, is it August?

Morale is high, and I'm looking to start pounding the pavement soon!

OH! Think Twice, Just Another Day in Paradise

This would be the pharmacy team here at the Main Base pharmacy. As many of you know and are well aware of, we have another pharmacy in the Hario Annex. HM1 Martinez (mentioned in earlier posts and pics posted) is assigned to Hario. The short little Vietamese guy is LT Linh Quach, our pharmacist. The fellow in front of me is HM2 (FMF) Brian Oldenburg. In earlier posts I have come to talk at great lengths about HM2, so I'll spare you the honor now, but I will just add again for the record that he is a mentor and I consider him a friend despite his introverted loner tendencies. To the far right, that sea warrior is HN Godwin Garcia. I went to pharmacy tech school with him in Portsmouth, and here we are knocking it out together in Japan. I think that's really cool. Though I can't verify why he is so far away from us, I will say that he is one of the better wingmen in the work place; there has been many-a-time I have been stumbling on my words when talking to a girl at the window, and Garcia comes in for the clutch save to keep the conversation rolling. As you can see we don't have the largerst pharmacy, but there is about 500 drugs in our formulary. Oldenburg would have the most accurate numbers on that though since he is doing supply and Garcia is his predecssor. Hoo-yah PHARMACY!

Now, For the longest time I have enjoyed the lifestyle of short hair. There has always been something about the maintance-free conditions that come with the shorter hair. I remember priding myself that I cut my hair once a week whether it needed it or not. Well, my friends, these times they are a changin', or however the song goes. Lately I have been growing out my hair. Some circles may say that there isn't that big of a change, but others would note that it has never been this long since I've enlisted in the navy. So far I'm liking the change. I can throw a little gel on top, make it look glossy throughout the day, but it's still short enough to where I don't need to worry about the cow-lick in the morning. This picture was taken of me a week after the group picture from above. I really like it for some reason. The computer I'm standing in front of is "my" terminal. Garcia is on the other computer in front, and Oldenburg is on the back computer doing supply. Doesn't that smile say "Cal Rastall loves pharmacy"? I hope it's enough smoke over the eyes to fool whoever I talk to.

As it's unfolding, the Katie McMorrow experiement is I think folding. I tried this same game in high school when I tried to reconnect with Trina Dusso, and as it turned out fell through as well. I will not lie, the hair has given me added confidence. For the longest time I have always purposely tried to remain "a little ugly" so I could deter any woman of having interest in me, hence my mustache episodes. It was always my intention to concentrate on things I needed to, like my fitness, etc and no girl was going to help me get there. Well folks, I'm tired of being lonely. It sucks going home to an empty apartment every night and facebooking my life away. Enter Nicole. If she knew I posted this picture of her I think she might just kill me, but it's the only one that I have from my camera. One night we made dinner, err I made dinner, and the plate she is holding is my creation. Yes, those are my first-ever homemade mashed potatoes. Neither here nor there, moving on... Nicole is 20 years old, from Colorado, works on one of the ships here in Sasebo. She is was recently placed on the the free agent list aka just broke up with her boyfriend, and I was able to gather the courage to talk to her one day at the pharmacy window. Now, I know that the pharmacy "is not a dating service," but I see a lot of traffic rolling in and out of my way throughout the day, and I waited and picked what I think is the best one of the bunch. For some weird reason she asked me for my number, and things started going from there. We spend time with each other when we can, but I'm still terribly busy with my obligations and schedule upkeep. Plus she is on the boat, and is frequently deployed. We both know that this is not forever, but in the meantime it is nice to spend time with one another. As many of you readers know, I'm notorious for keeping my relationship status(es) out of my blog for 2 reasons: a) they don't really exist and b) I am self-conscious about what you all will think back home. I'm calling my shot and say that I have my first Japanese girlfriend, and she's American. Again, I'm not taking her home with me, and we both want very different things after we leave Sasebo, but we make each other laugh and she super supportive of my goals (whereas I'm only learning to share again). We're comfortable talking about our pasts', life is good right now.

Speaking of past. For the last week or so I have been dreaming about Sarah more than I have ever been since we stopped talking. I have these urges to look her up and see what she has been up to, but I constantly refrain. For one I don't want to stir that pot again, and two I think my memory of her in my dreams is better than what reality would tell me. I don't want to be let down again AND SHE DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING!! I do know she would flip if she knew I finally decided to grow my hair out though, that's one thing she always badgered me about doing again, but always shrugged off. I wouldn't mind getting a sweatshirt or two back from her though, and I think her boyfriend wouldn't mind either, but the only way she would ever know is if she read this blog, and I know she doesn't. Mom says she doesn't talk to Sarah anymore, but something tells me that she is lying, and I am okay with that. Sarah really likes my Mom, and I think the feeling is mutual. I'm now at a place in my life where I'm comfortable with that even if I'm never again brought up in their conversations.

Pictured above is a couple of kids from the swim team. It was taken after our monthly water polo match. The first Friday of every month I invite the clinic staff to play against the swim club. After two games the series is tied 1-1. Yes, a group of 8-16 year olds take it to a bunch of adults. They are vicious, they gang up on us and have no problem dunking their coach. I think it is a little pent up anger being released personally. I'm just tying down the final touches on swim caps and swim jammers for the boys. A parent on the team is working on the girls uniforms as well. Overall it is my pride and joy, as many of you know, but it's just all coming together, and it makes me smile.

To add to my resume of volunteer coaching, I have picked up 7-8 year old baseball. I have never played baseball myself, and really started taking an interest in it when I first got to college when the guys from across the hall in the dorms were from Milwaukee and were Brewer-crazy so it only washed off on me. Our team name is the Fisher Cats; the kids ask me what that is, and I only tell them it's a nod to Catfish Hunter, and they get even more confused and leave it at that. Though they are more well-behaved than the soccer team, they are less talented, but that is okay. I have another coach working with me, HM2 Kim Ryan (the best), and there is a parent of one of the kids who helps out too, and that is crucial. I'm having the kids call Kim "Coach Mean Machine." I can't say if the kids or she gets a bigger kick out of it. Our first game is this Saturday, and I'm very excited about it. I'll get some pictures posted soon enough.

My godmother, Aunt Laura finally has a blog! Though I'm sadden she has fallen off the facebook wagon, I'm glad I can still read her writings. Her latest blog is about a canned chicken, and I just laughed because that story has been laughed with the family for years, and it has just now been written down. Her blog is good, much needed. Maybe is she gets a large enough volume she'll do what I plan to do with this blog and print it out to have bound and have copies made.

Note the above two pictures. The top picture was taken at a swim meet in August 2009. The picture immediately below was taken 2 days ago on 10 April 2010. Notice a difference in my physique? I'm really kicking myself for letting myself go while I was in Diego Garcia. Is there anymore that can be elaborated? I guess my hard work is starting to show? Who knows when my volunteer schedule clears up in June and I can go all-out. Kristoph looks about the same, then again I'm not sure he could get fat if he tried.

April 10th was a very special day for me. It marked the one year anniversary that I graduated from pharmacy technician school. I remember being very hung over that day. Uniform as a little tight, head pounding, the world was spinning. Pretty sure I accepted my certificate from the commanding officer still drunk. How did I choose to celebrate? I partcipated in my first triathalon. Is there any better way?! Let's state for the record that I did not actually sign up for it, but Kristoph volunteered me rather. Our friend, John, who is the gym manager/triathalon organizer allowed it to happen too. That's where the second picture is from, right before the swimming, or first event. It went real well overall. Though I didn't finish in the top 3 to medal,
claim to fame is that I was the top finisher from the clinic. What helped me out the most was my swim, obviously. Kristoph and I were the first two out on the bikes. It was a 500m indoor swim and I didn't geta time for it though. The second leg was the bike, and it was, as you can see on the stationary bike. I trugged for 20km (12.1 miles) on that damn bike. Took me 41:30 minutes to do it. On such a long event like the bike a lot of time can be made up or lost. After the bike it was the 3km (1.8mile) run. That was done on a road course around the base. My legs felt like jell0, not a good warm feeling. Somehow I finished the who thing in 1:10.56. Maybe I was more sore after the half-marathon, but either way I was hardly able to walk, and pretty much took care the rest of my day. Pictured right below was my reaction after I finished the run. Laying down with me is HN Ray Delaparra. He tried like Hell to try and catch me, but I was able to beat him by like 20 seconds. The pharmacy was raided afterwards for naproxen, and there was no shame in the trip to Chili's afterwards. I want to thank Nicole, the Service family, Flores family, and everyone else who stuck around longer than they had to so they could support Kristoph and I and the clinic in this event. I'm not saying that is easy, but I will say it was worth it. Kristoph took first place overall with a time of 54:00. The man is a genetic miracle. Yes, that is me sporting my Prefontaine retro-jersey. Steve Prefontaine is my favorite athlete of all-time (motivating), and it was also the lightest shirt I could find. Next time I plan to actually train for one of these. Really all I've been doing is running a lot (the night before I went on a 8km jog, or about 6 miles), and training for the EOD/special warfare PST.

Above is the 3 tri-athletes from the clinic. Darryl Icenhour is in the middle, and Delaparra is to the right. As much as people to work out, or as much as they say they do, I wish they would participate more in functions like this. Like I said though I won of those who participated. Either way it was a day of good fun and we walked away in all smiles. Morale is high, and another night of duty is almost in the books...until next time.

Strong Work

It's 0147, and I'm at the clinic standing duty. There are some things to hit on the blog, first round of March Madness playing on the TV here, and a good duty crew to be working with.

Let's kick off with the NCAA basketball tournament. This is the first year I think since high school I actually put money on my bracket. The way the first round has gone so far, I think it's a sign to never bet on sports again. About half my picks are busted. I should just go back to the days of filling out a bracket for fun and ALWAYS (unless they're playing the Badgers of course) pull for the underdog no matter what I have on paper. All this complaining aside, there have been some very exciting games so far. I wish I had TV at my apartment so I could watch the games at home. Oh well, that's what the Internet is for, right?!

Earlier this week was St. Patrick's Day. I had a glass of wine. I've taken a liking to shiraz, and one glass an evening. Makes me feel more responsible and mature! Sounds weird, but I think I see myself when I'm older, much further down the road listening to the jazz station in the car. Having a glass of wine a night, sitting in front of the fire in a den, reading a book is a place where I want to be someday in my life. For now though, it's at my counter where the computer is set-up, or my writing desk.

Also, on St. Paddy's day, I cooked Hamburger Helper for the first time in my life! You could say I'm very proud of this accomplishment. In fact I called my Mom when she was at work to tell her about it. She asked if "I'm a master of the craft, or the craft is a master of me." I love my mother, as we all know, and she can whip up some "dog food" without looking at the instructions with her eyes closed. Not me, I was definitely a novice, and still in a student-status. It is an art to be perfected, and I took mental notes along the way. So in other words, I'm starting to actually cook and use my stove, and it's all very motivating.

Believe it or not, but a girl asked for my phone number! She is off one of the ships, and we have been kinda flirting for her past couple of visits. I won't go into the details, but her name is Nicole, and she reminds me of Kirsten Dunst. Who knows, but it pretty much made my day. These things don't happen that often anymore.

Time to explain my post title. Here in the Hurt Locker, aka pharmacy, the enlisted side keeps up morale anytime we can. This is where/why everything is "motivating" derived from. Well, we also have certain phrases/nicknames for officers, needy patients, and awesome patients. For example, when our pharmacist had his son, in the card that the clinic sent him, a doctor, LT Doyle, wrote "strong work," and none of us knew what the Hell she meant/heard that phrase before. Well, that phrase caught on like wild fire, and it's now used the all the time around the clinic, but especially the pharmacy. LT Doyle is awesome now that we are on the subject. She is from Oxford, Mississippi, and a true southerner. Her heart is made of gold, a true nice person. Her other catch-phrase is "bless your heart." Whenever patients can't remember the name of the doctor they just saw (which is something I always find sad and embarrassing), we ask them, "did they bless your heart?" If they reply "yes" then we know who they are talking about.

LT Doyle isn't the only provider who is known for her lines. LT Margraf has a couple of legend himself. He calls everybody "partner" if he likes them. Again if the patient can't remember the name of who they just saw, we ask, "was your doctor, short, balding, glasses, called you partner?" After they process what we asked, they usually go, "yeah...yeah he did call me partner." If they tell us he didn't call them partner, that generally means they'll be prescribed motrin and flexeril. Dr. Margraf is also called "the good lieutenant." He is the former Army Ranger who I've written semi-extensively in previous posts, and he is a total badass. His legend could deserve its own post. Someday I'll post a picture of him.

We also have a Colombian-born doctor, Dr. Gomez-Sanchez, whom is known at "the dirty dirty" in the Hurt Locker. Our LCPO is known as "The Good Chief." OIC is "Big Mike", nurses are called by their first name, and if you are not liked or hated then you will have "fearless" put in front of your title, and you don't get a name. For example, our LPO is simply known as "our fearless LPO," and it is known throughout the pharmacy and other ancillary department who we are referring to. Our pharmacist is a little different. He is an anomoly. Some days he is known by his first name, others as LT, some situations he has "fearless" in front of his name, but most of the time we just call him "Quach" (his last name).

Some patients are legendary. There was this patient who was seemingly waiting in the pharmacy waiting area/lobby for 3 straight days. By the third day obtained the title of "Keeper of the lobby" and he was into it! He facilitated who was next in line and really ran the show. We would ask, "Keeper! Who we got next?" This guy would actually tell us who was due to be seen by us. No numbers were taken when The Keeper was in town. After he left his legend just exploded, whenever asshole patients were being difficult, or some sort of other situation arose, we would joke that we will just have to send the Keeper on them to set them straight. Same thing with our OIC, Commander Service, aka Big Mike. We are confident there is nothing he can't do, and has more power than paygrades above him.

That is about it for now when it comes to patients. There is one customer who we nicknamed "Bozo the Clown" of how he looks, and a patient is named "Deathrage" because her name is Deathridge" and she looks like she could destroy anyone in the pharmacy if she put her mind to it. Oldenburg literally feels scared when she comes to the window. Of course these are patients who we see often and know by name. Usually it's for medications that could be bought over-the-counter at the store, but they insist they be seen by a doctor, aka wastes valuable appointment time. Then there are those patients that individually irk the techs for one reason or another. They are our personal favorites and we call them "your boy." When this one LT is spotted in the pharmacy, the other techs always tell me that "my boy" is here, and it is known they're talking about a certain person. That goes for other patients with the other techs as well. As I said to begin this conversation, we will do anything to keep our morale up, and labeling individuals is one of those things.

HM2 Oldenburg is back from leave, and we are happy about this. It's nice to have our leader back and takes some stress off our shoulders. While he was gone LT Quach had a bad problem of micro-managing us, but also forced him to trust Garcia and I a little more. I think we impressed him cause I will be working in Hario by myself for the first time in a month or so this coming Monday. Either way, when the 3 of us are together (Garcia, Oldenburg, and myself) are working together is when the Hurt Locker is running the smoothest. All 3 of us have our strengths and weaknesses, but we also all 3 compliment those so well. I will go out on limb and say this is my favorite working team I've been apart of.

Garcia had his mock PRT last Friday, and to say he failed his run is an understatement. He really mucked it up. This causes problems. Not only is he a junior rank to me, but he is also in my department. Because I'm a more gifted PT-er than him (aka I work at my fitness a lot more than the average bear) I feel obligated to take him under my wing and give him the proper guidance needed to pass his PRT. Let's not beat around the bush, Garcia's run time has been the laughing stock of the Command Fitness Leaders (CFLs), and I take that a little personal since Garcia is my boy. So Garcia and I have been running during the week, but Garcia likes to go up to Fukuoka and party on the weekends. Those habits during the those trips really add up, and he needs to readjust his priorities. The trouble is Garcia isn't seeing the seriousness of his situation. I don't want to, but I think I'm going to have to play hardball with him and ORDER him not to go to Fuk on the weekends. It's not like I'm not out there running with him (after he gets done with his run, then I go out and do my PT). He will not like this, but I'm doing this for his own good. Hopefully he will see the light in May when he passes his PRT and doesn't put his career in jeapordy. I just wish he dedicates himself to passing first, and partying later. I have my own goals and career plans I need to work on myself, but I'm taking time away from those plans to help him, and I hope he sees that. Luckily I have the support of my chain of command, especially the Good Chief and Oldenburg.

I did back-to-back PRTs in consecutive Fridays. The first Friday I swam the PRT and scored an outstanding-high with a time of 6:19. The second Friday I wanted to see what my run was, and I set a personal best at 10:43. This past Friday I finised 6th in the clinic 3km run at 13:20. I think things are coming along for my April 1st PST with the EOD locker. Either put-out or get-out, right?

Last weekend I picked up recliner from the pharmacy's first class, HM1 Martinez. Since the chair has been in my home, I have sat in it once for about 30 minutes. I've been that busy. When I get home during the week, I'm maybe awake for an hour, but during that time I'm making dinner, at my computer, and making the next day's lunch.

A blog post would not be complete without an update on the swim team. I have made a bet with one of the parents. I will have to get our swim caps in faster than she can get the swim-suits in. If I lose the bet, I will have to give a powerpoint presentation to the command at our next training day on how to use perfume properly, and if Tara loses, she will have to swim with the team for a practice. On my side at least, we are making some real progress with the swim caps. More to come on that.

Oh, took the 2nd class advancement exam. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be more adminstration, but it wasn't. Results come out in May. There is wishful thinking on this one, but the reality is I have no award points, no time in rate, and only a MP evaluation to go with my test.

That's it for now. It's been real, and I'll holler back another time. Morale is high and I sign off now. HM3 sends.

Peaceful Easy Feelings

Imagine this, I'm on duty... AGAIN! That's fine though because standing watch gives me time to write these blogs. My days are so crammed packed with other things to do this is a good break believe it or not. It's almost like a holiday from real. Instead of being a whore to every other obligation I have throughout the week, watch gives me a time to step back and place catch-up on other things. I suppose if I were a health provider here at the clinic, this would be my "admin" time. A couple of cards were written, and now my blog. In the past when this blog was just beginning I was rather dedicated to knocking out a post every Sunday, but as my schedule became increasingly fuller, I wanted to do less to please other people on the weekends. I hope that makes sense. If I'm going to be stuck here in the middle of the night, and if I don't have any good pictures to post, then this is easily the best time and appease to everyone back home. Don't get me wrong, I still like doing this, but I'm tailoring this blog to better fit my own schedule instead of doing what's best for other people.

Lately I've been really brain-storming that screenplay I'll be writing to get my Oscar nomination. I'm stuck inbetween two stories, "Wonewoc County" and "What is Feared the Most." Somehow I think I can combine the two stories revolving around my two characters, Michael Centrali and Cory Weber. Time will tell, I have the rest of my life to get the job done, but I actually have jotted actual lines on paper. It's all motivating and fun to daydream about when I'm beginning to feel bored. Though since I've been in the navy I can say that I am never actually bored. There is something always needed to be done. This is good, but am I talking about life in the navy or just being an adult? This I can't say for certain, but there is never a day I think to myself "gee, there is NOTHING to do!" Something can always be done that I'd be able to label as productive.

Swim team is continuing to develop. As I'm sure we have talked about, our name is now officially the Sasebo Riptide and our colors are blue/gold. For those of you who don't get the joke, Baraboo's club team is called the Riptide, and they share the same colors. We chose Riptide though because of the obvious water reference, but also it's close proximity to the ocean. Blue and gold are the colors of the navy as well, and as we continue to develop a better competition schedule with Japanese community teams, we will want to display that naval pride, hoo-yah. This Friday I have invited the clinic to game of water polo against the swim team. I feel confident we will be competitive. The AFN piece went well too, though I was never interviewed. I thought they'd come back another day to get more footage, but they never did. Kristoph said everything I would have, and that's why we're such a good team. We're now starting to incorporate more dryland into our practices as well, which the team love/hates. Also, we have assigned American swimmers for the kids to write a 500 word paper on. On top of that, if they come to the pool early, I have made them do their homework, and we have study tables before practice. They really don't like me for that, but hopefully they will see the upside of that down the road. It was a nice thing one day when another gym patron was seeing this, and he caught me in the stairwell and he expressed his praises that we do this. Kristoph and I do not get a penny for what we do, and outside of our work schedules, swim club is our number one priority. I'm very happy with what is happening.

EOD took a minor step backwards actually. I did an official PST with the EOD locker, and I did not score the greatest. There are a couple of reasons why that would be, but those would just be excuses I'd rather not share only because excuses are like assholes, and they don't get anywhere. I go to the pool every morning to work on snorkeling, combat side stroke, and swimming without goggles, and my afternoons are spent running, calestenics, and more cardio. My next PST is on 01APR2010. Hopefully I will score a little better and be less of an embarrassement. A lot of what happened last time was mental, and I failed to adapt and overcome once I got behind the 8-ball. Now that I that I have a better idea what they expect from me I can only hope to perform better.

As a result from my April 1st PST, I have been a good boy and not gone out to the bars. This is a good money saver, and I feel a lot better in the mornings, obviously. This past Sunday I was off-going duty and instead of crawling back into bed I went out and ran about 8.6km, or 5.3 miles. It was a great day to start off the morning and I look forward to doing more of that. In order to get up early in the mornings on the weekends though, I need to start cutting back on my movie watching. Because I have no obligations to anyone else on the weekends, I feel entitled to stay up late and exercise my rebel without a clause routine. There is a couple of books I need to finish reading/get around to reading, and since I'm a bad multi-tasker the way it is, I need to budget my time a little smarter.

Our work center supervisor, HM2 (Brian) Oldenburg is home in New York on leave with his wife and mother-in-law for 10 day (7 business days). Oldenburg is probably my biggest mentor and one who I consider a friend here at the clinic. His absence is clearly felt, but the Hurt Locker is holding up. Upon his request I send him daily play-by-play color commentary of the days. HN Garcia and I are very loyal to him, and we just make a great team. We all get along and when we're all together it's like a fine oiled machine. Our pharmacist, LT Quach probably misses him more than I do, but that's only because he is worried about Garcia and I messing up/Oldenburg is our supply guy. Garcia is being trained to take over supply, but HM2 is the mastermind behind the pharmacy, and he makes LT's job very easy. I think that's all I got to say about that.

I'm sure I'll talk about it in my next post, but this will be the third consecutive St. Paddy's Day I have to miss out on. Two years ago I was in boot camp, and the only celebrating I did was eat a green-sugar cookie in the shape of a clover, and last year I was recovering from my appendectomy. This year a) I am in a country that doesn't give two shits about the Irish and it's drunken culture, and b) I'm on-call next week for pharmacy, so I have to stay sober. Plus the holiday is on a Wednesday, and who wants to come into work hung over? Well, I wouldn't be writing that 4-5 years ago, but it's funny how things change.

Coming home on leave is still looking good. There were tiny mumbles that they would be sending over humanitarian help of the Chiliean earthquake victims, but those rumors quickly died down. I'm now a little jumbled on the dates though. I have a couple of things I still need to work out as to when I'm exactly coming home (G14 classified as to what those plans are at the moment, or at least a need-to-know basis). Either way, I'm excited to come home, and party arrangements are being made on the dates I know for sure when I'm coming home. I've been to talking to Rich for sure every weekend getting updates on the wedding. It's all very motivating.

Now for the post title. I was writing to a friend tonight actually about how my life is on cruise-control, and how that is a good feeling. Everything is going smooth these past few weeks. Getting work done in the pharmacy, working out, swim club, and enjoying the solitude of my home. Last weekend I bought a patio set which puts my furniture collection almost at a completed status. I'm still getting around to a kitchen table, and after that I will be hosting my house-warming party. I've been living out in town since OCTOBER!! Anyway, it's nice having a better sense of patience. My Japan experiment is almost complete...I'm ready to come home...sigh* 13 more months. Unless you believe in miracles. Now I just need to get out of debt (which is coming along steadily and surely).

On Thursday I am taking the 2nd class petty officer exam. Though I earned a MP (must promote) , I am not being very optimistic on my chances. I don't have many other earned points, and my time in rate is pretty low. Plus, it could potentially hurt my EOD package. Though it would be nice to earn more money, if I were to cross-rate, I would still be a 2nd class as an EOD. That would not be very good being a brand-new EOD, assuming those responsibilites and leadership in a completely new field of work. The EOD community would like to tak it's new recruits as a young and naieve as possible. Get me right, I'm not going to purposely fail my corpsment exam, but if for some celestrial chance I do pick up rank, it could potentially make things more interesting, and not in a good way.

That's about it for now. Last week I recieved the longest letter I have EVER gotten, 7-pages! Thank you Katie. Extremely motivating, and despite being her first letter since 7th grade it didn't leave me unimpressed. A rebuttal was in the mail the next day. Morale is high, and it's time for me to surf the net.