Dragging, Tuesday Through Thursday

That's what happens if you don't take a nap! I've had trouble these last three days, getting up and at 'em. Tuesday morning I fell asleep immediately after I swiped my phone's alarm off... and then next thing I knew, STG2 Root called and asked what was going on. "It's five?!" was my reply. And I was in class at 5:30. He broke us for breakfast when I sat down in my chair, so I immediately went home again for a bit of eggs and oatmeal. It was nice we had the extra time, because this was our Whites inspection at Quarters. I led everyone in the Creed for the third time.













First on a timer at the overflow parking lot across the street. Second in the women's locker room in the gym. My pants are a little tighter than they used to be, and they shortened them too much in boot camp... needless to say, I need a new pair.

Tuesday was also our test day on the consoles and the CADRT. It was very tricky, because there were two versions of each that we needed to keep straight. Don't know the exact score yet, but he's told us that no one got below an 85% (which would mean mando).

Wednesday I set the alarm differently, so I thought I'd get up better. Nope. But I made it to PT with about five minutes to spare. It's easier to get up and go on PT days, simply because a t-shirt and shorts (and usually a sweatshirt) are much faster to get into than the t-shirt, socks, trousers, boots, blousing straps (for the bottoms of the trousers), blouse and cover of the working uniform. I did the first bit of the workout on the elliptical, then followed Witte and Hibbard over to the volleyball court for a great abdominal workout, just us three. Very glad I had my book... all we did all day was our practicals. And STG1 Fletcher assigned me the last of the five groups with Nordgren. I read over 50 pages in the 3+ hours I had to wait. At one point everyone's chatter was bothering me and I was getting pretty cold just sitting there, so I took a walk around the third and second decks of the school and then came back. Much better. I had to do that a couple times in Ops, I remember. :) The practical itself was just fine. Actually went through an MRC (maintenance requirement card), verifying it with the MIP (index page), tagging out the "PP" (power panel) and "removing and replacing" the battery on the CADRT. We were given 100's.

Today, I had to sprint to the gym from my car in order to make it on time; and I got there seconds before STG1 came to muster us. (ARRG! So angry at myself!) I was seriously tempted to just go home, since my backpack with my uniform was still in my car. But I did the right thing, came back and worked out. Bench-pressed, shoulder-pressed, pushed-up and called it a morning.

Back in class at the normal 0715, we had STG2 Root back. He forgot to bring our tests back, but after I suggested it, he printed out the cumulative score from the last two weeks combined. I passed up Wagner, climbing to 3rd place with a 97.0% behind Trimpe and Witte. Today we went through the slides for the XBT (expendable bathythermograph - measures temperature vs. depth) and the LAMPS (light airborne multipurpose sonobouy system - talking with the helos). We only have three weeks left to this course, and only three more short topics, the final, and last practical. I also read a bit between us figuring out what we were going to do for our class party.

Oh, and Hibbard (from my RTC division) got orders to Washington State today. That's made me think seriously again about how short my time left at this command is. Three of the four on the bottom of the class ranking have been given orders now. What a silly coincidence! They joke that they did it on purpose. :) So I checked my orders today in the Student Resource Center, just to make sure the new ones haven't posted yet... and they didn't.

And this afternoon I had my first interviewee for my new job. I am such a booter! I knocked on the door before coming in... just to make sure. The chief was very friendly... he came into the office in PT gear after I had arrived, having forgotten all about it. I listened to the others talk with a Senior Chief while he changed. There was a double-pinned, undesignated seaman there, talking about getting out. Nobody can find her an A-school! So Chief and I went to a room upstairs for the interview, and it was very interesting. I told him about myself first, then we got into how he got into the COOL program and what he's been doing. He's a Damage Control guy, wanting to get into FEMA or Homeland Security when he retires in five years. It was an interesting little conversation. If the half-page I write about it ever makes it online, I'll be sure to link it! :)