Oh CRAP!

This will be my last entry that will be uploaded by me till after basic training. My wife will be uploading them for the duration of my basic training until I have access to to the Internet again. I can not say exactly when my next entry will be and the frequency of the any thereafter. It all depends on when my wife receives my first letter home, how often I get to write, and when she is able to transcribe my letters on here.


Monday: I basically did more packing; mostly clothes. I had the pleasure of going through all of the clothes I own deciding if there were any pieces that I could live without. I threw out a lot more clothes because I still have a lot of clothes that are too big for me after losing 45 pounds. After washing and folding everything that made the cut, I set aside everything that I was going to wear for the next week. Everything else I piled into a space bag made my own "AS SEEN ON TV" commercial presentation. See below:

Before

After

Later in the day, I went for a 2 mile jog around my neighborhood. It's a somewhat challenging trip because the first mile is mostly uphill, while the second mile is up and down. Upon getting home, I did 3 sets of push ups, 25 each.


Tuesday: The day started off with me starting my my personal training session at 0700 like usual. My trainer started the session with me doing 3 sets of step-ups on a bench, per leg. Basically you put one foot on the bench and step up and raise that leg as high as you can. After that, she had me do three sets on a leg press machine with 200 lbs., with me doing stationary suicides in between each set. He is an example:

After that she had me do some leg raises similar to this video below. I just did not bring my legs up as high as this lady:

In between the leg raises, she had me do squat jumps with a 25lb weight. It reminded me of how difficult it was to do these exercises with an extra 25lbs again. After that I spent 20 minutes on the elliptical.


The day basically consisted of me doing more packing and loading my car up with more stuff before driving to FS PT. We had SGT Woody take us out again to Blue Jacket Park. He had us first do what some people call an Indian Run or Last Man Sprint. It is basically two rows of people jogging lightly with 5 yards between each other. As you are jogging, the last two people sprint up to the front and in place, and repeat. We did that for right around a mile. After that, SGT Woody had us do some team exercises; this involved the Fireman's Carry and a Sprint and Karaoke. My team won both times. The loser than had to do push-ups. I decided to do them with the losers anyways, just because I needed them. He then had us do various core exercises. All in all, I was sweating up a storm by then end.


I finished the day off making a run to Brevard to drop some more items off at the storage unit.


Wednesday: Fun Day Wednesday! I had the pleasure of doing more packing in the morning. After that, I was reminded that when a service manager tells you that it will take a couple of hours to replace two new tires, they actually mean nearly 4 hours. This did allow me to walk next door to attend Noon Mass. I missed church the previous weekend and figured I needed to do a little praying and self-reflection. On a more personal note, I have discovered my faith that I really never had in the past. I think that it will only get stronger in basic as I begin to discover more about myself and church and God will probably be one of my few escapes from the yelling and DSs.


Moving on, after finally getting my car back with a surprise alignment and $300 less in the bank account, I was barely able to make it to FS PT on time. We got moving a little late, but we were able to stretch out with some guidance from SGT Woody. He has been critiquing my commands and the way people have been stretching for the last week and I have found it all to be very useful. SSG Capcom took us out to the park to have us do what I think he called "up and down the mountain" drill with push-ups. He asked us to pick a magical number between 1 and 20 with 15 being chosen. He then had start with one push-up, take a break. Then do 3 push-ups, take a break. This was followed with 5 push-ups with a break. This continued with 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15. After a 1 minute break and some funny stories from SSG Capcom experience in the Army, had us then do the same amount but reversed. After it was all said and done and you crunch the numbers, you just did 128 push-ups.


What made my day was that the chosen recruiter to ensure that FSs are to be prepped and sent to MEPS for basic, we will call him SSG WTF, informed me that he will finish the necessary paperwork together for me to leave Friday because he will not be here at all on Thursday. GREAT! Why this annoys me is that I showed up early on Tuesday to get these kinds of things done with him in the office, and not have to make an unnecessary drive to the recruiter's office. He said "oh no, you're an easy shipper, I don't  need to do any of your paperwork till last minute". I guess I should get used to this kind of experience with things of this nature.


I then went home to do some cleaning of the apartment and settle in for the third installment of Dirty Harry Series on AMC. I never watched all of them so I figure what a better movie series about a bad-ass before before becoming one!





I also came across this seemingly funny Army spoof training video. I thought it was funny, but I sure the "trainee" was not as much.

Thursday: Yet again, I made a trip over to Brevard to bring some more of our belongings to our storage unit. I have realized how right George Carlin was about your stuff, holy crap he was right!

After off-loading more of our stuff, I made it over to my last session of FS PT at the recruiter's office. We had a pretty god turn out. We had a few new faces show up as well as most of the usual crowd. I also helped decide who will take on the PG role after I leave. The replacement is good guy who needs to get a louder, but will do well. It was between him or the Vietnamese FS who we call Jackie Chan, but he leaving soon and we told him no one would understand him calling cadence.


After receiving a comment from one of the other FSs that we should start doing warm up exercises instead of just stretching, I decided it was not a bad idea. Luckily, we had two soldiers in the office who just got done with BCT and AIT. I asked them to come out and run the group through these new warm up exercises. They also answered questions for group. After the warm ups, SSG Capcom took out to work on our core. I can not even remember most of the exercises, but the magic number was 17.


Later in the evening, my parents stopped by and rode with me to UCF for the Jefferson Awards. This is a regional version of a national award that is given out to people who are passionate about giving back to the community and volunteering. I just happened to be nominated for an award! I was not worried about winning so much (even though it would be nice) because it was just humbling to just be nominated and recognized for my efforts and time with the organization and community.

Me with the Chapter Director of One Brick Orlando (Whom is also UCF Alumni)

Friday: I had my last personal training session with my trainer at 0700. She did a number on my upper body with various free weights and other strength exercises. She even had me doing some switch squat jumps from the P90X Plyometrics in between sets. After my time with her, I did 20 minutes on the treadmill. I did try to go crazy, but I did sweat a ton.

After the gym, I stopped off at the mechanics place where I had some car work done on Tuesday to double check the work becasue of the these new warning lights. Turned out to be nothing so I went home to do some more packing and make my wife breakfast. I also made a call to SSG WTF to see if he was even at the office yet before I made the trip down to see him about my paperwork. He just happened to be out of a meeting. He named off a bunch of personal documents and asked if I had them and I confirmed each one(I have had each one of these documents in a folder waiting since November as not to screw this up!). He says "well ok, I guess we are good." I asked him "...so does that mean I even need to come in?" "Ah, no, just make sure you have all the crap on Monday." Great! 

So I took the time the rest of the day to do more packing and cleaning. Later that night, I made my way to the First United Methodist Church of Winter Park, to see my wife perform some a solo and other roles in The Seven Last Words of Christ. She did an amazing job! I wish I had the video ready to post here. She has been singing with this church for awhile on a scholarship program and has done great things. They have a very professional program to boast.

Saturday: Woke up and spoke to my wife about a lot of things with our life and all of the changes. I think we have a very strong relationship and could not ask for a better person to call my wife. I basically went over all of the bills and due dates, as well as any passwords to my accounts (including this blog) that she would need access to while I unreachable. I am really hoping that I did not make a bad choice in never getting a chance to have a power of attorney made for her on my behalf. I have read and heard that I may want to do that. However, we do not have any kids, mortgages, ex-spouses, car loans, or any other major financial situations of that nature that may require a POA.


I ended up driving over to Brevard for another drop off of our "stuff" at the storage unit. I also stopped by my in-laws house to help set up for what was suppose to be a surprise going away party for me on Sunday. Becasue of some family stressors, my wife informed me that she had been planning a decent party for me. From what I understand, she even got orange and white streamers because those are the colors of the signal corps, my future MOS field! I felt so bad that she felt her surprise was ruined. But, I told her I was surprised she was able to keep it from me this whole time.


Later in the evening, I got to see my wife perform in another show she had been working on with Valencia Community College called Everything Taboo, an Opera-Theater Workshop performance. My wife again did an amazing job in various roles. This included Hello Dolly, Paquette in Candide and Glinda in Wicked. This show was actually amusing this year.

Sunday: My wife and I moved the last of of my items out of our apartment this morning and over to Brevard to finish pretty much the last bit of our moving, with the exception of the bare minimum for her to stay at the apartment. I can only imagine what the security cameras at my storage facility must look like with me trying to stuff the very last bits of our belongings that I could into the unit because there was basically no room left.


The rest of the day was me spending time with my family and friends at my wife's parents' house. I felt a little weird with everyone giving me praise for my choice to join the Army. They make it sound like I am leaving and may not come back for a long time or something of that nature. One person thanked me for future service. I told her that she did not have to thank me, because I will take every advantage the Army will throw my way. That includes getting my Master's degree. She thanked me again later, and my response was not to thank me, but to thank my recruiter. I got a few laughs out of it. I think the water works will start with me the last time I will see my before I leave.

Sleeping on the air mattress

Monday:  I took about a 1.5 mile run in my neighborhood. The actual distance was 2 miles, but I ran the first mile and then sprinted and and walked the other mile back. The running is getting easier slowly. I also came across some videos of the new Army PT and combat readiness tests that will replace the current PT test. Check it out:

Tuesday: Had my usual 0700 personal training session. She had me do some pretty good exercises that worked out the lower body. I then spent 25 minutes on a bike. I used this time to read the Soldier's Guide Book I mention previously. 

Tuesday's PT was headed up by a new recruiter that just got transferred from Hawaii. He seems like a decent NCO. The best way to describe him is to think of Woody Harrelson. So we will just call him SGT Woody, not to be funny though. SGT Woody took us out to the track and planned on us doing 30:60s. This means that you sprint for 30 seconds, and jog 60 seconds for a set of reps. However, he was lacking a whistle, so we ended up just sprinting around the outer edges of track and jogging down the straightaways. He had us do it for 2 miles. It got me sweating pretty good. After that, he had us a fireman's carry relay between two teams. I wish that I could have taken some pictures of the race because it was fairly amusing. He then had us do some circular formation exercises that focused on the core. Overall it was fairly good workout.

Wednesday: The day seemed like it was going to be promising in terms of PT. We were planning on going out to the park and play some ultimate football. However, as SGT Woody was about to take his group of FSs to the park, the station commander told him that they needed to take the station van that had a flat tire for over a week, and that the tire needed to be fixed right then and there. That task turned out to be fairly time consuming and did not even get finished. We ended up just calling it day. However, a group of us decided to to go to the gym that I happen to still carry a membership. I took 6 other FSs into the gym and had them sign up for a 1 day pass. This caused some problems with the management for some reason and they wanted to charge them for using the gym for a day. This caused me to go into jerk mode. I asked why would they give me some many problems when I bring friends when they are always posting to bring our friends and family in to the gym. At this the manager decided to shut up and take my friends information. We ended playing basketball with some 3 on 3 action. It was fun to say the least. I have not played any team basketball since probably high school.

Thursday:  I filmed my last episode of the Weekend Update with Maximum Cheese productions this week. We filmed on location this week at the East Orlando Sun. Check it out:

PT was better on Thursday. We got to play the ultimate football that we were suppose the prior day. Once the confusion as to how to play cleared up, the game was quite fun! The game is basically played like ultimate frisbee but with a football. This probably so football players do not feel sissy. Here is a video to describe the scene:

After PT I stopped by and did a little shopping for my packing list at reception and basic training. Here is a list of the items I will need:

Clothing One Day Supply of Casual, Comfortable clothing ** No halter tops or ragged shorts Three sets of underwear (White) One pair of white, calf-length athletic socks ** No color bands, designs or logos A pair of comfortable shoes Eyeglasses ** No faddish/stylish eyewear Eyeglass Band (if you wear glasses) Athletic Supporter Luggage should be limited to one small suitcase or gym bag Two Locks (padlock with 2 keys)

Toiletries Disposable/Safety Razor with Blades Shaving Cream Towels Toothbrush with case (clear in color) Hairbrush or 6” black comb Two washcloths and one towel (brown) Antiperspirant (non-aerosol) Shower Shoes (Black) Toothpaste Dental Floss Shampoo Soap and Soap Case (Clear in color)

Money $10.00, but no more than $50.00 in cash, you will be given an advance on your first paycheck for any required purchases ATM Card ** For access to your money while at Basic Training

Friday: Turned out to be a fun packed day. I attended what will probably be my Friday morning networking meeting. It has been a lot of fun meeting all of the new friends I have made at this group. After the meeting, I went out Wedgfield Golf Club with a friend of mine. We were not really doing well at all, but we did not seem to care. The highlight of my day would probably be the chip in I made on the first hole.


View Larger Map

After an afternoon of golf, I headed out to a nice hole in the wall bar where some of my friends decided to have a going away party for me. It was pretty fun considering there was karaoke. If you give me free drinks and good people, I will sing a few songs for you.


View Larger Map

Saturday: Was the day that I was able to get some help from my father and a family friend to come over and load up all of the big items at my apartment to bring to our storage unit. This included the bed (mattress, box spring, and frame), coffee table, two couches, 35" TV, entertainment center, three side tables, two night stands, two dressers, a dining table, and six dining chairs. We were able to pack all of these items into the back of a trailer and then pack it into my 5'X10' storage unit!

This will make it very easy for my wife to deal with things while I am gone as she will be spending a lot of her time with parents while I am training. The only problem is that during my last week of staying in Orlando, my wife and I will be sleeping on an air mattress. Oh well! Better than what I will be sleeping on in the near future.

Good luck SSG Lime

Tuesday: Was a bit of a wash in terms of FS training. For those of you that live or know Florida, you know that the weather can be fairly unpredictable. Seeing that the temperature has been steadily rising combined with the 50% chance of rain, I figured there was a good chance that there would be no FS training. I was correct. Having figured this, I did some time on the elliptical after my personal training in the morning. I have noticed that since my personal trainer has realized that I will be leaving soon for BCT, she has been stepping up the intensity of my workouts. She has been increasing the weight load as well as including some cardio exercises like suicides in between sets. She has also been stepping up the core exercises. I am liking it becasue a lot of these exercises she is having me do were the same ones I was struggling with right after starting with her. I can see and feel the progress I have made in the last six months.

Wednesday: Due to the fact that my wife will be moving in with her parents until she leaves for grad school, we will be storing our stuff at a storage unit by her parents' house. So I had the pleasure of driving and finding a decent place to trust my property with while I am gone training. During the prior weekend, my wife and I had begun packing our belongings. We are quite accustomed with the process due to the college life. I just wish I could go a year with out moving for once.

Due to some lack of communication on some of the recruiters part, another day of FS training was wasted. SSG Capcom was not able to make it into the office in time for the training. The sad part is that two or three of the other recruiters in the office were too busy to facilitate FS PT. Whats worse is that we had a good number of FSs on hand ready to go. However, the good part of the whole situation is that a good portion of the FSs decided to group up and go to the YMCA and workout together. I decided not to take part because the gym I have a membership just happened to be in the same plaza as the recruiter office. I was motivated enough to hop on the treadmill and spend about 30 minutes on the treadmill and run a 5k! It felt good. I then did some upper body work.

Thursday: Like clockwork, I met with my networking friend to film another episode of Rick and John's Weekend Update. Here is this week's video:

Was a productive day at the FS PT. Before we left for PT, the station had a Captain and First Sergeant come by to be a part of SSG Lime's going-away ceremony. After this, SSG Lime will be going back to his normal duties as a Combat Engineer. He received a commendation for his hard work during his 3 years as a recruiter. Evidently he has done a lot for the station. I believe he was an awesome recruiter and could not ask for a more honest representative of the Army.

SSG Capcom was in good form to get us to experience "temporary muscle failure". SSG Capcom turns out to be a fan of the P90X and Insanity workouts. He decided to to do a circular group workout session with plyometric exercises. It turned out to be a very challenging session. Combined with the sun, everyone must of dropped a pound of sweat each. 

Friday: Had my usual 0700 personal training session. My trainer again kept up with the stepped up intensity in my workout session. I plan on having her step it up even more next week. I came home and did some more packing to get ready for another trip to the storage unit. I actually like the process because I get to purge things from my life that I no longer need. It only makes the feeling of me starting the next chapter in my life even more apparent. 

Saturday: The day started early with me getting to the recruiter's office to carpool down the local reserve center in Orlando for a FS Training event. This happens periodically by former and current drill sergeants in the reserves. However, upon arrival to the center, we were informed that the whole place was shut down due to the whole budget fiasco in Washington. 

However, there was one DS that decided to do some training after seeing how many FSs showed up to learn. These are the kinds of things I like to see by good NCOs in the Army; even though he was not getting paid, he made sure our trip to the training was not in vain. He was able to get the EST 2000 up and running for us to train on during the day. The EST 2000 is simulator used at all BCT locations that recruits and soldiers train on with realistic replicas of various rifles, including the M-16. I really enjoyed the training and did fairly well. Here is a session of FSs shooting 3 rounds. 

The only problem with the training was that there was only DS to train everyone. This led to the recruiters to stepping up and hanging around to facilitate in training different lessons; map reading and grenade & claymore training. 

Some instruction prior to using the EST 2000

You can't see it but a FS decided to throw his mock grenade a little too far into the mock foxhole. SSG Capcom made him get it.

FSs trying to help out the FS who threw the grenade too far.

SSG Capcom made the FS do push ups becasue he had the same MOS as him.

This video is me doing a claymore drill. I took it easy as not to get my shorts stained.

The event was overall very useful and I feel much more comfortable with the rifle. I think that I will have a much easier time getting used to the M-16 at BCT.

NTM...

As the subject says, not to much to report this week. No crazy parties, no out-of-town family, or extreme training.

Tuesday: Went to FS PT Tuesday. It was the last time I got to hang out with SSG Lime before leaves the recruiting business and goes back to doing his regular Army work. Him and SSG Capcom made it memorable. To start off the fun assembled in the parking lot in front of Target. They then had us do a series of shuttle run type exercises. This included sprints, high leg, lunges and others. What was a lot of fun was that we then did some firemen and chair carries. What was amusing was that the two heaviest guys, including me, got to carry probably one of the skinniest and smallest guy, and then he helped carry us. I really wish I could have taken a picture. SSG Capcom the had us do some level 1 or 2 drills to finish off the day. 

After FS PT, I raced home to shower and change and get my wife and I down to the Hard Rock Live at Universal Orlando for the Video Games Live. If you have never heard of this it is a gaming nerd's dream. It is a full orchestra and choir that played the music to video games. The night was great with the exception of the loud mouth screaming girl behind us. When intermission, or pause happened, we promptly moved back and away! We were there more for my wife than me. Most people assumed it was the other way around.

Wednesday: The rain basically ruined the rest of the week, starting with Wednesday. SSG Capcom told me to stretch the group out. I go outside and it's raining. I go back inside and ask SSG Capcom what is the protocol for rain is in this situation. He then tells me to go bring everyone back inside the office. When I go back outside, the rain stops and everyone was motivated enough to stretch anyways. So I stretch them, and SSG Capcom came out and started informing us that he was going to have us doing 2-3 minute explosive exercises. He got to a point where he said that "2 minutes is a long time". My reply was "my wife does not think so". I could not help myself! SSG Capcom tried his best not to smile or laugh and pointed to the ground and told me to find out how long 2 minutes was with push ups. Shortly thereafter, the rain started coming down, and come down hard. He then had us go back inside and assemble around him where he put together an impromptu class on first aid. I had give SSG Capcom kudos on doing some productive training on the fly and making it interesting.

Thursday: Thursday was basically ruined due to the rain. It rained all day! Obviously there was no FS PT that day. I did some research on the new PT and soldier test that the Army will be implementing later and replacing the current 2-2-2 Army Personal Fitness Test. Here is a video of what to expect:

Friday: April Fools! Both the Army and myself got into the action. First I read that the Army was going to be going to changing the hats that soldiers would be wearing to the Stetsons hat. I have to admit that I read and believed it for a second and assumed it had something to do with it being April 1st. Click here to see the link. I also helped film this week's Rick and John's Weekend Update:

But that was the jist of this not so crazy week!