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.