Counting Down the Days

As I sit here on watch, I can only help but ask myself why. Why did I come to this place to be locked up usually 6 out of 7 days a week, with many mindless, menial tasks that have nearly no purpose? After all, it was just about one year ago when I was sitting at Buffalo Wild Wings with my friend Jake watching game 6 of the ALCS where the Red Sox came from behind to force game 7 against the Rays. I can still vividly remember sitting there, eating my boneless Honey BBQ wings along with my Parmesan Garlic bone-in wings, munching on celery in between wings, all while talking baseball, fantasy football, and whatever else came to mind. I really miss going to do things like that. Unfortunately, I cannot. I decided to attend a Federal Service Academy, and that's what I shall continue to do. On the bright side, however, in just 10 days I'll be back in Minnesota doing what I want to do, rather than what the upperclassmen tell me to do. It will be a very welcome nine day break; something necessary to keep me sane, I believe.

Saturday was an okay day. Our Class B inspection was cancelled, which kept us from cleaning very late into the night. Instead, our Company Commander took all of the available Plebes on a "team building exercise" which was actually a run with a "fun" activity at the end. Because I had been sick for the previous week, my endurance wasn't quite where it could've been, so I had a more difficult time than I should've. After we finished and showered, we marched over to Ackerman to watch a presentation about hazing and the responsibility of leaders in general. This was prompted by a little incident a few weeks back where a First Co. Plebe was persuaded to drink a shot of an extremely fiery hot sauce. It was a good, informational time that I hope people really took note of, as there was some excellent info about alcohol and college students.

The, albeit cold, afternoon was taken up by the football game against the University of Rochester. Our opening drive looked promising, though our hopes fell as our team fell apart and Rochester capitalized on our mistakes. We weren't overly thrilled with the final score of 52-21, but it did get us out of the cold. Once the game finished, the RTOA told us to muster in Ackerman Auditorium in 22 minutes, which we assumed was a liberty muster. We were correct, and we were released on liberty right around 1515. Because I had gone to D.C. the weekend before, I didn't really feel a pressing need to go out, so I stayed in my room, slept, and watched a movie before our accountability muster at 2230. Not surprisingly, there was somebody who found a way to mess it up and make us wait a lot longer than we should have. When we finally did get back, I finished my movie and did a few other things before drifting off around 1 am.

I woke up around 9am not feeling totally refreshed, but I think that was because I had gotten way more sleep than I was used to within the last 24 hours. I quickly got ready and headed over to the Chapel for our Sunday morning Bible Class. After the Bible Class and the Worship Service, Mom and Dad Guest were putting on a "Going Out to Sea" seminar, mainly for the Third Classmen who will be leaving after finals to board their assigned ships. The main draw for the few Plebes that did go was Mom Guest's chili that she brought from home, along with pies and ice cream for dessert. That was the highlight of the day, as I spent the rest of the afternoon keeping tabs on football games.

The PKT was one of the more memorable ones, as there were several people called up on stage and/or made fun of for presentations that they gave. The RTOA has such an excellent sense of humor. It's really a shame that we cannot appreciate it when we're near him.

Monday was a pretty relaxed day as those of us who participated in CC's Saturday morning fun received rack-in and media privileges. I slept during my two free periods during the morning as well as my two free periods after lunch. We had our 40 minute swim in swimming class, which is actually a lot easier than it sounds when doing the modified backstroke. It's just a long time to be in the pool. CFC was a little different Monday night as it was a Coffee House night where people could perform whatever talents they thought they had. There were some excellent performances as well as some that could have been a little better, but it was good overall, with the highlight coming from a First Class Midshipman who sang "If I Were A Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof. Even some of his closest friends did not know that he could do that and do it so well.

Today hasn't been all that exciting. As I said before, I'm on watch right now which meant that I had watch from 08-12 this morning. Nothing exciting really happened while on watch. I got my Calc and Physics tests back today. I'm pretty satisfied with both of them, so I'm sitting pretty well going into the finals for each of those classes. I would like to sleep in tomorrow, but that is not going to happen as I have Army PT at 0500. Oh well, I can sleep as much as I want in 10 days... Stand by for further posts.