Thanksgiving Break was a much needed time to get away from this place and relax and sleep for five days. Since I was unable to go home, I was able to stay at with my friend and his family who live in Hicksville, NY, which is about 30-40 minutes away from the Academy with traffic. The first night was spent relaxing; soaking in the wonderful feeling of civilian clothes and being away from campus. Wednesday was also spent relaxing until we went into the City to try to catch a Broadway show. Unfortunately, all of the cheap tickets were sold out, so we decided to go to the Olive Garden in Times Square. It was a long wait, but it was well worth it.
Thanksgiving Day brought a new experience for me. It marked the first time I had ever been away from my family on that holiday, or really any holiday for that matter. Luckily, my friend's relatives were more than welcoming, and I had a great time eating, conversing, and watching football with them. Nothing too exciting happened for the rest of the break, as we spent the time relaxing some more and catching up on sleep.
Much to my surprise, we managed to pass PKT 6 the night we returned, which put us on a nice little streak, 3 passed PKTs in 4 weeks. The week following wasn't all that exciting for the first half of the week, but people were very happy once the long weekend for the Christmas Ball commenced Friday afternoon. That night, many people went out and partied in the City because there weren't any regimental obligations until 1400 for Plebes. I, however, did not go out because I had to work on the T/V Kings Pointer Saturday morning from 0800 until noon, though we were released a little before 1000. Attendance at the basketball games was mandatory for Plebes, but that wasn't too big of a deal. I'm glad I stayed as long as I did, because I was needed to run the shot clock for the men's game.
I was hoping that the Ball would be a new experience for me, but it really was nothing more than an over glorified high school dance held in the former summer home of Walter P. Chrysler. That was a little bit of a letdown, but what can I really expect being around sailors? After cleaning up the dance from 0100-0145, Sunday was what I was really looking forward to.
We were supposed to depart the Academy around 1230, but in reality it was right around 1300. Though the buses were late, all of us headed to Radio City Music Hall to see the Christmas Spectacular were more than happy to leave campus. Once we got to the area right around Rockefeller Center at 1405, we had about two hours to walk around and eat before making our way over to Radio City. Some good friends and I headed to Chipotle because I mentioned it and they thought it sounded good as well. After a wonderfully filling lunch, we wandered over to Barnes and Noble because one of the guys wanted to check it out. While there a few of us got some Starbucks before trekking over to Radio City.
Entering Radio City Music Hall for the first time is quite an experience. The renovation in the 90s really made it into an extravagant venue. On our way to our seats, my friends and I ran into a Navy SEAL from SEAL Team 3, which is based near San Diego and has a primary territory coverage of Southwest Asia. It was a really cool experience meeting someone like that who has done more militarily than most of us will ever know or do.
The program itself was spectacular, as the name suggests. The choreography of the Rockettes was flawless, and the production itself was very well done. If anyone has the chance to visit New York City in November or December, a trip to see the Christmas Spectacular is well worth it. After the show finished, we walked around until the buses picked us up at 1930. Getting back wasn't all that fun, but at least we had missed the PKT for the night.
Monday wasn't too crazy, but Tuesday is where my week, and possibly my time here at school changed. Tuesday was going pretty normally until the evening when I met my recruit to whom I would be showing the school. We met at Delano when the baseball coach had come in with him after picking him up at the airport. The rest of the night was pretty nondescript until we all went to bed in my room. I had done a leg workout earlier that day, thrown for a while, and also gone on the recumbent bike for about 10 minutes. With all of that exercise, my legs were exhausted.
Sometimes when I, and many people, fall asleep, I begin to doze off and awake with a sudden jerk. This happened once and I thought I had kicked the wall even though I hadn't. I went back to sleep, awakening after another jerk. Only this time, I was mid-air. I proceeded to hit my right arm on my desk before hitting the ground less than a foot from my recruit. Once I realized that I was on the ground, I then noticed that my left shoulder was no longer in the socket. It had popped out. After moving my arm for a couple minutes, I had put it back in place and was ready for bed, only this time, one of my roommates could not stop laughing. He thought it was the funniest thing in the world, and proceeded to laugh for the next hour.
The next day when dropping my recruit off with the baseball coach, I told him about my little incident. He was a little vexed about how I fell out of bed, but he told me to go to the trainers to get it checked out. When I was finally able to see them Thursday afternoon and evening, I was advised to go to the clinic to get it examined further, and so a visit with an orthopedic doctor could be scheduled. Hopefully I'll get in to see him this week. I'll try to keep this updated over the Christmas Break, but I'm not promising anything. Stand by for further posts.
