Finals, Packing, and Sea

I realize it's been a bit longer since I wrote last than I would've liked, but it's been very hectic since then. There's been a good amount to write about, so here goes...

The Saturday after my last post, the Christian Fellowship Club headed to Jones Beach on the south side of the island for a day of fun at the beach. It was a little cool, but we all still had lots of fun playing football, volleyball, building sand castles, grilling, and other things too. I didn't realize that feet could get sunburned, but I found that out after I returned to the Academy.

The next week went by rather slowly as I anticipated the arrival of my parents for Memorial Day Weekend. They were able to come on campus Thursday evening to pick me up, as I had received a dinner liberty for the night. We ate at an Italian place in Great Neck which wasn't too bad. We often get pizza from them here at the Academy, which is fairly good. They came back the next day to check out the maritime museum we have here on campus, as well as pick me up to go back to the hotel in Flushing. Even though I had been off-campus a decent number of times in the past couple of months, it still felt great to be able to just relax at the hotel and not worry about school stuff.

We went out for some good Chinese food Friday night before walking around Flushing for a bit. It's an area heavily settled by Asians, particularly Koreans and Chinese, so it honestly feels a bit like Hong Kong, minus the tall buildings, in a few places. The next day we took the 7 Subway all the way from Flushing into Times Square, a trip that took a good chunk of time due to all the stops. From Times Square, we walked west to look at the Navy ships moored at Pier 88 as well as take a boat cruise around Manhattan Island. I didn't get to board the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) at Pier 88, but it was still very cool to look at. The boat cruise was excellent, as we were able to see The Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero from the water, Yankee Stadium from the Harlem River, and several other sites. Once our boat docked back at Pier 83, we headed back to Times Square and ate at the Dallas BBQ restaurant located on 42nd St. The food was good and the prices fairly reasonable, a notable feat for NYC, especially Times Square...

Sunday was definitely my favorite day of the weekend. We took the Long Island Railroad into Penn Station and then hopped on a subway to take us to the southern part of Manhattan, where the Staten Island Ferry had a stop. The Staten Island Ferry uses massive ferry boats to carry large amounts of people between Lower Manhattan and Staten Island. We were able to see the Statue of Liberty again, as well as parts of Brooklyn and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Once we arrived at Staten Island, we checked out the memorial to 9-11 before taking a very long walk to find the Navy ships moored at the Staten Island Piers.

Once we finally arrived, I realized exactly how good of an idea it was t0 wear my Summer Whites, as my parents and I were able to go right to the front of an over two hour long line because I am a midshipman. The first ship we toured was USS Philippine Sea (CG-58), a cruiser built in 1983. This was really cool to see in person, as cruisers are some of the most destructive ships ever built, housing Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon missiles, torpedoes, and an array of guns. An interesting fact: the USS Philippine Sea was the first U.S. vessel to launch missiles at Saddam Hussein in Operation Desert Storm. From there we boarded the USS James E. Williams (DDG-95), a destroyer built in 2003. We toured that for a few minutes before opting to cross over to the USS De Wert (FFG-45), a frigate built in 1983. Out of the three ships we toured (really two, we didn't tour much of the USS James E. Williams), we got the most thorough on the USS De Wert. It was really fascinating how much stuff is put on these ships and how potent they are. Even ships that are nearly 30 years old could seemingly destroy a lot of things in a short period of time.

Once we finished touring the ships, we headed back to the ferry and took it to Manhattan. From the ferry terminal, we took a subway back to Penn Station and ate at a small cafe, which was pretty good. We arrived back at our hotel sometime around 7, and I spent the next couple of hours watching the Twins take on the Rangers on ESPN. We had to be back at school the next morning at 6am for the Memorial Day Parade in Great Neck, but I figured it'd be easier to go back Sunday night and sleep there to simplify things.

For the parade, we just walked through Great Neck for a little while before being released again on liberty, this time until 2300. From there I met up with my parents in Great Neck and we stopped at a Chinese restaurant for Dim Sum before going back to the hotel for a quick nap. After the nap, we took the subway to the Mets-Willets Point stop to check out the park where the 1964 World's Fair was held. Unfortunately, many of the structures built for that event were rusting and in disrepair, but at least they looked cool in Iron Man 2! After some more walking, a lot of walking in all reality, we ended up eating dinner in Flushing before I had to hop on the train again to go back to school. It was really good to see my parents even though it was only a couple of weeks until I would see them again. Although a bit of schoolwork piled up for me, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

The following week was short, but really was very hectic as I had firefighting school on Wednesday, a test after getting back from firefighting Wednesday afternoon, watch from 1200-1600 and 0000-0400 Thursday night/Friday morning, and a paper due for History of Sea Power Friday afternoon. Somehow I managed to get through all of that, but my grades in that stretch definitely could have been better. For fun's sake, I didn't bother going to sleep, save 20-30 minutes, between Thursday morning when I woke up around 6 until just before 9 Friday night. That probably wasn't the best of ideas, but I can chalk it up to experience, right? Friday was the day that the first round of US Coast Guard license tests wrapped up. Most of the afternoon the ringing of the bell near Wiley Hall could be heard as that is tradition for seniors who pass their respective license tests. Since I was completely passed out Friday night into Saturday morning, I was told that people were ringing it throughout the night, but I couldn't really say for sure.

The weekend was pretty relaxed as I spent most of my time studying for finals and getting all my stuff packed up in preparation for going to sea. This past week wasn't too bad as we were prepping for finals in most of my classes. Saturday was the first day of finals, which in and of itself wasn't a great idea, but to make it worse it was in my worst class. As of right now I'm still waiting to find out whether or not if I passed the class, which isn't the best of feelings. I never thought I would say this, but I'll even take a D at this point. Just as long as I pass... This afternoon I have my final for my engineering graphics class, a final based completely on drawings we do on the AutoCAD computer program. The only other finals that will give me much trouble are Engineering Mechanics (Statics and Dynamics) on Wednesday afternoon and Chemistry on Thursday morning.

Once my Thursday final finishes I'll be free to fly out to Montana to spend time with family and friends before driving home with my parents to spend time at home until I am called up by Military Sealift Command to report to my ship. I just need to keep my nose to the grindstone until then. Stand by for further posts.

Finally, Yankee Stadium at Last

When I last left off, I was preparing for Command Inspection and a weekend trip to Susquehanna University. From that time until now, I've got quite a bit to write about. But I'll start where I left off...

Since I was not going to be present for Command Inspection, I had to go to a uniform inspection held in Summer Whites the Friday morning before the inspection. From what I heard, they had only known about 140 people that would miss the inspection, but approximately 180 showed up, which made it take close to 40 minutes, a lot longer than it should have. Once that was over, I was essentially home free for the weekend, with the exception of my class 5th period.

After that class we had a mandatory sexual assault training session in Ackerman Auditorium. No one was too keen on it to begin with, and less thrilled with what the speaker had to say. Unfortunately, many people got a little carried away and were very disrespectful. I was able to sneak out early because I had to finish packing for my trip.

The 5+ hour bus ride was pretty uneventful, as was our first night at our hotel. It was so nice being able to sleep in until 9am, especially on a more comfortable bed than my own. Because our doubleheader started at 1pm, we left around 10am so that we could stop and get Subway for in between games on our way. That turned into a little fiasco as we couldn't find the Subway in Selinsgrove, so we drove around for 20-30 minutes before ending up farther away from the field than our hotel. We got to the field and were able to fully warm up with plenty of time to spare.

The first game didn't go so well as we were thrashed 12-0. After a short intermission, the second game started. This one went a little better, but we still fell short and lost 10-7. After heading back to the hotel and resting for a little while, those of us who didn't have parents that came to watch went out and had a nice dinner at Applebee's. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and getting ready for the next day's game.

We got up a little before 8am so that we could be on our way to the field at 9am. With no mysterious Subway restaurants to lead us on a wild goose chase, we arrived at the field in relatively good time. For the first time all year, I went out into the field during batting practice and collected all the hit balls so that they could be brought back to the pitcher. Even though it wasn't much, it was still good to get out on the field and do something. Sunday's game was suspenseful; close right until the very end. For the first time all season, we committed no errors in the field, something our senior ace and starting pitcher that day appreciated very much. Even though he pitched a complete game gem, we fell 4-3 in our last contest of the season. It was disappointing to see the season end like that, but at the same time, it was almost fitting for our 7-24 finish. Once we got all the equipment packed up and loaded on the bus, we began our trek back to the Academy. This time, there was a little more excitement on the ride, a little too much at times for Coach.

The week following our trip was a typical Kings Point week, filled with tests and lots of homework. The end of the week was a little more exciting that the beginning and middle. Even though I stood watch for 8 hours straight Saturday morning and afternoon, there was a bright side to that, as I was able to go out that night and get a good dinner before seeing Iron Man 2 in Great Neck. The next week was definitely a little more exciting, though in both good and bad ways.

Even at the beginning of the week, I was looking at it from the standpoint of: "Alright, I only have four days of class because I'm going to firefighting training Wednesday and I have a long weekend this weekend when I'll be seeing the Twins take on the Yankees in Yankee Stadium". Unfortunately, it wasn't quite that simple. The first two days of class went just fine, it was the firefighting that really set me off. I hadn't really thought much about my shoulder affecting me during the training because it's been nearly four and a half months since surgery and it feels pretty good now. Well, thanks to a medical questionnaire, the surgery came up as did not having full clearance from my surgeon, which caused me to be unable to participate. It's not a lot of fun standing around all day, watching your friends have all the fun fighting fires while wearing a full firefighting suit. Oh well, thanks to some phone calls, I should be able to do that June 2. Why exactly I don't know, but that set me off for the next couple of days and put me in an awful mood.

Finally Friday came and boy, was I ready to get out of here. There were three of us supposed to go to the game, but one guy took longer than he thought he would on a Marine Corps flight test, so only another guy and I ended up going to the game. Thanks to Long Island Railroad delays and sporadic subway service, we arrived at Yankee Stadium right at game time and made it to our seats just before the first pitch. To finally see a game in the Bronx was a completely surreal experience. I've waited my whole life to see the Twins play on the road, and it just so happened to be at Yankee Stadium. The "Bleacher Creatures" lived up to their stereotype and kept my friend and me entertained throughout the game with their drunken insults and numerous fights around us. Even though the Twins lost 8-4, I got to see Joe Mauer hit a home run, Delmon Young throw out Mark Teixeira at home plate, and Mariano Rivera enter to Metallica's "Enter Sandman" and finish out the game. I can easily rank that as one of my favorite experiences. Once the game got out, we made the trek back to the Academy for the night.

The next morning we headed out to the Bronx in Summer Whites to see if we could get into the game for free, but we weren't able to. Because of that, we decided to head to the USS Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on the west side of Manhattan. That was a really cool experience as we were able to tour a WWII aircraft carrier, a diesel-electric submarine, and a British Airways Concorde jet, as well as see an A-12 Blackbird spy plane, an F-14 SuperTomcat fighter, and an F-11F Tiger in a Blue Angels paint scheme. All in all, it was a great experience, one I would highly recommend to any New York City tourist. Once we finished up there, we headed back to school where we retrieved our bags and caught a cab to our friend's house in Queens. We spent the night there and arrived back at the Academy the next day around 5:30 pm. It was a wonderful weekend away that was much needed after the stressful near-month called "Midterms".

Tuesday of this week was our first major certification test in our time here. The Lifeboatman test is required for us to become certificated operators of lifeboats at sea. Since I haven't heard otherwise, I'm assuming I got the necessary 70% needed to pass. I really don't want to waste time retaking it. Anyway, I've done a pretty good job, I think, of catching up on my last 3, almost 4, weeks here at the Academy and various other places. Stand by for further posts.

A Busy Month

Regrettably, it has been a little longer between posts than I would like, but that's what engineering at this school will do to you.... Anyway, I have been very busy these past few weeks.

The week following my last post was spent in eager anticipation for my weekend, but I'll get to that in a second. Baseball during the week was a little bittersweet as we took our game on Tuesday against Baruch, winning 13-6, but had quite a bit of difficulty against the College of Staten Island, losing 15-3. Also that week was our first test in Intro to Marine Engineering. Up until that test, I was completely lost and am still almost totally lost but I'm still banking on figuring it all out before the final. Somehow, I managed to get a semi-respectable grade which ended up being among the top in the class, but I'm still puzzled as to how that happened. Finally, the week ended and I was able to leave on my long weekend earned by participating in a blood drive. My friend's parents graciously allowed me to stay with them Friday and Saturday night as I got away for the weekend so I could go see my favorite band, August Burns Red, play in the Nokia Theater just off Times Square. Even though it was a relatively small venue, it was still a lot of fun to see them rock the house, especially in NYC. Though the tickets were a little expensive, it was still well worth it.

Wednesday of the next week marked the first time I was allowed to travel with the baseball team. We took a coach bus to Hackettstown, NJ to take on Centenary College and our former head coach. Unfortunately, we could not overcome an early 8-0 deficit, losing 10-7. That weekend we played Juniata College, getting swept at home, losing a heartbreaker on Sunday 14-12.

The week of the 18th had two weekday games, both away, which I traveled to as well. The first was against SUNY Old Westbury, a short drive away. That game did not start well and stayed that way. The hitting was a little lacking throughout. The next day, against SUNY Maritime, one of our rivals, was a different story. We came out in the top of the first and put up 4 runs, only to give up 5 in the bottom of the inning. We put up several more, as did they, but we were able to hang on for the 13-11 win, our first since playing Baruch two weeks earlier. It felt so good to finally get another win, especially against Maritime.

The weekend games against SUNY Purchase were rained out, which saved us most of a Sunday. Today's game against St. Joseph's College of Long Island was another bright spot in our otherwise dismal season. We gave up 2 runs in the first, but were able to quickly put up 4 to get a lead. They eventually tied it up, though we broke the tie and held on to earn the 8-5 win. This, I believe, is the first time we've had a winning "streak" as all our previous wins had been isolated. Hopefully we can finish up the season on a high note against Susquehanna University.

The time in between baseball games has been filled up with quite a bit of schoolwork. Taking 18.5 credits in a trimester is a difficult task no matter what classes, much less engineering... The nice thing is I only have one class on Fridays, which gives me all morning to catch up on sleep lost the previous week.

I'll try to update this after I return with the baseball team from Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania. I get to miss Command Inspection for that. Boy, am I happy!

Stand by for further posts.

Recognition Day and a Lot of Baseball

It’s been a little while since my last post, and a lot has happened since. When I left off, I had just finished moving into my new room and was adjusting to new roommates and a much nicer furniture setup.

The Thursday after returning, the USMMA baseball team held its home opener against SUNY Maritime, one of our biggest rivals. Because the entire Plebe class was required to attend, there was a large crowd cheering us on as we proceeded to hammer them 11-6. That weekend we played against the University of Scranton and lost two out of three. Because of my shoulder surgery, I’m not on the traveling roster for the team, so I’m stuck at school for away games.

That weekend was PKT 10, as we had passed 9 the previous Monday. It was a really weird experience for PKT 10 as we were allowed to sit down for the duration of the test as well as the honor test which followed immediately after. In addition to sitting, PKT 10 and the honor test were both multiple choice PowerPoints, unlike any of the previous 9 PKTs. It was a welcome change as nearly all of the questions were very easy with one clear answer for the majority of those. It nearly went without saying that we passed PKT 10 as soon as we finished it. The feelings were the same after the honor test, however, those feelings were smashed when we received an email saying that we had failed and would be required to have a retake the next Saturday morning. We automatically thought something was fishy since that test was even easier than PKT 10. I did hear later that just enough people had screwed around during the test so throw of each company’s scores.

Baseball that week was against the City College of New York, who we pounded 14-3 in a good outing by junior pitcher Will Richey. The weekend’s games were not quite as good… We played host to Drew University in a 3 game series. They entered the weekend 0-12, so we were fairly confident that we would be able to pull a nice little sweep. After a good extra innings in game 1 on Saturday, we were shut down for the subsequent two, even getting shut out 4-0 in the rubber game. Fortunately for us plebes, we still had a reason to celebrate…

Friday afternoon, we received an email just before 1300 to show up at Ackerman Auditorium in boiler suits and tennis shoes. Because that is the uniform for Recognition, many got their hopes up, while many still felt that the upperclassmen were trying to “bag us up”, essentially pull a fast one on us. When we got there, most of our original drill instructors from Indoc were there yelling at us about things they yelled at us for during Indoc. After everybody was there and the accountability sheets were turned in, the RTO came out and threw a black garbage bag onto the stage and told us to bag it up. Because of that, we were a little dejected, but kind of saw it coming.

Saturday morning, we showed up at Ackerman Auditorium at 0800 for the honor test retake with our clipboards and black pens. The tests were passed out and we took them with the CTOs wandering around, ripping up their tests after sniping people for not shaving or having bad-looking uniforms. Surprisingly, the most locked-on plebe in First Company was called out for not shaving that morning. I figured I would die before seeing this kid fail at any plebe task. Anyway, when we handed them in, the RTOA popped out from behind the curtains and asked us how badly we wanted Recognition. We all screamed that we wanted it really bad, so he told us to go back our rooms and return in 5 minutes in boiler suits and tennis shoes. It was at that point that we knew it was the real deal.

Recognition consisted of six different stations: PT on Tomb Field, just like during Indoc, pushups by the War Memorial, a truck pull up the hill on Steamboat Road, log PT, more PT with some seniors, and the infamous “Mud pit”. Because of my shoulder surgery, I was not allowed to participate, so I was able to take pictures and video of all that went on with the First Company plebes. After everybody had completed the six stations, the plebe class assembled in the Oval between Wiley Hall and where the flagpole once stood. It was then that the Regimental Commander spoke to us for a few minutes, and proclaimed us as Fourth Class Midshipmen at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. This was the first major milestone we had been working towards since we stepped foot through Vickery Gate nearly nine months ago. With Recognition comes the privilege of our door being closed all the time, walking outside, wearing our backpacks, and casually talking with upperclassmen. Students at normal colleges take these things for granted because they seem so natural. We’ve grown to realize the awesomeness of being able to do these things.

Baseball this past week wasn’t so good. We were scheduled to have a game Tuesday afternoon; however, rain caused the game to be postponed to an undetermined date. The weekend games against Moravian College were downright terrible. We lost the first game 23-2, and proceeded to lose Saturday’s doubleheader 6-4 and 5-1. It’s really disappointed to see this, as we were really supposed to have a really good season. I guess there’s something to be said for team chemistry.

Saturday night, after the doubleheader, I hopped on a bus right outside of campus and took it to the Great Neck train station, beginning my ride to my friend’s house in Hicksville, farther out the island. Two train rides later, I hopped in my friend’s van and rode to his house. It was so nice to get away for the weekend even though it was just for the night. This morning we headed to his church and then traveled to one of his aunt and uncle’s house for a light lunch, followed by a trip to another aunt and uncle’s house for an Easter dinner. The food at both places was very good. A welcome break from the slop they serve at Delano… As I write this, I’m on my way back to school in a van belonging to my friend’s family. Though I don’t really want to go back, it’s a lot better now that we’re Recognized. This week is looking a little long because of a few tests and quizzes. If I do some studying, I should be just fine. Stand by for further posts.

Moving Day

After arriving a little late yesterday, I made it back to the Academy around 6 pm and found out that there was no PKT that night. That was nice as it allowed us to focus on moving out of our old rooms and into our new rooms. Fortunately for me, I only had to move down the hall, so moving was a breeze. The only problem was finding places for all my stuff because I was missing three of my drawers. Thankfully I was able to find two out of the three I was missing today which resolved a few of my space issues. After getting settled in today, I went and waited in line for around a half hour to pick up my textbooks for this next trimester. Oh, what a joy it is to be an engineer and pick up 12 books for the upcoming trimester even though only nine were in as my books for Engineering Graphics were not in. Other than those two things, I really didn't do a whole lot today. I went down to the sports medicine room to do my physical therapy and then rushed to Delano for a quick dinner before going to the Chapel to load up the musical instruments for Christian Fellowship Club tonight. Today was the first time I had played bass for CFC all year, and the first time playing bass in general since November. I really enjoyed that and hope to keep doing that. Since I have classes tomorrow, I think I should get some sleep. Stand by for further posts.

Finals Week and a Trip Home

Life hasn’t been bad since the last time I posted. I’ve been through finals week and a little over a week at home. However, let’s pick things up where I left off.

Finals week is usually supposed to be a stressful time, filled with endless studying for tests that have a huge impact on one’s final grade in a class. I, on the other hand, have enjoyed both so far because it’s a time to slow down and focus on my academics without much interference from the Regiment and upperclassmen. Because we’re supposed to use our weekend before for studying, we had our PKT moved from Sunday night to Saturday morning. Though let me back up for a minute. The Friday before finals week, February 26, we had yet another snow day because of more snow, this time around eight or nine inches. Unfortunately, many teachers had scheduled review sessions that day for finals. In addition to that, my section had Machine Shop scheduled for Friday mornings. Because of the snowstorm, that got cancelled and many of us had not yet finished our shop projects. Thankfully, the teacher decided to come in the next morning to allow us to finish our projects. Even better, we were in the shop when the PKT took place, so we got out of it, at least we thought we did. Since so many people were in class or review sessions during the PKT, it was decided that those who did not take it would have to take it sometime later during the day. I presume the training staff did this because they wanted us to pass PKT #9 this time. I lucked out again as I did not have to take the retake because I was scheduled to run the music for the Landmark Conference Basketball Championship game. Even as I write this, I still do not know if we passed the PKT or not, but I’m kind of leaning towards not. Both Saturday and Sunday we were given lunch liberty in case we felt we had some free time to go into Great Neck to get some food. I really doubt many people went out just because of their upcoming finals.

For everybody in the Plebe class, finals week started out with a bang because of the Calculus 2 final Monday morning for deck majors and Monday afternoon for the engineering students. Even though I’ve had quite a bit of calc, there were some pretty obscure questions on there, so I didn’t feel I did great, but I did well enough to get a decent grade in the class. Tuesday was the final that I was dreading the most out of the five I was scheduled to take. I had not done particularly well in Computer Engineering all trimester as the teacher went through topics very quickly, I had never really worked much in Microsoft Excel, and I had not scored well on any of the tests or quizzes. Thankfully, my studying paid off and I was rewarded by doing better on the final than I thought I would and finished up with a grade I was pretty happy with in the class. Wednesday was by far the easiest final of the week and probably the easiest I will have at the Academy. I had done well in Naval Science all trimester because I found the material very interesting and figured if I go into the Navy it would all be stuff that I would need to know at some time or another, so I put a lot of effort into learning everything I could. Because of that, I needed only 15 minutes for the final and was able to get a good grade in the end. Thursday’s final was another I was less confident about. I had done fairly well in Electrical Engineering all trimester, but I felt that I really did not know the material very well. Historically, students with my teacher have not fared too well on the final, but he makes it known that he curves the grades at the end which made me rest a little easier. I didn’t do great on the final, but I was satisfied with my grade in the class, so I guess I can’t really complain too much. Friday’s Physics 2 final probably required the most studying out of all my finals, but the four previous tests had worn me out, so I didn’t put as much time in as I could have or should have. I had done pretty well in the class throughout the trimester, but I know for a fact that I could’ve done better. It was, however, after my shoulder surgery that my grades started sliding downhill in the course, so I’m not sure if the surgery contributed to that or exactly what happened. Even though there were some curveballs on the final, I don’t think that I got the best grade that I could have, which in turn resulted in me getting a grade that could’ve been better. Oh well, I guess it helps me figure out how to apply myself in future courses. Overall, my trimester grades were not bad in the least bit, but I was still disappointed that I didn’t push myself harder in a few of my classes. Again, this helps me figure out what I need to do in my upcoming trimesters. Once I finished up my Physics 2 final, some friends and I quickly finished up our packing, changed into our Service Dress Blues and caught a cab to get away from Kings Point as fast as we could.

I ended up splitting a cab with six other people, which brought the fare down to a pretty reasonable $11. A lot better than paying $45 to ride alone! Because we arrived at the airport around 11:30, I figured it’d be worth it to try getting on the 1:30 flight rather than my scheduled 4:00 pm flight. Even though I had to pay to upgrade to standby for the earlier flight, I figured that getting home 3 hours earlier was worth the money needed to upgrade. The trip home was rather uneventful, though I did ride back with three of my classmates.

Upon arrival, I made it a point to stop by Caribou Coffee and enjoy a cup of good coffee for a change and not support Starbucks, which is New York’s main stop for specialty coffee along with Dunkin’ Donuts. After my parents picked me up, we went directly to Hong Kong Noodles Restaurant which is located right by TCF Bank Stadium, the home of the Minnesota Gophers football team. Even though I had eaten in Chinatown a few weeks before, I try not to pass up good Chinese food whenever I get the chance. Because I wanted to see as many of my friends as I could, I went up to PACT’s last regular season home game. A few of my friends were there which made it a worthwhile evening.

Throughout my week back, I made it a point to have as many friends over as I could or go do stuff with them. Even though I did not get to see everybody I would have liked, I was able to spend a lot of time just relaxing, which was much needed. I didn’t really do anything too exciting for the first while that I was home. The Thursday before I went back to school, we met my uncle at Hong Kong Noodles Restaurant for lunch before going to see a movie at the OmniTheater at the Science Museum of Minnesota. After seeing the movie, we swung by Bethel University so that I could spend a little bit of time with some friends there. I went out to lunch with a friend from church on Friday and ate at one of the best barbecue chicken places in the Metro Area. Big Daddy’s, by the corner of University and Dale in St. Paul has some amazing barbecue chicken, perhaps the best I’ve eaten. I would not complain if I had to take another trip back there.

Saturday morning may have been the highlight of my trip back, since I was finally able to go down to Target Field, the new home of the Minnesota Twins, and walk around down there. It was the opening of Target Plaza, so there were games and booths set up, and the main Twins store was open too. It was cool seeing all of the new, albeit overpriced, Twins merchandise for sale there. Once we had finished walking around the outside of the stadium, which was all they allowed us to see, we took a short trip west on I-394 to have Dim Sum at the Yangtze restaurant. I hadn’t had any Dim Sum since September, so I was more than happy to go over there. It was as good as I remembered, which made it all the more worthwhile.

My last night at home was spent playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on my Xbox 360 with one of my best friends as well as watching some TV. It was nothing too exciting, but a good way to round out my visit home.

As I write this, I’m 37,000 feet up over somewhere between Minneapolis and New York City. I’m guessing one of the Great Lakes. I can’t tell for sure because there’s some thick cloud cover below us. Within a few hours, I’ll be back at the Academy packing up my stuff to making changing rooms easier tonight. Stand by for further posts.

On a final, and more important note. I forgot to mention all of the good homemade food that I had. That was one of the things I was most looking forward to about break. Unfortunately, it might be quite a long time until I get to have some again...

Escape from Jail, or So It Seemed....

I'll get to explaining the title in a little bit, but I have a little bit of catching up to do. When I last posted we had just finished up our second Command Inspection of the year and was anxiously awaiting President's Day Weekend. The Monday after Command was the official beginning of baseball season with the first practice where coaches were allowed. Even though I'm not playing this year due to my shoulder surgery, I still like to go to see how the coaches coach and get to know my teammates better. Usually I'll go hit the weight room and/or the cardio room for a while and then sit in on the defensive drills involving the whole team. Other than that, there's not a whole lot to write about the time between Command and President's Day Weekend. One thing to note was that the whole regiment got a Long Weekend given to us by the Regimental Commander. Even though I was not able to get off campus, it was still pretty nice to relax. That was the first non-Regimental Long Weekend that we had received.

The week before President's Day wasn't anything special because I still can't remember anything notable. Though now I recall that we as plebes in First Company got IT'ed by the Company Executive Officer, our CTO, and our Company Commander because our morale was at an all-time low. Of all the things to do to improve company morale, an IT session is not the top way to do so, nor is it in the top 5, 10, or even 50. Oh well, I think we've been behaving a little better after that incident.

President's Day Weekend finally came and we were all very happy for that. I didn't make it out Friday night as I had to work the basketball games and I was hoping to go out the following morning to Chinatown and Times Square and whatever else we decided to do. Unfortunately, those plans fell through and I spent Friday night and most of Saturday bored out of my mind. I cheered up a little bit when a friend decided to get a few other guys together and go out into the City to grab a bite to eat and catch a movie.

We left campus around 6 and took a cab to the Great Neck train station and made the 6:24 train into the city, arriving just before 7. When we made it over to the subway platform there was a train to Times Square that we just made, though 2 of the other guys did not make it on the train with the other guy and me, so we ended up getting split up from them. Do to a miscommunication, we couldn't catch back up with them. Fortunately, while waiting at the movie theater in Times Square, the guy I was with ended up running into some plebes from Band Company. Since they were wanting to catch a movie after going to Chinatown for dinner, we decided to join them for the rest of the evening. Since it was Chinese New Year's Eve, most of the restaurants were packed, but luckily we were able to find one. The food was really quite good and was a lot of fun eating there with 8 other guys. We barely made it back in time for the start of The Book of Eli at the AMC Empire 25 theater on 42nd Street just off Times Square. It was a really nice theater that lived up to the real estate around it. Since the movie got out a little before 0100, we had to book it to the subway station so that we could make the 0119 train back to Great Neck. We almost didn't make it because one of the guys in our original group (we caught up with them at the theater) had some trouble buying a train ticket. We decided to tell him just to get on the train so that we could make it and hopefully he could just get a free ride because he was in uniform. Unfortunately for him, he had to pay a double fare for buying a ticket on the train, but we didn't have to wait for the 0319 train. It felt so good to finally get away from this place after six weeks of being stuck here with the exception of medical appointments. Even though it was just that one night, getting away made that whole weekend worthwhile. I spent most of the next day working the swim meet with the other baseball guys because I think it was the conference championships. Monday I didn't do a whole lot either.

The rest of the week until this point has been fairly busy since I had tests on Thursday and Friday. Fortunately, both went pretty well I think, so all the studying was well worth it. Today we had a Class C inspection which basically entails cleaning our rooms and our cleaning stations for an hour. Not long after we were secured from the inspection, we received an email from the RTOA telling us to muster in Ackerman Auditorium at 1200. I didn't go, because I went to baseball practice. When I returned at 1500, I was shocked to find out that First Co's liberty had been secured all because of the stupid actions of a few. Oddly, we weren't the only company to have liberty secured by our CTO. Because there was a plebe in possession of a TASER in Second Company, their CTO kept them from going out as well, in addition to IT'ing them and destroying their rooms. Luckily our CTO is a little better than theirs. It hasn't been a whole lot of fun staying in the room all day, but at least it's been fairly relaxing. We have accountability muster in about 50 minutes, so I'll be chilling until then. Stand by for further posts.

Sunday, 21 Feb 2010. 1130

I completely forgot about our snowstorm that took place on the 9th and 10th. We ended up getting around a foot of snow, which canceled classes for Wednesday the 10th. We were granted rack-in all day from the Regimental Training Officer, with the exception of the mandatory snowball fight/snowman building at 1300. It was a lot of fun having many hundreds of people involved in a snowball fight on Academy grounds. One difference between New York and Minnesota I noticed, was that here, school gets cancelled because of the threat of snow, whereas in Minnesota, school isn't cancelled until there's snow on the ground...

Here's some video from when we tackled the RTO and his reaction. (Warning: contains graphic language)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7HKgSNhNeM

Oh Joy, Command...........

The last couple of weeks have really flown by. With a while still to go until Presidents' Day Weekend and therefore not a whole lot to look forward to, the days move somewhat fast. As I sit here at my desk, nothing really sticks out, but I'm sure I'll have some stuff come to mind as I'm writing.

I spent the week of the 18th anticipating the matchup between the Saints and Vikings. I was so proud of Vikings for coming this far and I expected them to end the Saints' dreams of Super Bowl glory. I'm sure I mentioned that to a few people, but I kept my predictions and hopes mainly to myself. As the week rolled on, I kept getting more and more excited for the game. By the time Sunday arrived, I was so pumped I could barely contain it. We were allowed to watch both games in Delano, which I gladly did after the PKT. When I tuned in, the Vikings were up 14-7, but the Saints quickly equalized the score. Watching the game got fairly annoying at times having to watch with a Saints fan and his friends who were newly converted Saints fans. The game was pretty heartbreaking for me as the Vikings squandered chance after chance with the seemingly endless turnovers and bonehead play calls. After the game and still to today, people come up to me and talk about how Brett Favre lost the game for the Vikes by himself even though I think my "shared blame" argument is much more sound. I am glad, though, because the frequency of people doing that has been diminishing very steadily.

Thanks to a conference in Colorado, we didn't have Aquatic Survival Monday morning, which allowed me to take a two hour nap before my third period class as well as another hour-long nap right before lunch. After lunch, I think due to the rain, the power went out throughout campus. Not being able to sleep, wash clothes (which I needed to do), or do anything on the computer, I tried to kill as much time as I could before physical therapy at 1730. Because the power came on just after 1630, I was able to go to the cardio room to hit the bike for a half-hour. I did the same on Tuesday between my baseball meeting and physical therapy. The power went out again just after 2000 and remained off until approximately 0200 the next morning, which made it nearly impossible to anything productive.

For some reason, Wednesday is a blur to me. I don't think anything important happened, so I'll just leave it at that. Thursday was a day to which I had been looking forward for quite some time. My mom and her Bible study group had agreed to send in cookies for Cookie Cafe on January 28th. Because of that, my mom handpicked one of each type of cookie and made a little bag for me, which I am still enjoying.

Because we had Command Inspection today, our most intense inspection, we spent Friday night cleaning our rooms and cleaning stations. That ended up not being too bad as one of my roommates and I ordered pizza from Domino's once we finished up cleaning our rooms. Because of that and welding class, Friday was a very good day.

This morning was filled with last-minute preparations for the inspection, which was followed by two hours of standing at the position of attention (POA) for the inspection. Luckily, my room got a fairly easy grader and we made off with a 94. Others, however, got some pretty harsh inspectors and got lower scores than us, a few were quite a bit lower. After we were finished with the inspection, I got to leave to go to physical therapy in O'Hara. Thankfully, my shoulder was feeling a lot better today than it was on Thursday. For some reason, the pain was pretty bad in some of the exercises that day. Hopefully that's behind me. I think right now I'm going to snag a nap as we have liberty until 2200 and then maybe watch a movie after I wake up. Stand by for further posts.

Relaxation at KP? That's a New One...

Thanks to the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his efforts in the Civil Rights movement, he was given a federal holiday in his honor. Because we attend a federal service academy, we get all federal holidays off. Generally when there are Monday holidays, the whole regiment is given a long weekend. This past weekend was no exception. But let me start with Thursday.

To most Midshipmen, Thursday is the best weekday because of Cookie Cafe in the afternoon. To make this Thursday better, Cookie Cafe was paired with the lunch entree of stromboli, a Midshipman favorite. Though it was meatball stromboli, not the beloved sausage and pepperoni variety, people were happy nonetheless. After going to Calc 2 and Physics 2, we bolted out of Fulton/Gibbs (the math and science building) and headed straight to Land Hall, where Cookie Cafe is held. Though I've been trying to cut back on my cookie intake, I find it all too easy to eat more than I should, though I was able to consume less on this day than on previous Thursdays.

Once I finished up my assortment of cookies, I took a nap before my physical therapy session at 1730 in the sports medicine room in O'Hara Hall, the athletic building. For only being out of surgery for a week and a half, the physical therapist was pleased with my range of motion.

Friday morning is one of the better mornings of classes because we have Naval Science first period followed by three hours of work in the machine shop or welding shop. My half of the class was to start welding that day and boy, were we all happy to be getting away from the grade reducer known as machine shop. The very lucky people in machine shop were the ones to escape with a C, everybody else received D's and F's. Even though we didn't do any welding ourselves, it was fun watching demos of arc welding and oxyacetylene welding and cutting.

Once we got out of welding, all we had separating us from the long weekend was Calc 2 and lunch. Thankfully those two flew by and our free time came. Because of the state of my shoulder, I figured it would be best to stay here for the weekend and relax. Because I like to think of myself as a nice guy, I decided to take watches from a couple of people to allow them to escape from this place for a few days. It wasn't all that bad, it allowed me to get some homework done. Aside from that, I spent my time relaxing in my room watching movies or watching football in Land Hall.

Sunday was an absolutely wonderful day for me because I got to sleep in, go to church, order pizza, and watch the Vikings crush the Cowboys along with a Cowboys fan nonetheless! That was a whole lot of fun. Besides doing that, there isn't much to write about Sunday.

Monday wasn't much excitement either, especially since I got to miss going to the PKT for a physical therapy session, since I heard that the PKT was pretty entertaining.

Today wasn't all that exciting either. We followed a Monday school schedule since we did not have class Monday, though I don't see why making up Monday classes is all that important, whatever... I think I'll get off now so I can go shower and get ready for bed. Stand by for future posts.

I Really Need to Do This More

Well, It's been just over a month since my last post, and I'm not satisfied with that. However, I've been fairly busy as of late, which causes the blog to get bumped from my schedule. Maybe a New Year's Resolution should be to keep this updated more often... Anyway, I will pick up where I left off, right after my shoulder dislocation.

The weekend wasn't bad, as I remember it, but it wasn't good either. We had a Class B inspection on Saturday morning with nothing scheduled after. Unfortunately, there was an announcement mid-morning that Plebe Liberty was secured (not happening) for the weekend. That wasn't all bad as it allowed us to focus on our schoolwork without us wondering if we were going to get off campus that day.

Sunday the 14th started the usual way with Sunday School at 0930, church at 1115, and the PKT at 1900, with homework, PKT studying, and Plebe Accountability filling my afternoon. This was our first PKT with the new rotation of officers. The new RTOA made some minor changes from the previous RTOA, but nothing too drastic. As expected, however, we did not pass.

I was notified on Monday that I had an appointment with the orthopedic doctor the following day, much to my relief. That night was our Regimental Christmas Dinner, which featured Prime Rib as our main course. Though far from spectacular, it was better than the normal Delano fare. After the dinner wrapped up, many of us headed over to the chapel for the Festival of Lights. A program which features Midshipmen playing instruments, singing, and the reading of Scripture. It was really cool seeing people from the community taking part in this special annual event.

I wasn't expecting to spend all morning on Tuesday at the doctor's, though that's what ended up happening. I wasn't thrilled about this at all because I was going to be missing Physics 2 and Calc 2, two classes I shouldn't be missing all that much. It was semi-worth it as I found out for sure that I would indeed be needing surgery on my troubled left shoulder. Due to the doctor's busy schedule, the only surgery slot available before the end of January was January 4 in the afternoon. Being as we were returning to the Academy the day before, I wasn't overjoyed about the date, but I knew I needed to take it. Oddly, I got an MRI AFTER the surgery was scheduled, which was a little strange, but I suppose the doctor needed to see what what he was going to be dealing with inside my shoulder. After my appointment ended at 1145, the three of us from Kings Point called to get picked up by drivers from the school, still hopeful that we would make it in time for lunch. Unfortunately, as 1210 rolled around and no driver was there, our hopes began to dwindle. Luckily, we were picked up at 1215 and we did make it back in time for lunch.

The rest of the week flew by as we counted down the days until we were able to go home. My flight was Saturday morning, so I was figuring that I'd need to spend the night here at school and get a cab around 0330 or 0400. Thankfully, a friend offered to let me stay at his house. Boy was that more than welcome. Another guy and I spent the evening watching movies, eating pizza, playing Xbox 360, and chuckling to the ridiculousness of MTV's Jersey Shore. Even better was the generosity of my friend's mom who drove the other guy and me to the airport at 0430.

We had been seeing for a couple of days that a huge storm was scheduled to hit the eastern seaboard sometime on Saturday, we just didn't know exactly what time. The biggest advantage to my 0615 flight was the fact that I got out before the storm hit, as did my friend who was flying out around the same time. I know of some people who were stranded in NY until Tuesday. What a rotten way to spend Christmas Break!

Upon landing in Minnesota, my parents picked me up and drove over to my grandma's house for a brunch with my cousin who lives in London, and my uncle who lives in the Twin Cities. Man was that nice to be able to eat real food. The rest of my first two days at home were spent sleeping, watching tv, and playing 360. Luxuries that make going home so worthwhile.

The Monday after I arrived back home we packed up the Intrepid and began the long trek out to my grandparents' ranch in Montana. Though it was a lot of time in the car, it was more than worth it to get away from the Big Apple to the sparsely inhabited area outside Big Sandy. Our six days at the Ranch included plenty of eating, cribbage, time working on a jigsaw puzzle, tv, and snowmobiling. Being out in the thinner mountain air really allowed my batteries to recharge and attempt to ready me for my not so fun times awaiting me back at the Academy. On the 28th, we packed up the Intrepid again and started our journey back home.

On the second day of our trip I began reading Highest Duty, the autobiography of Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the Captain of US Air flight 1549 which made a remarkable landing on the Hudson River. It was an excellent read, telling of his childhood, time at the US Air Force Academy, career, and finally, the landing on the Hudson. Due to his time in Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy, I was able to relate to many of his experiences. Reading that book got me started reading and I have finished two other autobiographies and am about to finish a book by Chuck Colson since returning to Kings Point.

After returning home, I made it a priority to spend as much time with as many friends as I could before my time in Minnesota expired. That was another fun week culminating in a fun Saturday afternoon/night which included watching Avatar, having some friends over, and playing some Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Boy, that was awesome. Unfortunately, after my friends left at 0045 Sunday morning, I needed to commence packing my bags. I did get that done was was able to get some sleep.

I wasn't super excited to wake up Sunday morning, but I had a feeling that it was almost my time to go back. Two weeks away doesn't feel like a long time, but in reality it really is. We planned to get to the airport to give me about an hour and a half to make it through security and catch my flight. Much to my dismay, slow moving lines and a late notification to use the First Class check-in caused me to miss my scheduled 1000 flight, making me wait for a 1315 flight to LaGuardia. It all worked out, however, because flight delays allowed me to get back to the Academy around 1920 which allowed me to miss the dreaded PKT. Already my time back was not as bad as expected. Come to think of it though, I was scheduled to stand Library Watch, so I would have missed the PKT anyway. Surprisingly, sleep came easy that night as thoughts of what the next day held stayed away.

It started like any other day at Kings Point, morning muster at 0600, breakfast at 0615, cleaning stations, morning inspection at 0700, and Colors at 0725. I spent the morning completing some homework I knew would be due during my two days away from classes, as well as preparing my room for my necessities after the surgery. Around 1040 I departed the barracks and headed up to Patten Clinic to wait for my ride to the surgery center. Upon arrival to the surgery center, I did the usual rigmarole, and took a seat waiting for some volunteers I've gotten to know from the Academy to meet me in the waiting room. My surgery was scheduled for 1330, but I was told that the surgeon was running about an hour behind schedule. Even so, I was taken into the back between 1230 and 1300 to get me prepped for the procedure. Because I was not allowed to drink or eat anything after 2300 the night before, the nurses had a hard time getting the IV into my hand, but finally one of them got it in. After that I briefly spoke with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist before walking into the operating room.

This was unlike my knee surgery because I was wheeled into the OR for that, but I didn't really mind walking in there under my own power. After laying down on the table, the anesthesiologist starting poking around my neck trying to find the perfect place for the deep nerve block which would effectively numb my arm for the next seven to eight hours. While he was poking around, he got my arm to twitch around, though flop may be more accurate. It didn't really hurt all that much, but it sure was a weird sensation. After he injected me, the next thing I saw was the clock in the recovery room at just past 1610. I dozed for a while there and got out of there around 1715 or 1730. Thanks to the wonderful generosity of the Guest family I was not required to wait for the USMMA EMTs to come pick me up. We made a quick stop at the Seven Seas restaurant as I had expressed a desire for some food, but soon after getting into the restaurant I decided that I was not really up for that, so we boxed up our food and went back to the Academy. I was still severely drugged so I was more than happy to crash on my bed for the next 3 hours or so.

After falling asleep again thanks to my pain meds, I woke up the next morning and ate some breakfast before sleeping off the entire morning, briefly waking up for some friends who stopped in my room. Surprisingly, I can still remember them coming in because others noted I wasn't quite all there that day. After watching a movie in the afternoon, I ventured out to the Sports Medicine room to spend some time with the Game Ready ice/compression machine and talk with the baseball coach letting him know that everything went smoothly. He was one of the main people to comment that I wasn't totally there that afternoon. When I saw him the next afternoon he told me that I was looking quite a bit better and not dazed like the day before.

It seems as if nothing too crazy has happened since last Wednesday. I did go to the doctor yesterday and he said that I will definitely not be playing baseball this year even though I am a relief pitcher. Oh well. At least I'll have some time to develop my pitches this season before getting some playing time next year. I started physical therapy yesterday, so I suppose I really am "on the road to recovery". As much as I want to get out of the shoulder brace, I sure don't mind that it allows me to walk wherever I want and not take the PKTs. That is one definite plus... I think I might be do some more reading tonight before heading off to bed. Good night and stand by for further posts.