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.
No comments:
Post a Comment