8 Days Left in Solitary Confinement July 21st

WARNING: My life was interesting this past week so there are a lot of words 😂 Enjoy!

I am still counting down the days left in what I like to call solitary confinement but my past weekend was not horrible. It was the most fun I have had since I’ve been in Rhode Island. This past weekend my aunt flew into town and she rescued me from staying in my room. Since she was visiting, she had a rental I was able to hopefully see what the area had to offer (there really isn’t anything here). Friday night we went downtown to one of the restaurants that one of the instructors recommended to my class. The place is called Benjamin’s and the seafood was up to my standards and a reasonable price.

I saw what downtown Newport had to offer and I would have been highly pissed if I paid for an Uber to take me here. Our Friday night wasn’t full of much but we were focused on the future adventures we could accomplish while she was in town. My aunt and I have never been to New York, so Saturday turned into a day trip to the Big Apple. I got to see a lot of the city and even saw the statue of liberty, I couldn’t get a good picture of it but it looks like Google images lol. The city did live up to how the movies portray it and I was able to see how Times Square looks at night. 

With it being a day trip we had to see what areas offered the most for us to walk around and see stuff. We ended up parking a few block off of Broadway but was able to see a lot. I love food so I try to save the pictures/videos of potential places I could visit if I ever went to a certain city. My list came in handy and one of the restaurants was within walking distance. 

 

The food spot we went to is called Mighty Quinn’s Barbecue and was worth every penny. I couldn’t finish all of my food but I was not going to throw it away so I ended up with a small tray of leftovers. We continued to roam the city and saw the Wall Street Bull/Fearless Girl Statue and the 9/11 Memorial.

As I stated New York was just a day trip so once we got enough of walking around we got back into the car and headed back to lovely Newport. Sunday was another adventure day. We ended up driving to Maine for their infamous lobster. It may seem like a lot of hopping around but I grew up on day trips so it was really nothing to me. Plus anything was better than being on base. This also gave me the opportunity of being in 6 states within 48 hours.

I knew nothing about Maine but my looked up a few food spots that we could possibly see. We ended up in Portland, Maine and tried two food places there. The first one was a food truck that was on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives so it had to be good. I had the lobster roll and it was AMAZING! The lobster was fresh and my roll was packed with lobster. I was more than satisfied with that experience.

We then proceeded to see what the area had to offer. We took a ferry ride to one of their islands and it was a different experience. I also never have been on a ferry before so the ride is different from being on a warship moving through the water.

Before we left the lovely state of Maine we stopped at another food spot. The place was called Duckfat and it was different.  It was a small spot but the reviews were good enough for us to try it. I have never had anything duck so the name caught me off guard. I did try their signature fries that are fried in duck fat but really didn’t taste a difference. I expected my fries to be all greasy since I have been told duck is a very greasy animal. They weren’t greasy at all and after our meal we set back on our voyage back home.

Back To The School Mentality😖

All fun and games came to end and I had to get ready for my exam happening bright and early Monday morning. I don’t like it here so I know failing and exam and being forced to stay after class form 6-8pm is a no go. I made sure I took all my notes early and did a quick guide from everything before my aunt and I hit the road to Maine. Since I didn’t drive I got my studying in while I was still having fun.

Took my exam and passed so all I have is 4 (2 quizzes and 2 exams) left before I can be done with this school and head home. We had a quiz and exam at the end of the week but so I knew my relaxation would end once the next topic started.

When I was done with class my aunt and I spent our last few hours together before she had to leave for her flight the next morning. We tried another food spot and it was also on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. After my “last real meal” we went grocery shopping so I could have my food for the week and my solitary confinement lifestyle would return.

The rest of my week went as usual with me zoned out and ready to be out of class. I passed both my quiz and exam and my brain can get a rest until next week where I really learn about what I am supposed to be doing as an Electrical Officer on my ship. Once again I am typing this in class since they snuck in a lecture on a Friday afternoon.

I wasn’t even going to bring in my laptop but I figured something would be a little off if I didn’t. Today’s schedule consisted of exam 3, CPR training for those who needed it, tour of Supply Corps School, review test results and the weekend begins. NOPE! Instead we started one of next weeks lesson.

As much as I would like to pay attention there are some major problems. The lesson is 51 slides and the instructor has only got through about 10 in the past 40 minutes. It is passed 2:30 pm and my attention span went out the window for the week. I knew when the guy’s intro went everywhere and took longer than 5 minutes that my day was not ending anytime soon.

The military is already death by PowerPoint already so you would think that people would know how to keep it short, sweet, and straight to the point. I think some people love to hear themselves talk. If I don’t need to know it I really don’t want to hear it, especially on a Friday past 3:30pm. I don’t even care for sea stories if they have absolutely nothing to benefit the lesson or give me a little chuckle. At least I’m keeping up with my post while this instructor goes off topic and keeps trying to show us stuff adding more time.

I guess either he really loves electrical fundamentals since he was an electrician while he was enlisted, doesn’t know that it is Friday afternoon after 3pm and nobody trying to be here late, doesn’t know that you need to get to the point of the PowerPoint slides, or just doesn’t care since he’s getting paid way more than us. Either way all the options are trash.

FYI the lesson ended at 4:05 pm and he started around 2:30…..We then had to wait to leave. I practically sprinted out of the building.

Took a Break but Now I'm Back :) July 15th

Ahhh it’s been a while since I have done a post! Last post I left off where I was just coming back from Virginia and trying to get settled back in and preparing for my PRT. Well I still have my job so that means I passed my PRT lol. A lot has happened in this past month and a half and things actually got hectic with trying to be productive in life and keep up my post. I took a break because I honestly did not know how being an adult and moving (by myself vs having help) was so hard.

Good news is I turned 23 (May 20^th) went to the Chris Brown concert as a pre birthday event and went to LA and hiked the Hollywood sign. I didn’t do much for my actual birthday since I was moving into my new place 3 days later (way better than blowing money on a birthday) but I still had a good time. Along with moving and birthday celebrations I went to Vegas with some friends for Memorial Day weekend and enjoyed myself. I also celebrated my birthday once again for part of that weekend. Even though I didn’t take many pictures while I was there I didn’t get arrested, get married, or lose any money in the casinos.

I came back to reality after my lovely trip and had to handle the real issues of moving. I finally received my items that I haven’t seen for 5 months when I last packed it and I was excited but ended being disappointed due to the condition of how a few of my things arrived. My tv was shattered, table broken in half and other things that had to get replaced. So far my tv is the only thing that I have been reimbursed to replace for the damages. Everything else has to go through a long lengthy process to get the money to replace items that the moving company broke.

I finally have a place and the big thing is to actually unpack all of my things. It took me like 3 weeks to get everything I wanted together and go through, throw away, try on all my clothes, and seeing were certain things worth keeping. This also includes buying the things I never paid attention to that I actually need to function in my apartment.

While the struggles of being an adult are present I also went to two more schools (totaling to 8 schools so far). Out of my 8 schools 4 required special keys for accessing the buildings. And of course being in the military life is never unstable. Once I finally got myself settled in and enjoyed being back in California I had to get ready for my next cross country trip to Rhode Island for another school (school #9 & special badge access #5).

I arrived here on July 1^st and do not like Rhode Island at all. Only reason why I have to be here out of all the states is because this is where the school for my actual job that I will be doing on my ship is located. And since its I will be the Electrical Officer (ELECTRO) that’s pretty important. I control the ships electrical power so I rather know how to do my job than having to explain why people are getting electrocuted or why the lights are out on the ship. I’m only here for a month so I am mentally counting down the days until freedom.

 There are many complaints I have about being here but the top kicker is the base that I am on is more catered to higher ranking military and there really isn’t nothing on this island within walking distance. Since I have no car I have to depend on either being friends with people who have cars, pay overpriced Uber fees since Uber isn’t too popular here, or walk. If this base had a theater I wouldn’t be as salty because I would just go to the movies all the time even if I have to watch the same movie.

It sucks that I don’t have a rental but it is because I am staying on base and big Navy figures you can walk to your course vs knowing how far everything is in relation to where you are staying. Just for me to go “grocery shopping” on base it is ½ a mile from my actual hotel so just imagine walking and trying to carry bags back to your room. I have basically set myself into a pretty routine schedule of what I do daily while I am confined to this boring base. I’m either in class, in my room, or going to the gym. The only benefit of where my hotel is located is that I am right across the street from school and the gym. Another bummer is that anything fun to actually do is over 40 minutes away. Just lookup Newport, Rhode Island and tell me what “attractions” that are actually in Newport vs the surrounding areas.

Being back in a school that lasts the whole day this one is worse than BDOC. I’m in class from 7:30am to about 5pm daily. It doesn’t help anyone’s sanity either that the instructors read verbatim instead of summing things up. I zone out because I sure everyone can read every sentence on the screen and were given the slides on day one (currently typing this in class, its 184 slides mixed with a bunch of the instructor liking to hear himself talk). I am surviving by my usual snacks and daydreaming mixed with taking my own notes and if they don’t walk around too much maybe a game of solitaire.

This course consists of 4 quizzes and 4 exams. Unlike BDOC the quizzes actually count towards your overall grade so you can't really bs a quiz if you don’t want to stay for extra study. A 75% is passing but your average cannot drop below an 80% to stay off mandatory study (so much for the bare minimum). I have taken 2 quizzes so far and there are a lot of fill in the blank short answer portions versus multiple choice. From quiz 1 I knew my stuff but have to elaborate more on my short response. Quiz 2 I was better prepared and only got like 3 questions wrong (my brain went blank on the easy stuff). Monday I took exam 1 and made sure to give examples and give them more than what they wanted so that I could get all of my points. I passed my exam and now have 5 more tests to go before I can say I’m done with this school, state, and death by verbatim powerpoint. My next exam is this coming up Monday and I'm ready since I take some pretty good notes and the instructor gave us a review.

Minus the crappy part of my life in BFE (look it up) Rhode Island I do have some plans while I am here. One of these weekends I want to try and go to New York since it is about 2 hours away and Boston. I’m either going to have to bite the bullet and get a rental or hopefully find a bus/train system that actually travels to these areas. I was told the seafood specifically lobster was very good up here so I have to take some time out and go try this lovely food. When life gives you lemons you can complain about it, make lemonade, squirt them in your enemy’s eyes, or use it as a decoration to your alcoholic beverage. Lets just say lemonade, alcohol, and a lemon wedge on the side of my cup is how I am trying to live right now.

Time to Graduate BDOC May 8-14th

The time is here and I though I was not ready at all. Maritime stressed me out way too much and it just had to be on the Monday of our graduation week. That could kill anyones spirits since this was probably our earliest week to actually get out of class unless you had the 2 hours of extra study. As nervous as I was taking that test it felt like everything I studied left my brain and that is never good. After feeling like it was a lost cause I finally hit submit. Needless to say this was my lowest test grade but I PASSED!!! The torment is finally over and I get graduate BDOC Friday.

With this obstacle out of the way, the girls and I went to our last brunch. This is most likely everyone's last week together unless you are stationed in the same area so why not have fun. On top of the fun we had a few more things to do before we could say goodbye to the building that has been our workplace for the past 9 weeks. We first had the CO panel that Monday and this gave us the chance to ask the questions that we probably would not ask our own CO. This also gave us an opportunity to hear all of the information from a CO's point of view on how to do things as division officers. We have had a few different panels from different positions on the ship so this just helps us mold everything together. The guy we had actually had a pretty unique background and I asked him questions to help myself out as a new division officer.

It is graduation week and as much as we want to rush through the day we can't. The rest of the week was a breeze though. Gun safety, cove homeport transit, know your ship, and WTI brief. Gun safety is self explanatory and important since we would be doing our gun qualification that Thursday. I still hate cove but it was just a rundown of how the ship transit would be for your homeport. We have people going to Japan, Spain, Jacksonville, Virginia and California so this is pretty important for us to get a glimpse of the transit. The know your ship presentations were very simple since we all were just telling the class about our specific ship. In the mist of finding the information about my crew I found out that there is an African American CO of one of the crews who happened to graduate from FAMU. So I know what mission I will be on once I get back to Cali. I even texted the nurse that I met a while back and asked did she know him because he came from our school. And short explanation of what the WTI brief was about is just another shore duty opportunity after you do your second tour. It presented some pretty cool points on its purpose but we are still on our first tour so we have time to see options on what we want to do for a shore tour.

All this stuff is going on and I still have to prepare for my 3rd cross country trip in 5 months. I still need to get an apartment which was becoming a huge fail since the prices changed daily and I couldn't physically see any of the locations until I got back. On top of all the admin things I needed to do when I got back into town, my household goods move from Florida and this bike for the PRT, my life was pretty hectic. Safe to say my move was scheduled and going to actually happen this time and I did a full practice on the bike and passed well within limits, life became a little easier.

My week is winding down and I had to have Shakin Crab one more time before I left. I invited other students from the school so they could come too. Thursday was the gun shoot and I passed my qualification! I didn't get sharp or expert shooter but I was still able to qualify and add a ribbon to my ribbon bar. I did not know how much I hated packing until I had to start stuffing my life back into a suitcase for this flight back to the west coast.

Friday was finally here and I was officially done with BDOC. We got our orders that morning and most of my friends that I made here would be heading back to either their ships or hitting the road as soon as graduation was over. I on the other hand would not be leaving until the following day. I got pictures and said my goodbyes to my classmates and hung with some friends I knew before coming to BDOC. The repacking process after living in a hotel for 2 months was a love hate relationship.

Cali I'm Back!!!

Saturday morning was finally here and I packed up my rental and headed to the airport. Returning the rental was easy but getting checked in was super difficult. I arrived 2 hours before my flight and ALMOST missed it because I'm assuming military and civilians all had to have a flight that morning. Thankfully I didn't miss my flight and my voyage began once again. My first flight I was knocked out but the second flight I took advantage of the free movies that American Airlines offers. I watched Dr Strange and majority of Moana.

Once landing in California the weather was great! Virginia has no comparison with its weird weather. Kay came and got me and before we made it back to her house we stopped at one of the apartments that I was really interested in and ending up signing a lease. Ya girl isn't a squatter anymore!!!

Now that I have an apartment it is time for the important stuff...furniture. I got rid of all my furniture from college except a lamp so I am starting off fresh. I spent majority of my day Sunday looking at bedroom sets and after like the 6th store I found exactly what I wanted. I'm still in my cheap phase so when I had to pay for my bedroom set I cried on the inside about the price lol. But I am at a point in life where I can buy myself nice things as long as I'm not crazy with spending.

The hard stuff is out the way now so all I have to worry about when I go back to work Monday is a bunch of admin stuff and killing it on the PRT.

The Struggle is Upon Us May 1-7th

This week we don't have an exam this week but the information overload is setting in. Maritime just has so much information in it. As much as I wanted to do something else with my life I had to make sure I was getting some type of studying done. I will not lie I did fall asleep a lot while attempting to look at this material but it is not a fun read.

On top of the mental torment we did have the leadership portions in the afternoon to ease some of the pain off of our brains but I basically got senioritis with this lesson. Plus I had other things on my mind like the PRT that I would be taking the week that I got back to California and how I don't want to be a crappy Ensign. The PRT is just the fitness test that consist of push ups, sit ups, and a 1.5 mile run in a certain amount of time. Alternate cardio is offered but you need to know your requirements on that so you don't go and fail. A classmate and I attempted to run but that run was horrible lol (i hate running).

I made the comment about doing the bike as my alternate cardio because that run/jog/walk killed my soul. I asked one of my friends who does the bike where was the requirements for how many calories you would have to burn on the bike located. He told me the location and we went and looked up what we needed to do to be successful. For my weight group you only need to burn 100 calories to pass the run portion of the PRT. Now before I got myself all hyped up I sent an email to my squadron to make sure I was eve allowed to do the alternate cardio and once I got the email saying I could my focus shifted.

The first day I attempted the bike was horrible and I doubted myself, but after doing it a few times I knew that I would not have any issues the day of the PRT. I did the bike everyday so my body could get used to the resistance I was using and made a great playlist to help me push through the pain.

Almost Like Old Times

I mentioned before that I did have some girls stationed out here in Virginia. We haven't got much time to hang out since they actually have to do their jobs on their ships and having duty every so many days. But May 5th (Cinco de Mayo) both Candis and Bri were off and I was ready to have a good time with them. This was probably the first time since coming back from Atlanta that all of us were drinking together. Plus its always fun to wind down after a long work week/death by PowerPoint. We started at Bri's house and went down to the strip. We all had a fun time that night and even made sure that Bri was able to make to duty the next morning since we were out late Friday night. All you really need to know about duty is that you are on the ship for 24 hours.


Now Saturday was super fun and I finally got to use some of these military benefits. Candis and I went to Busch Gardens and the great thing about this is that military is able to get in free once a year to one of Seaworld's Parks. We got our fast passes and went to the rides that were on our passes first then got on the other ones. I think we only got one decent picture on the roller coasters 😂 the rest look like we were stressed out. I enjoy going on roller coasters I just hate the load up portion. I'm not sure if it is the clicking sounds or just being able to watch your precious life go from safe to "why did I pick this ride" in a matter of minutes. I'll open my eyes once the ride starts but anything before that I have my eyes shut tight and a small prayer going on. After about 5-6 hours of being at the park we were able to get on all the rides. We were tired and ready to be in bed by 8 that night lol.

And Sunday was may dreadful can I drop out, I hope I don't fail, what happens if I don't show up tomorrow exam preparation. I probably had 2 mental breakdowns and recalculated how many questions I could get wrong and still pass a few times that day.

Only 2 Weeks Left April 24-30

This week went pretty fast. This lesson that we started learning was just taught in just 3 days so you can imagine how stressful it could be. Damage Control is simple but there is more to it than the basics and when learned everything. And once that exam came I swear everyone had the same feeling. When we usually take our exams it will tell you right away if you passed or failed but we ran into problem after problem with that. The site that they would put up our exams on was not working and people could not access the exam. Then we had to take a paper test (worst thing ever). Crappy part about that was that we could not look at our study materials during the 20+ minutes that we were waiting for our copies to be printed. So we literally just had to try and quiz each other and hope that we remembered everything.

Now since we took a paper exam the wait to find out if you passed or failed was even longer. Everyone had the same reaction after the exam. A lot of us thought we failed that exam, including me. The stress began to build up as we had to line up row by row to find out our fate. With all the nervousness I had I saw my grade and didn't do bad at all lol. With me passing that exam that means that there is only one exam left. Plus that extra study won't cut into my weekend plans of going to D.C.

Exam 5 is over and now the real haze happens. Maritime warfare started off complex and I knew that I was in for a long miserable time with this subject. Since the subject is so complex we are taught maritime in the morning and leadership activities in the afternoon to give our brains a break. To be honest majority of the class has clocked out on BDOC and either plays solitaire or pacman during the lectures. The individuals who bring their laptops to class just download games and play them during the lessons. I'm guilty of downloading games on my laptop and mentally clocking out for 15 minutes during a 90 minute lecture. We aren't rude with it but the instructors can see our computer screens anyway form the main desk. I think as long as we aren't sleeping they are cool about it.

Oh yea and another cool thing is that a panel that my class did earlier in the course is now being used in a brief Navy wide amongst Admirals and other commands. I saw a few of my key points in the PowerPoint so I was pretty excited. I had to do it one time for all the FAMU kids who have used the famous phrase "no face, no case". Yea I said it in an open discussion lol. It got the point across to actually be a bullet point in a brief so thats pretty lit. To sum up what the brief was about, it is referring to the whole Marines United incident that happened in that huge Facebook group with all those pictures.

I also finally got to try a place called Cookout. I would hear so much about it but never actually went. The girls and I went there for lunch one day and the menu is pretty legit and cheap. Its more of a small restaurant chain so I think it is only in Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. It could be in a lot more states but those are the states that I know it is in for sure.

Weekend Trip to D.C.

Being in Norfolk makes it super easy to go to D.C. and I finally made plans to go. I was supposed to go with someone but things happen and it became a solo trip (no big deal). With my trip becoming a solo trip I was fortunate enough for one of my aunt's close friends to live in the area and I didn't have to book a hotel for the weekend. If people don't know me by now they definitely should know that I don't mind doing things by myself. I actually make my plans first THEN tell other people just in case they end up not going.

I know people who live in the D.C. area so it was not like I was really alone in a different city. Friday after class was over I made that drive and it was not bad but I finally got to see why everyone hates the Hampton tunnel. It was 2 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic for a good 20 miles and the speed limit is already slow here. My first night I didn't do much of anything besides get to know my aunt's friend and found out that we have a few things in common. She is a biology professor at Howard University and I was a biology student during my undergrad. It can sound nerdy but we ended up having a nice science filled conversation and I enjoyed every bit of it. She also gave me some pointers of things to do while I am down here.

My Saturday consisted of getting up early and going to see the African American museum. Since I am military I did not have to print out a ticket and I ended up being the 4th person in line. I'm glad I got in line early because by 9:45 the line was really long. I have been to D.C. twice before when I was little so I have seen all the other museums. This was the only attraction on my list that I had to really see.


I spent a good 3-4 hours in there but I know I did not see everything that the museum had to offer. What I mean by that is actually reading every excerpt that was on the walls. I got a lot of pictures on my camera that I finally used lol. You won't be able to see everything in one day but you'll get a lot of information just by walking through all the pieces. There are some gruesome areas in the museum but it's a part of history that many people try to sweep under the rug. They even has Emmet Till's casket on display.

Of course it went through the slavery and civil rights portion of history but it also documents everything up until today. So you will see all the music, movie, and political sides of African American history. I know whenever I go back to D.C. I'll go to that museum again and try to read everything on the first few floors.

The museum was not my only stop while I did my day exploring. I called myself "walking" to the White House and kinda ended up in a protest about climate change that was also going to the White House. I didn't know that the protest would be going on so I definitely was not expecting it but I did see some pretty funny signs. After the White House shenanigans I went to the capital and the Martin Luther King monument.

My daytime endeavors was over and I took a little break before I went out with some people I knew in the area. I had a good time that night and got a slight glimpse of Howard University. I might be biased but the portion I saw was small compared to FAMU.

Sunday was more chill and I got up and went to this brunch spot called Old Ebbit Grill. The food was pretty good and I see what the crab cakes are about since everyone told me that I must try em. The brunch spot was around the corner from the White House so I was able to get a better view without all the protesters and send selfies to my parents. I also went and spent some time at National Harbor before I left. I found out that they were having a wine festival and if I did not have to drive back to Norfolk I would have bought my ticket and enjoyed everything that festival had to offer. Luckily I live in California and you can go up to Wine Country and enjoy tons of wine one weekend. Being the responsible adult that I am I made the better decision and passed up the opportunity. My drive back to Norfolk was fortunate enough to be a lot better and quicker than me going so I was able to make it back at a decent hour and prepare for week 8 of BDOC. But before I actually settled in I tried this place called The Dirty Buffalo and slightly went into a food coma with their wings.

The Halfway Point of School Apr 16-23rd

My long drive was over and I knew my morning was going to be super early. This Monday morning I had to be at Firefighting School at 5:30am. Yea it was early like the wet trainer but once again I did have a lot of fun. It is not often that you can get fully dressed out in firefighting gear and fight fires. Let’s be clear though, that gear was heavy! The lightest thing that I probably wore was my coveralls, gloves, and helmet. The firefighting suit…HEAVY, steel toe boots with steel soles…HEAVY, harness…HEAVY, oxygen tank…HEAVY. I could barely walk, so I did more of a waddle to each station versus a sophisticated, chest up walk. They gave us a few simulators so we fought different types of fires. I got the opportunity of being on oxygen, fighting an ordnance fire, using a fire extinguisher (which was waaaaay heavier than I expected), making calls and fighting a fire in a closed space. I enjoyed my time to say the least but being in this atmosphere is very hot. It’s already hot outside and all that gear increases the heat on top of being close to a real fire. The biggest threat that could have happened was that someone passes out because they are dehydrated so the instructors preached hydration before we actually started. I wasn’t able to get a picture in all of the gear but I was fortunate enough to do a full dress out on my 1^st Class Midshipmen cruise.

The rest of the week was pretty smooth but as you should expect there was another exam. Engineering was pretty difficult to me but I passed. I know I’ll need to review all the information from engineering because I will be working in the engineering department on my ship. One thing about being in BDOC is that some of the more technical lessons come easier to those that have actually been on their ship and seen all of the equipment that we are learning. I haven’t been on my ship and won’t be going until the end of the year when we receive it so I behind the curve a little. I of course do my mental release but I definitely zoned out for the rest of the week lol.

We were learning about this program called 3M and this is the go to system for work request or task that needs to be done on your ship. There are different types of checks that every ship needs to do so you constantly need to check this system as an officer. I need to be checking this daily versus my sailors who may check it once a week. You also can’t finesse the system because it does document the last time each person logs on and who approves what jobs through the system. This was actually my second time learning about this program, I learned this in my second school so this was kind of a refresher. I won’t be able to get the full effect of the system until I physically get on my ship and go through all the jobs that need to be done.

I Stayed in Town This Weekend

The title says it all lol. I stopped city hopping for a week. My Friday night was pretty chill and I actually hung out with my friend who was a pilot. Same branch, completely different lifestyle. I can give him SWO lingo and I’ll get told I don’t speak SWO but I he talks in pilot slang I don’t know what’s going on either. It was pretty cool talking about our differences in our work but it is somewhat similar. Saturday was full of running errands and I ran outside for the first time in two weeks. I got a lot of work to do since I took two weeks off but I will do fine on my PRT when I get back to California.

I had plans to go to the gun range and I did but I was not able to shoot that day since I went alone. I have my concealed weapons license and all but it was more of a suicide prevention thing because it was my first time there. In simple terms a lot of people will go to a gun range alone and rent the guns, buy ammo, and shoot themself in the range. Pretty gruesome but I fully understand. I’ll just go back next week and get some shooting on. I just want to practice a little since we have a gun shoot graduation week and I haven’t shot in a while.

Besides my errand full weekend I didn’t do much of anything but plan on my trip to D.C. next week. I have to study damage control since the exam is next Wednesday but that weekend should be fun. I am really looking forward to seeing the African American museum and finally taking some amazing pictures with my camera. Oh yeah, I’m trying to knock off a few food spots that I saved for D.C. off my list too. I also need to visit Hampton, which is not that far from where I am, but I keep pushing it off. I still have some places I need to see in the area but I still have time to see them all and share with whoever is reading.