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.