Rule #21

Nothing really exciting has happened over the last few days. It's amazing how easy it is to forget what day of the week it is. And then, you can't even remember what you did two days ago. Not that it really matters. A lot of you have asked what my day consists of since I've been here. Here's a look into my day:

0515 Alarm goes off.
0530 Finally get up, get dressed and walk the length of the tent to wake up SPC Heibel and SGT Carrigan. Try to be really quiet since no one else gets up this early and the plywood floor creaks horribly.
0545 Walk 1/4 mile to the dining facility. Eat cereal. Unfortunately, no Grapenuts.
0615 Walk back 1/4 mile to gym
0630 Work out
0730 Walk back to tent and use the super fabulous shower facilities. Take a combat shower (get wet, turn water off, soap up and turn water back on to rinse).

From 40 Ways to Prepare for a Deployment:
#21. Keep a roll of toilet paper on your night stand and bring it to the bathroom with you. And bring your gun and a flashlight.

Instead of TP, I bring bottled water to brush my teeth. Also, the sun is up by this time so I don't need my flashlight but I have my weapon!!!!

0830 At the battalion headquarter's tent. Check email, both regular and secret. This requires logging on to two different computers.
0900 Battalion staff meeting.
1000 Make calls, send emails about stuff discussed during meeting and work on various projects.
1200 Walk 1/4 mile back to dining facility, eat lunch and walk back
1300 Work
1730 Walk 1/4 mile back to dining facility, eat dinner and walk back
1830 Pick up personal computer at tent and walk to Starbucks. One of the rules of camp: No bags of any type in the dining facility so it really is a pain in the butt to walk back to get your computer.
1845 Have a decaf latte at Starbucks and Skype family.
2100 Walk back to tent. Walk over to battalion headquarter's tent to check email's or call company back in Fort Lewis since it's a 10 hours difference.
2230 Listen to my IPod and try to fall asleep on a stupid cot! Sometime during the night, wake up because of the stupid cot and having drank too much water....now I have to use the flashlight and take my weapon!

To add to the above, I went to church on Sunday. Lots of great guitar music and the Chaplain gave a great service. Sermons, given by military chaplains, are some of the best I've ever heard. This one was no exception.

I've also had the chance to practice on the traveling guitar that Tom gave me.

Today, I went to the Troop Medical Center (TMC) since I've been feeling dizzy when I stand up. Sure enough, my blood pressure is the lowest it has ever been 109/67. Good thing I went on high blood pressure medication! So after having a lengthy discussion with the doc, I'm only going to take 1/2 a pill of my medicine and see how that works. It would be great if I could quit it all together since I hate taking pills everyday. If I had only known that all I needed to do was deploy to lower my blood pressure!

Oh, and it rained all day yesterday and into the night. It certainly was nice not to have all the dust in the air. But no earthworms to be found.


Our sleeping tent.