10/12/08 53 Days Left

1253
Hey! So my Sunday is going well so far. I got a pretty good night's sleep ~9 hours, but I was still sleepy when we woke up- actually I got us some CAPE (corrective action through physical exercise) because I was getting out of bed at 1531:30. Lame, but whatever. Been good since. I studied my CLS book for a while and finished the first of 9 lessons. As I was reading the second lesson, I was falling asleep.

I just tried calling you, but you didn't answer, which sucks. I was almost in tears for a few minutes. It's okay though...I'm sure you would have answered your phone if you could. I think the DS will let me try again another time since I didn't get a hold of anyone. Anyway, to continue from earlier, after a quick nap I went over to another guy's bunk where several people were hanging out, writing letters and talking so that I'd stay awake and get to know my battle buddies better. One guy reminds me of Scott- he's bluntly and dryly sarcastic, calm, witty, smart like Scott. He's Jewish, but doesn't look it, and lived in Jerusalem for a year or so including the time it was in a short war/skirmish with Lebanon. Pretty interesting- not many people enjoy a good intellectual conversation.

I wish I had been able to speak with you. I really miss you. Alex said this would be the hardest thing about the Army and he was right. I still haven't gotten a letter from you recently. I hope you've written me and sent me something and it just hasn't arrived yet.

So now maybe I can respond to some of your letter. You asked what I bought at the PX a couple of weeks ago and what it sells. We got a $250 cash advance on a sort of gift card to use to buy things we need, so I spent that and a little on: running shoes, running shoe inserts, boot inserts, wash cloths, moleskin, notebooks, pens/pencils, a small wallet/id card holder, ID tag silencer, white socks, laundry soap, nail clippers, my rank insignia, and maybe a few other items that I can't remember. In addition to those items they sell other toiletries like soap, shaving stuff, etc., sodas, and snacks- which we can't buy, and small army bags- that's pretty much it.

So I also went to the PX Shoppette over here on Friday, which is about 3-4 times as big- I got some laundry soap because the DS said the stuff that they MADE us buy would not clean our dirty uniforms well enough. They looked cool though, like thick drier sheets that have soap to wash your clothes with and are drier sheets too. At the Shoppette I got more moleskin, shower shoes, cheap pens, tweezers, and Icy Hot. I wish I had a book to read right now. I'm doing more laundry and the guys are chatting about the gas chamber which we have next week. I'm looking forward to it, even though it will suck- I think it's an experience that will be good to have, but that I won't want to have again.

We have our first real road march next Saturday. I say "real" because we will be wearing out IBA's (vest), which weighs a lot. It shouldn't be too bad, though. The ruck sack distributes the weight really well. Pretty comfortable relative to the amount of weight in it.

2039 now. DS was pissed earlier. I don't know if you remember, but in my first letter I told you about a guy who was kind of funny, but was going to get us into trouble- well he is in my platoon here too. So he and another guy (the one that sounds like Vin Diesel) decided to go into another platoon's bay to talk shit and got caught by the DS- this happened yesterday and we got smoked for it last night- then had to stay in the front leaning rest (push up) position for like 5 minutes until they got back to the bay. But last night, our DS wasn't there so today he said he's going to take away a bunch of free time. Then we had to clean like crazy. He's being cool now though- he just told me UT beat OU.

I got through the first several lessons of CLS- I was surprised at the number of situations in which you should NOT perform first aid, although it makes good sense. Did I tell you I have to stickmy battle buddy with an IV and vice versa? That's coming up this week as well in this course. So far I learned what types of aid to administer in what situations, like under fire, if a casualty cannot return fire or administer self aid, pretty much all you do is apply a tourniquet (if that would help). Anything else is not to be done until a safe position is established or reached. Lights out.