Army Post Road

I happened to be looking at the livejournal of a friend of a friend and she said something in there that was a realization like a basesball bat straight to the teeth: “Am friends with a guy, he wants more. I say I just want to be friends (not even, but I feel bad for him), he keeps pushing…and getting mad at me for no reason all the damn time. We're nothing, he has no right to be jealous and make me feel bad.” Talk about saying the stuff you defy all logic to convince yourself doesn't describe you.

AT at Ft Riley was good. Good enough to make me reconsider hard-core volunteering to go down there. There are a number of people who strongly suggest I should, the most important of whom being LTC Hildebrand, MAJ George, and MSG Heckart. Also we can add some more firsts to my list now, the most striking being drinking with my commander. How many junior enlisted soldiers ever, ever drink with their company commander? Probably more than I realize but not very many at all.

I'd like to keep talking but it's time to sleep so I'm functional tomorrow morning (haha holy cow, as opposed to this morning).

If QuikTrip had an all-star team, you bet yer britches I'd be on it.  I worked Thursday overnight at the 1st Ave store in Cedar Rapids (Cedar Rapids' “urban” store), albeit I was doubled-up with their regular guy so I had an easy time basically just working the register.  BUT! I turned around and worked the manager shift at 555 that afternoon (only 6 hours after I got off Friday morning mind you) and you better believe my knee and back are telling me about it now.  My back just about threw in the towel last night, I had a flash or two where I was worried I'd have to find myself an ER when I got off work.  The (partial) upside to that was I get close to 24 hours off between last night and tonight.

GASP! I just discovered a black pen mark on my jeans.

I don't have many good feelings about not having my car down at Ft Riley for two weeks, especially since we definitely not supposed to take the government-owned vehicles to the bars and strip clubs with us.  Laura will be down there for a little less than the first week I am so hopefully we'll be able to hang out some (that's assuming I'm not stuck out in the field for 48-72 hours at a time; bleck) and she's got her car with her.  Plus McDivitt's got his car down there and I bet we'll hang out for a while and I guess Jeff talked the 1SG or MAJ George into letting him drive his truck (along with his bike) down there so he'll have that too.  It won't be like I'll be 100% stuck on post but I still won't have the same amount of convenience I did last summer (or the same amount of free time, which was ridiculous).

No updates on the girl front except the usual anguishing I have to stop myself from doing.  That's really getting old and frustrating.  I don't know why I do it.

I wonder when Will gets back.  She's been gone all week to Cali and Las Vegas and I guess I didn't listen very close as to when she'd be back in IC.  I can't remember whether she said something about spending a week at her parents' when they all got back or not.  I don't think so since Ben is with them and I don't imagine it would be very comfortable to spend that much time together away from here.  They are still living in the same house so who knows. 

They've been talking on the news all afternoon about how the TSA is probably going to change some of the airline security rules soon, including allowing people to carry blades shorter than 5 inches and other sharps and weapons (specifically like throwing stars) on airplanes again.  How fucking stupid can they be?  They're going to start letting people carry the specific weapons and tools all 19 terrorists used on 9/11 on airplanes again?  They're doing it all in the name of customer service and expediency.  My question is: why do they want to be customer-friendly and expedient for the weirdos that are going to be carrying weapons onto an airline flight?  I'm not just worried about international terrorists and their ilk but what about sickos and whackjobs that just want to scare people or are just plain off their rocker?  The kids who perpetrated the Columbine massacres did weird stuff beforehand like carry novelty weapons and the like and they're more like who I'm worried about.  Who wants to worry about whether the coked-up teenager in a black trench coat three rows forward of you has a nefarious reason for carrying a box cutter on to the plane with him?  In addition to all that they're talking about making a certain list of people exempt from going through airport security including Cabinet members, Congressmen, state governors, pilots, and senior military officers to name a few more.  Frankly, I'd feel even more safe knowing that even Congressman Takesitinthebutt and General Sucksafattone are getting frisked and scanned like everybody else than I would accept them not being so due to their high rank and position.  Who gives a flip?  I think the only rule they really need to relax is this asinine notion that everyone needs to take their shoes off.  That's just goofy. 

Alright I think we're done for now.

Would that in and of itself be considered a witty remark?

I love how little sound transfers through the walls or floors in this building.  I don't have to tone the bass down to such a level that it's pointless to have my sub.  I don't think it can be heard outside that well (I would go out and check but I'm in my underwear at the moment) and nobody has complained yet (and the landlord lives directly below me [How many parenthetical asides can be included in one sentence?]).

I only happened to wander into the Marion store early this afternoon because I was looking to get my check early and Tim, the store manager, happened to say, “You're a little early for meetings,” and my response was, “Meetings.. yes… when are they?”  So I spent three hours out in Marion that I had not been planning on.  However I did discover that one of our clerks (who sadly is leaving for school in two weeks) is definitely a tongue-dragger.  I was very disappointed that the first time I talked to this young lady was two weeks before she's leaving us.  That store definitely did not lack eye candy, even one or two of the employees were hot I guess.

I registered for classes at Kirkwood this evening.  At the moment I only have 10 s.h..  I'm still deliberating if I want to add two or more hours so I can be a full-time student.  The way they're scheduled at the moment I should be able to maintain at QT, at least for now.  I could probably take on another 3-4, depending on when the class met, and still work full-time and not have a problem.  The thing is I just don't want to work at QT any longer, but like I mentioned yesterday I've pretty much screwed myself out of being able to find a job before I have to leave for Riley. 

Last week I came to a decision.  It wasn't a practical decision then and it might be even less practical now.  But I still want to talk about it and I still want to let certain people know about it.  I just don't know who to talk to about it that it would mean anything to anymore.

Grrrr I don't know.

If I'd gotten up and answered the phone when it rang this morning at 730, I could be working this afternoon as opposed to Saturday night.  Chalk that one up to, “Grrrrrrr”.

Saturday and Sunday nights were awesome.  We weren't at Eggy's all that long for Karaoke Night on Friday.  We left for the Sports Column (minus Steve, he stayed and talked to our waitress at Eggy's until they closed) and that was a pretty amusing time.  I spent the evening talking to my new found crush.  I can't say much without just sounding like some infatuation-struck boob (which I assuredly am) but I definitely need to keep my profile high with this one. 

It doesn't look like I'm going to have a new job before school starts which won't be good, especially if I have to schedule a morning class.  That could really hurt.  If I am able to schedule all evening classes, I might be able to stay at QT for a little while and that could be a good thing.

It's amazing how much Snood can distract you and ruin your train of thought.  I don't know how many posts I've had thought-out, intelligent things to say and they'll die in my head, squashed by Snood stealing my attention.

Well let's see… Sunday night was my birthday, good times. We had some fun. Monday my parents and Keely came up, bought me a TV for my birthday good stuff. Went to work Monday night, without having slept during the day at all of course. I didn't suffer quite as bad that night as I did others. Tuesday I went to Council Bluffs because Steve's daughter, Laura, has finally returned from Iraq and the unit she went with had a welcome home parade there so I rode along with a friend of hers. That was a highlight of the week on par with my birthday. The girl I rode with is amazing. Hot and funny, definitely worth an investment of time for sure (not to mention that Steve's daughter is hot too but she's got a boyfriend who is another soldier so that's out-of-bounds like you wouldn't believe). This is one of those situations where I'm really excited to've met this person so here's hoping it stays on that level. Nothing remarkable about Wednesday, hung out for a while at Steve's and thats about it (I may've forgotten other stuff). Thursday Laura finally came home from Ft Riley (albeit only for the weekend, she won't be home for good until September sometime because she has to go to PLDC [that's Primary Leadership Development Course] and then she and her boyfriend are going to Hawaii for a few days) and 7-8 of us went to Eggy's for dinner before I had to depart early (early as 10PM is) to go to work. Work Thursday night was mostly a non-event, however I did get the police looking for a kid who ran off with about 4 sandwhiches. The only reason it went to that level was because the kid had the misfortune to do the deed about 90 seconds before Officer Heinricy drove by and I flagged him down. They didn't catch him and that was that. I was supposed to leave for Des Moines yesterday for drill but since Laura came home, SFC Jones allowed me to just make drill up at the end of the month so I could stay here for the weekend. So last night I went out with Will (although we didn't go out until almost midnight after I tried to go out earlier in the evening but people weren't cooperating) and that was fun even though she wouldn't dance when she was trying to encourage me to.  And that pretty much brings us up to now. 

AT (Annual Training) is in two weeks.  It won't be bad, I'll get paid plenty well and there should be sufficient free time to have some fun in Manhattan (I don't think I'll spend much time in the strip joints in Junction City that everyone else seems to have such a blast at when they're at Ft Riley) however since most of us won't have POVs I don't know how often I'll even get to go off post.  Laura will be there for a few days while I am so I'll probably hang out with her for a bit too since all of her troops will be gone (save one or two). 

I'll post more tomorrow, it's time to get ready to go.  It's karaoke night at Eggy's and I think that's what we're all doing.