Hey guys! The days are flying by! 26 already? It's Thanksgiving today, and it counts as a training day AND a Sunday, meaning we get 5 hours of square away time and go to church if we want. There isn't religious education today so I'm waiting until 10:15 when the Catholics muster for mass.
Yesterday we got fitted for our uniforms – formal ones – and I'm excited about them. No dress blues, but we get the service uniforms – khakis (long and short sleeves) with sort of green slacks and a skirt. A couple of us were in the wrong place at the wrong time and the fitter wrote down our names randomly to give to our DIs, so we got ITed (pronounced eye teed, an acronym we can't figure out, possibly Intensive Training) when we got back, which is another way of saying you got quarterdecked. But that's cool – you get punished randomly a lot. The more I get ITed, the better I'll do on the PFT (Physical Fitness Test) which is tomorrow.
There are a lot of nouns that are "verbed" here, like:
• Quarterdecked: to be put on the quarterdeck and do a bunch of punishment exercises, usually while screaming whatever the DI wants you to scream.
• Unqued: pronounced "unked." To not qualify for something. "She unqued on the rifle range."
Not a lot happened this week. The DIs got into a whole mess of trouble for a couple of times they mistreated us, I guess. I don't think it was any big deal, but apparently they were not supposed to do such things as:
• IT us on Sundays
• Withhold square away time
• Make Rct Monahan eat an entire bag of cough drops because she is a stupid idiot and hid them when we can't have them.
• Shake recruits
• Have us run back and forth with our footlockers
Really, I wish they hadn't done anything about it because it only makes it worse. While stuff like that is a one-time incident, whenever the DIs get into trouble they are harder on us for longer. DI Sgt. Sagullo was the one behind the cough drop thing and she had to go stand before a general, which if I've read my knowledge correctly means she either got NJPed (Non Judicial Punishment) or court-martialed. She's AWESOME so I'm glad she's still around, but she's definitely pissed. They all are. We've spent this whole week tearing up our house and putting it back together and tearing it up again.
Then you have the idiots in the platoon who fuck it up for everybody. Rct. Bonetti and Rct. Thompson never sound off loud enough; Rct. Gangler sounds off with an sarcastic "Aye, ma'am", which is just dumb. Why did you come here if you have an attitude? The infamous duo, Monahan and Lanier, who have repeatedly been caught with food they've stolen (big stuff like pears and bread) are single handedly responsible for most of our messes.
We've lost the series guidon twice now. Platoon 4001 has it because of Lanier's most recent "bread in her valuables bag" incident, so we march behind them. Bastards! We're in Second Phase now so we should be able to blouse our boots (tuck in our pants) but Monahan made us lose that privilege too, so we look like Phase One recruits. It's fine though. We're all at the point mostly where you kinda laugh about it while wanting to kill the onesies and twosies responsible for it.
I had Interior Guard a few nights ago, which was fun. Basically it's a little like rifle watch, only we took up posts outside and patrolled them in pairs with our rifles. We made sure all hatches were secure and I got to yell, "HALT, who goes there?" to a few people. It was just for practice for later when we're out in the fleet, since obviously the only people who are going to be walking around our base at 2300 are officers (once I got "Do you not SEE the black belt?") but I did it anyway since we were told to. It was enjoyable but brutally cold. BRUTALLY COLD. How can it be so freezing and there not be any snow? It must be the humidity and I do not approve.
My handwriting sucks! I'm writing on my lap, that's why. Speaking of excuses, that's a big no-no here. The correct response to anything is: "Aye ma'am", "No ma'am" "Yes ma'am", or "This recruit does not know, ma'am." Often you'll say that and you'll get: "No, recruit! It was not an 'Aye ma'am' question. WHY are you holding your tray like that?"
Do not mistake this question for one that needs a reply! The response to this should remain "Aye ma'am" until the Marine making the inquiry decides what to do with you. Your response is not necessary to or wanted for the decision-making process. Like earlier today the DVD player broke. Since you don't disagree with OR lie to Marines (making tricky situations for recruits) the conversation went like this:
Gunny Hyatt: Why didn't you tell the DI the DVD player broke?
Me: Aye ma'am.
Sgt. Sagullo: Basically what you're saying is you broke the DVD player.
Me: … Aye ma'am (not true, but I was watching it when it broke so yes)
Gunny Hyatt: You did?!?
Me: No ma'am.
Gunny Hyatt: Recruit, which is it? You said yes to her and no to me.
Me: Aye ma'am.
Then they continued on their way after fixing it. That's a pretty regular conversation, really.
I love food still. I never realized quite how much I loved it. I want a cupcake. Or a gummy worm. An Oreo cookie. Oooo, a chocolate chip one! Meat loaf. Strawberries, cherries, chocolate. Ice cream. Pizza. Subway. Burger King. Steak. French fries. Oatmeal. Grilled cheese. BLT. Chicken soup. Buttered noodles. Muffins. Raspberries. Doritoes. A pineapple. Cake. Pie.
The Lunch Box story you're sending is great. I've gotten a few good things like that. One of my friends printed off a few pages of web comics -- nothing thick so they wouldn't check the envelope -- and sent that. It's great. The Onions as packaging were ingenious too. I'm doing great and I really think it has a lot to do with all the support so thanks.
I'm in awesome shape now. I don't know if I could have run for 30 straight minutes before, but now I'm like, "Yea, what? 30 minutes? Pffft, bring it on!" It feels good!
Miss you and hope you're having a good Thanksgiving!
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