Heh.  It's today, or rather, tomorrow, or...when I went to sleep about seven hours ago...how about that terminology...

Jees I remember the dilemna this situation used to cause me when I was in college...do I list the entry just past midnight at the 8th, or the 7th?  Used to go both ways, then I just fixed myself on doing this Part I and Part II type stuff...(i think once I even went Part III)

So today will be the first day in my new unit--did PT with 519th HHS today...we had a battalion run...

The important thing to note however, is that I Finally got off my ass and got me some real coffee beans last night.  I wanted to write about that wonderfully exciting fact in the last entry, but I decided I had enough to write and didn't want to clutter an otehrwise meaningfull and heartfelt entry with such day to day basics...I think I often clutter my entries with such things--so I've decided Ima gonna work on keeping such entries more to the point so the meaning isn't lost by the time the entry is finished...

I haven't been sleeping too well lately.  That's why I was up so late last night...I thought that if I just stayed up till I was too exhausted to stay awake, I could get into a more regular sleeping cycle...but it didn't work.  I think the whole fact that I've been getting home from work and literally just nose diving onto my bed for forty five to sixty is making it tough...

Must stay...awake.  Must...be...conscious a little...longer....ehhh...zzzzzz

It's no joke...

Today then, I'm resolved...no nappy nap for me today.  In Bed at like 2200 or 2300 and hopefully...With everything that's been going on lately, I'm not surprised I can't sleep so well so who knows if this plan'll do anything for me...

Started with a Battalion Run at PT, followed by...well, not much of anything of consequence...settling into my office, consulting with the former Legal Specialist, being dubbed "Judge" by the Battalion Commander (a nickname I'm sure is going to stick despite it being just a little of the mark...), standing in on the Battalion Command and Staff meeting, more consultation with SFC Wade, and tearing apart the Operating System and programs of my "new" computer to the dismay of SPC Xu, who wanted things left alone until she left it seems...Too late now.  My orders were cut, I am officially a 519th Soldier now. Tommorrow, or Friday, or sometime next week I receive my official inprocessing and inbrief by my new supervisor SFC Blake...NCOIC of the 519th Personel Affairs Center (PAC).

I get here at the same time as First Lieutenant Woods, the new adjutant, who, as Blake put it, "doesn't know anything and is essentially a private" when it comes to his new position.

I come at a time of turmoil.  Three Article 15s in the works; one of which the command is acting very wishy washy about as they think it'll be a hard-line case, despite a plethora of NCO statements...a feeling I need to squelch.  Also, a chapter for THC, and finally a car accident that will come down as a LOD investigation.  My work is waiting for me--it's just details to be worked out. 

Recruiting and Kosovo; two details playing against each other right now, tossed with the issue of a Time in Service Waiver for my E4 promotion...I am hoping I can be deployed with other members of 519th later this year, around september.  I have been in garrison for almost a full year now, stuck stateside, in an office, having gone nowhere, having seen nothing outside the east coast on my free time, deploying noplace.  If I can go, I will put on hold my application for the Corporal E4 recruting program...if not, I finalize and put in the day I get pinned.  It goes in with the waiver.  The battalion, knowing I am leaving, may not want to "waste" a waiver on me...meaning I would wait until December to get pinned.  In any case, by January, I should be gone from Fort Bragg...either to cali as a recruiter or to Kosovo as a member of the Keep the Peace force.  Either way, I'll be happy.

And then, of course, once I got back from overseas, if I were to go, I'd put my recruting packet in Then...

On the whole then, things are beginning to look up for me in this man's army, as I knew it would eventually.

The wine; a very pleasurable Vineyard Select red from Parducci in Mendocino...a "local" cali vineyard...It's very mellow, soothing, with a very light berry flavor, subtle aroma, and next to no acidity that plagues cheap reds.

The cigarettes; the standard filtered version of the smokes I required much like air in college...back there in Humboldt County when I was with Greg and Steve and Tim, Alisandra and Alisa and Christa and Elizabeth, Kyle and Steve and Grant and others whose names, I have to admit, I'd have to look up now to recall...a shockingly strong tobacco, unadulterated with fiberglass filters and preservatives common in other smokes, almost solely sold in soft packs, and with a taste that puts all other cigarettes to shame.

A good friend who consoled me on the loss of my uncle a few days ago said I write "beautifully".  That's an inspiration to me as I've felt stale so much these last couple of years.  On that note, my new story is progressing quite satisfactorily.  It's just over ten single spaced pages and I like it.  It's the first project in words I've had a good feeling about in years. 

That last thought...years; i've been thinking about it lately.  I'm not yet 25 years of age.  I have a long road to fill with words of fiction...not even a third of my life over.  I started writign in earnest only about five years ago...In those five years, I think I've written a good share of things to be proud of.  If my structured approach to this latest short story is any indication, within the next five, I should definitely have a novel published.  In high school I thought I was so close..having actually conceived a tale of novel length...but it was so downright flawed in it's telling as to be worth only a sheepish and blushing shrug.
 
 
 
 
 

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