Purdueguy7

YEA!!! JASON CALLED ME!!!! He called around 4:00 and we talked for about 45 minutes! I was so excited that I started crying as soon as I started talking to him! Oh well. We were both glad to talk to each other.

He said that he is with a bunch of prior service guys, and not with the people who are there for the first time. Because he’s been there before, he gets more privileges. I guess they have a TV, and they were given a weekend pass. They couldn’t leave base, but they took a taxi to a mall that is on base. He said he had pizza for one meal and went to Burger King for another. He also saw the movie Pearl Harbor.

They aren’t allowed to talk to the people who haven’t been there before…guess they don’t want them telling them what’s going to happen or something.

He said he arrived there late Tuesday night. He did some of the processing things Wednesday. Then the place was closed for the holiday Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. So, he has had a ton of free time. He said all they have to do is clean the bunks each day. The rest of the time is “free time.” It’s kind of frustrating that they aren’t doing anything. He wants to just get on with it and get it over with. He still isn’t sure when he will be going down range. As soon as he does though, he will find out when his graduation date is.

Today Jason called me around 4:30 - but of course....I was at work. What a great place to be, huh? I guess he told Wes that he would call tomorrow, but I will be at work tomorrow as well. :( Hopefully he will be able to call me at work once he finds out where I am. I don't see why that would be a problem....after all....all the people at work take personal calls. Why can't I? At least I'm not 30 years old and spending my life talking about other people. And what's with drive through pharmacy? I hate it. One of these days I'm going to open the window and say, "Welcome to McDonalds. Would you like fries with that?" AUGH!!! Okay. Obviously I've spent too much time at work, and this has nothing to do with Jason. But thanks for listening. More later!

Today Jason had to get up at 4:00 am. They went to MEPS and got their plane tickets and took care of last minute things. He was then taken to the airport. He called me from there while he was waiting for his plane to take off. We didn’t talk long because he wanted to get some sleep, and I had to go to work. He left from Indy at 9:35. Then arrived in St. Louis a little before 11:00. I was surprised when I came home from work to find an e-mail from him. It turns out there was free internet access at the airport, so he got online and wrote me! The plane took off from St. Louis around 1 and arrived in Georgia sometime around 3:30 pm.

Today I dropped Jason off at the armory in Hartford City at 6:00 am. He had to stay and do some paperwork, and I went on home. After finishing up at the armory, they drove to Indianapolis to the Quality Inn. He got to drive the Hummer. I think he thought that was pretty cool.

At the hotel they had some “basic training” classes, which he described as being pretty, boring. He also went to MEPS where they made sure they were “physically capable” of going through basic. Jason was worried about being overweight and getting his profile flagged. I guess when that happens, you can’t get promoted (there might be other consequences, but I’m not sure what they are). He said that he stretched as much as he could when they were seeing how tall he was. The taller you are, the more you are allowed to weigh. It worked, because he made the weight requirement by 2 pounds. He was very relieved!

He was also worried that he was going to be put in with a group of high school kids. They do split training as he is doing. He was afraid they would be immature and make things harder. Also, since they would all be coming back from last summer, they wouldn’t have the freedom that they would have if they had been there from the beginning, working their way straight through. It turns out though, that he is being put into a group that has been there since day one of training. He is also very happy about that.

He finished up his day in the afternoon. He called me to chat around 4:30. I was at the gym working out, so I called him when I got back. We talked for a bit and then he took a nap. He got to eat at the hotel restaurant. He said it wasn’t very good, but I’m sure it was better than the MRE he got for lunch. I spoke with him again around 10:00, and then he went to bed.

Hello and welcome to another groovy update. I wish that I had some great news to talk about but, I don't...like I've always said this site is full of useless information! Today was pretty much a nothing day, as in I did nothing of great importance. Cool huh? That's what I thought...you have to have one of those days every once in a while...where you just don't do anything! It felt pretty good just to be a lazy SOB all day long! And along those lines of me not doing anything today there isn't really anything too exciting to update. So take it easy!

Hello, hopefully everyone is well. I'm here with another early morning update. This time though I haven't been up the entire time. I fell asleep around 11:30 or so and got up at 4 or so and got up. I fell asleep in clothes and I absolutely hate that...oh well...it wasn't like I was planning on falling asleep! It's now finals week, can't believe that the school year is almost over now! Talk about crazy! Hopefully the years start to go by a little slower or I'm looking at being 70 in a couple blinks of the eye. Time just goes by way too fast! So what does everyone think of a new rant? I'm thinking that it's about time...I have a couple topics floating around in my head and I'll probably pick one of those soon and make my little spill. But right now I'm thinking about going to bed... 'night!

Hello boys and girls, I'm back for the ever important news update...I know all of you can't wait! Hopefully you had a nice and restful weekend...my weekend was ok considering it was a drill weekend, but I'm dead tired! I got 2 1/2 hours of sleep Friday and like 5 1/2 Saturday. Not a bunch...to make a long story short (Amanda will like this) my drill consisted of breaching an obstacle (concertina wire), IMT drills, bayonet drills, and an 8 mile or so road march. The road march was ok considering that I haven't done it since we did a six miler in September. They are never very much fun carry a ruck that weighs 40-60 pounds, and LBV (Load Bearing Vest) that weighs from 10-20+ pounds, Kevlar Helmet, and a weapon (I had an M16/A2) 8.79 pounds. So what is that about 100 or so pounds...wanna do it some time with me? The whole company did a fine job on the road march so that was good. I know that this was a boring as hell update, but there isn't much to talk about that would be of interest to you since all that I did was Army stuff this weekend ;) Ok...take it easy! Maybe tomorrow they'll be some interesting news!

Hello again! 2nd update in one day...I'm spoiling you guys. Hopefully your day went well...mine went pretty darn good. The day started out shaky...Amanda has came down with a cold/flu so she was feeling pretty bummed out and yuck. She struggled and managed to get out of bed and get to class. I didn't have a real class today since it was dead week. In my Pol432 they gave back my final paper (which is like 70% of the final grade). I got a B+ on it, which is good since I needed that grade since I bombed my first one. I think that I might put up a little link soon of all my nice and boring writings. No one will find them interesting...hell, Amanda won't even read them! I tried and tried to get her to read it but she wouldn't...she got through page 2 and then jumped to page 17...she thought she would trick me. Well...I'm going to make her read it tonight...well...I might let her off since she isn't feeling good. This weekend is a drill weekend...I'm not really looking all that forward to it. Guess I'm dreading the whole basic training thing this summer...oh well...just a nice boring 2 1/2 months! What else is going on with me. I'm listening to a funny thing right now it is called "Kick Dog". It is so funny...makes me laugh my foolish butt off. Ok...well take it easy!

Hello everyone! It feels great to be able to update the page again, now that there is the "new" look! Gives me a little motivation for my last month or so that I'm here! Today was a nice easy "nothing" day, I didn't do much of anything, Wes and I went to have lunch at Chili's (thanks Wes!). I also cleaned up the house a little bit...how fun! One of those cute moments happened today! It was about 7:45 and I was hanging up some clothes to dry in the computer room here and I had the song by ATC "Around the World" on. Well...I'm kind of singing to myself and I thought that I heard a little girls voice in the background...so I look outside and the neighbors daughter is by my window singing and dancing. They had just gotten home and she knew the song. This little girl couldn't be over 6 or 7, but it was so cute! It's one of those things that would be in a Chicken Soup book! Definitely made me smile! Thank you little girl!

Well, as you can see I've done a major overhaul of the page. Last overhaul (I think January) was just a frame change, but that wasn't all that great. And it actually made the page look pretty crappy. I'm not done with the new design but it is getting there. It's my hope that this looks a little less cluttered and will load faster for all you modem jockey's out there. Now that it finally looks good I'll make sure to update it more frequently than I was. The page is getting some pretty good hits thanks in part to the webcam. If you haven't checked that out yet, make sure you look at it. It may be slightly boring but it's always refreshing (right now it's at 2 seconds) so you'll get something new all the time! Ok...take it easy!