what a terrible weekend...

Well I helped a friend move Friday. I hoped doing so would make me tired and sleepy, but it just made me tired. Instead I stayed up all night thinking of an idea that came to me for a book. I won't blog about that because I might actually pursue it someday.

So my alarm went off at 4 am and I was just laying in bed thinking, so I snoozed for 5 minutes and kept muddling over it, then got up and started getting ready to go to Ft Lewis for my monthly exercise in frustration. I do not really know why I do not look forward to these things. I like the people in my unit and to some extent I like the Army and my whole role and all of that, but on some level I am always left dissatisfied with the reality of things and my relative insignificance in how even my small little unit handles the opportunity lain before us.

So first thing's first, a fitness test. I only did sit-ups because we still haven't straightened out what my physical profile should say. I didn't do as well as a couple months ago. I was doing great in the beginning, but I ran out of steam prematurely and started having stomach cramps... clearly I needed to practice more!

Anyway, after that we weighted in and I went to my car to go over to the gym and take a shower and get into my regular uniform. My car didn't start. I gave her gas and she purred like a sick kitten and died as soon as I let go of the gas. I did this several times and the same result. I lost patience and gave up for the day and changed in the bathroom at the unit.

So at the end of the day I went to see if she was still sick and then called a tow truck to take me to a place to get her checked out. The guy said she had a vacuum leak and that if I warmed her up she would be good to go and I could even get home. I wasn't too sure he was right, but I gave it a shot. After driving around with my foot occasionally on the gas and the break at the same time she finally stopped dying on me.

The next day she was fine.

So I had a few issues to take care of this weekend. One was to get my profile updated so I could walk on my fitness test and they could do my medical board to see if I even have an option to stay in the military or not. No luck, the doc was not at drill Sunday (and I had been kept busy all day Saturday by my section leaders).

I also had to make sure my ID card had some digital certificates loaded so I could change my password to my army email account. No luck between talking to the retention NCO and getting my own individual quarterly counseling. Pretty soon time was up, day was done and taps was on the megaphone somewhere on the other side of post.

I drove home and it was very wet. That makes people drive slower and overreact to flashes of red taillights. Eventually I got home and tried to catch up on sleep.

Highlights of the weekend (according to critics) involved a chick watching porn in her living room while we were moving my friend out. She had the lights on, but was sitting on the near end of the couch (to the window to the walkway we had to pass by) smoking a cigarette so I assume all the action was over, but the teenage boys helping out my friend kept snickering every time they came back (which is when you could see what was on the TV. She even had the window open so you could hear the moans. I didn't notice if it was gay or straight porn though... the only thing I saw was someone getting a massage, so it was probably that Cinemax stuff they have in the late evenings.

Other than that just an interesting inside joke when the conversation (again) turned to "X-Men" among a circle of soldiers in our lab section. We have a cute new blonde girl in the unit and the irony is that she seems to enjoy these dorky conversations in the beginning but some of the guys really get carried away with them. So for the second time someone blurted out "boy aren't we the ones that never get laid."

The funny part was that in the moment just before he said that, I had just remembered the first time we had that conversation and the guy who said that just as I decided to join in and ask a question that bugged me about the "Magnito" character. That time I was embarrassed because some ladies in our unit had just walked up and it looked like it was my fault we were talking about it even though that was the only question I even asked.

This time I knew enough to stay out of the conversation at least. The funny thing is that these things, while still perhaps thought of as dorky, are no longer things women are disinterested in. At least two of the women in our unit were getting into talking about X-Men and that doesn't surprise me. Other oddball things that tend to come up in these conversations are things like "World of Warcraft" and weird websites, debating Mac v pc, or new IPOD accessories. Of those the only one that I roll my eyes at is WoW. It never ceases to amaze me how much emotional energy this game seems to suck from the lives of its participants.

I seriously wonder if those guys ever get laid, but maybe they do... online... in the game. What do I know about it? So I will try to be open-minded and keep my mouth shut about that!

Anyway, the weekend sucked because I hardly got any sleep and my car scared me into thinking I was facing some costly repairs. For now I think I can wait a little longer since it is much warmer in Vancouver than it was up North this weekend.

Peace,

Brian