Happy Halloween!!

And Happy Birthday Aunt Carol!

Today was PT test day. We got started at 0530 at the band hall with the pushups and situps. I did 32 pushups (83%) – my worst ever, 60 situps (81%) – one of my worst ever, and ran my 2 miles in 18:14 (83%) – not bad. I haven’t really been training like I should have and then I’ve been sick for the past week and a half, plus my hurt foot from last week. So overall, I can’t complain about my 247 – my lowest score in about 4 years. But I still passed everything sick or not, so that’s always a good thing! After we were done with the test, we were done until 1000, so after a shower to get all the mud off my legs and a little bit of computer stuff, I went back to bed for a little over an hour. Longer would have been nice, but work was waiting. We were back in at 1000. After formation we had our monthly urinalysis and I was the female observer. Only one female was testing, so it wasn’t bad. And I just hung out in my office doing work until she was ready to "donate". The morning went by really quickly and soon it was lunchtime/stitching time.

After lunch we had a Halloween party and could wear costumes if we wanted. Of course, I didn’t find out about the party until too late to come up with a costume, so I just went as a Soldier – as most of the unit did. We had some games – bobbing for apples, toilet paper mummies (2 teams – Team Top and Team Chief (I was on Team Top) – wrapped our commander and 1SG up in toilet paper and other stuff – we used a kevlar helmet, goggles, PT belts, gloves, and TONS of tp – and after our 5 minutes were up the judges picked which team did a better job of "dressing" their "mummy" – our team won and our prize was that we got to wrap up all the members of the other team into mummies. It was a ton of fun!), and a balloon pop where they had balloons tied to their ankles with strings and they had to try and pop everyone elses balloons without getting their own popped. 1SG ended up winning that one. I didn’t participate, but it was a ton of fun watching everyone who did participate. Then they showed a couple of scary Halloween-ish movies, but I didn’t go watch them. They turned off all the lights and it was too dark to stitch. I can’t just sit and watch a movie, and I’m not really into scary movies anyway. So I spent the rest of the afternoon in my office catching up on e-mail and paperwork.

This evening was Joyful Noez rehearsal, and it sure was great being back with them and singing again. We have a great set for this week. The only downside of the evening was that since I was already sick, singing made it worse and I had NO voice left by the end of rehearsal. We got to the chow hall about 10 minutes before they closed and I had my usual Friday night shrimp, and I had my first dish of ice cream in 3 weeks!! That tasted really good – I had given up ice cream for a while because I was worried about the weigh in yesterday. Weigh in and PT test are over, so I could have ice cream again. We had good conversation over our dinner, and then J gave me a ride home as he had a truck and no one was walking my way this week. He’s a a really nice guy, and we talked about our spouses and families on the drive home.

Off to bed now as I can’t sleep in tomorrow like I thought I could. Stay tuned tomorrow to find out why. . . 🙂

Today’s High: 66
Current: 59

Really Good Day

This morning started off with our semi-annual weigh-in.  I was BARELY under my table weight, but under is under so I didn’t have to be taped.  I did tape the other females that needed to be taped for body fat percentage.  Then I stopped at the chow hall for breakfast on my way home.  Once home, I got changed and played on my computer for a bit and I crocheted for a while as well.  Then it was off to work.  After formation we had brass quintet rehearsal and that went really well.  During our break, I pulled up "Misty" to see where I was at on it.  It’s a trombone feature, jazz balad, and it’s pretty high.  Like at the top of my range high.  I’ve not been able to play it since my softball injury.  But today I could!  It still needs a lot of work, but I got it.  So when the BQ leader got back from break, I asked him if we could play through "Misty" if we had time.  We did, and it went pretty well.  It’s a ways from being performance ready, but it was so awesome being able to play it even a little.  That’s a huge milestone in my recovery process – my high range is finally coming back!

After rehearsal was done, it was about lunchtime.  I went in my office and checked my e-mail and stuff from the morning and answered those that needed to be answered.  Then I stitched for the rest of the time.  After lunch I did computer stuff and then when the mail clerks came back from getting mail, I had a ton of ADO to take care of – like 2 mail bags full plus a few more that weren’t in the bag.  I got them all sorted and all delivered except for those Soldiers on leave.  I still have some paperwork to finish up tomorrow, but at least I know I have something to do.  Also in the afternoon, I had to counsel a Soldier for not passing the tape test for the weigh in this morning.  That’s never a fun job, but it’s one that has to be done.

Soon it was time to head for home, and I got changed back into my muddy/yucky boots and left my good ones in my little cubby by the back door.  I had gotten a box from my brother today and a few other things, so I bypassed the chow hall.  My stomach wasn’t feeling too good anyway.  I got home and took a nice hot shower and changed into PTs.  I crocheted for a while, finishing the project I started this morning and starting on another one, and then about 0830 I headed to the MWR for Country Night.  I did quite a few of the line dances – some that I remembered from last week, some that I learned new this week.  And I danced some of the two-steps as well – some with D’s dance partner A as a refresher course so I could teach M how to dance.  It was wierd leading, and then M caught on pretty quick and I forgot that I wasn’t leading anymore.  It was a lot of fun, and definitely a good workout.  I think I’m going to go every week and get a little bit of extra PT in if nothing else.  They had burgers and hot dogs and some other food there this week as a farewell to one of the units that is leaving for home soon.  About 1/2 way through the night, I finally got hungry and I had a hot dog.  No bun, no ketchup.  Just a hot dog.  And it was very good!  Of course, it’s probably not the best pre-PT test food, but whatever.  🙂

I finally headed home about 2330 or so – M walked me home so I wasn’t walking  by myself.  Now I’m heading to bed because it’s way late and I have a PT test in less than 5 hours.

Today’s high:  71
Current:  64