Warrior Medicine

The Dispensary OIC (Officer in charge) tasked me a few weeks ago with painting the MEDCO logo on the wall. This logo was chosen by our rotation, so she wanted us to leave our mark on the place before we left.

 

I procrastinated like a boss. I waited to put the work order in to get the paint. I waited to locate a projector so I could transfer the image onto the wall until yesterday. I didn't even have a plan to get tiny paint brushes: I just kind of fell into acquiring those from a very nice Captain. We are here for approximately 2 more days and I did it all in the last 24 hours.

 

 

 

I'm awesome.

 

My Company Commander thinks this is the shit, so it's good enough for me. I had wanted to fill in the circle with black paint but I'm worried it would be too dark and muddy looking. So it's staying the way it is.

 

Maybe if I had planned this out a little earlier, I could have found gray paint for the center of the circle. That would have required way too much forethought.

Chiller Scary Good Film

This short film is so scary; it's been keeping me awake at night thinking about that face!! Ahh! I'm such a wuss!!

 

It's nearly Halloween!

Transit Barracks

I had to move out of my barracks room in order to make space for the new people. On one hand, this is awesome because it's a sure sign relief is on it's way. But on the other hand, it sucks because transit housing is bad.

 

Now I have to share a bathroom with 13 other females of varying rank. And the smell of the bathroom is overpowering. It's like a sewer in there. I don't believe it's the other females' fault, however. That's how I made it sound. Whoops. I'm absolutely sure it's a drainage issue. As soon as the FX opens, I'm going on a pilgrimage for air fresheners. Because I just can't brush my teeth in a room that smells so foul. There is a serious lack of hot water in the showers, too.

 

This building is more like a giant trailer, so it echoes in the hallway. And I think the walls are made of paper mache. I can hear people using electric toothbrushes in the bathroom, and I live across the hall and two doors down.

 

 

The rooms are much smaller than the NCO room I had been living in. And there are basically no drawers to put my clothes in. So I am living out of my duffle bag, and I hate living out of my duffle bag.

 

Also, the wall sockets are different. Of course they are, why would they be the same? So I had to find a converter to go from the British socket to the European socket to the US socket so I could charge my phone. It's probably a fire hazard. Shh, don't tell anyone.

 

 

My room smells too. Nothing like the bathroom (thank god) but there is a smell. I blame the air conditioner because it smells musty and old in here like a basement. I will purchase more air fresheners for my room.

Although this is a temporary living situation, I am still not very happy about it. I am having trouble seeing the bright side. Perhaps when the new people arrive I will finally get excited about leaving. It just doesn't seem real yet, even though it is very obviously real.

 

I have trust issues with the Army and time lines.

Force Skills Competition Again

Lucky me, I got to be here for another Force Skills Competition. I graded the Combat Life Saver lane again. The competitors were much more competitive this go around.

We put a patient under the vehicle this year. He wrapped his leg up in there and then went "unconscious". Every single team hated that patient. I thought it was great. Some of the methods to free the patient were a little rough, and one team decided to not free him at all and did all the treatments wedged under the vehicle. To each their own, I suppose. I wasn't grading on the ability to actually MEDEVAC the patient so they didn't lose any points.

 

 

 

I had fun grading the competition again. I feel very important here as the unofficial official Combat Lifesaver director of training. That's the title I gave myself. No one has challenged it, so it made it real. I'm not going to be nearly as special when I redeploy and my title is squad leader again.

Motion Sick

I took the bus to South Camp. Almost immediately upon leaving North Camp, I became extremely motion sick. I mean, we couldn't have been 2 miles away from the gate before I started sweating and feeling nauseous. 

I took a Dramamine and waited.

I wasn't getting better. In fact, I was getting worse. I had to puke. So I started looking around for things to puke in, but without really looking around because looking around make me feel more sick. 

There was a box full of boxed lunches close by. I grabbed a boxed lunch and opened it. The smell of sandwiches didn't do much for my nausea. I gripped on to that little cardboard box for about 15 minutes saying little silent prayers that I wouldn't have to puke in it. 

But I puked. I puked 4 times into that little cardboard box. 

Something funny about cardboard boxes, they're not very water tight. I ended up with water/puke all over my jeans and on the floor of the bus. Thank god I didn't have time for breakfast, so they only thing I had in me to throw up was water. 

This is where my vomit ended up. At least I missed my cute shoes.

 

I felt incredibly better after I puked. Good enough to close my eyes and let the Dramamine take me to sleep. 

Party Animal

 

I may or may not have just feasted on this small pizza and order of onion rings while watching Big Bang Theory season 2.

I know how to party.

I have an awful stomach ache. Because, of course, I was clearly obligated to eat all the food I ordered. Obediently, I tore it up in record time.

So now I'm laying in my little bed with a distended belly, lamenting on my poor decisions. I don't think my planned 4 mile run is going to be long enough tomorrow morning to make up for the damage I just did.

I'm going to go to bed early now, on the first night of the weekend.

Like I said, party animal.

Thanks, Larry

The Dispensary is right next to the fire station. Most of the firefighters are Egyptians. I made friends with one of them. Well, friends is kind of a weird word to use. One of the fire fighters and I have a friendly business relationship where we get things for each other. He's a guy who knows how to get things, and I am a Soldier who knows how to get things. A give take kind of friendship. But it works. We are very useful to each other.

 

Except I'm a jerk, and when I first met him 8 months ago, I couldn't remember his name for the life of me. So I started calling him Larry the T-shirt Guy every time I referenced him. He is a t-shirt designer on the side. Of course, now I know his name, but I still refer to him as Larry. Old habits die hard... and I am a jerk.

 

My tour here is almost over (yay!) so he had a little gift made for me as a going away present. It's a tin plate with my company, name and title engraved into it. In case you don't have eyes. I'm going to hang it in the office in my house when I get home with the other plaques I've gotten from past duty assignments.

 

I was really surprised! This is such a nice gesture!

 

 

Very cool. Thanks, Larry. I hope the next Lead Medic is someone who knows how to get things, too, so the business relationship doesn't end here!

Record PT Test

I'm not redeployed yet, but I'm pretty sure PT is a safe subject to talk about.

 

I took my biannual record PT test today. I wasn't really feeling it. You know what I mean, like I wasn't concerned that I would fail, or even totally bomb an event. I just didn't feel like doing it. When I did my first sit up, I knew I wasn't going to break any world records today. I definitely didn't break any land speed records on my 2 mile run. But I scraped by on a 271.

 

 

One of these days I'd like to score 90% in my run. Someday... when I'm in the next age group and the standard drops a little.

I won't be in that next age group until I'm 32. I'm in the worst possible age group right now. All the maximum reps and run times are the highest to score 100%. For some reason the Army is convinced Soldiers are in better shape at 27-31 than at 18 years of age. I've been in the Army for 8 years, which means the Army has abused by body for 8 years. I may be 30, but the wear and tear the Army has put on my body puts me right around 36!

People say there isn't a birthday to look forward to after you turn 21-- bullshit. If you're in the Army, 32 is a pretty important birthday!

Taking A Break

 

I'm sure my avid readers (all 2 of you) were wondering where my blog went. Well, I had a run in with the law (the Army) and was asked to remove a blog post. Which caused me to overreact and take down my entire blog.

 

A month has passed and I really miss posting things about my life for my readers to enjoy. Or not enjoy. Whatever.

 

I've had this blog since late 2009! I've grown attached. This is a relationship. I just can't give up on it now. So I am just taking a break until I redeploy back to the States.

 

It's not you, it's me.

 

We can still be friends.

 

See you around.

 

 

Corpse Pile

Over the past few weeks an interesting insect phenomenon has been going on in my barracks room. A pile of bug corpses begins to build up along the edge of my wall locker along the floor. During the weekend I sweep them up, and through out the week the pile grows large again.

 

I had two theories. First was that there is so much insecticide in my room, that all these bugs were being poisoned and desperately crawled to their final resting place (under my wall locker) to be reunited with their kin bugs. Like a cemetery of sorts.

 

Seriously, I considered this first theory.

 

My second theory was that there was a huge bug eating spider under the wall locker that was slaying bugs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then throwing their corpses into a pile on the floor.

 

I got a flashlight and looked under the wall locker this afternoon, and the second theory was proved to be fact.

 

 

 

Maybe this photo has been photoshopped a little to get my point across. The iPhone doesn't take the most quality photos.

So don't judge me based on the cobwebs-- I promise I don't live like a filthy animal. Apparently this spider has been redecorating a bit... and added a dozen or so egg sacs full of its bug slaying spawn.

 

The bug hater in me wants to wipe out this spider and its disgusting egg sacs and be done with it. But the SUPER bug hater in me likes it that I have a bug that's killing other bugs by the dozen. So I'm torn. Do I let the spider stay or die? I haven't made any rash decisions just yet.