It's amazing what you can achieve when you have a plethora of time on your hands. Case and point: found out my battle buddy has family in Arkansas. They had about 50 tornadoes hit in a 24 hour period over the weekend and his house and most of his town was turned into rubble, he lost friends, family... His town and the surrounding areas are destroyed and the death toll keeps rising. Some friends in his company gave him a few grand and I decided to help the cause, so my battles and I started a GoFundMe account for him and shared it on Facebook. $100 so far, we'll see how much can be raised.
I will tell you right now that the look a person gives you after you give them a wad of cash after they've been living in hell for the last few days? That's the stuff I live for. That moment where you realize you've made the world a little better.
As far as projects go, this one is a lot more productive than the menial tasks I was planning (ultimate trail mix is still in the works, but raising money for a national tragedy takes precedence.)
Off to make the world a better place...
Sam
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
Adventures Abound.... Or Not
So it turns out the big adventures to be had as a med-hold involve being a battle-buddy to people on random appointments. In case you are not aware of the beauty that is the battle buddy system, let me explain it to you...
TRADOC, the Army umbrella that covers basic combat training (BCT or Boot Camp) and AIT (Advanced something Training. Individual? I could Google it but I don't want to) has a battle buddy system in place. Wherever an IET (Initial Entry Training) soldier goes, he or she will have a battle buddy of the same gender, or two battle buddies of the opposite gender, at all times. When you talk to a sergeant, when you go to the latrine at chow, when you walk across the street to grab plastic spoons at the shoppette, when you go to the DFAC (dining facility), when you go anywhere, you will have a battle buddy. At this point, most of us are actually weirded out by being alone outside of our rooms.
Since crutches keep me from doing anything useful like moving railroad ties or throwing rocks away (no, really), I get to be a battle buddy to all the other med-holds who need to go to the hospital or some other medical appointment. I don't mind it... gets me out of the flatulence filled computer room and out into the open air. Plus, occasionally the trips to the hospital coincide with my pain med schedule and I have to grab human food to eat with my pills.
Speaking of human food, I am now on a quest to make trail mix that doesn't suck. Don't get me wrong, I like most trail mixes, but there's always at least one ingredient that I'm picking out. So I'm determined to make one that is perfect. At least to me. However comma, being on crutches makes toting groceries home difficult. And by difficult I mean near impossible unless I'm buying a bag of chips and nothing else. But! Being the Amazon.com fiend that I am, I discovered something glorious: Prime Pantry.
Ever since I got Amazon Prime five years ago, I've been addicted. Almost out of paper towels or body wash? Too lazy to hit the drug store to pick up some more? Buy that shiz on Amazon Prime. It's usually about the same price, sometimes cheaper (sometimes not), and with free two day shipping, I get it in the same amount of time I would've if I'd actually taken the time to get motivated enough to go to the store. Hell, I usually forget I need it by the time it arrives and then it's like "Hell yes I don't have to go to Walgreens!!" It's a happy little surprise.
Prime Pantry is the newest facet of Prime's godliness. You get a box with a $5.99 shipping rate. And you fill it with things found in your typical grocery store, each one worth a certain percent. You can fill it to 100%, or less if you don't need eight gillion dollars worth of groceries. So buying the things I need for a good trail mix has never been easier. Success!!
Off to buy more pointless crap off Amazon. And off to retrieve the recently arrived Batman pajama pants (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BJNV4PC/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i03?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and Trader Joe's creamed honey, both courtesy of Amazon.
-Sam
TRADOC, the Army umbrella that covers basic combat training (BCT or Boot Camp) and AIT (Advanced something Training. Individual? I could Google it but I don't want to) has a battle buddy system in place. Wherever an IET (Initial Entry Training) soldier goes, he or she will have a battle buddy of the same gender, or two battle buddies of the opposite gender, at all times. When you talk to a sergeant, when you go to the latrine at chow, when you walk across the street to grab plastic spoons at the shoppette, when you go to the DFAC (dining facility), when you go anywhere, you will have a battle buddy. At this point, most of us are actually weirded out by being alone outside of our rooms.
Since crutches keep me from doing anything useful like moving railroad ties or throwing rocks away (no, really), I get to be a battle buddy to all the other med-holds who need to go to the hospital or some other medical appointment. I don't mind it... gets me out of the flatulence filled computer room and out into the open air. Plus, occasionally the trips to the hospital coincide with my pain med schedule and I have to grab human food to eat with my pills.
Speaking of human food, I am now on a quest to make trail mix that doesn't suck. Don't get me wrong, I like most trail mixes, but there's always at least one ingredient that I'm picking out. So I'm determined to make one that is perfect. At least to me. However comma, being on crutches makes toting groceries home difficult. And by difficult I mean near impossible unless I'm buying a bag of chips and nothing else. But! Being the Amazon.com fiend that I am, I discovered something glorious: Prime Pantry.
Ever since I got Amazon Prime five years ago, I've been addicted. Almost out of paper towels or body wash? Too lazy to hit the drug store to pick up some more? Buy that shiz on Amazon Prime. It's usually about the same price, sometimes cheaper (sometimes not), and with free two day shipping, I get it in the same amount of time I would've if I'd actually taken the time to get motivated enough to go to the store. Hell, I usually forget I need it by the time it arrives and then it's like "Hell yes I don't have to go to Walgreens!!" It's a happy little surprise.
Prime Pantry is the newest facet of Prime's godliness. You get a box with a $5.99 shipping rate. And you fill it with things found in your typical grocery store, each one worth a certain percent. You can fill it to 100%, or less if you don't need eight gillion dollars worth of groceries. So buying the things I need for a good trail mix has never been easier. Success!!
Off to buy more pointless crap off Amazon. And off to retrieve the recently arrived Batman pajama pants (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BJNV4PC/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i03?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and Trader Joe's creamed honey, both courtesy of Amazon.
-Sam
Friday, April 25, 2014
And so it begins
So it turns out that spraining your knee in the midst of the final event of your final PT test is a terrible idea. It also turns out that finding out 48 hours before graduation that you're not going to be allowed to graduate is one of the most discouraging things this particular soldier has ever experienced. And having gone through two colleges, three majors, and three jobs in four years, that's saying something.
I realize, of course, that this is a terrible start to a blog as it sounds horribly depressing and suggests the beginning of a long, complainy blog. However, I intend to make the best of a super boring situation and find ways to pass the time and, since I'm spending an ungodly amount of time in a room full of computers waiting to go on details, etc. which are limited due to the Twins (my crutches) and I have nothing better to do (and apparently neither do you), I've decided to blog about it.
I realize, of course, that this is a terrible start to a blog as it sounds horribly depressing and suggests the beginning of a long, complainy blog. However, I intend to make the best of a super boring situation and find ways to pass the time and, since I'm spending an ungodly amount of time in a room full of computers waiting to go on details, etc. which are limited due to the Twins (my crutches) and I have nothing better to do (and apparently neither do you), I've decided to blog about it.
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