Mt. Elden, located at the top of my street..note, this is 1 street over from my street

Almost Break Time

Thursday night was another bad night as far as sleep is concerned.  I wrapped up about half of our essay test around 10-11pm and took some of this prescribed cough syrup that’s supposed to knock me out; it had the exact opposite effect on me.  I couldn’t sleep so I wrote my last Triple F post, next thing I knew it was around 4:30am.  YIKES!

I woke up on time for PT but I knew I couldn’t participate today, and that kind of blew! I haven’t been able to work in over a week and it’s been killing me. I watched as the class warmed up and then broke into groups so they could race each other in a box sprint drill I used to do when I played basketball in high school.  The winning team was rewarded by running a mile outside, the losing team had to do burpees; each student had to subtract their age from 100 and then do that many burpees.  I felt useless not being able to work out but I cheered on my fellow rangers and then proceeded into the weight room.  Doctor’s orders kept me out of participating but I was able to spot a couple of different people as they lifted…KILLING ME!  The only thing that kept my spirits was that today was the last day of our longest week so far, 12 straight days on! 

Considering it was our last day and I had a crappy night’s sleep I knew class was going to be brutal.  Today’s instructor was a program regular who I used to be intimidated by because he would pick at people on random to participate and I spend most of the class trying to keep my notes up to speed with the lecture.  Of all the days we’ve been in this program, getting picked to participate today was the last thing I wanted.  I was so tired by the time class rolled around that I just wanted to hide somewhere.  I participated on my own when the class blurted out obvious answers but other than that, I remained under the radar.  I like this instructor because he enforces some discipline on the class.  Even if it wasn’t a uniform inspection day, if he caught something out of place, he makes you drop right there and do pushups in class.  It’s great! (and that’s not sarcasm)  Today, more than half the class had to do pushups because we all happened to be late coming back from break for some reason.  I’m not perfect I was one of the late ones.  My excuse?  Some of my classmates were talking to me about the Jersey Shore and asking me questions about Seaside and stuff.  It only took 6 weeks to field these types of questions haha.

I was so relieved to get home from class.  I joked with Laura that I was so happy it was the weekend that I could run around naked. At least that’s how I felt in my head, my body said plop down on this couch and don’t move.  Fiona Coyote took that as an invitation to jump on my lap and force me to pet her for about 10 minutes.  Making up for the last weekend we had off in which I did absolutely nothing, Nick and I tried seeing who would be up for some pizza before going out to play pool; Travis & his roommate obliged.  This Fratelli Pizza place is jammed every time we go there, it’s insane. We were able to get a table and we made short work of the meatlover’s pizza and breadsticks in front of us and then headed down town. 

We met up with some of our classmates at Cues & Brews, a little pool hall/bar that is connected to the back of the restaurant where us rangers had our first meet & greet before the program started.  I hate pool and I suck at it but I was ready to have some fun.  That fun started with me adding some J~DuB Jerzee flavor from the juke box.  First song, as most of you can guess….Regulate!  The bass bumped so much that the bartender had to come over and turn it down hahaha.  For those of you not in the know, I became obsessed with this song back in like 1994 as it was the theme song for Above the Rim which came out back when I was a basketball nut.  I’ve carried the name over to the fantasy sports realm and the Regulators are not only the reigning Jerzee Extreme Fantasy Football Champs but they are the only team in the League’s history to win the title TWICE!  You may have noticed my closing “Mount Up!!!” at the end of each of these posts…that too comes from this song.

Final Standings

2011 Championship Game b/w Gerard & I...close 1

Some of my other selections were well received and I even displayed some of my moves.  “Representing Jersey” my fellow rangers laughed and cheered.  It was so awesome seeing some of us outside of the classroom.  Some of us drank a little and I was a little upset that “Rootbeer 100 Schnappes” shooters don’t contain rootbeer vodka but it packed a little bit of a punch.  I took the shot and I immediately felt gas come out of my nose, almost like it cleared out my sinuses.  Small World Afterall Fact: I ran into Jane’s daughter, Mandi, and her boyfriend Josh at C&B…that all goes back to me running into people I know like I did everywhere in NJ! (as mentioned in earlier posts)

We were at C&B for quite awhile, getting an early jump on the evening sure did help. Most of the crew wanted to turn in for the night as many of them were heading down to Phoenix on Saturday to do nothing and be warm, but 4 of us wanted to hang out a little bit longer…so we changed scenery.  I don’t think I’ve ever barhopped before, guess I’m taking on all kinds of firsts out here in Flagstaff.  Travis wanted to go to the Museum Club (that silly country bar), I figured I’d give it another shot.  Nick headed home because he had to leave super early for his visit with a friend in Phoenix, so another New York boy, Owen, drove me over to the bar.  The whole way there I tried warning him about how………different the place was.  I told him that the last time I was there I hardly lasted longer than an hour, I didn’t want to ruin anything for him but I felt that I had to give him a heads up.  Travis called me as we were parking and informed me that there was a country band performing and he didn’t think we’d want to stay.  That sort of killed the mood. We walked in and it was fairly empty. The crowd was a decent mix of a regular club/bar crowd and cowboys/girls, this time…all cowboys/girls.  I didn’t think it was possible to get out of there faster than I did last time, but nobody was feeling being there and I was beat. 

Owen dropped me off and I crashed almost as soon as I got into bed.

Weekend Off

When I got off the phone with my friend Eric the other day he informed me that he would be serving a warrant the following day.  Here’s what ensued….

 Link to the NPS holding it down

NPS Mount Up!!!

This is cool for a couple different reasons but one of the coolest things about it is this is the topic we’re discussing in class right now.  Eric rules!  He’s the one that guided me down this path many years ago; I never thought I’d actually be going through with this program!  He’s the same gentleman that was nice enough to take the time to teach Laura & I how to shoot the same way the NPS teaches their rangers how to shoot…I hope I remember everything later this week.  Go Eric Go!  Be safe out there. 

Saturday & Sunday were glorious.  I kicked off the actual weekend with a great 10hr sleep and worked my way around cleaning and organizing my room and doing laundry. While doing my chores, I watched Top Gun and SWAT.  The flying sequences in Top Gun are so bad ass.  I was never really a big fan of the movie but its great! Another exciting part of my Saturday, Rath got back to me with some contacts so I can follow through on some of my BACHELOR PARTY PLANS! My first time being in a (not related) friend's wedding and I get to be the best man!!!

Tuna & Avocado on Wheat...Saturday's Lunch.  It looks gross, it looks like peanut butter mixed with celery but Men's Health says avocado is the perfect substitute for mayo sooo...whoomp there it is.

Earlier in the week I discovered that I forgot to take my digital camera out of my D-Tac clothes so it got cleaned the hard way.  Unfortunately it got destroyed in the process and that devastated me because Laura got it for me for a birthday present just last year. Noting the number of pictures I've already taken in just 6 weeks out here and that I still have 9 left to go, I knew I needed a new one...so I headed out to Best Buy and picked one up.  Wanting to spend some more time out of the house, I headed over to the mall.  The mall here is so small & useless.  There’s 4 food establishments in the food court…FOUR!  The Chinese food place had the longest line, I think that’s because I’ve still yet to find a Chinese takeout place around here.  Their competition, Sbarro, Subway, aaaannnnddddddd a Japanese cuisine place.  After my walk around the mall, I wanted to hit up the ATM and be on my way….that’s where things got a little interesting.

Everybody knows that there is ATM etiquette, standing far away to give somebody their privacy is the very basic level of ATM etiquette.  The lady in front of me did it and I gave her her space when it was her turn…then it was my turn and there was nobody around.  I’m not sure why I stood in such a way but I was standing at an angle so I could see the machine in front of me but could easily turn around if need be.  After I put my card in I heard the rapid shuffling of feet behind scurrying up and then stopping RIGHT behind me.  I turned to see a young darker skinned, possibly Mexican, teenager standing less than a foot behind me with a black hood drawn over his eyes and he staring at the ground.  I kept my eyes on his for awhile but I don’t remember if I looked to see what his hands were doing.  I looked long enough to determine that he wasn’t going to approach me and I went about my business, looking back at him after each step of the withdrawal process.  He never retreated.  I reached for my money with my left hand and had my right hand cocked ready to swing for the fences through his face.  Just as I got my money, some younger girl, not older than 10, came outside and started asking him questions.  I guess she was his younger sister.  I grabbed my cash & receipt and took one step to the side and this dude bum rushed around me to get his transaction underway.  It was a very odd encounter but I like how this program is training my brain to be on the alert.

I had every intention of test driving a 4Runner today, just because I haven’t done so in like 4 years but one of my medications makes me extremely sensitive to sunlight and it was hard enough to see as I was driving so I headed home and waited for nightfall.  There was talk of going to the movies but I was starting to feel like I didn’t want to go out again.  I caught up on my Spartacus and some other useless TV and decided that I was in the mood to go out again.  I wanted to see the new Adam Sandler movie, Just Go With It, because he’s one of my favorite actors and as predictable as it looks, I could’ve used a couple of stupid laughs after the 12 days I just had.  I reached out to whoever I thought wasn’t in Phoenix…which was basically just Travis.  He wanted me to see who else I could get to go so I finally put some of my other classmates cell #s in my phone…I’ve only had the contact list for 6 weeks now hahaha.  It took some work but 5 of us decided we were going to go, but to see what?  I wanted to see Just Go With It but there were concerns that it was a chick flick and it was all dudes going so the only option we had left was The Eagle…more Romans fighting with swords for me to see today.  

I offered to pick up Travis but I was nervous because my punk ass headlight that works only when it wants to decided it was taking the night off tonight. Great, the last thing I needed was to get pulled over because of this stupid light that flickers on & off whenever it feels like it.  On my travels I came to a red light and I just hoped that a cop was nowhere to be seen; who knows what crazy rules these Flagstaff officers are in the mood to enforce out here.  Guess who pulls up across the intersection from me.  Yup, one of Flagstaff’s Finest!  The cross traffic’s light turned red and FLASH, the cop hits his lights and pulls through the intersection….and kept on going.  Phew!  I’d hate to have to explain this law enforcement contact to Kathy.  I got Travis and headed to the movies…we got lost on the way.  The internet lied about the time Just Go With It was playing so we were left with The Eagle.  You can go ahead and wait to Redbox this one folks.  This is the second time I made it out to the movies and it was the second time I was wamboozled into seeing a movie I originally didn’t want to see, had no idea what it was about, and ironically involved a bunch of sword fighting.  Cool thing about this theater, it was 11pm on a Saturday Night and the tickets were only $6.50 AND they have some sort of season pass soda cup that you bring back with you every time you go to the theater and get free re-fills.  What is this, Six Flags?  The cool thing about the drink cup pass...they have many more drink options than the theaters in NJ…I got Diet Dr. Pepper.  

We sat up top in the theater, which is where I usually sit when I go to the movies, but these may have been the worst seats in the house this time.  They pressed straight up and firmly against the back wall…they don’t bounce or recline like most other theaters I go to.  That sucked.  You know what else sucks (besides vacuum cleaners)?  Two different sets of idiots brought their infants to the movie with them.  It’s 11 o’clock at night and we’ve got crying and screaming babies distracting us from this fairly stupid movie.  Okay the movie wasn’t that bad but I could’ve written a better script.  Maybe I should look into doing that.

Dropped Travis off and it was back to home I go….to an empty house!  Nick was spending the night in Phoenix.  

 

Sunday was another relaxing day and it was easily the nicest day outside to date.  It was calm and sunny 60 degrees so I took a break from my essay test and I took a walk around the neighborhood.  It’s pretty peaceful walking around your hood and seeing that there is a giant mountain at the end of your street.  There’s a pretty sweet park near the other end of our street so I decided that’s where I’m going for a walk.  This place had everything for a family that might be looking to do some active things together.  There were a few picnic areas, a skate park, basketball courts, tennis courts, volleyball courts, 4 horseshoe pits, and a decent sized playground.  It was cool seeing families and friends hanging out and playing together, even if they all made me feel like I was back in Freehold. During my walk I talked to both Laura and my sister Katie…both of them were on their ways to my house for my sister Maureen’s (aka Social Worker of the Month in NJ) wedding video viewing.  They had a bridal party reunion dinner to watch it and it sounds like everybody had a lot fun.  

4 Horseshoe Pits

Fat Arizona Pine cone

I came home and did some more work on my essay test and began feeling kind of ill, I guess the sun was messing me up a little bit too much so I needed to take a nap.  I woke up not feeling any better so I had to bail on our optional defensive tactics session and typed out more essays.  I think I typed more than anybody in the class, 14 pages single spaced for 11 questions.  I heard of students that only did 3-5 pages double spaced.  Those aren’t essays people.  Then again, I talk too much so maybe I’m wrong.  I had my first animal situation tonight as Fiona, our indoor only cat, bolted for the backyard when Jane came in from doing her laundry. We waited awhile to see if she’d come back on her own, she didn’t, so I grabbed my flashlight and headed into the backyard.  She was sitting by the back fence.  It looked like she tried to find a way out of the fence but never made it.  As I made my way toward her she ran back to the back door and our night was over. 

Fiona using her cuteness to deter me from spending too much time on Facebook

Another weekend in the books.  See you again in 12 days.

Getting Back on Track

I had a dream that my classmates were trying to set me up so that they could kill me or something in my basement back home and I woke up startled and gasping for air.  I don’t remember the dream exactly but I don’t think I should take any more meds before going to bed. 

Today was my trial day; I have to get back up to speed with the rest of the class.  There are worst times that this bronchitis could’ve hit me I just wish it didn’t come just as I was hitting my stride with this getting physically fit thing.  Before heading out the door for class I said something to Laura I haven’t said in the 6.5 years that we’ve been together, Happy Valentine’s Day. We declared before we even started dating that we hate this silly little holiday and we have never celebrated it together.  I just miss her so much that after I said it to her, I told her that I wanted to tell her I love her in a different way…so it came out Happy Valentine’s Day.  She responded with “Illegal”…she’s the best hahahaha

Momma Jane loves us

We got to class and again the meds had the sun kicking my ass.  I separated myself from the rest of the class, got the inhaler working, and tried psyching myself up to get through the workout today.  I found Mike, who responded to Wednesday’s e-mail over the weekend, and I told him that I want to give everything a go today, starting with the warm-ups.  He told me I’m not killing myself because the class had a 2-mile run to complete, but to warm-up with them and then I’d work on the exercise bike.  I guess it’s better to start small.  I did the running portions of the warm-ups like I had something to prove to the rest of the class.  I kept right up with the faster kids and I led everybody in the 2 legged squat jumps across the tennis court.  I was obviously still impaired by the crap built up in my lungs that was restricting my breathing, so there was no way I could’ve done two miles today, but I got 25 minutes in on the bike. Baby steps.

We transitioned over to lifting and I could tell I wasn’t feeling right.  I lost a little bit of strength as I was unable to do more than a set of 4 dips, uh oh.  Then Mike wanted everybody working their upper bodies, specifically their chests.  There’s some benching routine that he wants the class to be practicing to get ready for their PEB test.  I’m not sure what it’s called but you bench your body weight with 3 spotters, slowly bringing the weight down with a count to 5 and then the spotters help you explode the weight off of your chest.  I was not ready for this and my side spotters were jacking me up a little bit by sea-sawing the angle of the barbell; with the uncomfortable angle and the heavy weight I nearly fell off the bench.  I didn’t gain much from my first time doing this exercise so I just repped out my more comfortable weights. I’ve never tried doing an incline bench press with the 45lb weights on, because I never lift with a spotter, but that changed today and boy oh boy are my boobies feeling it now.

Stan & I always say we want to work on our abs but we never do. That’s not a big deal to him, he doesn’t need the work, but I certainly do.  We decided we were going to do some of the exercises we learned in defensive tactics, flutter kicks, scissor kicks, and then a plank for as long as we could hold it.  We got through the scissor kicks but I felt my legs getting numb during the flutter kicks and in the middle of the second set, they just stopped working.  After that set I set a personal record for holding a plank, 47 seconds.  Stan 1upped me by holding one for 2 minutes…told you he didn’t need the work. 

Another mundane transition from PT to class but today some idiot nearly hit me in the crosswalk heading into class.  I was in the middle of the road, one side of traffic stopped, the douche bag in the silver mustang coming from the other way stopped too and as I was ahead of Nick crossing the street, the @$$hole switched to the right lane, cut us off, and sped down the street. What a blatant display of douche bagedness….I could only think to mutter the word “really” as I stared him down while he drove around me. 

I was nervous about today’s class because we were going to be talking about our essays during the first hour and they asked about some pretty personal stuff…or at least I included a lot of personal stuff in my responses.  Before class started Kathy informed us that our test on Thursday will be the hardest test we take all year because it covers the legal aspects that we’ve covered so far.  Great! (that one was sarcastic).  I guess it’s better to get it out of the way now and then deal with the fun stuff the rest of the time.  Our instructor today is also notorious for picking at people on random so I knew there was no way I wasn’t going to be sharing what I wrote on my essay exam.  Facing the music, I actually participated more than anybody in the class as I chimed in on just about every question.  Perhaps the most personal question on the test involved whether or not you think you could take a life if you had to; not too many people answered.  One of our former marines discussed some of the things he saw while serving and he admitted that it’s still very emotional for him.  I was so honored that he shared that with us and you could see how much it affected him. 

Nick & I had to hit up the grocery store so we headed home, got changed, wished Jane a Happy Valentine’s Day and headed back out.  I had to drop off some mail and my uniform pants at the dry cleaners and then we were Safeway bound.  Upon arriving inside the store, Arkansas texted us and told us that some people were getting together to study at her place…in about 45 minutes.  The shopping trip got cut short, we picked up stuff just to make dinner tonight (Jack Daniel’s pulled chicken with cole slaw on wheat buns with deviled egg potato salad and some macaroni and cheese….mmmmmmm).  Our exit was delayed by the woman in front of us at the checkout who was throwing a fit over a dollar difference on her bag of apples which she later decided she no longer wanted at those prices. We flew home, threw our food in the microwave and worked almost like an assembly line in getting it ready.  It was pretty impressive; I think Nick & I’d make good ranger partners one day hahaha.

I talked with Laura for a bit, grabbed my laptop and the bag of wheat thins, chips, and spinach dip I got for the study party and we were on our way.  I like that the study sessions are at Arkansas’ place because that means I get to play with Katie & Benjamin some more!  I think Katie recognizes me now.  She comes in the house when Arkansas’ landlady is there but she seems scared of everybody else but me when she’s in there, I love it.  Benjamin only comes in when he knows it’s time for bed.  He loves everybody but I rough house with him like I do with Keaira back home; he looks like Keaira when he opens his mouth when he plays hahaha

We worked on our review sheet for just under 5 hours, it was exhausting.  We took a pizza break near the end of it all but now I’m tiiiiiired.  Tuesday morning is our only real break until next Tuesday, we’ve got another long week ahead of us.  This daunting test takes place on Thursday morning…normally a 1 o’clock start day. The end of the week marks the beginning of our firearms training so I’m pumped!

Just thinking about this week is putting me to sleep.

Goodnight ya’ll

Flagstaff Observations

More comfortable around guns.  I’m obviously going to be around them once my ranger career takes off but I haven’t been around them that much so its normal for me to not be that comfortable around them…right?  My last trip to Virginia broke the ice between me and guns as I had an actual instructor show me the way around firearms in a controlled setting, but I never thought I’d have friends that conceal carry them when we go out and I’d have no problem with it.  I guess that’s just me being a dude.

Do people ever work or go to school?  I may have commented on this before but every time we’re in the gym for PT, the same groups of people are playing basketball.  These guys are usually older, some of them look too old to be college students, so what’s the deal?

Save your cookies.  Nick showed me a crazy little trick Sunday night.  We have a bag of homemade cookies that got pretty hard.  This crazy boy from Illinois threw a slice of bread in the bag and kept it sealed over night. The next day, the bread was hard as a rock but the cookies felt and tasted like they were freshly made.  Thank you Nick's grandma!

Movie theaters are better here. $6.50 tickets all the time ($13.00 in NJ), the bottomless free re-fill soda cup, Diet Dr. Pepper in the fountain, aaaaaaannnnnnnnddddddddddd they have White Castle at the concession stand….I don’t necessarily eat or even like White Castle but one of my buddies thought it was very cool that they were available. 

So many hippies out here – there’s not much to add to that.  If you love hippies than you’ll love being in Flagstaff. This has been an ongoing observation but they were crawling all over the grocery store today so I just wanted to share.

Seal or Sea Lying?  This isn’t a Flagstaff observation but….It’s a well known male Ward trait to be a great story teller. I received an e-mail from Papa DuB saying that Casey, my dog that thinks she’s part fish and looks like a seal when she swims, made a new friend while frolicking in the Barnegat Bay today…a harbor seal.  Apparently one swam by Casey today and made its way out to Holly Island, just off my neighbor’s dock….those of you who have been there know the spot.  Later in the day, this frisky fellow was said to have been sunbathing on our lower dock!  I really hope this is all true and I want to see these pictures! It’s funny that this story came out today because last night I watching videos and this guy paddled his kayak past a seal that was also sunbathing and I thought “Oh man that must be so cool to see a seal out in their element.”  Does that make me a psychic or something?

MOUNT UP!!!