Of Mice and Men

So my day so far has been one of those days. I woke up at 4 am to do pt. After pressing snooze for a while I finally crawled out of my bed. We are supposed to empty our garbage every day so I checked my can and all I had in there was one granola bar wrapper. I decided instead of wasting the whole bag, instead I would just grab the wrapper and dispose of it on the way out. So I picked it up. As I did, I felt something stuffed inside the wrapper and tried to remember what I had out inside. I threw the wrapper in a boz I was also throwing out and out ran a mouse!!!! I yelled and tried to shut the box with my foot, however I wasn't quick enough and the mouse escaped and ran under my bed. So if you know me well I am definitely freaked out to head back to my room for pretty much anything. . . . (you can thank my mom and my grandma for that) Oh well... I guess I can leave treats for it and I can have a pet in my room, or something.
Anyway, then I went out to PT still shuddering from the feel of the mouse in my hands, and we stood out there for about ten minutes when they told us it was cancelled due to thunderstorm. I however couldn't go back to sleep so I just went back to my mice infested room. After breakfast I reported the mouse to maintenance, but we already did that a few days ago and nothing has been done. I feel like it really may just be a part of my Floridian existence.
So then I went to work today and did pretty much not a lot. I drank a lot of coffee, which I have found gets me through the day. I had a meeting with a LT about going to officer candidate school. My boss during my day job made the appointment for me and pretty much told me I needed to go. I'm not sure that is the route I want to go as of now, but we shall see.... I am supposed to meet him again probably next week to discuss my options. Once again, I will just have to see how that goes. Well, I am off to have a good time, and by that I mean run 4 1/2 miles around that base.... good times, I know.

The Sun Hurts

It's a super sunny and hot Monday here in P-Cola. I can't complain though because I spent all day Saturday at an amazingly beautiful beach. I'm experiencing the kind of feeling that just hits you once in a while like "I can't believe this is my life." It's a bit surreal but I am loving it so far. I did get pretty burnt at the beach on Sat, so much so that I couldn't return on Sunday. The sun here is a bit different from the MN sun.... a bit stronger, who would have thought. It won't keep me away for long though!!!! I fully intend to utilize that beach as much as I can.
Not a whole lot is new here though. I am slowly learning the way around here, and can't wait until I get a car. The cab fares are killing all of us! Also this weekend I should be on phase 3 liberty which means I can leave base for the whole weekend! Yeah! Now on the weekends I have to be back by 11:30 pm and on weekdays 9:30. It's not so bad, but it would be nice not to have to muster all the time. (Being in uniform at these times for inspection and attendance.) On a good inspection note, I got and outstanding on my room inspection (for those who know me well this is a great accomplishment!)
We've been doing PT on a regular basis here at the rediculous time of 4:45 am. I somehow can't seem to be awake enough at that time. Anyway I have been running with the boys... (a group of at least 30 boys and 3 girls) It makes me feel good that I am fast enough to be in the "fast," group. On Friday we had to run our fitness test, a mile and half run, push ups and situps... I did my run in 11:20 so I was pretty proud of myself... my goal is under 11 minutes. We shall see, after all I am getting pretty old now. Almost 24 :-o
Well off to muster.... peace
Ashley

UPDATE!

Hey! It's Sunday night, and I am recovering from an awesome weekend. Friday I got upped to Phase 2 status which means I can leave base and pretty much go anywhere as long as I am back by 11:30 pm. So Saturday a bunch of us went to the mall, where though unusual I showed contraint when using my debit card.... trust me it was really hard. Then we went to the beach where I laid out all day long,... It WAS GLORIOUS! I am starting to think Florida may actually be pretty awesome. We stayed at the beach until dark and made it back just in time to have a beer on base before we had to check in.
I have met some pretty cool people here, but still miss my Minnesota pals. One good thing is that because I am not starting school for a couple months, I am able to get an out of area chit, which means I may be able to fly home for a weekend. I am looking forward to trying that, possibly for halloween weekend... that's always a fun one. Anyway,,,, until then I will be working on my tan.
Oh I also start my "job" tomorrow until I go to school. It will be interesting to see what that is as it could be any number of things. I will keep you all posted! LOVE LOVE

New Address

HI! I a6 getting settled in here in Pensacola. I finally have my new address :
SN Ashley Olson
440 Roberts Ave.
PMB #1468
Pensacola Fl, 32511-5151
This will be the address for many a months!

So Florida so far is an interesting place. It is extrememly humid, even more so than Minnesota. Seriously you walk outside and are dripping sweat. But at least the AC is good, I get super cold at night... better than being too hot though. Today I went to a bunch of briefs on acceptable behavior etc. It was a bit like high school, but the Jewish Chaplain made all 30 some of us spit into the same plastic cup, then he held it up and gave us a speech on how all the spit from all of us was more clean than if you chose to sleep with someone in Pensacola.... it was pretty funny. One of the girls refused to spit into the cup... I personally thought she should get over herself.

We have been having a lot of torrential downpours, there will literally be inches of water on the ground after only a few minutes, and we get stuck inside because of the "dangerous" lightning. Oh well. There is not a lot else new here... I am waiting for my next level of liberty freedom so I can hit the beach next weekend!

FLORIDA

Hello! I am finally out of boot camp. It ended up being a lot easier than I anticipated, which I believe to be a good thing. During boot camp, the RDC's (Recruit Division Commanders" made me the divisional Yeoman, which requires a lot of paper work and running around. Basically I had to catch up on the stuff other recruits did during the day at night, (when I should have been sleeping :-)!) Anyway there were some perks to this, I got to eat popcorn once, I could listen to music, got to call home a couple extra times, and also got out of a few beat downs because of paperwork. HAHA.
I graduated on July 2nd, and on the 7th flew down to Pensacola Fl, for my A School. (After an awesome 4th of July weekend with my family) It is seriously better here, we can actually put stuff in our pockets, and people aren't constantly yelling at us.We have a lot of free time right now, and I'm not sure when that will change. Due to some delays, I just found out I will be here on hold for about 2-3 months before I even begin my school. Then my school itself if 3 months long. So I am looking at maybe coming back to MN in Jan? Feb? It could be worse though...(I am in Florida, and getting paid!) My plan is to spend some quality beach time, so my BFF Shakakan can be jealous of the bronzed goddess I will become.
I have a new address also, not exactly sure of that now. Hopefully I will find out soon! More to follow.
LOVE,
Ashley!