New Orleans, BOLC II - Week 7

Done, done, fucking done, finally. Goodbye, home of the infantry, hello, Fort 'Sham' Houston.

Week 7 was our last week, and theoretically should have been the easiest. Of course, they couldn't resist screwing with us every single day, even after we graduated...

Monday was the day of our second APFT, which was actually kind of nice because the weather was 10 degrees cooler compared to the first one (about 65 instead of 75). It made the run a lot easier, and I improved my time by 30 seconds. Unfortunately, the lack of organized PT and the lack of time or energy to work out on my own meant that pushups hurt (although I still maxed them), and my situps got worse (only did 70 compared to 78 last time, and 80 is maxing *sigh*). The rest of Monday we spent turning in our CIF issue and cleaning weapons (with no cleaning kits, just some q-tips and dirty rags).

Tuesday we had to do a crossfit competition for PT... while Delta Company got to play ultimate footbal and ultimate frisbee. What. The. Fuck. So we cheated our way through the whole thing, and my platoon finished in 20 minutes, compared to the other platoons who finished in 30-40. Way to go us. That day was spent cleaning weapons all day - again, with no cleaning kits. Of course, the weapons were being inspected by MAJ KJ, so none of them passed inspection... Did he care that we had no cleaning kits? Of course not.

Wednesday was our "4"-mile graduation run (which wasn't even on our final counseling sheet...). It was actually 5.1 miles, but hey, who's counting? Now, I was in 1st platoon, Charlie Company. The run was a battalion-level run, with Charlie and Delta. So, given that my platoon is the FIRST platoon of the FIRST company, we should have been FIRST in the order of march, right? Wrong. We were last. Helloooo, slinky. Helloooo insane sprint for the first half mile since we had to constantly catch up to the platoons in front of us. Helloooo 8:45 average run pace for 5 miles (the ridiculously fast and painful first mile was balanced out by the ridiculously slow and painful last mile). My right foot also went numb the last 15 minutes, and alternated between not being felt properly and sending stabbing pain up my leg for the end of the run. Fucking peachy.

Later during the day, we... got to clean weapons again! AND we somehow had to have our barracks moved out of and cleaned to standard during that time. We had better cleaning supplies for the rooms than for the weapons, of course. The rooms were inspected at 1500 (most of them didn't pass and had to be re-cleaned), and the weapons were inspected at 1600 (we were originally supposed to be done at 1600...). Of course, MAJ KJ inspected the weapons, since this was our final day of cleaning them. One of the three checked had a tiny rust spot on the outside. Fail. One had some dust on it. Fail. The third was the weapin of one of our platoon's resident shitbags, who had barely cleaned his weapon at all, letting everyone else do all the work (there were four people who did this, and all four of their weapons were horrible... I know because I had to clean one of them after the failed inspection). Needless to say, his weapon was filthy. Fail. Draw weapons again, clean for... a half hour? Seriously, sir? Is a half hour really worth it at ALL? No, but that's ok. We re-drew weapons and cleaned for a half hour anyway (a whole half hour to clean some asshole's weapon that hadn't been TOUCHED all week... while said person hung out behind the building with some of his infantry buddies and did nothing, as usual). Then we turned them in and were finally released. Sometimes, I just don't understand the bullshit that goes on at BOLC II.

Thursday was the make-up day for people who fell out of the not-really-4-mile run. And for the 2 shitbags who didn't fall out but showed up to formation late. Suckers. And for the guy in our platoon whose elderly mother was having her third, extremely high-risk,open heart surgery, so he missed the run Weds (and the commander pretty much screwed the poor guy over... had it been me, there would have been an IG complaint in the making, but this guy is a better person than me and elected to drop the issue and just get the hell out of Fort Benning). The rest of us formed up retardedly early to turn in linens (0445 to be exact). Then we formed up again a couple hours early (0800) to sit around and do nothing for a while (surprise surprise). Finally we were bussed over to graduation (what a relief). AFter graduation (which was fortunately a short ceremony), Delta Co was released to return to their company area. Charlie Co was NOT released, because apparently we're the bitch company, and get to do all of the bullshit details. Go us. Once we were finally allowed to leave, we had to go back and pick up our leave forms and medical records, which fortunately went quickly. By that point, my platoon's cadre were like, "fuck it, it was nice working with you guys, peace out." So we skipped the mandatory safety brief and hauled ass out of there.

Thursday afternoon marked a day of travel to New Orleans, where I spent the night. A buddy of mine from my platoon who is also going to Fort Sam for BOLC III went with me, and we hung out in New Orleans all day. The city is pretty amazing. It's fairly laid-back during the day... kind of reminded me of NYC with a slower attitude. We had lunch (I had a hot roast beef and gravy sandwich, apparently known as a "sloppy roast beef" in the city) and a couple of drinks. Note to the wise, New Orleans is pretty much built around drinking, so their drinks are really strong. I'm a lightweight anyway, so two drinks would have made me buzzed regardless, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't walking straight when I finished them. We wandered around some more, I got slightly ill (only slightly, thank God...), and then finally started to sober up. I also spent a large chunk of money on some oil paintings. Music and art are probably my two biggest weaknesses when it comes to spending *sigh* If I remember I'll take a quick snapshot of one of the paintings I bought to show you...

Anyway, after that we went back to the hotel and relaxed for a couple of hours, until around 8:00pm. Then we headed back downtown, and holy CRAP it's a completely different city at night. The nighlife was definitely hopping. We had dinner at a place called Pat O'Brian's, which is well-known for its hurricanes (they're about a foot tall and as strong as every other drink in the city). And man were they good. We walked up and down the main strip for a little while, just taking in the sights, and then settled at the Old Opera House. I really wish I knew the name of the cover band that was playing there, because they were pretty damned good. We stayed there for several sets of music, until the band took their 2nd or 3rd break (I forget which) and some drunk guy came over and stood for like 5 minutes trying to get me or Jay to dance with him. Once his friend called him away and he was finally gone, we decided to head out and walk a little bit, since the band was taking a break. Then we realized that it was past 1am, and we had to check out at 11, so we headed back.

Today we travelled to Houston, where we'll be seeing an Astro's game tomorrow in the Astrodome. Monday morning we'll drive the last 3 hours to Fort Sam and check in there. Then we start BOLC III Weds (at 0530... gah). This trip is basically vacation time for us, which is turning out to be pretty fun. Glad Jay agreed to convoy it though... it wouldn't be nearly as much fun alone (I probably wouldn't have stayed in New Orleans alone, since it's not exactly the safest place for a single woman to wander around).

Anyway, hopefully Fort Sam is as cool as I'm expecting it to be. Will keep you posted :p