Basic 6 David's Journal July 9

2009 07 09

This has been the longest day. I don’t remember it starting. We were to wake up at 0445. My internal clock for some reason woke me up at 0444. It has done that to me every morning so far. I am grateful for this. Now remember 0445 is 0245 in Arizona. We had a half hour to be outside and in formation. I was shaved, brushed my teeth and had all of my stuff ready in about 15 minutes. We were then taken to breakfast. This was too early for me to eat, and I only had 3.5 minutes to actually eat. Rush, rush, rush. I was actually able to get a lot down. I then got an advance on my pay and then spent $4.30 on a haircut. The guy in front of me had his hair totally shaved already and he saved $4.30. We later had a lot of waiting for the next few steps. We first took a picture for our military ID, then we need to go through blood test. While waiting I saw two soldiers faint and a few others who were a little weak. By this time I need to go poop real bad, but did not want to ask the Drill Sgt. When it was my turn to give blood the soldier taking my blood messed up not once, but twice. I even gave him a nice vein to work with. He finally gave up and sent me to the doctor to do me. She gets it right on my first shot, but messes up and wasn’t able to get enough blood into the four cylinders. By this time blood is dripping down my arm, and I need to get another shot. She gives it and you guessed it she messed up and I need to get another shot. Luckily I didn’t’ feel weak at all, but I definitely have not had much luck with shots lately.

After the blood test I took the eye test. My left eye is great, but my right eye has some problems. I did not pass the first test, and was sent to a second test. I almost didn’t pass it. The lady said you better go before she changes her mind. After that I got my foot sized by some special machine that measures my feet. It was pretty cool, but it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. After that I went and got lunch. I don’t think I have explained how chow time works. We get in two lines and stand shoulder to shoulder. We are not allowed to talk. When we are close to the trays we use hand sanitizer. (I like how convenient that is.) We then pick up a tray and silverware. We quickly order our main dish and then a side dish. We then find a seat. We need to make sure it is next to another soldier and not leave a space. We then can get some fruit, salad and dessert from the salad bar. We then get a drink. There are lots of drinks to choose from, but I always pick water.