On The Occassion of My Nineteenth Birthday

Today I turn nineteen. This is not as exciting as it sounds. I don't gain any privileges or rights, and now I'm not eighteen (duh). I liked being eighteen. I felt young and full of purpose; I was eighteen and in the Navy, ready to go out and do great things. I had left home with nothing but the clothes on my back and a Bible in my hand- and now I turn nineteen. Whupdy-doo. I ordered myself some Chinese food, and my friends and I are probably going to play Scrabble a little later.
My cousin is getting married today. I wish I could be there, but as Jefferson said: "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom". The needs of the Navy come first, and right now the Navy doesn't need me in Arizona. It's alright, though; I'll be webcamming with people at the reception.
Not much else has been going on. On thursday I classed up, I'm in tcno (pronounced "techno"), learning more about computers than I want to. I'm on night classes, which is pretty sweet. we muster at 1800 and end at 0000. At least, that's the official schedule; our instructor said if we stay on top of stuff he will generally let us out earlier.
Tomorrow is the 109th annual Submarine Birthday Ball! I'm on the color guard. I'll be sure to write about it in the near future, probably sunday.
-The Albatross

Topside Sentry

Today I stood watch for five and one-half hours. This is normal when you're waiting to class up. I'll be on hold for a month or two, most likely. But that's another story. Actually, that's about all there is too it, but whatever. So like I was saying, I had to stand watch for a long time.I've stood four hour watches before, but not five and a half. The watch I had to stand is called topside sentry, commonly called the rover. Basically, you rove the building with a checklist and make sure certain doors are locked, building isn't burning down or flooding, and everyone inside it has a security badge (it was in a secured building). All the roves at sub school are continuous, meaning you're supposed to keep moving the whole time. Most people just rove every hour and check off the things on the list (some don't even rove, and just check everything as "secure") and hang out on the quarterdeck (entryway) with the P.O.O.D. The Petty Officer Of the Deck is the person who checks badges and sometimes bags as people enter the building, and keeps a log of all the major goings-on. Well, I, being the squared-away Sailor I am, rove continuously. For five and one-half hours. In a single building. With five stories. And I'm not allowed to use the elevator, which I wouldn't have used anyways. Needless to say, I am very tired. The joints in my legs hurt, and my legs feel weak. But it could always be worse, as I am so fond of saying. I can't really think of anything that makes sense right now, though. I guess I could have had to RUN my rove. That wouldn't have been fun. Or I could have been realived late. Before I assumed my watch, I had to be inspected. I was "[explitive deleted]-near perfect". Of course I was, I'm a Silver Dolphin! it's our job to be sat (that's short for "satisfactory"). Of course, the cape/collar on my blues was a little messed up from the dry cleaners (they always end up putting double creases in), but my shoes were VERY shiny (my roommate thought they were corframs, which are the shiney plastic shoes), and the guy inspecting me was impressed by how clean my dixie cup (white hat) was. He also thought my neckerchief was perfect. But enough about how good I look.
Look! I'm starting a new paragraph. Fancy that. Tomorrow I'm in the colorguard for the retirement ceremony of a Senior Chief. I'm the left rifle. it's pretty sweet because it gets me out of cleaning, which, aside from stading watch, is all you do while in hold. I believe that is all I have to say for now. I am very frustrated with how hard it is to find the perfect used car. All I want is something affordable, reliable, be able to carry lots of people or stuff, get great gas mileage, be quick enough to do bad things to your spine, handle well enough to turn on a dime with nine cents change, and be located just down the street. Is that too much to ask?
-The Albatross

2009 New York St. Paddy's Day Parade

I actually do not mind getting up at 0300. I am a morning person. That being the case, I believe everyone found me a little annoying yesterday, as we piled, bleary-eyed into the vans to go down to New York City. I slept a good portion of the way there. It wasn't very restful sleep, of course; Ford Econoline vans are not known for there plush, quite ride and sleeping comfort.
We got to the Armory (I'm not sure what the actual name of the place is, but it's the headquarters of the 69th Regiment) and got dressed out in our dress blues, complete with spats, aguillettes, and asgots. The aguillettes and asgots are either blue or gold. Actually, a few of of us (myself included) put on white asgots and aguillettes first, because we were on a color detail. There was a presentation of a portait of Lt. Murphy to his parents. lt. Murphy was a SEAL who recieved the Congressional Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan. I was holding the Navy flag. After that we went to the parade. We had a little bit of trouble figuring out where were supposed to go, but we made it. The parade went pretty well. One guy almost dropped his rifle, but it sort of bounced back into his hand. The funniest thing someone said was (from a lady): "Look at those nice tushies!". That made it a little hard to maintian my military bearing, but I got over it. The parade was about five miles, but it actually felt shorter than the one in New Jersey because there were so many people. In New Jersey there were some parts where there weren't any people; here it was packed the whole way. We rode the subway back to the Armory; we looked a little out of place with M-1 Garands and full dress, but it was fun. On the way home we stopped at this little smokehouse BBQ restaurant. The food was pretty good and it had an awesome, sort of rustic atmoshpere.
People drive funny here. They sort of slow down and speed up at random. I don't like it.
-The Albatross

New Jersey Parade

I believe the parade went rather well. I dropped my rifle once; I wasn't the only one to do so, so I don't feel to bad about it. We got our picture taken with Ms. New Jersey, which seems to be the norm with the Silver Dolphins- they also have pictures of them with Ms. Connecticut and one other, I believe it's Ms. Massachusets. It's the goal of the team to get pictures of all the New England Ms.s. She was pretty, but in a very manufactured, Barbie-doll kind of way. She was also married, to the dissappointment of many on the team. You overhear lots of funny things from people in the crowd, from "They're not REAL Sailors!" to "You guys are HEROS!".
Tomorrow we have a parade in new York! It's twice as long as yesterday's (this one's going to be about five miles). This is a good thing, because I was dissapointed when the parade ended yesterday; I thought it was much too short. What isn't a good thing is the leaving at 0400-ness. It's not too bad, because you can sleep in the van (if you're not driving), except you can't sleep to heavily or the other guys will do something to you. Stay tuned to find out what happens next!
-The Albatross

Graduation and Randomness

The graduation ceremony was very nice. It was small and was not very long. A few people made some speeches, and a crusty old sub vet read the Tolling of the Boats. (When used in this context, crusty is more of a complement than insult, it refrences another term, "salty"). This is a ceremony where the names of all submarines lost prior to WWII, during WWII, and after WWII are read and a bell is struck twice for each one. It was very emotional to hear all the names of the submarines lost at sea, and to think each one had a crew of at least forty two fine young men. We then got a little certicate saying we completed the course and now are submariners. My class was the largest to graduate to date, I believe there were 91 of us. There were very few people there besides us and the higher-ups present; just the families within driving distance.
I am happy with my new room. The quarters aren't as centrally located as my last one, but they're closer to the classrooms. My new roommate is cool, he seems pretty intelligent and is just about as neat as I am (read: enough to pass a random room inspection).
I saw a turkey buzzard today. I was little surprised; I didn't think they were out here, but I can't see a reason why they shouldn't be. Maybe because there are no deserts with dead oxen.
I also saw a sundog today. It was very pretty, but I'll probably have to bust out my raincoat soon. That's okay, I like the rain.
I have my first parade with the Silver Dolphins tomorrow! It's in New Jersey. Update to follow. Also, watch for me on TV in the NY parade on tuesday.
-The Albatross

Can this be?

I'm sitting here in my room, all alone, listening to some Pachelbel, in silence. Silence is a wonderful thing to hear when it's not something you get very often. Why am I doing this, you may ask? Well, I will tell you. My roommates have moved out. I'll be moving in a few days, we're moving at different times because we're going different places. My roommates will be going to BMS (Basic Mechanical Skills), and I'm going to ATT. I don't know what it stands for but I know I'm going to learn about computers, which is a good thing, because I actually don't know all that much about them. [EDIT: I have been informed that ATT stands for Apprenticeship Technical Training.]
You may wonder if I am sad my roommates have left. The truth is, not really. They're good guys, and I'm sure there'll be times I miss them, but life is a casting off (props if you know who said that). Being in the Navy, I especially like that expression. As I was saying, they're good guys, but I like going to bed early, and they like staying up late. And I like good music; one of my roommate listens to lots of techno. Actually, it's only two or three different songs, but he listens to them a lot. Which is weird (weird is a weird word, it defies the "i" before "e" rule), considering how repetitive (and non-chord-changing) techno is. The other roommate agreed with me about the techno, which is cool. Not that I have anything against techno, but I can only take so much. So hear I am, no longer listening to Pachelbel, but bluegrass. That most definately would not have been tolerated, I'd have had to put on the headphones. Oh, and I'm not wearing pants.
-The Albatross

Late Night (Early Morning?) Thoughts

The time is currently 0033 (1:33 AM) and I can't sleep. It's probably because I got twice as much sleep as I normally do yesterday. That's the problem with weekends, they throw off your circadian rhythm. I slept until 0900 or 1000 yesterday, which means I've been up for about 15 hours; I'm used to 18 hour days. But such is life at Basic Enlisted Submarine School; I usually reveille at 0530 and typically don't tap until around 22- or 2300.
I graduate this coming friday. I guess it's exciting, but I don't feel too excited. That's probably because I've still got three more schools after this one until I make it to the fleet. I think there's a major disconnect here. I enlist, all pumped about submarining and doing all this awesome stuff, and then they sit you in a classroom for four weeks teaching you one or two weeks worth of stuff. Once you're done with that they throw a foxtail (a kind of small broom) at you and tell you to get to work. Now, don't get me wrong, in no way do I regret enlisting, but I feel like I've almost lost my sense of purpose. But such is life, I've just got to stick it out for another year or so and THEN I'll actually start learning and doing stuff.
I can't really think of anything else to write about. If you have anything specific you want me to write about, please leave it in the comments section and I will do my best to oblige you.
-The Albatross