TGIF

Today was a looooong day, thank heaven its almost the weekend. It all started last night when I went to the library to work with my lab group on a physics lab write-up that was due today. We got there and realized that USMA's internal mainframe was down. Since everything here revolves around the internal websites, including many classes, we couldn't do it! Sweet, its due tomorrow, we haven't started it yet and now we can't even get to what we need to do it...at least I can get some face time with my plebe and try to figure out some of this math stuff I don't get.

Went down to do FCDT(fourth class development time) with my plebe. My squad leader has mandated that we do at least 2 FCDTs a week, one my choice one her choice. Last week she had asked me if I knew how to make a particular style of bracelet out of 550 cord (parachute cord). Me?! Know how to make a bracelet?! Are you serious? But it was pretty simple so I figured it out and decided that we could do that for FCDT. Since her roommate's team leader hadn't done anything with her yet this week she joined us and in about 15-20 minutes we were almost done with the project, everything was going as planned- shoulda known, that can't happen here. My plebe's roommate's team leader showed up and started talking, no big right? WRONG! 2 1/2 hours into this project TAPS plays and I am forced to scrap the whole thing and retreat to my room.

Feeling relieved to be out of there and somewhat tired I shower quickly and try to rack out. Unfortunately, shortly after I fell asleep my roommates decided that 12:30 at night is a good time to watch a movie. Already I could tell that today was going to be a long day.

I had the first two class hours off this morning, an opportunity that usually means catching up on the sleep I didn't get the night before but this time it means going to the library and working frantically on a lab write-up. Since both of my partners are in class, I basically ended up writing the whole thing on my own, though one of them did get the chance to help a little. After writing the first 3 of the 4 sections I had to quit for class, physics no less. Upon walking into the room I notice the desks are in an odd arrangement and there is a test on each one. CRAP! I completely spaced the test! 30 stressful minutes later the testing time ends and we all get up to go see the answers next door. . .pretty sure I got somewhere between 67% and 70%- no bueno.

Spanish and lunch, then back to the library to finish this stupid lab. An hour-ish later it was finished and I headed back to the room to study for my last class of the day. After skimming the texts I took a 20 minute nap and headed to class. Luckily, the class was fun and relieved some stress.

Not so luckily, my company had an APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) this afternoon. For those who don't know, I'm still just as lazy as I was before coming here. In fact, there are a few names for people like me, names like "slug" and "4-mile-a-year guy" ('cause i only run 4 miles a year, 2 two mile APFTs). Needless to say, these tests cause a little bit of anxiety for me since I've never been a good runner. I was one push-up shy of maxing that part, a few sit-ups short on that part- so far my score looks good. Then the dreaded 2-mile run. . .

2 miles isn't bad for people who run once in a while. In fact, a decent time for this distance is about 13 minutes, 12 is good and I know a few people who do it in about 9. 15 minutes of pain later I cross the finish line, ignore the person trying to hand me my time and run over to the railroad tracts where I proceed to lose everything I had in my stomach in front of everyone (that long after eating it wasn't much).

Well, at least I am now done with all the bad stuff for the day. One more mandatory meal and I the day is officially over! I waited patiently for a shower to open up and, courtesy of the wonderful West Point plumbing and lazy civilians who won't fix anything, took the coldest shower of my life. By a couple minutes in my entire body was numb, but just didn't care at this point so I stayed and waited until the plebes started calling minutes before getting out and getting ready for dinner. Unfortunately, the plebe that was supposed to be calling minutes was all jacked up and didn't show up until the final minute so I had 2 minutes to get out of the shower, dry off, get dressed and make it to formation.

Now the day is officially over and I am about to crash. Now if I could just get my roommates to quit harassing me about making bracelets...