Postmarked 05/19/09

MARINE BOOT CAMP- WHERE CLEANING IS THE FUN PART

After all these years of doing everything possible to avoid cleaning, it's terribly ironic that the highlight of my day is wiping windows or mopping the floor. There goes relativity biting me in the ass again. I've lost 10 pounds in the past week. I now weigh 180. I'm pretty sure I'm going to come out of boot camp a twig. All that means is I'll have to hit weights and supplements hardcore again. I honestly don't get the Marine's work-out plan. We do pull-ups, crunches, & push ups every 4 hours every day. We never have a rest period and our muscles are always exhausted. Everyone I've talked to says they can't do as many pull-ups as they used to. It's dumb and irritating. I got diagnosed with bronchitis yesterday. All of those days of faking sick to get out of school are catching up to me.

Our platoon screw up is Recruit Crutchfield. Not only does he fail at everything, he directly tells us he doesn't care about the platoon and hopes they just send him home. The only word that comes to mind when I see him is "anti-effort." Anyway, every time he messes up bad (about every 3 hours) our guide and squad leaders get punished for it, usually quarterdecked. It infuriates me. On top of it, he eats dessert every day, when we've been entrusted to monitor our own nutrition (he is overweight and sloppy). So yesterday, after he got our guide smoked due to talking back to our Senior Drill Instructor, I saw him in line giggling with a piece of cake on his tray. I snapped, went over to him, grabbed his cake, threw it in the trash, and told him the garbage can deserved the cake more than he did. I walked back over to my spot in line and spotted drill instructor Sergeant Ponce with his arms folded. He nodded at me and walked off. Getting a nod or approval from a drill instructor is about as rare as seeing an atheist at church. Anyway, I'm not proud I lost my temper, but you've got to understand you have to have a completely different mindset here than in the real world.

Other things of note: We got 2nd in initial drill. We were told if we got 1st we'd get to watch a boot-legged copy of X-men Origins. I wanted to see it so bad, but apparently I'll have to wait. I really hate being next to the airport. Knowing every plan that takes off has people going on vacation or going back to their families gets mad depressing. However, being almost done with Phase I is a huge motivation. I have swim week left, then it's off to Camp Pendleton to shoot stuff. Once again, please keep me in your prayers that nothing happens to cause my graduation to get pushed back. It is the biggest worry on my mind right now. Hope to write happier letters in the future. ~Patrick