Thankful for Honest People

All I can say at this point in time is thank goodness for honest people in this world. All week long I've been fretting over having to come up with the money for the deductible on the repair of my car, but today I received a message from the insurance company of the man who backed into me and he has accepted 100% liability for the damage. The insurance agent I had spoken to originally had warned me that it would be a potential fight to get them to accept any liability, but such is not the case. It's a refreshing reminder that there are decent people and not everyone is out there trying to avoid responsibility, and I suppose that while its frustrating to have had damage done to my car, at least I was fortunate enough to have the situation resolved amicably. Especially with some of my faith in humanity restored at the same time.

More on My Car

I wasn't exactly very elaborative about why the car experience was so crappy yesterday. Aside from the fact that it scared the crap out of me actually being hit, just over 2 weeks ago I recently changed my insurance over to the state of Missouri. In and of itself, that wasn't such a bad thing, however, at the suggestion of the individual I spoke to, I raised my insurance deductible from $100 to $500 to save $100 a year on the premium. That decision is jumping up to bite me in the rear end with this little episode. All I can hope is that the insurance company for the other guy will pay up since I was in drive when he actually made contact with my car. I'm not holding my breath though, and when noone gets any Christmas presents from me, it's because I'm going to have to sink $500 into the repair of my car. And knowing that if this had happened on the 6th, I would have only had to pay $100 is really, really, really pissing me off, and making the experience that much worse. It's just not fair.

Oh, and then, as the bad luck continues, today I put on one of my brand new pairs of BDUs, only to find out that they gave me X-short pants, so now I have to go buy a new pair, and that's an extra $30 right there. I am going to be poor.

This stinks. Severely.

What a Crappy Day

Today was not a good day. I went over to Walmart to get a few necessities for the upcoming week, and when I was getting ready to leave, someone backed into my car :-( I am not a happy camper right now.

Off and Running

OBC officially started yesterday, thank goodness, I was about ready to go crazy if I had to do one more label merge for mailings or continue to pursue inane projects. Of course, that's not to say that there isn't a possibility that OBC may turn out to be worse than what I have been doing (certainly the inprocessing this week isn't a ton of fun), but the main difference in the way I see it, is that OBC is something that I have to accomplish for myself. Even the painful parts will serve a purpose. The only purpose that I was filling while snowbirding was to accomplish tasks that people didn't want to have to actually do themselves.
I still don't know what to think of our class, I've only had a single day and limited interaction to assess what kind of people they are, but it seems pretty good so far. It is kind of weird that we have several guys who are in their late 30's, one guy will turn 40 this time next year! It's definitely something I'm still not used to, and it really stood out when a few of them mentioned that they had served during Desert Storm. I, on the other hand, remember being in 3rd grade and writing letters to soldiers who were deployed. Hopefully everyone just trades different areas of expertise and doesn't start sniping about who knows more or who is better qualified to be an officer... blah blah blah. We already suffered over 11 different cuts aimed at the West Point grads yesterday, so here's hoping that we'll all be able to earn our own reputations on merit rather than being confined by people's interpretation of stereotypes. *Fingers crossed*

Feeling Like a Soccer Mom

I can remember the horror of being forced to do aerobics during middle school in PE class while the guys were doing wrestling. We all complained about the idiocy of having cheesy music and cheesy workout routines, it felt like a "soccer mom" sort of thing to do.
Yet somehow, flash forward to present day, when I found myself heading to the gym with another MP LT, for a step aerobics class. And then, because of the quirks of the Thursday gym schedule, the beginner's class we were expecting turned out to be an advanced class. We figured what the heck, we were already there, we had already paid our $2, so we might as well have a go at it. It's rather a horrifying prospect to do silly movements in a room with mirrors on the wall, but somehow, we gamely worked our way through the basic step, crossovers, diagonals, V-steps, across the board steps, etc, and managed not to fall on our butts or do anything too embarrassing (besides admitting that step aerobics turned out to be a blast and a good work out). Of course, it was funny since I think we were the only active duty people there, rather than spouses, but maybe the soccer moms know something, because I'm ready to have another go at it.

Almost Done Snowbirding

After today I'll only have 5 more days of snowbirding time left, and then it'll finally be time to start OBC. I can't complain too much though, because being here early has allowed me to straighten out some problems and feel established before starting class. And the work that I have been doing was rewarded when one of the women I worked for called one of her friends to arrange to get me a new fridge/freezer. The one I had previously was more or less an overgrown bar fridge. The freezer was not a separate section from the fridge portion, but was just inside the same area and had a little flip up door inside, and I was warned by the maintenance guy that it wouldn't work very well and that he wouldn't recommend keeping things up there very long and not to stack anything in the freezer because the only things that would really stay frozen were the things actually on the bottom on the cold part. It was seriously like living out of the bar size fridge as a firstie, when nothing could really be kept frozen. I wasn't too happy about it, and was told that I couldn't switch rooms and couldn't get a new fridge unless the old one actually stopped functioning. I mentioned it to the civilian ladies I have been working for in the Protocol office, and one of them called her friend who works in the place that handles work orders, and asked if I would be reimbursed for any food that spoiled as a result of thawing. Miraculously, I had a new fridge (with an actual separate freezer section) later that same day. Score 1 for the snowbird connections!
Now I can only hope that my TDY orders get fixed similarly. I finally received my orders, and not only are they refusing to pay for anything until the 14th of August, they had also put me down as a Major! (I told the CO that I now outranked him according to my orders.) At least there is still a week before class starts, so hopefully that can be resolved before it becomes too big of a problem. We shall see.
My parents are coming down this weekend and bringing some of the things I couldn't fit into my car the first time I came here, and my TDY shipment from England is supposed to be delivered this afternoon, so I should be fairly established in my room after this weekend.

Getting Settled In

After over 3 weeks at Ft. Leonard Wood, aka Ft. Wood or Ft. Lost-in-the-Woods, I have my BOQ room. It's not too bad I suppose, because after all, it is right across from the builiding where I'll have the majority of my classes and the rooms are all relatively new. I also have my own kitchenette (complete with microwave, 2 stove top burners, sink, fridge and freezer) and my own bathroom, so it's definitely a step up in terms of privacy compared to my room at Cambridge. There were two different sets of buildings where I could have ended up at, and I got the location I was hoping for, although of course there are some drawbacks, but I'm satisfied and not going to worry about the little things, because the location is key and will help save on gas money and aimless driving back and forth across post.
It's kind of bittersweet to have my own place to stay now, because I've gotten pretty attached to the family (well, couple really since their only son is at WP in Brandon's class), and it's going to be hard to move out of there. I think for awhile, at least until my class actually starts, I may very well be splitting my time between my new room and the Wooten's. We shall see. As far as why I've gotten attached to the people I'm staying with, let me give you this as an example, yesterday I got to go horseback riding and ride on a motorcycle for the first time. They have 3 cats, 3 dogs, and 2 horses. The cats are addictive, and I think once I have a place of my own for real (and any pesky deployments out of the way), I'm probably going to be getting a cat of my own.
Righty, enough for now, time to hit the gym, we have our diagnostic APFT in less than 2 weeks, so still desperately trying to get myself semi-fit after the past year.