Love/Hate Relationships - Just Awful

This theme seems to just flow through West Point. Although the "hate" part is often way more evident then the "love", I still have to remind myself how truly blessed I am to be here. I feel myself noticing that even more now as there are more and more people being separated for small stuff
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On a lighter note, I also have a love/hate relationship for my new favorite shoes, the New Balance Minimalists. I would argue that they are my favorite shoe ever, but the Nike Free's still hold the top spot as a great overall shoe. Returning back to the Minimalists, they are awesome for crossfit. I have even noticed that there is a growth in wearers over the past few months; perhaps due to the growth and attention that crossfit has been bringing? I can't say that the two are tied together but I can say that they definitely complement each other. The love part of these shoes are that they are perfect for Olympic lifts, short runs and box jumps.....the hate part means that when I wear them I usually do Olympic lifts, short runs, and box jumps. Its worth it though. The religious crossfit workouts have been going well and I have already noticed an improvement. We shall see what next month brings

In continuation with the theme, ski instructor club is the essence of a messy relationship. I ski for free and get hot coco, but I have to babysit crazy 8 year old's 2 times a week. The past time wasn't bad because I had a good group of kids, but the time before I had a devil who just wouldn't listen. He ended up taking off on the chair lift by himself. So I got his mom and had him be grounded for the day. Luckily he did not come back the next week. I have decided that I will give my kids 10 years to prove themselves worthy. If they still do not listen or coroperate I will find a tall cliff, abondon truck stop, or a tropical rain forest and make an example of them. I figure if I have 5 kids then the other 4 will listen a whole lot better after the example has been made


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Lazy Is an Art Form

I feel that there is a certain level of laziness that has to be reached before relaizing that it has gone to far. I am feeling that now as I sit in front of my computer typing on a blog, because I am to lazy to take off my ACU's to go to bed.... Even as I write this I can't help but feel a pitiful sense of how pathetic this really is. If only my bed wasn't 3 feet away it wouldn't be so hard of a decision... if only my boots were already off... if only I didn't have to brush my teeth still...

on that note, I'm going to attempt to motivate myself into bed. More updates following tomorrow.

"Running Sucks"...In a Blizzard

The title of the post comes from one of my favorite Nike shirts. I bought it because it is somewhat true, but also in a sense, ironic seeing as I have grown an addiction towards it. That all being said, Jocelyn and I have been talking about planning a trip down to Mount St. Mary's for a day, where I wake up, run down there, and just hang out. After waiting long enough to try the expedition, I decided that Saturday was the day, regardless of how I was feeling or what the weather looked like. That was probably a mistake because I woke up with 4 inches of fresh snow and another 2-5 inches expected by noon. There was also a 15-30mph wind that was whipping down the Hudson making it actually feel like 8 degrees. Yet even seeing this all happen out my window I still threw on my North Face Onesie (the tron suit as Brian Gerardi and I like to call it), a thin pair of sweat pants, and a thin long sleeve shirt. Keep in mind that the last time I used the Onsie, I was sweating, so I fully expecting to do the same on this run, regardless of the snow.

(North Face Onesie)

It is actually kind of funny how the miles were broken down. It wasn't just a "run", where you start and end. It was more of a 12 part series on how running went from "running is exhilarating!", to "running SUCKS!". The best way to do this is a break down of mile per mile. That way it shows that transition a little better.

Mile 1: "Snow storm! awesome! ....Rangers lead the way!!"
Mile 2: "Its colder than I expected it.... wish I had a hat"
Mile 3: "well, at least its snowing"
Mile 4: "I probably should have worn longer socks; there is a snow drift in my shoe"
Mile 5: "I think my eye brows and Onesie hood have ice frozen to it"
Mile 6: "Yep, my eye brows def have ice on them...also, if I blink for to long my eye lashes freeze together...Awesome.."
Mile 7: "Water break?....crud, the bottles are frozen shut"
Mile 8: "Well at least there is only a 30 mph headwind that makes the snow feel like ice bullets"
Mile 9: "Rangers lead the way!......Shut up... I want a shower."
Mile 10: "I honestly cannot tell what is snot, snow, or tears"
Mile 11: "My fingers have decided to stop responding to me... its alright, I didn't want to change the song anyways"
Mile 12: "My face has frozen into this stupid wide-mouth-bass look, my hands can't open a door, I can't look up more then 5 feet in front of me without have snow fly into my eyes....is that Jocely's dorm?!?! HECK YES! I'M SAVED!"

I did end up actually yelling for joy when I saw the street that turned up to the back of Jocelyn's college. No one was even driving on the street so I wasn't to worried about being judged.
That ended up being one of the top 10 best showers I have ever had. I had it on the scald setting and just sat in it for a good 20 mins.

Winter Wonder Land

The past few days have been pretty awesome for me. Granted, school is still ruining things for me but the extra curricular part is fantastic. I really feel that I might be abusing the power of a free lift ticket that the instructors get. Add that to the free hot coco in the lodge and they are practically kicking me off the slopes every night.
Thursday was my second lesson. It was a little bit better simply because I knew what to expect, but it was still awful trying to get the little kids to listen to me. I really gotta Google ski lesson tips. All they want to do is see how fast they can go down the hill... kind of defeats the point of an instructor. I was the duty driver on Thursday, so I ended up dropping most of the people off and then coming back to ski with Wilson for another hour. It was a pretty awesome way to spend a no HW Thursday.
Then on Friday I busted out of class and quick did a Crossfit workout before walking up to the slopes. The Crossfit was cleans and dips so my legs were smoked. Dunlap and I still got to stay till the hill closed. On the last run, I brought the pipes up and got to smoke them on the top. The joy doesn't stop there either; as soon as I got back inside, I asked for my free cup of hot coco and the lady asked if I wanted a free slice of BBQ pizza because they were throwing away the extra's. Of course I said yes, so I saddled up to the fire place eating my pizza, sipping hot coco and watching the lift lines close up. Could ask for a better Friday night at West Point, right?

Looking Stupid Never Goes Out Of Style

It has been quite some time since I last posted on here. I believe that I was talking about my underwear getting me in to more trouble? Thanks to my wide vary of selected styles, I have a pair that actually was useful this weekend. As you can see by the picture, they are my latest ski instructor pair that have little elfs on skis... which basically sums up the past three days.

This weekend we gave up our three day break to become certified at the Victor Constant (The VC) ski hill. We managed to luck out with the weather, but there was still only one run open. It was about 15-20* both days and they were trying to make snow all day long. It basically meant that if you stopped for more then 2 minutes on any given part of the slope, you were going to look like a dusted snow ball. The training was somewhat of a let down for me because it felt like ski school for us rather then ski school on teaching ski school. . . if that makes any sense. By Monday I was left more aware of making a pizza then I was of teaching it. On that note, I had my first class yesterday (Tuesday). I guess I got lucky with the group but they were two 8 year olds that wanted nothing better to do then go straight down the hill as fast as possible. Its kind of hard to teach little kids how to be under control when all they want to do is break the land speed record. I am going to try and bribe them with chocolate kisses next week... I just honestly don't know what to teach them if they already know how to turn and slow down.

In theme with the title, yesterday was also the 3rd lesson of Military Movement. For that lesson we were learning how to do forward rolls, backward roles, 360's, and rope climbs. This was the second lesson where they were teaching a rope climb technique and it was awful. I can do the lock climb pretty well, but this new clinch thing was awful. I managed to muscle my way up using mostly my arms and just barely reaching the 5pts marker. You might think that would be the hardest part, but the back rolls are going to be the death of me. I can do the jumping roll with a fair amount of height and distance but that stupid back roll about knocks me out every time. It took me about 6 tries before I actually applied the "chin-to-chest" approach; by that point I had slammed the back of my head to the mat so many times that I sounded like Rocky after 23 rounds. I guess when you stop all your momentum with your dome piece then its hard to keep rolling over yourself. I will hopefully retest on that soon.

Thats about it for now, I will try to update again on Thursday or sometime this weekend. Off to do homework, take a yearbook picture, and then crossfit.

Not a Great Start

The past 48 hours have probably not been the hottest start for me. Granted, we aren't really starting anything, still all this idle time might be the death of me. Two nights ago, right before bed I was caught walking to the bathroom in my boxers and t-shirt. when i say walking to the bathroom please understand that the men's bathroom is literally 2 feet from our room door. Still, he saw me right as I entered into my room. I think he was to flabbergasted to really yell at me and just sent me to my room. The next morning I tried to go apologize to him and explain that I was just going to bed and he simply said that we would talk about it at laundry duties later on in the morning. A very scary thing to hear your 1st SGT say. Kind of like having your mom tell you that you will wait in your room until dad comes home. At duties, he called me out on the wall alone and and told me that until I started acting like a plebe then I would not be joining my fellow plebes during duties. With that, he sent me to my room. I felt pretty guilty at first until I heard that there was not a single article of clothing delivered... just another waste of an hour. It was kind of funny because after I didn't come back all the plebes thought that they were taking me out back and killing me. One of them said he was just waiting to hear the spin-chilling shrieks or a pushup cadence that was astronomically high .... down - up, 1,001 . . . . down - up, 1,002.

Last night we decided to have a last minute PMI inspection. Major Lee was walking around and was not pleased with the standards so he decided that before anyone could go on pass, they had to be checked off on a hard core PMI inspection. He was actually threatening to bring a plebe up on honor for short sheeting his bed. I am trying to write this without any positive or negative thoughts towards him, that way its a more accurate picture. So when I say that these happened, I am not over-exaggerating to make a point. He was also flipping beds during the plebe brief making sure that every one had two sheets and a bed condom. Although mine does technically have two sheets on it, I am sure he probably would have ripped me a new one if he saw how I made it.

Thats all for now. Off to brunch with Jessie, then maybe some homework and then figure out how to minutes work. At least I won't be able to lock any keys in the trunk room with minutes lol.

American eagle boxers- $7.99

Black Army shirt - $12.99

White flipflops -$4.99

The sight of your first SGT face as you walk out of your room with only that on - priceless. There are some things money can't buy, like the joys of plebe life, for everything else there is mastercard.

The Good Life

As much as I hate to admit it, the past few days have been living the high life...literally. I got the 6th floor of Scott, or what we call as the lower half of the Pent-house suit. I will admit we probably have one of the best rooms in the Corps if it wasn't up 6 flights of stairs. Needless to say, we have two windows in our room that allow plenty of natural sun to come in. One remind me of Jocelyn's dorm because I can ALMOST see the edge of the 'beautiful' Hudson river... unfortunately, Mac Long is in the way. The other window leads out to the roof. . . . . lets take a moment to pause and think of why this is such a great/bad idea for a plebe to have access to. The best part is, the only other window that can reach the roof is also inhabited by plebes.... ROOF-TOP PARTY! We are talking about leaving a George Foreman grill out there and having our own party during the spring time. As of right now, it is working fantastic as a giant fridge. It really is the simple things in life.

On top of that, I found a website that lets me watch all the family guy episodes for free, and, to make life better, because I was already fingerprinted last year at the prepschool, all I have to do today is show up and eat. Pretty rough. Watch tv, eat, sleep, eat. Gotta love the 'high' life.

The one thing to knock me down from my little perch (oh the puns, they are so easy when your on the 6th floor) was the first e-mail I saw when I got back from break was a 5/5 for not signing out. That means 5 hours and 5 demerits for not writing my name down. Crud.. oh well, "Its all for the corps".

Recap

The precious break is over. It finished just as quickly as it started but I think everything goes by much faster in hindsight. Still, its always hard/sad to leave the comforts of home. I honestly think the hardest part was saying goodbye to all of my clothes. I don't care if you call me a girl, I am really going to miss all my jeans, sweaters, polo's and jackets....also my shoes and hats. Oh well, at least here its not a challenge waking up and deciding what I should wear. Good rule of thumb; everything matches with gray.

Not a whole lot happened since my last post. I think the coolest thing since was Austin and I doing a "year long" crossfit WOD on new years eve. Pretty pathetic way to finish the year but it was still pretty awesome. We did a 2 mile run, 20 squat cleans, 20 box jumps, 20 lunges, 20 box jumps, 20 squat cleans, and then another 2 mile run. I finished the run right at 12:03 and came flying through the neighborhood to finish the run as fireworks were going off... pretty awesome way to finish a WOD.
We did almost the same thing the next day. at about 1130 we decided to do Fran "real quick". It ended up only taking 6 mins but still was an awful idea after watching TV all night and eating like a fatman. After that, I got a haircut that I am determined to make last till Feb, and then went out and smoked my pipe for a good 45 mins.

Will update more when I download pictures off my camera. For now I think I might take a nap or start on 4 week old dirty laundry