Milk and OCS..in that order

True Fact: I think I’m addicted to Silk: Vanilla soymilk…ask me why? Here’s the long and the less than short of it…last semester I lived a life devoid of the simple pleasures which accompany a mini-fridge…not so this time. This semester was different, a new chance to maintain a relatively normal eating pattern and keep good food fresh (sounds kinda catchy, like something off a ziplock commercial or whatnot…just more goodness from my own fertile brain) but yeah as it happened, my first trip to Plaza Extra (sounds Hispanic you think, right, oh no, the Virgin Island chain is owned by a handful of Arabs who speak no Spanish-o at all, nunca, nada, ni siquiera una palabra en espanol para aquellos)…alas I digress…so back in January, when I was here on the 3rd day of the year..seems only yesterday…I went shopping to stock up the ole ice box, and low and behold there was no milk to be had at all…no whole milk (fat ass milk I call it), no 2%,1%, skim…or any of the carton sizes…but they had a whole section of Silk brand products…pulling back the roll-a-dex of rememberances, I found the one where I was tasked with picking up several cartons of vanilla silk for Jon and Heathers kids (here heather, here’s your “shout out”…happy now? ) I also picked up 2 packages of double stuffed oreo’s for jon, aaron and I, to be eaten 1.on the clock 2.on the cook line 3.in frozen dessert mugs and 4.with the stores milk (should be noted that sometimes we did clock off and take over a booth in the 50’s-I feel like orwell here, but the 50’s in Coltonspeak were the last booths closest to the bathroom with the painting of a guy riding a horse…which after many a close look, you can tell that the face of the rugged cowboy is none other than President George W. himself…) where am I going with this? …hey look a duck! …ADD strikes again, this time the written word, eeeeeshh….ahh yes, milk or the lack there of…so grabbed the soy milk, picked up a box of mini wheats and went home..a few days later when the palate was jonesin’ for some cereal I utilized my tupperwear container and hand dandy spoon and went to town…I must say the initial shock of mini wheats n’ soy milk was a little alarming…think of taking a hugeass bite out of delta farmland when crops are in season…the cereal added to the natural grown taste of the milk, and all in all it was amazing, I was hooked…still am…now I did give ole lactose another chance when I picked up a trusty half gallon at Foodtown, only to ruin a perfectly good bowl of cereal with the sourest milk in the world…adios lactose…when the cafeteria gets me down with nothing but chicken and rice, and more rice to go with the burned greasy chicken stuff…I reach for my trusty tupperwear container (never washed, I just keep it in the freezer, let the leftover milk freeze and then it makes for little “treats” at the bottom of each new cereal bowl…still can’t wait for me to come home mom??? Haha) It should also be noted that a gallon of 2% milk will set you back 6$, whereas a bit carton thing..some 70oz. is only 4$ for soymilk goodness…don’t pull out the calculator just yet, I hate measurement conversions, and besides there are somethings you just can’t quantify like: the health benefits from drinking a wholesome/several wholesome servings of silk in cereal a day, or the priceless trivia found on the back of the Silk container…beat that lactose, beat that…if you’re still reading this and wonder if its all been in jest, think again…while my tone may be light and cheerful, my message is clear, my resolve unwaivering…ok, well when I was in Miami the other weekend I had to submit to soymilk, but Mariott knows how to keep milk fresh, so I waivered a tad…anyone counting, this makes 674 words on soymilk alone…but wait there’s more
…As was previously mentioned, I was in Miami, why? Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time…flights were cheap, and American offered me a job fixing these little tube things on all their planes, said I’d have to keep quiet and not talk about it until after Tuesday, so I did…ha, and my family really thought I was up a mini-OCS at camp Blandly outside of Jacksonville, FL…ha, ok so I was…it was a great weekend, ripe with ridiculously loud Sergeant Instructors, our platoon’s version of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (watch full metal jacket) …rather we had GySgt. Cruz…absolutely the most intense guy I’ve ever seen march into a squad bay…I managed to stay low, keep my head down and not screw up while he was watching…it will be different this summer with 3 staff NCO’s in one squad bay, picking out little things and then communicating “in stereo” (one at each ear and one at the nose…im hoping they’ve all seen the nasty affects of chewing tobacco, and have quit that habit…with my luck, I’ll get 3 Copenhagen spokesmen)…I’m looking forward to it, just as I was looking forward to it at the weekend thing…the biggest thing that happened was the realization that a good bit of the challenge will be the mental side…not bragging, but I’m in the best physical shape I’ve ever been in, and improving daily, and the academics are now in my hand thanks to OST Miami’s Gunnery Sgt. Purcell (my gunny) who gave us the study guide with everything they will teach in classes at OCS…not everyone got those so I feel very fortunate to have someone who cares enough about his job (which is to prepare officer candidates) to give us the extra heads up…good stuff…anyway the point was driven home, on the drive home actually..that OCS is a game, like anything else there are rules, only these rules are sometimes “3 seconds to put 1 sock on, and 1 second to hold out your other one”…stuff like that…more importantly it’s a constant evaluation/screening process…if you think about it, the staff NCO’s are effectively training their bosses…honesty, integrity, and commitment are more than just words, they are the way…some may call it brainwashing, or losing my identity…but then again they also call a successful day one in which they almost thought about getting up at 5am and running “X number” of miles…so I can take that with a grain of salt/sand *we have both on my island*
…..I’ll end this round of spoutings with a little tid bit of info that reassured me I was doing the right thing…Velazquez, the Sr. army roc cadet is set to graduate in a few weeks, and get commissioned the same day, to complete his packet, he’ll need a recent PT test score, being in the VI Natl. Guard, they had drill this past weekend and a PT test was included…until they cancelled the test, but still had drill…no test, so he can run it and have Capt. Bell administer it, right? Wrong…I even asked him, could I time you? Could he time you?...no, it had to be some huge deal or whatever so velazquez said “so capt. Bell is just gonna make something up for the PT score” …really? Seriously now…I also was talking to him about army rotc’s version of OCS, which is 10 weeks, but there is no yelling in your face, no “drill instructor roar” to be had at all…they treat you like officers, and refer to you as “warriors”…there were also 12,000 warriors instead of some 3,500 candidates, which will fall below 3,000 before aug.9th…not knocking on the other branches, they have their role, and this is merely my limited perspective, on an isolated instance…but all that being said, I’ve never been more motivated to go get yelled at, berated for going to college (a classic when we forget things like left foot, right foot), and pushed beyond my known limits…I’d like to thank all of you for your support and encouragement…we’ll be in touch

“Learn to obey before you command” -Solon



"I think you went to college and it sucked out all your common sense"

"OH MY GOD!! Is that a marsupial pouch?!"

"No, Gunnery Sergeant"

"That is disgusting! You are disgusting"

"Yes, Gunnery Sergeant"


"Are any of you candidates religious?"

"This candidate Gunnery Sergeant!"

"Then you better pray to your God to give me the strength not to kill this candidate!"

"Aye,aye Gunnery Sergeant"