WELCOME TO THE NEW AGE.

I'M RADIOACTIVE.

I'm actually not, but my Pizza looks that way, according to Leigh. I'll tell you more about that in a second. But first thing's first, let me say hello again! Hello, guys! I've returned from Boot-Camp. I did well.

I was a member of Division 128, in Ship 13 - the USS Marvin Shields under the leadership of CE1 Heath Lance, HM2 Crystal Bullock, and LS1 Chief Avagail Williams. We were lead by Chris Carmickle, our Recruit Chief Petty-Officer. Everyone was pretty awesome, and undoubtedly, Petty Officer Lance had the most influence on me. Carmickle was a great leader and piggybacked us through basic with his patience and willingness to understand where we were coming from: I owe Carmickle a lot for keeping an eye out for me when I was down. 

I'll try to be the best Sailor I can be for his sake, if not Leigh's, if not my own.

I've got a lot of reasons to succeed.

NMITC is a whole different ballpark from Recruit Training  Command.

The rules here are more-lax, but that means that you've no instruction sometimes and you've got to simply fall flat on your face and wait to be corrected by someone. You don't address anyone the way you do in Basic, because it's considered pretentious. This is a huge obstacle for me, because I worked to be a great sailor in Basic Training, and adhered fairly religiously to the guidelines I was given, which means I stick out like D.B. Krmmstopp in a bridal shop when I pivot in my boots despite not having to, or when I enter a room with a thousand-yard stare. They don't like that, and they laugh at me when I do it, but it's how I was taught to do it.

It's all a bit odd, I guess. I'm in transition still.

The studying here is rigorous. Four hour sessions on the weekend, two hours every weekday. 

It's not uncommon to get upwards of four-hundred pages of material a week. It's all memorization, supposedly, and you don't have to be a great student to succeed,  but I've gotten fifty-seven pages of notes in two weeks. I wanna be superlative.

I've been eating like a bachelor as of late. Like, straight up Philip J. Fry'ing it.

Buying two tins of Peanutbutter and Nutella, and some bread? Bam. Every meal for a week.

Instant noodles? You know it, baby!

And pizza. Order a pizza, eat half of it, and ration the remaining two quarters over the week.

I go out of my way to share, though, when I order Pizza - we stand a lot of watches here - if you've ever been saddled with a shitty watch before, you know that nothing sucks worse than missing lunch and standing there for four hours saluting people. As such, I always get the Coupons with a little extra something? Order of breadsticks or wings? And I give them to the Rovers or Quarterdeck Watch, 'cause I know how bad it blows sometimes.

It's the little things that make a difference, or so I hope.

Anyways - Pizza. I've been trying to branch out and try new things. Bacon gets old, just ask Leigh!
So what I've been doing is trying things like these two, you're free to join me:

The first is a Chicken Pizza, with Extra Onions, on a Barbeque Sauce Hand-Tossed Crust Pizza.
It was good. Definitely more filling than the second one, and delicious. The Onions add something delightful to it, and the Chicken's filling and flavorful, but not enough to overpower the Sauce or Onion, or the Garlic that comes with the crust. Give it a shot sometime!

The second is a Thin Crust Pizza, with White-Sauce, Double Spinach, and Feta Cheese. 

I wanted to try this bad. My old friend Kevin Macica was a huge fan of "Cracker-Crust" Pizza, which is when crust is so thin it crunches. The Feta is salty and delightful, and the Spinach is herbal and bold. The White-Sauce is garlicky and rich. It's all really delightful - my only regret is that the White-Sauce is really skimpy on thin-crust, so you might wanna try this one on Hand-Tossed if you order it!

 Another nice thing is these were just ordered from Domino's. No fancy business here!

...It was my favorite of the two. Leigh says it looks moldy~

Also, the title of this post. 

I heard one of the most awesome songs I've heard in a long time today.

Allow Me To Share It With You.

All Credit and Praise to Leigh, who hooked me up with this find.

Lonely.

I miss Ridgecrest...

When you have an ear infection they give you a set amount of antibiotic to totally curbstomp whatever's got you feeling under the weather. It's important to take EVERY SINGLE DOSE, even if you feel perfectly fine, because just because you don't feel it doesn't mean that STANK-NASTY BUG GERM ISN'T FESTERIN' IN YOUR HEAD. If you skip it, it comes back stronger for being struck down and you actually have to get a different antibiotic as it becomes a resistant strain and is evermore determined to wreck you.

I think I screwed myself and skipped a dosage regarding that nasty emotional cold I've been dealing with. I was feeling better and I shrugged it off and it came back with a vengeance. But BEING SAD REALLY IS A PRODUCT OF HOW YOU REACT TO THINGS! I handled it pretty badly yesterday night. I threw a little tantrum.

Not even a good tantrum. If you don't know me, I'm kind of indignant when I get angry and sad.

It winds up coming out a lot like This. Because I'm a bit of a push-over and I know myself well enough to know that I'll be fine in the morning, so I'm just like, "Well guys, I'm angry. I'll be okay though!"

 Today, I decided how I'd deal with it. I drew a picture of the mountains of Ridgecrest. I listened to some music I've never heard. I had a slice of Pizza Margherita. I cleaned up my shit. I took a break from GetAmped 2, and I mailed out the letter I wrote to Emily. 

The music by the by is pretty amazing. It's Chiptune. With vocals. Done by the talented Space Boyfriend. "Bug Spray" is a story-ballad about a boy from space chasing a little Earth girl. And their lovely WATERMELON-DATES and all sorts of HAPPY and SAD moments that follow. 

Kind of like MASS EFFECT WITHOUT GUNS AND NOTORIOUSLY POOR ENDINGS.

Please give Bug Spray a listen. It's really a heartwarming album for anyone who's nerdy and been in love.

Be sure to go in-order. The songs segue into each-other!

Anyways, my Navy stuff is finally squared-away. I swear-in next Thursday after another physical exam.

I'm not really sure how to feel. I'm in-love. I'm scared. I'm excited. I'm a lot of things.

I'M SCARED AND INSECURE, MY DEAR.

All the same, I'm excited to be doing something with myself. I'm actively working towards a better life. Towards a position from which I can help more people. Towards a happy and more-permanant look at those mountains I miss so much, and the person who lives beside them.

In conclusion, a ways back Liam, his squeeze Swing, and I had an intentionally over-the-top roleplay in the middle of Maid Army's Skype-chat. It's spawned a few in-jokes and kind of threatens to live on in infamy. There's some parts that are less funny because you don't hear us laughing over our microphones, but here's a Transcription of our terrible adventures in a WORLD OF PIZZA AND SEMEN.