SEA CADETS, HERE I COME!!!

ALL RIGHT!!! THE FIRST STEP IS (almost) COMPLETED!!! I'm joining the Sea Cadets!!!! I'm so excited. I've been looking forward to this, let me tell you. I'm not expecting it to be easy, not by a long shot, but it's gonna be a great experience for me. I've already spoken with two of the Ensigns, and they both sound very....... well, not really nice, but helpful. Anyway. I'm really excited, except we have to PT. Not exactly happy about that, because we PT every Friday. But it should help with my school's PT, don't you think?
Or do you think at all? Sleep on that.
Love and prayers,
Randi

To my dear friend Kristin

Kristin, my long-time friend of.........well, 2 years........ you need to update your blog. Seriously! You've not changed it since the 8th. Not even a happy birthday post for me on my birthday which was 3 days ago, today being the 20th. Yes, I know I forgot your birthday, but you know me. I'm blonder than you are, and I'm brunette. Almost. I'm forgetful. Unless I am beat over the head repeatedly with a mallet, I forget pretty much everything. You know that. I don't even know how old my own dear parents are....
Anyway. UPDATE!!
A blessed day to you and yours (whoever may be reading this),
Randi

PT

As I have said, I'm in JROTC, and with the Marine, it's... intense.
Today we had PT, which is physical training. After doing 40 jumping jacks, 80 flutter kicks, and so many pushups and situps that I'm still numb and half-asleep, we went outside and ran relays until class was over.
After changing back over into our civilian clothes, we headed back into the class room. Half the people in my class and then some already know this story, but I'll say it anyway.
A conversation was somehow initiated about foreign languages, and 1st Sarge who has really loosened up since the beginning of the year) started saying stuff in Hindi and Indonesian and stuff like that. Shelly chimed in with German, and pretty soon, 1st Sarge is yelling in French if anyone knows how to speak French.
This was how it went until the end of class when we were dismissed. As I was walking out the door, I yelled back, "Au revoir, ju fool idiot". Translated, it means, "Until we meet again, you crazy idiot." I just hope First Sergeant doesn't speak enough French to know what I said, cause if he does, then I will be doing pushups from Monday afternoon until the 12th of forever....
Best wishes and prayers, especially during this Lenten Season.
Pray for His Eminence, the Pope, for a quick recovery.
Randi

Geometry

Would I use Geometry as a nurse? In the Navy as a nurse? In the Navy? Well, yeah, but still.... not in the field I want. Why do I want to know how to prove whether or not two lines are parallel? I guess just to expand my mind, and make it easier if I should change my desired line of profession to engineering or something like that.
For anyone who might in their right mind read this, I do like my high school, I normallydo like math, but geometry is a pain. If any nurses or doctors or...... any enlisted or officer personnel should read this, post a comment, sil vous plait.
Have a wonderful day.
Randi

NJROTC and stuff like it.

As the name says, I'm in the NJROTC program here at my school. Yesterday was Area 7 competition for Drill and stuff like that. We placed 3rd for inspection, which was good, especially considering I was lucky enough to be inspected by Petty Officer 2nd Class DRAGON LADY!!! Actually it wasn't so bad. She asked a lot of pointless questions, but not one on the orders of the sentry or chain of command, which is what all of us had really studied on.
Moving on, our acedemic team, consisting of NS 2's and above, placed 2nd out to last out of 16 teams. That's what they get for not letting us first years join. You know, more than I am willing to admit actually put that Earth was the fourth planet from the Sun??
Armed Drill is commanded by a Cadet Senior Chief Petty Officer, and consists of all first year cadets. There are nine of us, all Seaman Apprentices. In competition, we placed 8th out of 16.
Unarmed Drill consists of the same people, but with a different commander, Petty Officer Second Class Smith. Competition-wise, we placed 6th out of 16. I have to admit, unarmed is a whole lot easier than Armed Drill to perform, because without our 14 pound rifles to control, movements are a whole lot easier to execute.
Colorguard, which first year Seaman Apprentice Oliphant commands with the great help of First Sergeant Broderick, is, once again, comprised of 4 first year cadets. We placed 9th out of 16, which really isn 't so bad, because every other school has teams that have been competing for years and years. We're all first years, and haven't ever competed in anything quite like this.
At first, I only joined Drill and Colorguard because I needed an after school activity so I wouldn't be left at home by myself while my brothers were at band practice during the marching season. But after a while, I really started to love what we did there, even with the snap inspections and tests on military bearing, and I was really proud to be a part of all the crazies I was associated with, because they were all fantastically great people. And I joined and worked my fat butt off so First Sergeant would be proud of us. Which is why I started crying during the awards ceremony when our school's name wasn't called for anything but inspection and when my friend Shiffauer was presented with a 3rd place medal for individual female push ups. I felt so much that we'd let our old colorguard commander down, our school, Commander Guy (who's the real commander of the bunch), ourselves, and First Sergeant especially. He and Commander put in so much time after school so we'd do well in this. They gave up so much free time out of their lives and did so much for us. At the beginning of the awards ceremony, when we were presented with the 3rd place trophy for inspection, I leaned over to First Sergeant and asked him if he was proud of us yet. But as the ceremony went on, I started feeling so dumb and........ well, like I'd let everyone down. Even though it was just my first year and there was really no reason to feel like that. But when we got back to the school, and I started putting the colors and rifles away, First Sergeant said that we'd done very well for some freshman. Coming from that tough old Marine, that is a real compliment.
I guess you can tell by now I have a lot of respect for my instructors and peers. I completely appeciate every effort given by them all.
Pray for us, that we might do even better next year.
Have a wonderful day.
Randi