So close I can taste it...

I can't believe that I drive out of San Antonio in 5 days!! I feel like I just got here and now I am moving on... However, I am quite excited to be getting my Army Nursing career going and get on to Ft. Benning (aka, "Home of the Infantry... Follow Me!"). The one thing that I am sad about is that I have met so many awesome people here, and made a few good friends that I probably won't see again for a while. I guess that AKO e-mail will become one of my close friends now in order to stay in touch...

We pick up our Nurse whites tomorrow, so you can only imagine how excited I am... I will probably send out holiday cards with a picture of me in my whites; I really can't wait. And yes, Travis, I will post a picture on my blog as well. Just don't be too disappointed when it turns out to be a knee-length dress... Ha-ha.

Kind of along the same lines, I finished my I love Camp Bullis t-shirt. It turned out SO much better than I expected. I am quite pleased with my creative, crafty effort. While I only posted a picture of the front, the back has my last name and the number of the weapon I was issued while we were out in the field. Drum-roll please... Ta-da!!


Well, we have another 4:50 am day tomorrow and we were up at 4:50 this morning too, so I am going to hit the sack...

66H out...

Back in San Antonio

Wow, where to begin? Well, it was definitely an emotionally charged weekend... The boy (I mean that in the most affectionate way) and I had a good long talk about our conversation that went terribly awry on Wednesday night. So much miscommunication and upset stomachs, I am glad we got everything ironed out. It makes me sick to think about how upset we both were about the whole situation. Turns out that we still feel the same way about each other, but we are at such different points in our lives that we just aren't sure if it might work. The one thing we do agree on is the the last three months have been great; A fresh start, enjoying each other's company, and looking forward to phone calls and e-mails. Easy conversation over an awesome dinner at Tommaso's made the evening in SF and the Lagwagon show even better than I thought it was going to be. Not only was Lagwagon great, but The Lawrence Arms and the local SF band that played were great as well. I love it when I go to a show and all of the bands that play are good, AND I am in good company... It just makes the trip and parking hassle in SF worth it.

Song of the evening: "Violins" by Lagwagon. "How are you, how have you been, girl I miss you, wanna see you again..."

In other news, I ditched back-burner boy today over his voice mail when I landed in Phoenix. I am so over all of the broken plans and the lack of communication. Overall, he is a great guy and I hope that he doesn't kill himself with work before he's fifty. I kind of knew that I wouldn't see him again after I left for Texas, but he seemed so interested in continuing to see me that I thought it might be worth a try. Ha-ha, silly Audrey, what was I thinking?! After I called him I deleted his number from my phone, but it was still on my outgoing call log, so I had to randomly call some friends to get his number out of the queue. After all of my ingenuity in getting him completely out of my phone, I hope he doesn't call because then his number will be on my incoming call log... irritating. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that he won't call, which would suit me just fine.

Continuing with the boy theme tonight, I thought I would mention the e-mail that I got from my battle buddy Marty today. Apparently he and Peter (my other favorite Infantry buddy) are in the same squad and are neighbors down at Ft. Benning. It seems as if they are having a decent time and are doing a lot of PT to get ready for Ranger School. Get ready guys, Nurse Wratchett is about to crash the party!!

Well, the nurses are going back out to Camp Bullis for the next two days to do some fun mass casualty exercises, so that means that I need to get my beauty sleep...

66H out...

I might need a vacation from my vacation...

So I am back on the horse and have plenty to blog about...

Most importantly, my Mom and I have had a wonderful time catching up at the local Peet's over the last few days. It is amazing how only a few months has made me realize how much I LOVE being home. It will be hard to get on the plane tomorrow morning... But I will be home in a couple of weeks again for a few days, so I will be able to catch up with some of my friends that I missed this time around.

I also got to spend some good quality time with my kitties, they were pretty excited that I was home. I can't wait to get to Georgia, because then I can fly home and pick them up. Soon they will be little Georgia peach kitties, I hope they like it there. I thought that this was the cutest picture of me and Monte, so I had to post it...

In line with my surprise, my Mom's cousin cooked Thanksgiving dinner last night. Everything was SO good; It was awesome to see everyone and catch up with my cousin who is a retired Special Forces NCO. After dinner, I zipped over to my Auntie B's house to see my cousins Don and Sherry, along with their two little boys and my aunt, of course. I can't believe how big the boys are getting, it seems as if they grow by the foot every time I see them! I am so excited, I have a play date locked in with them when I am home in a few weeks...

Today, my Mom and I drove over to Santa Cruz to see Danielle, David, Aidan, Danielle's Mom, and her brother. Oh my goodness, Aidan is growing so fast, I can't stand it!! We took so many cute pictures, but I picked the cutest one of Aidan, since he is always the star of the show... I just love that little peanut! I also have a play date locked in with him when I am home again...

Tonight I am going to see Lagwagon in San Francisco. It should be an awesome show since they are such a good band. I'll definitely get online tomorrow night and blog about it when I get home. Uhhh, back to San Antonio, I mean...

Song of the day: "Brown Eyed Girl" covered by Lagwagon. How funny that it JUST shuffled onto my Pocket DJ right after I wrote about going to see them tonight... I guess it means that we will have a good time tonight... Not to mention that "Brown Eyed Girl" is one of the best songs ever recorded, but then again, I may just be biased...

66H out...

Walk the line

Well, I just got home from watching "Walk the Line" and it was absolutely phenomenal! Wow is all I can say; Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon did an amazing job portraying the famous Cash couple.

So, I have been sitting here for almost a half-an-hour after writing 35 words... I guess I am still at a loss for words. I know, I know, SHOCKING! Well, maybe I'll try it again in a few days after my feelings settle a little bit.

Things look bizarre when the world is upside down, not to mention how much it upsets your stomach... I don't know, maybe I am just hungry...

66H out...

Blue skies and a broken heart

Well, here I am in Cali again. I pulled off my big surprise without a hitch, my Mom had no idea that I was coming home for Thanksgiving. She was so happy when I called from the back porch and asked her to let me in the house, it was awesome!

Song of the day: "Swing, Swing" by The All American Rejects. It just shuffled onto my Pocket DJ, and is such a fitting segue into the next piece of news...

In other local news... I went all in (as they say in poker) and lost... The boy that I love doesn't love me... Wow, I never thought that you could actually hear your heart break, but I now know that it is possible. I would have kicked myself for the rest of my life if I didn't tell him, so at least I know that there won't be any charming it the third time around... I am sad because there are so many years invested in it and I tried so hard to make it work, but oddly at peace as well because now I can close the book and go on.

"Swing, swing, swing from the tangles of, my heart is crushed by a former love..."

I am now sort of at a loss for words...

66H out...

It's not even Thanksgiving yet and I caught the Christmas bug!

Ho, ho, ho... I was so excited after getting fitted for my Nurse whites that I went to the PX and went Christmas shopping! It was such a successful trip that I am almost done! I still have to get something RED for Danielle and a couple of things for my little Aidan peanut!! I can't wait to see him when I am home, he is just the best!

So, my Camp Bullis t-shirt is coming along; I have the heart sewn on, all of the letters cut out and the t-shirt washed. Just need to iron the letters on now, but I am getting ready to go play poker, so the rest of the work will have to wait... I hope it turns out well, it has been a labor-intensive project.

Well, not much else is cracking, but if I win big money tonight, I will definitely get back on and blog!

66H out...

A full tummy makes Audrey happy!

Let me just say that a left-over salad and chipotle-bacon burger was not an optimal choice for dinner, BUT if you add a bowl of Cocoa Puffs, lemon yogurt and a coke, THEN you have a meal... Please mom, don't cry... I actually do eat three squares a day at the dining facility during the week...

Quote of the day: Wierd-Al Yankovic - "Bricks, molotov cocktails and M-80's might be going a little too far..." (I am currently watching VH-1's "I Love the Holidays" and Wierd-Al Yankovic was talking about things you can use to egg people's houses on Halloween.)

Oh, I can't believe I forgot! I finally found a super inexpensive purse that matches a pair of muted-bronze shoes that I bought months ago! I was so excited, you don't even understand. However, there are women who can attest to the fact that it is extremely frustrating trying to find a bag to match an unusually colored pair of shoes... I absolutely had to include a picture just to give Steve something to shake his head at... (I know you are SICK about how excited I am Steve, but it's okay, I still like you.)

Anyhow, it is 11:00 pm and I have to get my uniform ready for class tomorrow, so I am officially signing off for the night...

66H out...

Austin, we have a problem...

So, I ended up not going to Austin this weekend... My friend Erin and I had a little communication mishap on Friday night... No one's fault, it just happened. So, I might try to get up to Austin to see my friend on my way out of Texas.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I learned how to play Texas hold 'em and I went to my first free tournament on Saturday night with Steve and Charlie. I had so much fun and I am getting better every time I play. I won three hands, and one of them was actually a pretty big pot, so I was stoked! I stayed in for about an hour or so and did better than about half of the players. We are playing in Charlie's room tomorrow night and we are going to another free tournament on Tuesday night. Watch out boys and girls, Nurse Wratchett is on the loose and playing for cash!

Today I played soccer with some other OBC students. It was fun for a little while and then it got super competitive, which I didn't expect. I really don't play soccer, so I was hoping it would just be kind of a fun-kicking-the-ball-around afternoon, but it got way too serious for me. Oh well, I tried and got a little PT out of it too. Tonight I started working on my "I love Camp Bullis" t-shirt. It is going to be so fun!! To fill everyone in, Camp Bullis was where we did our field training. I wanted a little souvenir of my stay out at Camp B and since there wasn't a gift shop, I decided to make my own. I will post a picture of it when I am done!

All of the female nurses get fitted for our Nurse whites tomorrow. I am so excited!! I requested to be issued all dresses. They remind me of nurse uniforms straight out of the fifties, so retro and totally awesome! I know, I know, I am the biggest dork, but they are just so cute!! If we were authorized to wear the white caps, I would...

So I just noticed that this is my 25th post! Wow! For those of you that know how non-committal I am, this is quite the feat for me!! Maintaining a blog is actually kind of fun, I get to share my new adventures without having to e-mail all of the time. People get to come and go as they please and make all of the silly comments they want...

Well, my stomach is rumbly, and I definitely get quite cranky when I am hungry... Those that have experienced the crankiness will forgive me for signing off now...

66H out...

Edumacated and gradumacated...

So it is official, we are now Officer Basic Course graduates... On to our AOC tracks and we will be out of here in two weeks! Crazy, I will be in Georgia in three weeks. I am a little nervous because I am not quite ready to move, but I am so excited to start my Nursing career and see a couple of friendly faces!

I am also terribly excited to go to Austin with Erin and Alexis this weekend. It will be so nice to get out of San Antonio. I think I will try to get a hold of a high-school friend of mine who is living in Austin with his wife and son, it would be awesome to see him. I will try to get some good pictures to post since I haven't posted any in awhile.

Anyhow, I feel so spoiled that I am getting to watch OLTL for the THIRD day in a row, wow! Other than that, not much is going on, but I am sure that I will have a very good blog when I get back from Austin...

66H out...

Unexpected lunchtime smile...

Quote of the day: "...and then we go out and get a pizza."

Hopefully it's pepperoni...

Praise the three-hour lunch!!

So it's been a week since my last post... Man, I feel like a slacker! I guess we just haven't been doing anything of note in the last week except tying up loose ends and getting ready to graduate from the OBC portion of our stay here at Ft. Sam. We still have two weeks to go in the Nurse track after OBC ends, so we aren't quite done yet, but we are getting very close...

The only thing of note to blog about is the Trauma Nursing Core Course that all of the nurses participated in this past weekend. While it mimicked OBC in terms of death by PowerPoint (DBPP), it was a great review and it was so nice to finally be engaged in nursing-type activities again. I also completed over half of my continuing education units for the next year and gained my first official certification, so that was nice as well. I can now competently assess a trauma patient... Well, we'll see about that...

Quote of the weekend: TNCC instructor - "No BP, no pee-pee." She was referring to the fact that if your blood pressure is not high enough, your kidneys' capacity to produce urine is decreased. I personally thought it was quite funny; Steve however, did not think it was quite so funny...

Oh, I almost forgot! Steve, Tas, and Charlie taught me how to play Texas hold 'em on Sunday night and I didn't play too badly. I won a couple of rounds that night, and they even asked me to play with them again last night. Again, I did pretty well last night and actually won a nice little pot on one round. They are so much fun!! It reminds me of playing water polo with all of my old guy friends in college.

I just looked at the clock and we STILL have an hour-and-a-half left of our lunch hour. So nice that I can indulge and watch a little OLTL... I haven't been able to do that since I left for OBC. Speaking of leaving for OBC, the last two Officers from our commissioning class started Infantry OBC last Thursday down at Ft. Benning... Get ready for the suck Marty and Peter! And like the good nurse and friend that I said I would be, I will split the extra Morphine between you guys... See you in about three weeks!

Oooh, Angeline and Natalie are catfighting over John again... Typical. Ha-ha, I miss OLTL so much! Well, gotta run and actually get something done before heading back to DBPP this afternoon...

66H out...

Wow, the days here can be so long sometimes...

So it is now Wednesday night, and I feel as if I have been up for 24 hours today...

I am currently trying to work on my presentation about Combat Training Centers (CTC), but as you can see, I am not getting very far. However, I am being quite successful at downloading some music and blogging. Luckily, my presentation only has to be 7-10 minutes long and I happen to be a PowerPoint genius...

Well, I guess I had better get working... I actually have the Army CTC site pulled up, so it's time to bite the bullet...

Battalion run tomorrow at 4:45 (yes 4:45 am)...

66H out...

An extra hour to sleep... and I'm doing THIS?!

Well... I finished my PT test almost an hour ago and we don't have to be at our first formation until 9:20, so I planned on sleeping for another hour... What a cruel joke my body has played on me, I can't sleep. I guess I am still pretty amped because I scored better in every event for the record PT test, versus the diagnostic PT test we took a month-and-a-half ago. Survey says... 291 out of 300. SWEET!!

Oh, wait... my eyelids feel heavy and I can still sleep for 20 more minutes!

66H off to snooze...

So, it's Tuesday...

I feel like I haven't blogged in awhile... so here I am, it's Tuesday and I am blogging and watching Moulin Rouge instead of tending to my S-1 (personnel) duties of filing class paperwork. Exactly 4 weeks to go today... Quite excited to be coming home soon, even if it is only for a few days...

Quote of the day (Friday): Class instructor - "As an Officer, you need to know what you are saying..." He (a Medical Officer himself) then followed up by saying "defibulator" several times while telling a story... For those non-medical folks, the piece of equipment he was talking about is actually a "defibrillator". Sort of amusing...

Best thing that happened to me yesterday: I ran into the father (a sergeant that is stationed here at Ft. Sam) of a little boy that I taught swimming lessons to SEVEN YEARS AGO in Monterey!! The coolest thing is he is swimming on the swim team at his high school now! It made me feel so good to know that I made his swim lessons fun enough for him to stay interested in swimming.

Best thing that happened to me today: An e-mail from one of my favorite people talking about seeing a show in the city when I am home... Reminds me of old times, good times, makes me smile. :)

Side note: Cetine just died in the movie. I always tear up at that point in the movie because she just gets done singing to Christian about her undying love for him, then she dies of TB...

Well, guess I had better get to bed... Record PT test tomorrow at zero-dark-thirty.

66H out...

Honestly, is it still Thursday?

So here I am, once again blogging while I should be doing homework... Well, I did download a program and got some forms off of the internet that I needed to do my homework, so I guess the evening isn't a total loss. This weekend will be quite busy... I am beginning to have flashbacks from the busy-work nightmare that was Nursing school. Probably no fun for Audrey this weekend... maybe if I can get myself really motivated... yeah right, like that will happen...

Happiest moment of the week: Getting the digital tuner for my Dell pocket DJ. Now I can listen to my tunes wirelessly in my car. SWEET!

Saddest moment of the week: I all of a sudden got a little homesick today. Lucky for me, a phone call to one of my favorite people put the world right-side-up again. It is amazing how the simplest thing, such as the sound of a voice, can make anything more bearable. :)

Weirdest moment of the week: My friend Steve and I were talking about our favorite movies today (Steve mentioned Pirates of the Caribbean), and what movie happened to be on when I got back from chow... You guessed it, Pirates of the Caribbean! Steve would be so proud I watched it, since I happen to lack a basic foundation in American movie culture... That Johnny Depp is just so handsome, even as a dirty pirate. "Land ho!"

Well, I guess I will try and at least get some sleep before zero-dark-thirty PT tomorrow morning.

66H out...