Satis - Enough

Feb 27-March 8

I apologize for not being in attendance lately. I haven't really felt like writing and besides, you got two quality posts back to back, and this one will probably be fairly long, so hush. Over this period of time there have been a few "yays" and a few "blahs," but nothing too terrible.
Yay #1 is obviously the arrival of my nephew, Weston Charles Arbour. My mom is out in Ohio right now to help and reports that Wes is a hungry lad who having a bit of trouble burping, hopefully he learns or his uncles will have to show him what's what.
At this moment I'm trying hard to think of what else happened, but right now it's just a blur of banality. Meetings, an induction ceremony(because up to this point I guess we weren't actually doing what we were doing?) and random chanting from various teams and units that made it seem like rush week. Or should I say rush weak. Ho ho, I'm a PUNisher. Anywho.
Another positive moment came in the form of the events Wednesday night and into Thursday. It was "Americorps Night" at the local bar, so the 18+ kiddies could come and dance, but not drink. A fair amount of bumping and grinding took place, along with a fair amount of imbibing spirited beverages. Almost too much imbibing. Why do I have to wind up with a gorgeous lady at the end of the night and have a ridiculous conversation about existentialism with her?
Early Thursday morning turned into later Thursday morning after only a handful of winks. The induction ceremony went by surprisingly quick, with a couple nice motivating speeches and a snickers bar to combat my overhanging senses. After some forced team "reflection time" the beauty began. We had clandestinely arranged a brunch for select awesome people. I needed to use my new griddle to its fullest potential. (the griddle and the crock pot have turned out to be the purchase decisions i've made in awhile, i love my growing collection of cheap and functional cookware) Everyone chipped in with eggs, bread and pancake mix. I added the hardware, the passion and some pumpkin pie mix. Yup, my pumpkin pancakes will make you swoon. Swoon. We figured I made around 50-60 flapjacks, about 20-30 pieces of freedom toast and not nearly enough bacon. Everyone was sated and I received hugs. I like my life.
To top Thursday off, we were treated to a pizza party by our awesome unit leader. We had tied the lovely ladies up the street in a cleanest house competition and our unit leader generously bought enough pizza for all of us to get our binge on. Brunch of brunches and then Pizzafest. Fantastic.
That night revealed one of the better hangout sessions so far. Everyone else was leaving the next morning so quality time was precious. I spent the evening, with my glucose levels cradling me like muscle relaxers, on the couch with a guitar, randomly spurting out ridiculous, humorous and borderline offensive verbiage. I think at one point I suggested another of the wolf unit teams use "We'll eat your grandmother" as they were pondering a team motto. I'm not sure why people listen to me sometimes.
Friday was alright. I slept through everyone leaving. I'm not a fan of permanent goodbyes, because they rarely are. The conversations will continue when you get back. I'll see everyone in 7 weeks and I already made pancakes. Friday morning was spent at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. This is were they test all the stuff that the military uses to kill people, or keep Americans safe. I guess it depends on your perspective. I would have loved it if I was 10, not so much. Tanks are neat, especially all the WW2 era Russian and German ones, but not enough to mask the taste of silly little things like carnage. I guess this is healthy cynicism. Though it was really neat to go to a government installation, in a van with government plates, flash my government ID and bomb right in. Maybe bomb wasn't the correct word to use right there, but I'm sticking with it. The weekend thus far has been lazy, relaxing and a little boring. Everyone's gone, so lots of reading has been accomplished and now you get to hear from me as well. I'll type more very soon since work at the elementary school starts tomorrow.