I will never understand my own gender. Speaking of those that I don't understand, some females got into an argument the other night. I must have been dead to the world because I slept right through it. Such pettiness!  What it was over, I am not exactly sure, but it would not surprise me if it had to do with one of the males. Guys like to talk and since some of the other females and I hang out with them, I hear things. I had the 2nd shift of Fireguard last night. Fireguard duty isn't too bad here. We have a desk that we sit at in the hall. It is our job to monitor our floor.  There have been two occasions where a couple of the males have tried to sneak up onto our floor and vice versa.  We have to immediately report any incident like that to the CQ desk. I will usually write my letters and get my boots shined during my shift. Having to wash laundry is a thing of the past here. We can have our uniforms sent out to the dry cleaners to be washed and pressed. Clean and crisp uniforms to wear, but it comes with a price - as in deducted from your pay if you sign up. We went to the PX again and it never fails - I always purchase more than intended, like my color book and crayons. Go ahead and laugh. But I took them to class one day and I wasn't the only one wanting to color! 😜 Since both Henriquez and I were dropped by DS Stewart for our hair touching our shirt collar, it was time for another haircut, too. I had to buy another pack of hair barrettes. I can't be certain, but I think I lost a couple down one of the latrines. Oops.

Fireguard should become a permanent duty for me. I am assigned it that much. Not that big of a deal, especially since it appears that I get most of my letters written during this time. Torchlight Tattoo is coming up so we have been making preparations. It's an annual Fourth of July Celebration held here at the base and it's a pretty big celebration with concerts, food, fireworks, and even a cannon salute. The Tattoo is deeply rooted in military history and signifies the time of the musical call for civilian establishments to turn off the taps, and for soldiers to make their torch-lit walk back to their encampments to retire for the evening. James will be carrying one of the flags during the ceremony. Because I have now been marked a 'heat casualty' due to that little dehydration incident in basic training, I was not allowed to sign up to participate. Oh well. We have been sleeping an extra hour as wake-up has been at 0530 instead of 0430, and have only had PT twice this week. Boo! Class pictures were taken today. The first one will have all of our names printed out below the picture. The second picture will be a bit different. We were given the opportunity to show off our personalities and I do believe we did it justice. You will find me in the front leaning rest position with Baker...since that is usually where I find myself. 😂    

Torchlight Tattoo was pretty amazing. I mentioned before that I have always enjoyed watching D&C and the ceremony was beautifully executed and everyone in sync. I snapped a few pictures with my camera, but they didn't come out very well. Too dark. Relaxing and just being able to sit and chill with our buds was enjoyable. I was a good girl and kept my intake of junk food to a minimum. But the three day weekend must have fried everyone's brain because several fell out of the run. PT was crazy and I don't know how many times we had to do u-turns to go back and get stragglers. This is one of the downsides about being a road guard. We have to circle back around to collect you if you fall out of a run. Being a road guard keeps my motivation up though. I cannot afford to fall out of a run, or I will lose my position. Plus, you can hear the Drill Sergeant calling cadence better. That is, if you have a Drill Sergeant that can call cadence. You will understand. Trust me. School is progressing and getting into more detail about the functions we will be performing both inside the office and out in the field. My average right now is a perfect 100 and I would like to keep it that way.  

Our company had a surprise barracks inspection today and our First Sergeant viewed every single floor and room, including all latrines. We had to stand in formation outside at parade rest while this was taking place and it felt like hours. I was a bit startled when she approached and called my name, along with my roommates, to stand in front of the company. "These five soldiers standing in front of you have THE BEST squared away room in the entire barracks. You all could learn a lot from them. Congratulations to Room #315. I expect the rest of the barracks to look as squared away as their room next inspection," She then asked us what we considered a special request.  Hooah! I am so glad that we had decided to do a thorough cleaning of our entire room.

Ugh!  What is going on? Today should have been sent back to bed! PT was absolutely deplorable! DS Vinson lead our run this morning and I can't even begin to tell you how out of step everyone was. We are not used to running with her and it showed! I do not like to pass judgment on people, but I have to question how this Drill Sergeant even made it through Drill Sergeant School, let alone passing a PT run. She has no rhythm to call cadence, nor can she run. No wonder we were all muddled! With PT finally over, I got back to the barracks only to be told I had KP, so I missed school. When DS Martin saw me during chow, I was informed that I had failed my last test. Failing a test that has to do with anything clerical for me is ludicrous! I'm an office junkie! I get to re-take it, but I will only score a 70 destroying my perfect 100. Any score under 98% disqualifies me for my AG award. 😔 While I loathed KP during BCT, it was a blast here! I ended up having to do pots and pans and was drenched by the time I made it back to the barracks...thanks to the males who were operating the sprayers while cleaning trays. LOL! I had ten minutes to shower and put on a fresh set of BDUs because I had the first shift of Fireguard. Oh Yeah! That means no Fireguard on the weekend. The days are flying by so fast and at breakneck speed. 

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Our class was issued our first on-post pass, allowing us to leave the company grounds. Yes!  James and I took a trip to the main PX and did some shopping. Later that evening, we strolled over to Ivy Lanes Bowling Center. We ran into a couple of the guys that were in her platoon back in BCT and they asked if we wanted to hang out. Why not? We ended up playing a few rounds of pool and having a couple of beers, and just kicked back and and enjoyed ourselves. The following day we went swimming at Knight Swimming Pool and I found out my cute navy one-piece sunflower and daisy swimsuit was a poor choice for swimming in. It was so low cut in the back that every time I swam, the straps would fall off my shoulders. Oh my gosh! I didn't know how hard PT would be after having a couple of drinks over the weekend. Then again, I hadn't had a beer in months and I felt it! 😐