Just finished my essay, it was long and hard. About to go to bible study at 0930, Stogel and Delgadillo are probably going too. Hope to see Brock or Fusco there.

1056: At the hospital for my pink eye, didn't have a battle buddy for sunday school so was going to go to protestant church but DS Leon sent 5 of us here instead. It says 4-6 hour wait, but since it's Sunday I doubt it will be that long. Palazzo, Reed, Blair, and Schuambach are here with me. The whole 9 yards is on the TV, supposedly a good movie. Wonder if we'll get back in time for chow or the PX trip.

1100: I'm sore from yesterday's smoke session. Southard brought me a good breakfast, and pretty fast too. I hope this pink eye goes away soon so I can go to the DFAC myself again.

1115: Palazzo got called.

1253: Got my meds, waiting for SGT Newby to pick us up. He's at lunch so who knows when that will be. Got Erythromycin, Trimethoprin/Polymix, and Entex. Watchin gthe Matrix now, cool!

1318: Back in barracks dayroom waiting for lunch.

1620: Got lunch then went to get haircut. Didn't get to go to the PX because we screwed up too much. Me and Greco didn't turn our lost ID essays in in time.

1622: We got smoked but actually performed well so it didn't last tha tlong. Rumor has it that Bravo will be in cycle on the 20th, Laramore might be in there. We've been trying to hook up with him. Maybe we can pass notes between the doors, got a full day of FTX tomorrow.

Got smoked by DSM for Pesak losing my ID. Had to hold a heat training round, pushups, duckwalks, walking the plank, flutter kicks, crunches with the round on my chest. It hurt, still does actually. Have to write a 500 word essay on basically information security.

Greco was in there with me for the same thing.

LTC Zisdo and CPT Pellerin just came in... Had a chat with DS Mittleman earlier about people going AWOL. We now have an extra CQ duty between us and bravo. I have it at 0300 so I'll write more later.

0300: Saturday on my extra CQ shift. Clay was before me and he's a lazy bastard. Woke me up 15 minutes before acting like he was going off shift right then. I dilly-dallied until 0258 and then relieved him. Anyway, this is a pain, but at least I get to write letters, etc. Will talk more about yesterday in a min.

0337: Just wrote a pretty long letter to Mom. Dad will just get a postcard because he hasn't written yet.

0345: At the NBC chamber the DS kept going too close to the exit and getting whifs, they were all yelling 'Woo!' and walking through the woods. It was funnier than the privates. DS Gonzales kept baring the door on our Platoon. I body checked it and got out. THey wouldn't let us out until we said his real name, so he was pissed. What it came down to was DS Mittleman sat us down and said forget DS Maximus, don't call him that any more. The Bn CSM found an unsecure weapon. We now have this extra CQ to stop AWOLs too. The buddy system is in full effect, we can't even go to the latrine alone anymore.

Cleaning our barracks. Somebody in 1st Platoon left their weapon unattended. We got yelled at and are expecting a big smoking. It's snowing now so I'm hopeful it's not the pit. Hallway PT isn't so bad. With the barracks clean the pit would screw up all our hard work. DS Leon has CQ so he'll probably give us some personal attention tonight. Hopefully no CQ duty for us tonight.

1624: It's snowing and 7 of 5th Platoon are walking the mile. I hope we have a blizzard. I hope Southard gets me a big meal. I hope DSM gets out of his mood and lets me ask him for my ID. Monday we have a FTX, hopefully it will be fun.

Today sucks. We had the gas chamber, which wasn't so bad, but DSM got pissed at us for saying his real name when asked in the chamber. He says he's washed his hands of us, we're probably going to get smoked bad. On top of that I didn't get lunch because I forgot to give someone my dogtag. (Pesak lost my ID when I gave it to Ackfeld, who then gave it to him) So I mopped my bay and cleaned baseboards of floor stripper.

My pink eye sucks. It itches and burns and goop is everywhere. It makes your vision blurry too. We have the NBC chamber tomorrow. I hope the pink eye doesn't make it worse. Got FG at 0000, another crappy night of sleep.

Fire Guard. Clay is wasted and I'm not much better. My pink eye had my eyes all gummed up. My right eye is sweollen and I can't open it all the way. On the plus side they don't itch or burn much. That will probably change soon though with the NBC chamber. I really want some more sleep. Should send some more postcards but I'm too messed up to think.

I got pink eye, agh! Noticed in NBC class. It's not so bad but it's slowly getting worse. 18 of us are in here, and one more who has it that's on sick call. I guess I'll be going tomorrow. NBC class is interesting, it's hands on so no worry about falling asleep. DS Mittleman is in charge today and he is very demanding. 4th can usually handle it but we have 3rd and 5th with us, they're not as reliable.

Just got my lunch, a burget and a bag of potato chips. I'm going to die of starvation. PVT Lee is being discharged because of his knee injury.

Just got out of the shower, this is usually the best time of the day and today is no exception.

Had a bunch of classes today: The Laws of Land Warefare, Interfaceing with the Media, Troop Leading Procedures, and SAEDA (espionage). It snowed when we were in class and we had to go outside to cover our rucks with our ponchos. Tomorrow is the anniversary of our first week!

DSM is a good lecturer. We were on time all day and we were actually ahead for a while, so he asked if anybody knew some good jokes. Some of them actually made him laugh. The guys in my bay are all cool and laied back. The gay jokes are flying fast and furious.

DSM told us a story of a loader of his who fell asleep on watch and how he smacked him on his CVC. He always drinks monsters and says 'It's time to excorcise the demons!' He told somebody today to lower hand before they got muscle failure. We all laughed. Last night we did 190-210 military presses, talk about muscle failure.

Schwalbauch is a beast, he did something to the Reapers, mocked them or something. Now he's doing some insane smoke session. THey want him to say 'I am a Warrior, you are Reapers' but he's saying '...you are weepers' or something. He's going on about being loyal or something too.

Lots of first aid classes, 4 marches (short), PT in the mud, etc. At the first aid classes they had us do three types of carrying in a relay race out in a muddy field. My partner, Reed, weighs 234 lbs. I could barely lift him, the fireman carry was impossible for me. Had a leisurely dinner for once, despite almost always being near the end. Left my ruck sack on the floor and the DSs stoll it. Happened to a bunch of people, oh well. Going to clean my boots now.

Everybody is getting pink eye, I really hope I don't get it. Still have a cough which sucks enough. The marching we did today wore me out. Tomorrow seems to be all classes, I hope they're platton and not company level. It's so hard to stay awake in class.

My cold/allergies are bugging me bad. Dust makes me choke up, I hate that.

2156: Just got out of the shower. Almost went to the pit for leaving gear unsecure. Did PT inside and it actually improved morale for the most part. No FG tonight, woohoo!

DS Maximus is looking over the sick call forms: knee pain, back pain, pink eye, heat injury, back pain, and so forth.

Had homework on the 5th, wrei three times each: Soldier's Creed, General Orders, and the M4 Cheat Sheet. DS Maximus just went to the orderly room to do a security check. Dollman, my CQ partner is off finding a bookman who didn't fill out a sick call form properly or something.

0026: TIme is dragging.

0032: Had to bring the sick call status sheets upstairs to DS Maximus.

At the CQ desk now. Have to answer the phone, make sure fire guard does their thing, call the on duty DS if there are any problems, etc. This is going to be a long hour.

Today sucked, marched with our kevlars, LBVs, ruck sacks (inside: wet weather gear, poncho, pro mask, ACUs, socks, underwear, cold weather boots) a mile to Palma hall. Had first aid and evaluating a casualty. Then we marched to lunch with all the same gear. Told we would march back at 1240. Everybody was there at least 5 minutes early. THe DS' didn't show up for another 10 minutes. Of course they blame us.

After more first aid we did the 3km road march that was cancelled on Saturday. My calves are killing me. It was hard. Then tonight we had to do the "change clothes 5 times in extremely short periods of time" drill. At least no pit! This has been one of the roughest days yet. On the plus side, I got a letter from Mom.

Got CQ at midnight, hungry again, will definately have to learn to eat faster.

Thomas got into a conforntation with another private. No blows or anything, but that's the third private he's pissed off. He threw a snowball at me and it hit Dougherty ealier and Doc almost took it to him, he was really mad. I had dropped a piece of ice down Thomas' shirt earlier and laughed my ass off. I got Palazzo witha cold shower the other day too.

They're letting us use the phone and watch the superbowl. Reed went down stairs to use the phone alone and 1st Platoon wrapped him in duct tape. He hopped up 3 floors to get assistance. ROFL.