Outside of the fact that I am single and very dissapointed in that fact, today was a good day.
I was promoted to the rank of First Sergeant. It’s a great day to serve our nation.
OMG, what a week
Well, my fate has been decided by those who command me. I am to remain here and start up a new company inside my Battalion. I was very dissapointed with there decision. I wanted change so terribly bad. I needed it. So, with the lack of change placed in my life back work, I have decided to make change inside my own life. More to follow on this. The assignment has the potential to make me very happy or very unhappy. Which one has yet to be decided.
“Ms. Slow” and I hung out on Thursday. I have to say it was one of the best dates of my life. We didn’t even do anything spectacular. Dinner and a movie at my place. We are going to see each other once again tonight… We have a chance once again, but I want to remain the theme of our fledgling relationship.
Last night was the formal. The event went well, but I found myself board with the same ol’ “formal.” Our unit needs some serious overhaul when it comes to events like this. My date was the “Super Cougar,” as she has been crowned by my peers. We had a good night, but there is a connection missing. Strange…. I am not sure what it is.
The Week
The past week was a challenge. It started in Europe and is ending here on my couch. Work was interesting, I have been offered two different positions. One is here in Savannah and the other is in Seattle. My boss here would prefer that I stay here and originally pitched it as the only position available. However that same evening (Thursday), his boss called him and asked that I consider a position in Seattle. I accepted the offer in Seattle. I expect to be officially given the job no later then Wednesday afternoon. It was pitched as an immediate assignment and would require me to move now, but hopfully I wll be allowed to spend Christmas with my family. We shall see. Hopefully I will be wearing a diamond within the next two or three weeks. I will be excited and surely post when it happens. I will become a member of the Diamond Club. ha ha ha. Army stuff!
The formal is this week, Friday. I am taking the super cougar, as she has become known amongst my close friends. It should be a great time. She is also escorting me to a cocktail party thrown by my Battalion on Wednesday night. I will give you the details later on.
Another random steak and lobster day
Every Friday here in the wonderful world I visit is always the same, “the man” seems to think that some nasty steak and lobster will raise moral and keep us going. Now I must admit that early on in this conflict it was something to look forward to. However, year seven, same steak, same lobster, same taste, nasty. However, I eat it down everytime with no complaints like a good little Soldier boy!
Meanwhile I did see the official list showing my selection for promotion. Rumors are flying everywhere about who will be posted where and in what positions. I am excited about the possibility of great change. I want to be a First Sergeant!
Off to change and hit the gym, gotta get these calories off of my bottom side. I did 8.3 miles on the bike the other day in 25 minutes. I was sore from it yesterday and didn’t feel great so I skipped. Today I will double my efforts.
In transit
The post below was written piece by piece as I travelled. As the opportunity presented itself I typed and now I post all of it for your reading. I know its long, just bear with me!
I am currently somewhere in between 20 and 30 thousand feet in the air. We aren’t quite at cruising altitude; the seat belt sign is still illuminated. Today has been a quiet day. I had a nice little breakfast at the holiday Inn and spent a few hours walking around the PX this morning. Then went back for a couple of my guys and went to the mall. After a quick lap around the tiny mall, I watched “Eagle Eye” at the local crappy theater. This annoying squeaking sound came from the vents the entire movie, which was good by the way.
My flight has just begun and I have prepared a spot for myself to crash out for a few hours. Hopefully about 4 or 5 hours of chemistry induced sleep will come my way shortly…
During the short break in the Europe I found out some additional information concerning my promotion. My sequence number is 82. Now, here is what that means. A board made up of senior enlisted men decide you are worthy of promotion to a senior enlisted rank. Actually you and let’s say 100 others. Then they organize them by their date of rank and assign them a number from longest to shortest time served at their current rank, 1-100. Now I don’t how many men and women were selected total yet, but I know I am number 82. I am a young guy both by rank and age so I know that I am near the bottom of the list. Now the Army will promote a certain number a month to fill its needs. If I had to guess it will be 9-10 more months before I actually get paid at my new rank. That is based off past years watching the average promotion rates. Meanwhile I will be a SFC (P) officially on Thursday, October 2nd. The “P” means promotable. Hopefully I will be laterally appointed as a company First Sergeant. That is my dream. If I get that job, then I will likely be frocked to my new rank right then. However, I won’t get paid until my number is called. The all powerful DIAMOND! The “top” enlisted man in a company. I would prefer a maintenance Company, but beggars can’t be choosers. I will take whatever unit I am given. I will keep everyone updated as my future is decided.
Well I am back airborne and once again somewhere high over the ground below. I didn’t get any real sleep on the first leg of my trip. I did however, get a about 2 hours on this portion. It will hold me over for a little while longer. Soon I will be landing at my destination and the boredom will begin. I have work to do, but it requires additional travel and will take some time for me to arrange…
YAY for me
Today has been a long day. I spent about 10 hours in a van with three other guys fighting our way through traffic. We spent about one hour and twenty minutes south of Atlanta going 10 miles an hour. Then another twenty west of Chatanooga trying to get past a car wreck.
Today did however confirm that I have been selected for promotion to Master Sergeant. I am excited about the possbilities and the wonderful change that could finally come my way… I still have no idea where exactly I will end up or what job I may get, but I expect I will know by the middle of the month.
We arrived here at the Holiday Inn Express at about 6pm, cleaned up a little and met another friend of mine at Outback for dinner. I had a nice prime rib with some steamed veggies and a salad. It was nice to catch up a little with my buddy. It has been a while since we had an opportunity to talk and chill out away from the office. Tomorrow I hope to see a good friend of mine before I depart. Her husband is currently over where I am heading. I will visit with her tomorrow and see her husband next week sometime. I miss them. They moved here about 18 months ago I guess.
I hope everyone has a wonderful night / day!! ~~K
The closing of another week
I am home preparing to go out of town on business tomorrow. Almost finished up with packing, I just need to add a few more odds and ends. Then off to the wild blue yonder.
Today started as a painful day. Everyone in my office pissed me off more and more by the minute. I spent the first few hours in a total bad mood. However around 1030 everything turned around. One simple phone call changed it all. Now I can’t be quoted on this, but rumor control says that I was selected for promotion to Master Sergeant!!!! Ofcourse the very official list isn’t posted until next week, but the prelimenary list was released to the higher ups today. That news ofcourse turned my entire day around… I was all smiles after that, but by regulation I cannot tell anyone, because by the books, I don’t know yet.
On another note, the “young” lady I spoke of before and I have spent most of the weeknights this week together. It has been nice to have her around. The jury is still out ofcourse, but she is cute. The possibility of promotion and relocation will keep it from growing to quickly.
I will try to continue to keep everyone posted while I am gone. Have a lovely Friday.
Monday
I am tired, actually very tired. I was awake till after 3am with the new lady. So, right now I am exhausted. Today was a busy day too. My office stayed very busy. All three of my phones rang and rang. Email after email flooding into both of my inboxes. I did find out some good news today though. The promotion board results will be released to the higher ups on the 25th of this month and will be released to everyone on the 2nd of October. I am excited to find out and hopeful that I will be selected. Keep those fingers crossed, i’m going to take a nap.
The summary of the week
This past week proved to be a very demanding week. I was telling the young lady I am talking to (the same one I mentioned a few weeks ago) that it wasn’t physically exhausting, it was mentally exhausting. I watched the creation of the case against one of my best buds, well I thought best buds. Now I am beginning to have my doubts. I guess I’ll go on to side note really quick. I am one of those people that will stand up and sheild my men with all my might when it comes to just about anything. But you must come clean with me. Now I have watched the evidence stack up against my co-worker, the man I have spent the last three and a half years growing to take my place. And yet still he doesn’t seem to be telling me the truth. I know that the evidence will never match up from both sides, but it does not look good.
So, the upcoming week looks to be one were I could find myself alone in an office slotted for 12 men… Four of which should be of the rank of Sergeant First Class such as myself and the rest should be Staff Sergeants. We are spread a little thin these days. I am already hard at work on my plan to refill my Platoon’s leaders. Time will tell. Meanwhile I should know in about 10 days or so whether or not I have been selected for promotion. I have my fingers crossed. I wasn’t nervous about it at all until everyone started asking me about it nearly every 5 minutes. I had myself all calm, after all if I get overlooked and selected next year I will still be a few years ahead of my peers…
So as previously mentioned I am still talking to the same girl. She is very sweet and seems to care. I haven’t seen her in two and a half weeks though. She went out of town to see her parents for 9 days, then came home to work 12 hour days for 6 straight. She works a lot. I work a lot. I am not so sure how I will ever meet and be able to maintain with anyone…… I will continue to talk with her, we have some wonderful conversations. We can easily find ourselves on the phone for hours… We soothe one another. Did I mention she lives about an hour drive away? It makes it even harder. This week I needed someone to sit and talk with, but the position went unfilled. Her and I talked over the phone almost everyday, but I can’t talk about work over the phone. I guess we will have to work something out. I will keep you posted~~~~K
Back to my life….uggg…
Well after about 10 days off work i decided on Wednesday night to go ahead and return back to work on Thursday morning. It all started nicely with an hour swim, then back to the office. I have to admit I have become very good at what I do. I was literally caught up with email and office BS in about 15 minutes. I quickly realized I really didn’t have anything to do…. Both Thursday and Friday both started well with some exercise but after that they quickly returned to the place i have began to hate. Hopefully about one month or so from today I will be selected for promotion. That will open a new door for my career. Hopefully it will restart the challenge I love about my job. I am done with my current position either way. I may take over a new, for lack of a better word, assessment platoon for my current company if I dont get promoted. We will see.
This afternoon I am going over to my best buds house for a b-day party. His mother in law is getting another year older. Should be nice. His entire family and I are good friends. I spent the morning picking up all the limbs in my yard from the passing storm. We were very lucky that we didn’t get the inches of rain that other areas did. I was asked out tonight by a woman on one of the dating sites. Just by reading her profile I am not attracted to her, but i may go out anyway if for no other reason but just to keep me out of this house.
On that note, i have a ton of projects going on around this house. I just cannot seem to get myself to do any of them that are indoors. I can go outside and work all day and have made some headway in the yard. Inside however, nothing, absolutely nothing……. I so need a woman to take charge of my life aka girlfriend…
