"Naught Can Endure, but Mutability"

Apparently it's been awhile since I last wrote. I was on such a roll, too. I tried writing daily, or semi daily, or something of that manner. I suppose I failed. This has been such an incredible year. So much has happened. This has been the most pivotal year of my life.
The first ginormous life changing event occured in February, when I swore in to the United States Army. That alone would be enough for just about anyone wanting to change the direction of their life. Most people would say, "Hey!! I joined the Army!! That's enough change in my life for the rest of the year!!!" I myself was prepared to say that. However, my life wasn't ready to let me say that. Let me just explain a little more of what joining the Army meant...
It is not easy to join the Army. I was running around like crazy for a couple of months just trying to get in!! I mean it!! I had appointments with my recruiter a couple of times a week, I had to go to my unit with her a few times, I went to drill, I had a ton of paperwork to do, and on top of it all, I was also taking my first semester of ROTC, which added many more hours, because I volunteered for just about everything that they let me volunteer for, plus I was trying to work 20 hours a week and go to school. Basically I had just about 3 jobs, between my unit, my recruiter, and my real job, plus school. I was usually extremely busy. Finally I was able to swear in! Woot Woot!! Now I have 6 more years of reserve duty. Boo yah! I'm lovin' it. I will just be loving it more when I got out of initial entry training. However, since I am planning on contracting ROTC as soon as I can, the Army life will be my style.
The second big, even bigger, change was my mom getting cancer. I really don't know what to write about that. Actually, I don't know that I would have time to write everything I could write about that, as lights out is in 11 minutes, which means I don't have time to write about the other changes tonight...I suppose I'll be leaving you in suspense!! Muahahahhaaaa suckers!!!

Amanglossary: A collection of uncommonly common phrases

Hawt dawg!
Dag nabbit!!
Bum deal!
Oh bother!
Ahhh Shucks!
You're going to make me blush!
Shooooot...
Shoot girl, shoot!
That sucketh mightily!
I am large in stature, like Nephi!
Ugh!
I'd love to!
Dang it!
Heck yeah!
Hooah!
In troth...
hmmmm...intriguing...
So...the thing is...
Hey...remember that one time...
ummm...remember how you love me?...well...
crud.
Blastula!!
Kick him in the gonads!
Shiz.
En serio!
Dude!
Honeybabysugarpie!
Fo shizzle!
Homeslice!
Ya'll...
Fo sure!
Buddy!

FTX

This last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in FTX with ROTC. FTX stands for Field Training Exercises. Basically, we went up to Camp Williams and chilled there, quite literally, for a few days while working on tactics and land navigation. I love the other cadets, they're so cool. Well, there was a chap from Dixie State who smelled ridiculously of alcohol the whole time, but besides that everyone was way cool. FTX officially started on Thursday with Rubilar, Densley, Friar, and me cramming into Fryer's little truck and rushing over to Uncle Sam's to get dog tags, because ROTC failed to order them for everyone. So we got them, were late to first formation, and then checked out a bunch of equipment. We were supposed to see General Patreas, however, we had to go to overflow rooms because there wasn't enough room in the inn, so we watched Little House on the Prairie for an hour, which was quite the experience, as the army guys were all getting into it, and then a show that was about 10 minutes about llamas. My favorite line from that was "The llamas are so elegant as they run..." Wow. Really?! Anyway, I took a nice nap during the little devotional/conference thing. Then we headed out to Camp Williams. For now I'm just going to say that I hate standing around in the cold. Anyway, the highlights of FTX involve riding in a helicopter, land navigation (I worked with Beckh, Marks, and Gross--good times!!!), and...chilling in the tent. Well, STX lanes and patrol lanes were fine, too, but the problem with them was that our leader lacked some skills, which was frustrating for all involved. In any case...FTX is not a terrible experience! The worst part is definitely the cold...and waking up to the cold...

It's Cancer.

The title says everything. More details to follow.

Some Things I Love

Water slides!! Especially the ones where you can race or go down in a train formation..or have a sweet floaty!!

Having an impromptu picnic with a friend...or that special someone!!!

Coming home to freshly baked cookies...that I can eat!!!

Numbers

By posting this blog, I am going to make myself somewhat sad. You see, I am somewhat of a number geek. On my dashboard, I realized that I had 6 posts on this blog and 36 on my other!!! Do you realize how cool that is?! Not only are 3 and 6 both factors of 3, but 6 squared is 36!!! Oh buddy! I don't know about you, but that just makes me excited!!! lol Actually, it is almost pathetic how excited such little number things can make me. For example, you know that something is seriously wrong with me if I see a palindrome on a clock and I do not get excited. I love the dates that are some sort of sequence, or repetitive number. Actually, I have two favorite times: 10:10 and 12:12, although, once again, I get super excited whenever I see a palindromic time, ex: 10:01 or 12:21. In fact, there are times when I will stare at a clock for several minutes, just waiting for it to finally hit a "special" time!!

A Lesson in Common Sense

Today is Thursday, meaning I have ROTC. After class, Sergeant Figueroa wanted to talk to me. The conversation lasted a bit longer than it should have, as we have lab directly after class, and it's in Provo Canyon. As has become customary, I was about to give Erika a ride, when she asked me if we could give another cadet a ride. Lets call him...Joe. We were supposed to pick Joe up at Helaman Halls, but when we got there, he was no where to be found. Erika tried calling him, but he didn't answer. Upon the third call, he finally picked up. She asked him where he was, and he asked if her friend, me, was blonde...the answer..an unequivocal no!!! He said that a random blonde girl picked him up. She said that she was in ROTC last year...Erika asked him what her name was, but he didn't even know!! Erika told him to ask her, and he said it was Amy. Apparently Joe had never even seen this girl before!!! Holy Hannah!!! At this point Erika, in a state of shock and voice that clearly conveyed that he was stupid, proclaimed "Joe! You just got kidnapped!!!" LOL!!! Anyway, so Erika got off the phone with him and then he texted and asked where lab was at...so we tried calling him...and he didn't answer. We pulled over, in case we would have to turn around and pick him up somewhere, and waited there for about 10 minutes trying to call/text him and our higher ups. He never answered, so we decided to go to lab. We filled Jones in on all that had transpassed and finally got a hold of Joe. Turns out that we instilled enough fear in Joe that he made her drop him back off at his dorm. Thank goodness!! Moral of the story: if you're sitting out on the curb and a random person asks if you'd like a ride...DON'T GET IN THE CAR WITH THEM!!! We thought it was common sense, but apparently freshmen at BYU need a little reminder once in a while. It should be a part of freshmen orientation.

My Momma

So...a few weeks ago my mom started having pain in her upper back. She went to the doctor for it and he said that she strained her back. However, it wasn't long before her fingers began tingling and she lost some mobility in them. Then she started getting a burning pain shooting down both arms. She went to the doctor again and he referred her to a spinal specialist. So off she went to the spinal specialist yesterday, and what did she discover? She has a broken bone in her neck. And what caused that, you ask?!! Either an infection or cancer! Oh crap!! Yeah. So today she has an appointment up in Salt Lake to see exactly what it is. Hopefully it goes well. I mean, anything strong enough, whether cancer or infection, to break a bone is going to be bad.

The Post of the Day: Sweat?

Today was mildly uneventful. I got up early for PT, worked out, went to work and then class and then the library, and came home and started watching TV. So...in case you were wondering, when I work out...I sweat. A LoT! It is kind of to the point of ridiculous. I am only sharing this with you so that if you,too, are one of those human sprinklers, you will not feel alone in this world. Luckily, I have another human sprinkler on my PT squad. He is worse than me. I have known of my great propensity for sweating for years now. It is something that I do not always appreciate, but I have come to terms with it. In a way, it really ought to give me an edge...you know, like people could say, "Hey! Look at that girl!!! She's working SOOO hard!!! Just look at the way she...glistens...in the light!!" Yep. I probably do have people thinking that I'm working a lot harder than I am. My favorite part is when I take my shirt off. Wow. This morning the whole back of my shirt was completely drenched in sweat!! Hawt Dawg!!! Really?! I honestly had no idea! I mean, I knew that I was rather moist, but to that extent?!! What a great realization! I was almost proud...I say almost, because in troth, I was quite disgusted, but then I started laughing about it and it made my life so much better! However, I do kind of wonder who all noticed my pool of a back. No matter. I will survive. I guess I just need to be sure to drink LOTS of water.

Hmmm...well...that was interesting. I sure wasn't planning on talking about me sweating.

Granny Sunday

A few weeks ago a couple of my roomies decided to go to Savers. We were just perusing and having fun...when I happened upon...GRANDMA DRESSES!!! Oh heck yes! My roomy, Raven, dared me to wear one to church. Who am I to turn down a dare?! So we bought enough dresses for us to wear to church. It was phenomenal. We also bought a SWEET chair for just 13 bucks! Oh man!! What a steal! His name is Phil.

My Army Career

I did it! I finally joined the Army! I have been contemplating it off and on for nearly 5 years! Last semester I felt a little lost. I knew that I wanted to major in Latin American Studies, but I only had a dim idea of what I wanted to do with it, and very little idea of how to get there. I was considering working for the CIA or perhaps at an embassy. I began looking online one day at different military websites. I began with the Air Force, as I have heard many people say that they are the most respectable and treat their men the best. I then moved on to the Army, where I found an excellent MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) as Civil Affairs. What I gathered from the website was that civil affairs does humanitarian and diplomatic missions--pretty much exactly what I wanted to do to begin with! I then continued on my quest by looking at the Navy and the Marines. I even dabbled lightly on the National Guard website, but I knew that what I really wanted was to become a Civil Affairs Officer. I conducted more research into civil affairs, army life, and what skills I would need and learn. I then determined that I would go into a recruit office. During late December 2009, I walked into the Provo recruiting office as it was about to close--and thus began my military career. Before I even entered the office I had a clear idea of how I wanted my military career to go: I would get the Civil Affairs MOS and then contract with ROTC at BYU. However, I did not understand how difficult and long the process of actually getting into the army is. I thought that I would walk right on in, sign my life away, and get my bonus the next week. Boy Howdy was I wrong!! It took about 2.5 months to enlist, and I did not receive a bonus, but I did get the MOS I wanted. I have made it explicitly clear to those around me, and to myself, that I am not going into the army for money. I proved that to myself when I chose to stick with 38B (Civil Affairs) even when I would get no bonus. I was offered a couple of other positions, in which I could have gotten up to 12k, but I determined that it was not worth it. If I do not love it, then I will not commit to it. I ship off to basic training May 25, 2010. I am nervous, but I know that it will make me a stronger person and help enhance my character, if I utilize it to the best of my ability and give my 100%. Directly after basic training, I will head on up to North Carolina to go to AIT (Advanced Individual Training). I am hoping to be able to volunteer for a deployment before I contract with ROTC, because once I contract my MOS will go out the window and I will be 00R (a cadet). Civil Affairs is kind of special, because you cannot become an officer in it until you have received captain rank. That means that after I graduate from ROTC I will have to get a different MOS and then try to switch over to Civil Affairs once I reach the rank of captain. I would like to get real experience as Civil Affairs before then. Furthermore, I anticipate that it will be much more likely that they will let me switch over to Civil Affairs if I already have deployed experience in it. However, if I am going to deploy, it must be before April 2011, because I need to contract with ROTC soon, if I am going to at all, which I am. It will all work out the way that it is supposed to.

Inspiration!

While waiting in the ROTC building a few days ago, to get taped, a fine young fellow entertained me for approximately an hour. He first showed me pictures on his Facebook, followed by his blog, and then completed the hour by showing me his Myspace. During each of those events, he kindly extended the invitation for me to stalk him online...repeatedly. At first I kind of laughed and was surprised by that invitation. However, as I had nothing to do today, I took him up on it. I am not a creep. I promise. As I read through his blog, the chuckles kept coming. I really enjoyed the blog. He had pictures, video, and great-themed posts. I am not so good at themed posts. I determined that I would create a new blog--one that does not involve constant ranting and venting about the many males that have stepped into my life. This blog will be better!!! And so it begins...