Day 3

Sleep, it's something that most people take for granted until they lie in bed awake or until don't get enough. It's something that's somewhat easy to remedy....if you aren't in the military.

With the never ending long days, sleep is something that you begin to think about a lot. You wake up super early 99% of the time. We are currently in open bay type barracks and thankfully, we aren't super packed in here. In my area we have someone in every space, but the top bunks are unoccupied. That means that I'm within 25 feet of a dozen or so guys. Add in the chance of waking up at other peoples noise and you have a nights sleep that isn't as peaceful as you have at home.

Do you ever hit the snooze button at home? Not here you don't, your wake up call is typically one of four things.

First you wake up when the big overhead lights are turned on. When this happens what proceeds is a mad dash to the sinks to shave. We have 8 or so sinks for about 4-5 dozen it her individuals.

The second way you wake up is by the sudden influx of noise from the big group of people waking up at the same time.

The next way you wake up is by setting an alarm. Typically the alarm setters want to take a shower or beat everyone else to the sinks.

The final way that you wake up is by the noise that the alarm setters make as they get ready. It is probably one of the things that tick me off more than anything. One, because you are making noise and two because you just messed up that valuable 15-20 minutes of sleep that I had left.

Whats interesting is that I started this post last night and I fell asleep while writing. I guess that is fitting for the post.

So far the days have not been that bad. They've been long but not extremely demanding. We have been in-processed. We are cleared medically. We have received immunizations and briefings. The routine has started.

My small pox vaccine site is starting to grow. Last night it was pimple-like. The itching hasn't set in for me too bad yet. For some of the others it appears to be worse. Thankfully my joints are not hurting as bad as they initially did from the anthrax vaccine. I also am congested, not sure if it's me getting sick or a side effect of something.