the night shift

like everybody else, i often work a 9-5. mine just happens to be the "wrong" 9-5. but i kinda like it. unlike waking up in the morning which always seems to be normal. but waking up (for the second time on the same day) at some crazy hour like 8pm always seems like a completely new experience. i could wake up every day of my life at 7am and think nothing of it. but every time i hear my alarm going off at 7pm, i wake up wondering why its going off, why its kinda dark, why i'm awake, why i was asleep, what i missed, where i'm going, why i'm going there, etc...EVERY TIME! i don't know why i never get used to it, but i don't. so there you have it. the night shift.

parachutes, legs, and pigs feet

Parachutes

some would say there are two kinds of people in the army...you can be airborne, or a leg (somebody who can't jump and therefore has to walk to get to his destination) last weekend was my first jump since Airborne School. that was 3 and a half years ago. i wouldn't call myself a leg seeing as how im not, but i sure felt like it. not only had i not jumped in 3 and a half years, i had never jumped ramp (out the back, which turned out to be quite easy actually), i have never jumped night, (in jump school you do, but its not really that dark and they light the ground up a bit. not last weekend, it was pitch black), and i jumped a chute i hadn't seen or used before (not much different, but when it was still in the back of my mind) all that to say, it was a bit of a rush.

like everything else in the military, there is some type of tradition that goes way back to ancient times that must be upheld or the army gods just might have to intervene or something. well on your first jump out of school you're considered a "cherry jumper" for obvious reasons. well to make sure you and EVERYBODY ELSE around you knows, they do something like this to your helmet. this was actually one of the other PVTs but you get the point.

well lucky me, not only did i get my helmet

taped up in red, but just before getting on the

bird to go jump, chief (the guy who's been

jumping forever and knows anything and

everything there is to know about falling out

of a plane) walks up to me and says,

"hey Krishnan, take this, a cherry candy. if you make it to the drop zone alive, open it up and eat it in celebration." he walks off...

gotta love chief.

in typical army style, somebody's three Ps of planning left us without dinner. (a 19 hour day, 12 of which we went hungry.) but i guess if its not a good time, its a good story so starving probably just added to the memories. either way, after spending 6 hours sitting on the runway freezing and hungry we got on the plane.

as far as the jump, i guess i couldn't have been that nervous because all i remember was taking off and i was out like a light. i woke up to my friend knocking on my helmet as the first chalk was about to jump. right as i woke up the ramp dropped and i all the sudden i started to think, "i really hope i remember to do it all right and that i don't get my head stuck in a static line or something stupid" i'm pretty good at dealing with stuff like this, i just don't think, i just do. and usually by the time you should be getting scared, you're already done. but i couldn't do that because you can't exactly just up and go. so i just sat there bouncing my legs like i usually do to release energy when i'm not allowed to move. well the time came soon enough and all i remember was running out the door yelling "what the hell am i doing?!" to my SGT.

I came out like a top and by the time i got all un-spun, i was a little disoriented and didn't know which way to go so i just sat back and enjoyed the ride. as far as rides go, it was the most relaxing and peaceful thing i've done in a LONG time. its so quiet its almost eerie. and you can't really see much except lights off in the distance and the plane trailing off. the parachutes blend in with the black ground so the only people i could see were the two behind me. it was a pretty cool jump. and my landing was actually really smooth. if it weren't for the fact that i already bruised my butt on my practice jumps off the tailgate of a truck, it would have been a painless landing! i also landed about 2 and a half miles from the check in point. but i didn't mind. the walk was nice. so all in all, not too bad for my cherry jump.

and for those of you who want to live the airborne dream through youtube,

here are some good ones for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9J7cHt3X2E&feature=related

and this is just another funny one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTCkfgmijGA

for those of you who know, this is like the hangover after a good party. and they were nasty. the DZ was covered in stickers, tumble weeds, goat heads, and every other plague weed you can think of.

in other news, a couple of our medics taught a couple

of us how to suture. we went out and bought some

pig feet, cut the open, and practiced putting them back

together.

this is a shout out to you pete. next time you slice

your foot open, i got your back.

sometimes i wake up just wanting to punch somebody in the face

So we went at it!

and after round one...

But a little bloody nose never hurt anybody...

so we went at it again.

but after the first one, anything that touched

my nose pretty much ended like this.

next time i'm just gonna not get hit in the face.

thats the plan.

back from the dead!

bon voyage!

peace out America! see you soon

Tattoos!

sorry for how unorganized i've been, but i got behind from being gone so much and the only way to catch up is to just throw these up here. again, they are not in any specific order, and you probably won't get much background on them, but here they are. enjoy

tattoos. what couldn't be fun about this?

and i'll try to post more soon but its summer and

its hot and the lake sounds really good so this is

it for right now.

this is why i never get things done.

and i love it.

more from the AK. in no real order.

clams cont.

i had no video for this next step. here you go.

after boiling clam. drop into cold water.

remove clam from shell.

discard shells and keep clams.

which look more like the 12th evolutionary

stage of a fetus. just sayin

next. find and remove guts, things that don't

look like good eating, and as stated by the pro

on youtube, the "clear reproductive noodle"

which definitely fits into the "not good to eat"

category.

and you thought the kill-bar wouldn't show up.

wrong!

jess found it...and screamed like a wee child

as she dropped the knife on the ground

and almost tipped our pot of clam guts all

over the floor.

clam meat saved. guts and

clear reproductive noodles

not saved. let the cooking

begin

we ended up with linguine with red sauce and

clams as well as deep fried breaded clams with

homemade horseraddis horseradish h sauce.

a little terribly overcooked broccoli, my bad,

a glass of wine, and there you go.

WINNER WINNER CLAM DINNER!

this production was made possible by brad.