March 30th

Checked into NMPS (Navy Manpower Processing Site. Also know as: the Navy's Medical Processing Sucks) today. It was as bad as I thought it would be although there was the standard hurry up and wait bit. Muster was at 0500 and my part only took one hour so I had another two to kill. As expected just when I was falling asleep back in my room, it was time to get back up and head back for briefs. Freaky thing: they must pull a lot of the pictures for their briefs from the Navy media center. On one of the slides was a picture of me from IM training (running around the Camp Smith track). I don't think anyone noticed which is good because it was one of the really bad pictures. Weird. I did get a chance to run to the Exchange at lunch which was nice. It was a warm, beautifully sunny San Diego day. They are so hard to beat. The air is so crystal clear it almost hurts the eyes. There was a nice breeze blowing and at one point I walked past a row of flowering shrubs and got the most wonderful perfume of blooming flowers. Seriously, it was amazing. After class was over, I was done heading back to the Q thinking it was in for the day but got restless. I threw on some sneakers and hit the road to look for the gym. I found the freakin' jackpot. Track in back; pool open from 0500 - 1845. It's 76 degrees but damn the luck, I just happened to have my wetsuit with me. I know. They get to make fun of me here too. But 76 is too cold especially at 0500 in the ay-freakin'-em. So tomorrow morning the plan is to get up early (since I'm going to have to get on East Coast time anyway) and hit the pool. Frankly I didn't think I'd be able to workout hardly at all but lo and behold, they can't keep me down. The run this afternoon was awesome. Fast and light. Too bad though, there was a whole field of soccer players with fantastic legs that I could have oggled if I'd been going slower. Clear, cool air. Smell of pine trees. Light evening breeze with the sun slowly lowering under the horizon. I miss Hawaii but if I have to be somewhere else, this is certainly high on my list of places to go. Tomorrow's another day. Can't wait to see it.