Last night I spent the best two hours since I left America. I was at the Army Education Center which does not officially open for another month, but they are holding sessions to help soldiers study to improve their GT score--the overall score that determines whether you qualify for some of the really good jobs the Army offers.
Last night I spent two hours helping soldiers solve equations with parentheses, powers, roots, multiplication, division, addition and subtraction--which is the order they are solved. These equations included decimals and fractions so I also was helping with converting fractions, finding common denominators and so forth.
If that doesn't sound fun, then I have not done a good job telling you just how strange it is to move from the very quiet home I live in and the very cooperative place where I work to this Lead-Follow-or-Get-Out-of-the-Way environment I am in now. We hear every day we are all leaders. Many of us translate that into trying to dominate everything they are involved in. So last night I was in a room with a dozen men and women who simply wanted to learn something. Not one soldier said, "When I was in Afghanistan in 2004 we did powers before parentheses and our sergeant major said 'Only a one-handed piano player at a cheap whorehouse would solve the parentheses first.'"
And today is my 12th wedding anniversary. I won't be spending it with my wife--which I have known for a while now, but today, like all the other occasions I will miss this year, reminds me with particular clarity that I volunteered for this--for good and ill. Happy Anniversary Annalisa. I'll be home for the next one.
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Happy Anniversary to the both of you.
ReplyDeleteJust read a note from a young guy in our church who just completed basic training. I thought you'd enjoy this story:
"Apparently 2nd platoon had several dealers selling dip as a side job. The drill sergeants found 50 cans of dip hidden in ceiling tiles. One guy had $3,000 on him. Inside the barracks the dealers were selling each can for $100! When I told this story David (his brother) said, 'Wow, dip has really gone up since I was in basic. It was only 40 bucks then!'"
-Julian
Blessings on your anniversary, Neil and Annalisa, and prayers for many more.
ReplyDeleteNeil: another huge laugh on the line, "Only a one-handed piano player at [a] cheap whorehouse would solve the parentheses first." And then another while reading Julian's comment.
Army life sounds like a weirdly dangerous combination of Boys Scouts and Greek fraternity life.
It's funny you should say that, cuz I knew this one-handed piano player who swore by solving exponents first... :-) Just kidding. PEMDAS, people, PEMDAS!
ReplyDeleteThe Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 07/31/2009 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary!
ReplyDeleteDenise, David and Meredith--Thanks.
ReplyDeleteJulian and Meredith--In 1976 at the beginning of the third week of a three-day alert, I sold one Kool cigarette for $5. I paid $2.05 for the carton with my ration card. The Army subsidized bad habits back then: Cheap booze, cheap cigarettes, free condoms. It is a foul-mouthed, armed version of the Boy Scouts melded with a fraternity without books.
Sarah--you did not!!!!
ReplyDelete