Nastygram

During a series of freak circumstances (including the worst blizzard I've yet encountered in this life), a friend got my mailing address while I was in Boot Camp. Actually, he ended up getting it before my family did, also due to said circumstances.

But, someone mentioned during this process that "mail is the lifeline" to recruits while they're in Boot Camp. This is absolutely true. We get more excited about mail than we do about sleep, and sleep earns high appreciation during Basic.

It's still a lifeline after Basic. Actually, even more so. Going through Basic feels like a failed suicide attempt on your emotions. If you think that joke was in poor taste, I don't find a lot of humor in it, either. After Boot Camp, your emotional self is pretty much in a coma, trying to remember what emotions are, and getting fed whatever sustenance it can find through the IV that is the US Postal Service.

Also, you have the kind of relationship with people back home that you can't have with anybody on base. Realistically, I have no real problem if no one on base loves me - I just have huge issues if none of them respect me. My family and civilian friends love me.

(Note: Julia wishes it to be known that she loves me. Everybody say, "Awwwww," for Julia. :P)

There are other methods for communication, of course. I do have my cell, and tend to check it on a nightly basis. Sometimes a friend will allow me to use their internet (this may be four times a week, or it might be once in two weeks - not the most dependable method). Mail is really something cool, though.

The delay only adds to the anticipation. I may find out that I have mail waiting for me, but it could be three days before schedule permits me to pick it up. So, what's going in my emotional IV this time? Adrenaline, saline, Kool-Aid? Joe likes to play with it and dump Mountain Dew in there from time to time.


...abuse of the mail system would be today. Somebody back home took the opportunity to dump diesel in my IV. That hurt. That hurt a lot.

So, true to form, I will call Elizabeth about the bugger, she will become outraged, grab Joseph (who's back on Army base, but trifle her not with such details!), and the two of them will go a-hunting.

In case anyone was wondering, if you have something nasty to say to somebody military, please don't use the mail to do it.