And one more thing....

I just wanted to give a quick update to my life. Yes, I'm still sitting here bored at work, and yes, I should be reading homework. A new teacher (one of my classes is broken up between 3 teachers, each taking a third of the semester) assigned 147 pages of reading for the week, on top of my regular reading. I'm not very pleased. Jason, my best friend/messiest person in the whole world forgot (too lazy) to mail the rent check out this month, so after I get off work tonight at 10, I get to drive around the backwoods of Salt Lake looking for a house that we've only been to once before (took us 3 hours total, in broad daylight), and then be up at 4:30 for work the next morning. Yeah. But I did stop to smell those flowers from a couple posts back. Too bad I was sick and my stuffy nose prevented me from smelling anything good. I'm sure they were nice though.
There has been one recent development in my life that will have far reaching effects. Last March I put in an application to be considered for a Warrant Officer position in the Army. Warrant Officers, for those of you who don't know, are somewhere in between Enlisted and Officers on the pay scale, and somewhere between Einstein and Sir Issac Newton on the "I know what I'm talking about" scale. It's kinda scary. These guys don't wear the same uniform we do. They still have the basic one I wear, but they add stuff to it, like a clipboard, a huge coffee mug, and a scowl that makes you think the mug must be filled with vinegar. And they like it. They basically do whatever they want, and nobody has the guts to tell them otherwise. I've seen them spit at Generals, whereas I've seen other men wet themselves around Generals. And I LOVED IT! I want to be one. They're basically the subject matter expert in their field, and usually know every minute detail on the most obscure subject you can think of. It scares me, because, well, to be frank, I'm not that good. I keep telling myself that I'm not that good, yet... but it hasn't sunk in.
I've decided to accept the offer they extended me last week. This would get me out of going to Afghanistan with my current unit next spring, which is nice. I had quite the internal debate about this with myself though. My unit and I knew that I'd be offered the Warrant position (selection is based off the fact that there's a need for them, a HUGE need, and I'm a warm body who happened to meet the bare bone requirement to become one) so it wasn't a surprise that I finally got it, we just didn't think it'd happen so quickly. But the agreement I had with them was that I'd go to Afghanistan with them as their head supply person, which I'm not terribly qualified to do, but I'm the most qualified person they had. But I'd go with them, and then once we got back I'd take the Warrant position. This summer I've been gone most of the time, a good 6 months of training to prepare for the job I'd be doing in Afghanistan, and my unit has done nothing but stab me in the back. I recently got a new boss at my unit, who is FAT (which in the Army is something people tend to look down on for some reason), but very knowledgeable as he's got 20 years in the supply field. I've got about 8 months. So to take attention away from the fact that he's shamu's big fat uncle, he likes to point out all the things I did wrong while I was in charge, or the things I didn't do. He now has the head honcho wrapped around his finger, and convinced him that I did everything I could to destroy the supply system. Eh, whatever, he's fat, I get it, I don't hate fat people. But I get the impression that when I go overseas with them, it's just going to get worse.
I felt bad even thinking about leaving them high and dry while I run off and progress my career. I knew they'd probably pull some unsuspecting fool from another unit to go over with them in my place. I knew they'd spent thousands of dollars to send me to those classes. And most of all, I knew I had told them I'd do something, and now I was thinking about backing out of it. Then my friend Paul pointed out, that the Army had "screwed" me plenty of times before, and that I was the one who did the research into what classes I'd need to be productive overseas, I was the one who signed myself up for them, and took time out of my life to take them. My unit was just going to send me untrained, and leave me flapping in the wind. And really, I was helping the Army out overall by filling a position that they were very short on. Granted, this position I'm taking is in a newly formed Medical Command out of Salt Lake, who will never go anywhere or do anything, and I'll be able to stay in that position for the rest of my career... That's not too shabby. It still bothers me a bit about more or less going back on my word, but I think that'll be easier to get over than never being able to reach the knife that would be lodged in my back.
And yes, I know my blogs seem to run longer than most people's but really, who doesn't like hearing about my life?