Day 2

It's lunch time now. I spent most of morning getting every cubic centimeter checked by the doc. He started with the simple things like heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, temprature, and oxygen in blood.
then they started getting painful.
I had six vials of blood drawn and a mouth swab, as well as peeing in a cup.
This was all before seven in the morning. I was sent to breakfast, and I have to admit I was a little woozy after donating to my career a few hundred milliliters of blood to the cause.

After breakfast was a full chest xray, ultrasonic scans of my joints and muscles of my limbs. I then had to get a eye exam, hearing test. I started getting sick of being poked and prodded I asked the doc why this was going on. Here's that conversation.

"why do you need to bleed me out and wire me up to every machine? I think that if I'm not sick now I will be soon." (by this time I was getting wired into the EKG)

Doctor Frisane "I'm surprised you haven't asked sooner, We need to know every physical characteristic and possible condition since many could not show up until it's way too late and everyone gets killed. There are many things we can cure now rather than later before they have a chance to becoming a problem, but others are physical aliments that won't be fixed and we have to medically discharge you"

"So I could be unjacked by something as simple as a cough?"
 
"Nope we will get you the best treatment for anything we find after your time in the shark tank?"

Now apparently the "shark tank" is your first training and testing phase. My recruiter told me  "The first phase is the easiest and hardest thing you will do. Everything after that first phase gets harder, but you will be better equipped to handle those phases of training.

I don't know why didn't call it the "shark tank" maybe it's a newer term?

"so what's the shark tank?"  I asked.

"you'll find out soon enough" she smiled wickedly as she started up the EKG machine and had me flex my fingers and arms.

Why is my life being run be matriarchs?

In other news Jose walking over. For a recovering spaceman he seems pretty chipper.

talk later at the end of the day. 

Day 1, Part 2

It's the end of the day. I have a bed and probably the best food I have had since I went to olive garden during prom night.
who knew the the interplanetary patrol had such good cooks?

So what did I do my first day in Vicksburg, Virgina? I took my first test that was simple enough. It wasn't really billed as a test, but I found out later that it indeed could get me sent home first day. That would have sucked, bad.

I got off the bus and some woman on crutches handed me a map and directions to the welcome center for new recruits. She said I had fifteen minutes to get there. I was not altogether hard, but I only had three minutes to spare. The two other characters on the bus didn't make it the first time and Jeffery who seemed so motivated to be here took him two tries to get the directions right.

 I found out later it was a three strikes out kind of test from a recovering patrolman Jose at dinner who had his arm in a sling. Told me he tore some ligaments out of his wrist while trying to tighten a bolt down. The only explanation was "air is a slippery thing in space". Ouch.

Now the Recruit barracks are not what I was expecting. It was two to a room with large locker for all your personal belongings. No uniform, no yelling, not even a call up roster. Just a older motherly woman who could have been in her mid forties showing me where the linens and to get settled in. The only uniformed people I have seen is the MP (military police) on base.

This is just a little more than weird, not that I'm complaining.

I was told 2100 was "lights out" and that I needed to be in the building by then. The older woman who helped me get my things, Patricia was her name, handing me a simple e-paper tablet which had my schedule for the next week. it looks like I have a long week ahead of me so I should get some rest. I played video games with the other recruits till 2200. Some were excited and a little hot headed, while others hadn't been away from home before and were a bit on the anxious side. Patricia seemed to be a mother figure to most of us who obeyed her without complaint.

Maybe that's why Patricia is in charge here?

anyway time for me to go to bed. I have medical tomorrow.

Day 1

I’m on the bus to basic space training. I still think leaving home was a good idea. I was seeing the downward spiral I was getting myself into. I hadn’t slept in three days until I was on the 7^th floor of a hotel yesterday where I wasn’t worried about my family trying to track me down to get one last “loan” out of me. Half my bonus was beaten out of me for alcohol last week. I left home Saturday, 

it’s Friday now.

I have been living half on the streets finding places to sleep in hostels around town. Running from one place to the next. I skipped the last days of my senior year so my family couldn’t find me. I’m away now, and my father can’t get to me. I’m an adult with my own money.

My recruiter had to scrape my half dead body yesterday off the front door to his office. He told me with a smile that I smelled like a spaceman already and I should take a shower. He knew what was going on, and once I got to the hotel he assured me no one can come up and try to take me. I was now a part of the patrol and the military police downstairs would arrest them if I called either by hotel phone or by smart glasses.

I slept better in the last 24 hours than I had in years. Which reminds me, I’m getting some sleep before I get to Virginia.