Checked out July 24, 2008

I have been having the hardest time the past few weeks.  I’m tired of my full time job, I’m hoping I can quit it soon and go back to being a traditional Guardsman (that means I’ll only do my one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer, as opposed to being in uniform all the time, like I am now).  I’m dieing to go back to school full time (I was not cut out for online classes, especially not online science classes).  I’m sick of my hour long commute.

A friend of mine wrote to me a few days ago and said he had “Senioritus” (the condition that seniors get a month or two before graduating) because he was quitting his job in a few days to go back to grad school, and his head just wasn’t in it anymore.  I guess I’m experiencing the same thing, only I don’t know if I can quit my job to go back to school full time, so I really shouldn’t be feeling this way.  I also have just lost motivation for my work in general, and its affecting the quality of my work.

I hate my job.  It blows dogs for quarters.  They’ve been really supportive of me through my pregnancy and everything, but I have no benefits, no opportunity for advancement, and I’m not taken seriously around here anymore.  Its time to move on.

Plus I’ve been under a lot of stress lately.  My daycare provider fell ill and is no longer going to be able to care for Elijah.  I’m sad, mainly because Elijah loves her so much, and I felt so good about leaving him there.  I also feel bad because she is going to be moving in with her daughter now, and I know that she doesn’t want to lose her independence.  I am very glad that she is not seriously ill though.  She was in the hospital for a while, and we were really worried about her.

Also, Elijah is sleeping worse and worse at night.  I’m working on getting him to sleep better, but its hard.  A bunch of people recommended the No Cry Sleep Solution to me, and it seems pretty good so far (I’ll write a book review on it once I can report as to how well the solutions it presents works), but I’m worried that Elijah is one of those babies the book talks about that will never sleep through the night until I move him to his own bed/crib.  Some nights I think it would be really nice to have my bed to myself again, but I know I’d miss snuggling up to him.

There are other issues stressing me out as well, but I don’t want to write about them for fear they will jinx me.  I’m a very superstitious person.  Hopefully I will be able to report on some of them tomorrow.

Anyway, my brain is just not in it today.  Nor has it been in a week or so.  I’m totally checked out. If I could lay in bed all day and snuggle my son, I would.  Seriously.

Wow, there’s a streak on my computer screen that’s shaped like a penis.  That’s weird.

Everyone, please, say a prayer or whatever for me to be able to quit my job after the DNC and go back to school full time.  If I finish my degree, I can get out of the Army.  I want out.  I want to stop worrying about how many push ups I can do (its not much).  I want to re-pierce my nose and start wearing ear rings again.  I want to have the weekend of my birthday off every year (I always, always, always have drill over my birthday weekend).  I don’t want to leave my son for a year to deploy. 

Plus, and I almost hate to write this down for the whole world to see, but I know I’ll never get married if I stay in the military.  Marriage isn’t my top priority, or anything, and God knows I certainly don’t want to go rushing into anything, but one day I’d like to get married and have more kids.  I don’t want to marry a man in the military because there is too much adultery going on in the military.  Sorry to all you service members who are faithful.  You know that, sadly, you are vastly outnumbered.  I don’t want to take chances with that one.  The trouble is, not a lot of civilian dudes are willing to wait around for a chick during their deployment.  So there, I said it.  I want to get out so I have a chance of getting married one day.

I need to get some glass cleaner for my screen, this is really bothering me.

Happy long weekend! May 23, 2008

For those of you who don’t know, I work four tens (four days a week, ten hours a day), which means every weekend is a three day weekend for me. Because I work for the government, they also always give us an additional day off when there’s a government holiday, which means no work for me today! Woohoo! Four day weekend! Anyway, I thought I’d share my weekend plans with you all, in case any of you in Denver would like to attend.

First, I’m going to the Memorial Day Parade tomorrow morning. Ugh.  I’m actually going to be working while I’m there. I have to take photos of all the Guard events. Gen. Edwards is going to be doing a presentation after the parade to remember Maj. Perry Jefferson. He was the Colorado Guard’s last MIA, he went missing in Vietnam 30 years ago. His remains were found and identified last year, and he was laid to rest in Arlington in April. It was very moving, here’s a link to the article about it.

Then, tomorrow evening, I’m going to the Colorado Local First Kickoff Party in Old Town Arvada. It starts at 4 at The D Note (7519 Grandview Ave, Arvada, CO 80002). Its all ages, and looks like it will be loads of fun. I’ll be there with my mom and my aunt, as well as my son in a snuggly. I’ll probably be the only tall redhead with a baby there.  Here’s a link to Colorado Local First.

Then on Monday, I’m running the Boulder Boulder. I use the term “running” loosely. I’ve never been to the Boulder Creek Festival before, but I hear its fun.

That’s it. That’s all my plans. Unless my sister goes into labor, of course, then all bets are off. Have a super Memorial Day weekend, don’t drive to much, and remember to wear sunscreen! I’ll post pictures next week.

Make that 100% positive May 15, 2008

I’m not re enlisting.  I have no health insurance, get no bonuses, I’m not even entitled to full education benefits while I work for the guard full time.  I can get a job that offers this anywhere, and with any one of those jobs I won’t be expected to periodically spend a year away from my family in a war zone.

They just don’t give you much incentive to stay in, do they?

Rush Limbagh calls for riots in Denver April 25, 2008

Presumably because of the Democratic National Convention?  What the hell?

Hey Rush, have you stopped to think about who’s going to be handling these riots you suggest?  Its not going to be a bunch of hippies sent out to quell the masses with billy clubs.  Its going to be Guardsmen.  The entire Colorado National Guard is already preparing to pull security at this event.  Thanks for attempting to make our job just a little bit harder.  Way to support your troops there, you fat douche bag.

Luckily, anyone with half a brain knows that the only way the people of Denver are going to riot is if one of our sports teams wins a major game, like the Superbowl or the World Series or the Stanley Cup, and none of those events fall within the time frame of the DNC, so it looks like the fat, old junkie is shit out of luck.  Sucker.

Riots.  Psssh.  Where’s the logic in that anyhow?  Yeah, tearing a city up and hurting people is really going to solve whatever he has an issue with.  Because every other time there’s been a riot in history, it sure has made things better.  What a retard.

Does anyone actually still listen to him?  I hadn’t heard about him since that drug scandal.  I thought he died or something (when you don’t hear from a famous person for more than a year, it means they have died).  He sounds like a fish flopping around in not enough water, struggling to survive.  What a loser.

What the National Guard does April 18, 2008

I am in the Colorado Army National Guard, and lately it has become clear to me that most people out there don’t have the slightest clue what that means.  Some conversations I’ve had about it lately have initially offended me, but then I have to remind myself that a little over five years ago I was walking into a National Guard recruiting office to ask what it was myself.

So with that in mind, I thought I’d try my hand at explaining it to you all.

The National Guard consists of two branches, Air and Army.  We go through the same basic training as the Active duty Air Force and Army, we go through the same job training as the active duties, and we hold all the same jobs our active duty counter parts.

National Guardsmen deploy on the exact same federal missions as the Active Duty and Reserves.  Right now there are many Colorado Guardsmen deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, and there are CONG Guardsmen deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq.  There are probably CONG Guardsmen deployed elsewhere as well, but I don’t know about them.

In addition to federal missions, the National Guard also deploys for state emergencies.  Recent state missions for the CONG have included aiding the City of Alamosa with a water contamination, blizzard and tornado relief missions last year, Hurricane Katrina relief and forest fire relief the year before I joined (that’s part of what inspired me to join).  Active duty and reservists do not respond to state emergencies.  We are the first responders of the United States Military.  One of our most famous first responses in recent history is the deployment of National Guard troops to airports throughout the nation after 9/11.

Most of the time, Guardsmen function like Reservists.  We have duty one weekend a month, this is called drill.  We also have a two week period of duty called Annual Training (AT).  AT is traditionally conducted during the summer, though it can be done any time of year, and can even be broken up and done throughout the year in small bits.  During drill and AT most units do training, although some units, like mine, work on real world missions.

Every state has it’s own National Guard.  The commander in chief of the National Guard is the governor, not the president.  If the president wants to use the National Guard for a federal mission, he must ask the governors of the states for their permission to use them.  In essence, the governor lends us to the president.  This asking is really just a formality, as I don’t think there has ever been a governor that has said no.  Despite this, it is very important that the formality remain in place, because it is an important factor in maintaining sovereignty of state.  Each state is entitled to its own militia in order to defend itself against the federal government should it become oppressive.  Last year President Bush tried to bypass the asking permission step and make it so the National Guard could be pulled into federal service whenever the president decreed (as if he couldn’t get Guard troops any time he wanted them).  Hey Bush, while we’re at it, why don’t we just create one giant, massive federal government and usurp all power from the individual states?  Yeah, I’ll bet that’s something our founding fathers were down for.

The National Guard is arguably the oldest military force in the country.  The farmers and town folk who first picked up arms against the British in the days of the American Revolution were, after all, the very first Citizen Soldiers.  Those civilians who bore arms for our independence became the state militias, which eventually evolved into the National Guard as we know it today.

Here’s where it gets kind of confusing.  Most of us are whats called Mday Guardsmen, which means we are only on duty when we have drill, AT or are deployed.  Beyond that, most Guardsmen have civilian jobs that may or may not have anything to do with their job in the military (for example, there are dudes in the CONG’s Army Band who are cops, but there are also dudes in the band who are music teachers).  Some of us, on the other hand, have full time jobs working for the Guard.  Those people are either Active Guard Reserve (AGR), which means they get paid and benefits just like an Active Duty service member, or they are Technicians (that’s what I am) and I get paid on the Government Scale and am entitled to Government Scale benefits.  Civilian employees of the government also get paid on the Government Scale.  Although I am technically considered a civilian employee at my full time job at State Headquarters, I wear my uniform every day.  Not even I understand why.

Anyway, everyone should get to know and love their local National Guard, because we do double the duty for you, our countrymen, on less budget than the federal troops get.

In short, the National Guard is

• Soldiers and Airmen, just like the active duty.  We wear the same uniforms, do the same jobs and complete the same level of training.
• Troops used for federal missions, such as the War in Iraq and the War on Terrorism
• First responders for local, domestic disasters
• The oldest military force in the country

And, for the record, I am not exempt from deployments just because I am a single mother.  The only way I can avoid a deployment is if I am pregnant or had a baby in the last 4 months.  As a matter of fact, my unit just deployed to Iraq, and had they left just a week later, I would have gone with them.  My son was just a week away from being 4 months old when they left.  We were given a 60 day warning before this deployment.

One face in 40 some odd million March 18, 2008

Because of a paperwork misunderstanding and a problem with my mail delivery, my son and I are now uninsured.  I was given some bad instructions on how to enroll in Tricare, and some bills apparently were never delivered to me, so Tricare has locked my son and I out from purchasing insurance through them for a year.  Its going through an appeals process now, but I’ve been told that things don’t look good for me.  I have looked into purchasing private insurance, but that just doesn’t fit into my budget right now.  My civilian job, which is actually for the National Guard, does not provide me with benefits, despite the fact that I have worked here for a year and a half now.  By a little paperwork trick, they’ve managed to employ me full time without giving me any benefits or opportunity for advancement.

So I am looking for another job.  I can’t leave the National Guard (nor do I want to, the re enlistment bonus is too high right now), but I can leave this “civilian job” full time with the National Guard.  That may be hard for some people to understand, I know.  The point is that I need to get a full time job that provides me with benefits, since I can’t purchase them for my part time job drilling.

Does it seem right to anyone that something like this should be able to happen to a veteran of the war on ?  Why can’t I get insurance?  If I lived in Canada I could get insurance.

This country is powerful fucked up.