Phase II: Back to School

We wrapped up Phase I of JAOBC at Ft. Lee last Friday morning, and relocated to the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville for Phase II  .... we'll be here until 29 September.  The JAG Corps operates its regimental home and school (The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School, or TJAGLCS) in a building leased from and located at UVA, so instead of being on a regular Army installation, we are on a college campus and living in a Residence Inn.  And the best part (other than all the Marriott points we're accruing) is that Doug and the pups get to live with me the next 3 months!!  Can't really complain about that.   

The first week has been busy, but not all that exciting.  PT every morning at 5:50 (which means leaving the hotel by 5:25), then rush back to the hotel to shower, swig some coffee and run back up to the school (including the 88 very steep stairs between the hotel and the school) to be seated in class by 8:00.   The classes are taught by more senior JAG officers (Majors and Lieutenant Colonels) with particular experience in the area in which they are teaching.  So far, they have all been great.  They know their stuff and are pretty sensitive to the fact that we've all been awake since 4:45, been through a hellish PT, and are seriously caffeine-deprived, so they give us lots of breaks and try to keep us awake.  All the classes this week and next are focused on Administrative & Civil law, so a little boring for me, but interesting to hear how it all fits together in the Army world.  Not much else to share about that - its really pretty mundane.

I am glad to report that PT is picking up a bit.  I was actually sore the other day after SFC's version of "circuit training" (its a good thing he's really likeable or I'd have some choice words about him after that hour!).  This morning, I took my diagnostic PT test and did fine.  (The Army's PT test is 2 minutes of push-ups, 2 minutes of sit-ups (not crunches, real full-on situps like you did in 8th grade), and a 2-mile run).  Even though I am in the best shape of my life right now, group PT still gives me serious anxiety .... I have very vivid flashbacks to being the fat kid in high school, trailing behind the group and feeling like a total loser.  Here, I'm smack in the middle of the pack, which is just fine by me.  Next week, the class gets divided into ability-groups based on how we performed in our diagnostic PT, so we'll be working out with other people with similar abilities.  After watching some of these guys run 2 miles in 12 minutes, I am very very happy that I will NOT be asked to keep up with them every morning in PT.

I probably won't be writing all that much the next few months.  Stuff here just really isn't exciting enough to justify a whole blog post (oh, and I'm happily filling the limited free time I have by spending time with Doug and the pups!!).  Feel free to shoot me an email or find me on facebook to say hello, though!