A DAY IN MY LIFE

is weeks Together on Tuesday topic is a day in your life.  How do you balance life and how do you fit it all in.  Also, at the end of the day do you go to bed feeling like you accomplished the majority of what needs to be done or do you think of all the things you’ve not completed.

I have been thinking about this topic for the last week and really struggled on what I should write.  How honest should I be to the people that read my blog.  This has been a hard entry for me.  All I hope is that I let you look into a window of my life.

Let me start by saying this topic reminds me the week the ladies did “Is the grass is greener on the other side.”  I think of this because I am going to show you the life of a professional 30 yr old.  So many people tell me oh some days I just wish I could be single again and I am sitting here thinking I wish I could have a family.  

How I have decided to “break down” this topic is to show you a few days of my Army life and then talk a little about my weekends. 

So yes I am a Captain in the Army.  I do Human Resources for a Special Forces Unit.  And this is the first time I have written this in public but yes I am the first female to be assigned to an all male combat unit.  So it’s me and about 400 of the most Alpha Males I have ever been around.  The best way I can describe it is that I am the little sister they never wanted.  They pick up me like I have never experienced and they have figured out the ways to get under my skin.  But at the same time they can be so protective of me.  It’s a nice balance.

So during the week I wake up about 0630 Tuesday-Friday and get ready to go to work.  On Mondays I get up at 0445 to I can get ready and be at the 0630 accountability formation.  The formation is just simply a “meeting” to make sure everyone survived the weekend and put out any important information of things happening during the week.   During the rest of the week my mornings are the same I have my routine and I don’t stray from it too much.  Get up take shower, blow-dry my hair, put on my make-up and grab a breakfast to go (lately it’s a whole wheat English Muffin and organic peanut butter with extra protein) and head into work. 

I try to get into the office about 0800.  I log on to my computer check my email and my calendar and try to make the list of things I need to get done for the day.  I also use this time to actually put my uniform on.  I don’t know why but with this job I hardily wear a uniform to or from work. 

Then around 0900 I have a meeting with my NCOIC (non-commissioned officer in charge) this is my right hand man that makes sure the kids (my Soldiers) have the correct focuses for the day. 

My morning is normally spend on Power-point making slides for what ever meetings we have the next day.  At about 1115 I change for my first workout of the day.  I head over to the gym and try to get in about 40 mins of Cardio.  Some days I am better at this then others.  After I come back to the office warm up my lunch and check my email to see what I’ve missed in the time I’ve been out of the office.  And then I go rinse off in the shower out my uniform on and get ready for the meetings I have.  I have no idea but the Army loves afternoon meetings.  So I try to pay attention and not fall asleep from being tired and board.  Sometimes this is harder than others.  Normally all of our meetings are done by 1530 and I have another quick huddle with my NCOIC to figure out what needs to be done before we all go home and what is in store for us the next day.  I try to leave the office by at least 1800 (6pm) every night…sometimes that is easy others make it very hard.  After work I come home grab a bite to eat try to relax by watching a tv show or movie and go to bed to start to do it everyday. 

But my favorite days are the days where I get to train with the guys.  You would think that being in the army would make every day a training day but not for me.  So I am going to tell you about the “training day” I had on a recent trip to Thailand.   We call them endurance events because it takes a lot of mental and physical strength to get thru them.  This was a team event so it was me and three of the guys.  So we started out by getting our weapons and putting on our gear.  Weapons of choice were the M4 and the M9.  The gear was our body armor, with plates you know we had to make it just a little heavier, magazines for our ammo, first aid kit, a hydration system (I used a camel back that I attached to my body armor, Kevlar helmet and gloves. So we started early and it was already bloody hot and added at least 40 lbs to our bodies.  And then it started….we had to run as a team for about 1 mile in the sun and up a few small hills…we were then old to stop by the “umpires” and we had to establish a perimeter to ensure our safety as we were told the first “action” we had to accomplish.  So we had to read a map and call in for fire support using radios.  So we figure it out and were able to move on to the next station….yep that means more running.  So we ran again for a little less than a mile and we see our next “station” there was a dummy that was serving as a casualty.  So we had to move him to the safety zone so we could call for a medevac.  Well we did not have any thing to carry the casualty with so yep that means we had to get it done.  Oh I also forgot to mention he had lost a leg so we had to carry that, all of his gear and keep a perimeter as we tried to move to safety.  So we got to the location called for a medevac but we used the wrong grid coordinates on the map so we had to move once again but before we could the “umpires” said we were stating to loose the casualty to we had to perform combat care under fire.  Once we had the patient stable we moved to the helicopter and dropped off the Soldier.  Then yep more running to the range.  Once we got there we all got 50 rounds for our M4 and M9s and had to begin shooting.  The contest was how many bullets hit the black zone.  So we took our time and shot.  Shooting is one of my favorite things.  Of course once we got done we were waiting for the results and in the end the “Officer Team” won….yep it came down to the shooting and we were the best…..but best of all I got bragging rites…on the world I work in that means everything.

So my weekends.  I start by sleeping in…getting up every morning so early makes sleeping in until 8 sound late.  I then get to have coffee make a waffle and enjoy the morning.  From there what I do depends on the weekend…last Saturday I went to the gym took a shower and went to a food and wine festival with friends went to dinner passed out woke up the next am and went to the gym. 

I guess all I can say is that I lead a life that can go from boring to a lot of fun.  Hope you enjoyed my stories.