All's Well. It Ended Well.
It was quite a dramatic weekend.
I managed to get an ear infection midweek and this culminated with my bowing out of the Nation's Triathlon. I was pretty pissed to be out of 100 bucks.
In the same token, I did attend my last dining in - my friend Bess joined me and we had a pretty good time chatting and sort of mixing it up with some of my military colleagues.
Friday, I wheeled around VA in a rental from DCA. I hit up went Ft. Belvoir to grab my shoulder rank for the dining out, and then Ft. Myer for my last military haircut.
After grabbing lunch with my friend Rachel and a visit to a doctor's office to scope out my swelling left ear (the pain was unbearable, I wasn't able to consume food), I dashed home, got dressed, and picked up Bess.
We made it over to Ft. McNair in time for the cash bar, met some people and after jumping into the main course, a familiar face from my past made her way to my table. It was my old ROTC buddy, Jennifer.
I met Jennifer at Clemson back in 2000 through a high school friend I was rooming with named Brandon. As it would turn out, she's still an Army nurse and happens to be married to an officer in my unit. He's a great guy, I've chatted with him a couple times after he transitioned into the unit from active duty.
A couple people stopped me to ask if this was, in fact, my last drill. I confirmed the rumor, and we chatted a bit about the why's and what's - I was a bit worried I had spent too much time with the troops and not enough with Bess (since she knew absolutely no one at the dining out).
After wards, we bounced over to Maddy's for a couple drinks (I seriously needed something to soothe my left jaw line). Bess called up a few people, we chatted for a bit, and I broke off for the night.
I woke up in pain a couple times during the night. The pressure in my ear canal was pure murder. By morning, I was in uniform and made my way into drill. After wrapping up Saturday, I got back to the house and met up with Jared and Bob - also old friends from Clemson.
Jared was participating in the Nation's Triathlon. Originally, I was supposed to be doing the event with him, but, my ear condition killed that plan and after catching up with them, I headed home for some sleep.
I tried to unwind but, the pain was still bothering me. I tweeted something about my ear and needing a good recommendation for an ER - I got a phone call from Mike, and he recommended an "urgent care facility". I've never heard of such a thing, and after explaining what that is, I headed to my PC and did some googling.
As it turns out, all the urgent care facilities in the DC area that are metro accessible are closed after 4 pm on the weekends. I was tempted to head to an ER, but decided to give it an hour before making the call.
I cracked open a Bill Hicks live performance DVD from my Netflix queue. The show was excellent, definitely what I've come to expect from the material I've seen Hicks run through on other collections and youtube.
After taking my mind off the pain for about 2 hours, I went to sleep.
The morning was a fast dash, in uniform, to Georgetown to pick up Bob and get him and myself to the Triathlon.
We made it in time to see Jared's age-group make their way to the river's side and into the water. The rain was pretty bad when we showed up but, eased off prior to the race commencing.
Jared had an excellent race. On the way to the cars, a guy who'd just finished the race came up to me and gave me a "thanks for your service", I was a bit startled by that; I usually avoid wearing my military stuff in public as that type of attention bothers me.
After we helped Jared get all of his racing equipment to his car, I jetted back up to my last drill.
It was a pretty somber event, I taught my last training class in uniform, said goodbye to my friends, signed out, dropped my car back off at DCA. On metro going home, an older couple walking by me gave me a "thanks for your service".
When I did get home, I changed, chilled before meeting up with some friends for dinner at a Moroccan place in Arlington.
I took Monday off. Spent most of the day watching movies, reading, and I managed to both find and wrangle a visit to an ear/nose/throat doctor. All signs were good on my end. No permanent damage, still some inflammation, and that about sums it up.
Still feels strange the lack-luster ending of my 11.5 years of military service, but, my drill weekends will now be spent down at my parent's house helping my mother caring for their house while my dad wraps up his adventures overseas.
It looks like I've traded one form of service for another. It might be less financially lucrative, but it pays in it's own ways.
I managed to get an ear infection midweek and this culminated with my bowing out of the Nation's Triathlon. I was pretty pissed to be out of 100 bucks.
In the same token, I did attend my last dining in - my friend Bess joined me and we had a pretty good time chatting and sort of mixing it up with some of my military colleagues.
Friday, I wheeled around VA in a rental from DCA. I hit up went Ft. Belvoir to grab my shoulder rank for the dining out, and then Ft. Myer for my last military haircut.
After grabbing lunch with my friend Rachel and a visit to a doctor's office to scope out my swelling left ear (the pain was unbearable, I wasn't able to consume food), I dashed home, got dressed, and picked up Bess.
We made it over to Ft. McNair in time for the cash bar, met some people and after jumping into the main course, a familiar face from my past made her way to my table. It was my old ROTC buddy, Jennifer.
I met Jennifer at Clemson back in 2000 through a high school friend I was rooming with named Brandon. As it would turn out, she's still an Army nurse and happens to be married to an officer in my unit. He's a great guy, I've chatted with him a couple times after he transitioned into the unit from active duty.
A couple people stopped me to ask if this was, in fact, my last drill. I confirmed the rumor, and we chatted a bit about the why's and what's - I was a bit worried I had spent too much time with the troops and not enough with Bess (since she knew absolutely no one at the dining out).
After wards, we bounced over to Maddy's for a couple drinks (I seriously needed something to soothe my left jaw line). Bess called up a few people, we chatted for a bit, and I broke off for the night.
I woke up in pain a couple times during the night. The pressure in my ear canal was pure murder. By morning, I was in uniform and made my way into drill. After wrapping up Saturday, I got back to the house and met up with Jared and Bob - also old friends from Clemson.
Jared was participating in the Nation's Triathlon. Originally, I was supposed to be doing the event with him, but, my ear condition killed that plan and after catching up with them, I headed home for some sleep.
I tried to unwind but, the pain was still bothering me. I tweeted something about my ear and needing a good recommendation for an ER - I got a phone call from Mike, and he recommended an "urgent care facility". I've never heard of such a thing, and after explaining what that is, I headed to my PC and did some googling.
As it turns out, all the urgent care facilities in the DC area that are metro accessible are closed after 4 pm on the weekends. I was tempted to head to an ER, but decided to give it an hour before making the call.
I cracked open a Bill Hicks live performance DVD from my Netflix queue. The show was excellent, definitely what I've come to expect from the material I've seen Hicks run through on other collections and youtube.
After taking my mind off the pain for about 2 hours, I went to sleep.
The morning was a fast dash, in uniform, to Georgetown to pick up Bob and get him and myself to the Triathlon.
We made it in time to see Jared's age-group make their way to the river's side and into the water. The rain was pretty bad when we showed up but, eased off prior to the race commencing.
Jared had an excellent race. On the way to the cars, a guy who'd just finished the race came up to me and gave me a "thanks for your service", I was a bit startled by that; I usually avoid wearing my military stuff in public as that type of attention bothers me.
After we helped Jared get all of his racing equipment to his car, I jetted back up to my last drill.
It was a pretty somber event, I taught my last training class in uniform, said goodbye to my friends, signed out, dropped my car back off at DCA. On metro going home, an older couple walking by me gave me a "thanks for your service".
When I did get home, I changed, chilled before meeting up with some friends for dinner at a Moroccan place in Arlington.
I took Monday off. Spent most of the day watching movies, reading, and I managed to both find and wrangle a visit to an ear/nose/throat doctor. All signs were good on my end. No permanent damage, still some inflammation, and that about sums it up.
Still feels strange the lack-luster ending of my 11.5 years of military service, but, my drill weekends will now be spent down at my parent's house helping my mother caring for their house while my dad wraps up his adventures overseas.
It looks like I've traded one form of service for another. It might be less financially lucrative, but it pays in it's own ways.
posted by ct @ 2:03 PM
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