My Enlistment: Part 6

Now when we were on the way to lunch it dawned on me about the timing. While we were going over everything in a hurry at MEPS he was listing dates off for me, and it occurred to me then that the date that was listed as the soonest I could be shipped out was April 12th, I could leave in as little as 3 weeks if something came up! Me and my wife were kinda freaking out about this at first, but then I remembered that while in the DEP (Delayed Entry Program) it would probably be about 4 months out before I would leave from whenever I find out, I confirmed this was still the case with my recruiter and he told me anything is possible, but the soonest I would probably leave would be about 3 months out if I was lucky, unless I wanted to go the quick ship route and take any job available. No thanks.

Now that everything was finalized it was kind of surreal, like it was fake or didn't happen yet and it was just another day of waiting, and I almost didn't know what to do on a daily basis anymore, it was weird.
I knew things had to be done, I needed to get things in order for when I am gone and to make sure that my wife will be OK with everything while I am away for who knows how long. I knew that the car situation was not the greatest, she had a 2001 2 door car still and it was starting to have some issues. We looked at a few cars online and had an idea of what we were looking for. During my lunch breaks I would talk with banks to see about getting approved for a new loan for a car. Surprisingly my own bank turned me down, after about 14 years with them and not as much as a small loan, even though they said the car I was interested in was valued at double what they were asking for, really Wells Fargo? Dumb Move! I checked with another bank I used to work close to and they called me back the same day and told me I was approved and got an awesome rate and everything, I told her the situation and she even told me I could break the loan up into 2 loans so when I sell my wife's old car, I can pay off the 1 loan with that and only have the 2nd loan left and have half the monthly payment, score! My wife had no idea I was even talking with banks so that night when I came home and told her we could go look at a car she was a little thrown back and surprised. She called and asked her parents to see if they could take the kids for a bit while we ran up to check on one of the cars she was eyeing, and she loved it. The car was great, but it was dirtier than all hell. I talked with the owner a bit and he was only willing to come down a bit, otherwise he said he would just give it to his son. Price was fair so the next day I called up the bank and set everything up and by lunch I was able to go pick up the checks. That night my wife was anxious so we set it up to take it over and have one of our mechanic buddy's take a look at it since his shop was right down the road from where the car was. It turned out great, so we went back filled out the title and I handed the check over. It was was great surprise for my wife, and a huge relief off my shoulders knowing I don't have to worry about her with a car if it would break down or something on her, and will be easier having 4 doors with the kids.
I still need to teach my wife about most of our finances since I handle all the bills and things, but she will do fine, and I made a bill chart on the computer for her to help learn each bill and keep track of things.

Everything was finally starting to look up for us, and one day I got an e-mail from my first recruiter, who was promoted recently so she wasn't officially my recruiter anymore, but still helped out a ton. She said that she was able to peek at the list just as the job drop was coming out, and said that I was booked under the General area, meaning I will pick a job at basic instead of before hand, and will be leaving July 5th, yikes! She said it's not 100% until the official lists comes out but rarely do things change. It was scary knowing that my date has finally arrived, and was a little odd that it was 1 year to the date pretty much from when I finally decided I was going to do this to the date that I would leave, and I would be leaving the day after the patriotic day in America (July 4th). Things started going through my head like I was a mother nesting just before the baby comes, I started taking care of this and that without even hesitation.
Another buddy of mine that I haven't talked to in awhile had just enlisted in the Army Reserves and said he would take me up to gym at Fort Snelling so we could work out together and try to help motivate each other, and God knew I needed to work out, boy was I out of shape. We went up one night while the wife's and kids got together. We only stayed for a bit because the gym was closing soon by the time we got there, but enough to get a bunch of sit ups in, a mile and a half run, and to lift a few weights, and some pull ups. Surprisingly that night and the next day I wasn't that sore. The following day I went over and signed up for a free month membership to Fitness 19 down the road and went back that night and worked out a bit again. I know that the bare minimum for the mile and a half run is about 11:57 or so, and it took me almost 15 minutes to run it the first time, so I had a long road ahead of me to be able to knock about 3 minutes off my time.

I talked a bit with my 1sy recruiter again later that week, and she mentioned that I might have been bumped since it doesn't look like I was on the 2nd draft of the job drop list. I was kind of bummed, but it was also a good thing also. Now I will be able to at least get to spend my 5 year wedding and 10 years together anniversary with my wife at the end of July. I knew I was going to miss most holidays and events, but at least this gives me one more before I leave.
My first DEP meeting came which was the 3rd Thursday of the month, April 21st. When I first got there we had to weigh in and then sign in with any updates. They had a few people that had only been in the Air Force for a short time that we could ask all sorts of questions to, and they gave us their experiences and things. The recruiter went over a few things, and then they gave everyone an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) to take home and try. I searched through the box and seen a ton of Tuna, no thanks! I got Beef Patty in the end, sounded good at least. I then went over a few things with the recruiter when the meeting was over and got a t-shirt and a nice big backpack. He then confirmed that I had not booked anything on this job drop so I would have to wait another month to find out if I get anything on the next one.
That night I went home and decided to try out the MRE. I pulled out the first thing which were some Cheese Cracker things, and they frickin rocked! Next was some "Cheesy Bacon Spread", and some things they called "Wheat Bread Snack" pretty much looks like a loaf of bread compacted into the size and shape of a pop tart. I spread some of the cheese stuff on and it was OK, nothing to rave about, but was edible. Then I pulled out the main courses, the Beef patty, and a surprise, "Mexican Style Macaroni & Cheese", I pulled out the heater bag and read the directions on how to heat it all up. I got it set up and it started to heat up so I left it sit on the counter to do it's thing and went back to the ridiculously awesome cheesy cracker things. I ate those and the 2 pieces of bread things and made the Fruit Punch Juice packet that came with it, and it wasn't bad either. Now onto the main course, I took the beef out and opened it up, it didn't smell to bad, so I slid it out of the bag and looked at it, I almost threw up just from the look, I took the spoon and cut off a small piece and tasted it, no go. I was done with that. It looked like it had chunks of eyeballs in it or something. I pulled out the Mexican Mac and Cheese and opened it up, and just the smell alone was enough to kill a man. It looked more like bad salsa with some cheesy noodles thrown into it, I didn't even bother and threw it back in the bag. If they were all like this, then I will need to learn to live off of the snack food that comes with it alone that 6th week in basic where you live off these things for about a week.

Until I have more news from one of my recruiters all I can do is continue to workout and hope for the best that I get one of my top jobs, and maybe try some of the other MRE's if they don't kill me first, heh.