End of Thanksgiving Break

Well I'm back at Norwich with the ending of Thanksgiving Break. It wasn't a very exciting break at all except for a few occassions. The first couple of days were spent doing laundry all day because no one was home for break yet just us stupid Norwich guys. So I basically I didn't have anything to do. Well Wednesday rolls around and I get a call from Kelly asking me if I want to go to some party/get-together thing at PJ Whelihans. So I go and this place was absolutely PACKED! No lie about 1000 people crammed into this place. We met up with Cait and headed towards the stage where I see none other than the Owen twins! Holy shit I haven't seen them since like freshmen or sophmore year. So I ended up spending most of the night with Trish and Julie (Owen twins) and Laura dancing and being our retarded selves. By the time Kelly and I decided to go it was like 0100 so I said my goodbyes to everyone knowing this might be the last time I see them because of a possible deployment coming up.

Thanksgiving itself at my house was pretty boring. My older brother brought his girlfriend over for dinner which was interesting. Then after I took my crazy grandmom back to her house all the way in West Deptford, my family headed over to my mom's friends house. She works with my mom and she is really cool and she always has interesting family over. We've become a part of the family more or less, they were kind enough last year to invite us over for Thanksgiving when my dad was deployed to Afghanistan. So anyway that was a lot of fun. Stayed up drinking with them and their family, most of whom are near my age.

Yesterday or Friday, depends on how technical you want to get, I went to Philly Diner with Courtney and her bf Matt. We talked about all kinds of stuff and caught up. Been a long time since I've seen either one of them thanks to the US Army haha.


Well it's way too late and I need to get to bed, peace

Our attempt at being black

Youth In Asia 07 (2:43:49 AM): thanks brethrend

cone256 (2:43:58 AM): no problem homie g

Youth In Asia 07 (2:44:28 AM): yo yo yo g- slide homefry

cone256 (2:44:57 AM): g funk from the southside motha fuckin killa

Youth In Asia 07 (2:45:28 AM): ugh, ugh, ugh.. check it..

Youth In Asia 07 (2:45:36 AM): walking around with my homie g

Youth In Asia 07 (2:45:55 AM): looking for the ho i cant wait to see

Youth In Asia 07 (2:46:07 AM): popin caps in cops all around

cone256 (2:46:09 AM): pull out my piece and shoot a bitch in the face, ugh yeah

Youth In Asia 07 (2:46:16 AM): looking for my 30 kids, who cant be found

cone256 (2:46:30 AM): oh thats right, the white put them in the ground

Youth In Asia 07 (2:46:32 AM): visiting my father in the county jail

cone256 (2:46:34 AM): white man*

Youth In Asia 07 (2:46:46 AM): dealing some dope to get the bail

Youth In Asia 07 (2:47:14 AM): wearing my gang colors to show my pride

cone256 (2:47:23 AM): got busted by the cops and now I'm fucking a guy in the ass

Youth In Asia 07 (2:47:31 AM): representing the fucking sick ass west side

cone256 (2:47:45 AM): ok we need to stop

cone256 (2:47:48 AM): too black for me

Thanksgiving Break

Well finally it's here! Thanksgiving Break which seemed so far away is now only hours away. I don't know what I'm doing over break yet but I'm sure something will come up. I'll probably hang out with Kelly and go see my brother's apartment. I need to take my crazy grandmother to breakfast and dinner like everynight which I hope I can delegate to my other siblings.

I desperately need to get a car. Life up here is just so depressing without being able to get off campus when you need to. Plus it's putting a damper on getting back and forth to camps for the Brigadiers. I have a feeling that no one lives close enough that will be willing to come over to pick me up, so that means that I am on my own in trying to get to camps. Man I need to bribe my grandmother for money or something haha.


Nothing like a good chat with my rook buddy/ ex-roommate....

Youth In Asia 07 (10:08:33 PM): GOD DAMNIT!

Youth In Asia 07 (10:08:38 PM): FUCKING GLOBAL WARMING

Youth In Asia 07 (10:09:23 PM): why cant we just all get together and clean up mother earth.. stop poluting the air.. and destroying the ozone.. we should hold hands in a circle around a tree and sing uplifting songs

Youth In Asia 07 (10:09:29 PM): maybe that will solve the problem

cone256 (10:09:42 PM): *slaps you in the face*

cone256 (10:09:46 PM): pull yourself together man

Youth In Asia 07 (10:10:53 PM): *shakes it off*

Youth In Asia 07 (10:11:12 PM): what happened.. I must have blacked out

cone256 (10:11:33 PM): hey, being a Vermonter it happens every now and then

Youth In Asia 07 (10:11:53 PM): Blacking out?

cone256 (10:12:34 PM): no, becoming a hippie even for a second

cone256 (10:12:41 PM): thats why you have rook buddies to keep you in line

Youth In Asia 07 (10:12:58 PM): phew.. I dont know what I would do with out you guys

Youth In Asia 07 (10:14:10 PM): I would probably fall into a hippy coma and become a corn farmer in northern Vermont

cone256 (10:14:26 PM): yeah I know

cone256 (10:14:35 PM): and no self respecting man would want that

Youth In Asia 07 (10:15:02 PM): that is true

Youth In Asia 07 (10:15:57 PM): but you have to think about the innocent animals at stake... the toxic waste from the tractors .. the innocent bugs that would be harmed in the creation of the fields.. its just a horrific thought..

cone256 (10:16:38 PM): *punches in the face and puts into choke hold* I don't want to have to take this to the next step!!! *pulls out pistol*

Youth In Asia 07 (10:17:19 PM): *comes to, shakes it off, wipes the blood from the lip* Wow, nice sidearm..

Back to Drum Corps

So I've been contacted by the Syracuse Brigadiers to come march with them. I don't know how they got my name but it doesn't matter. They are working on trying to get me a ride out there to audition since I don't have a car. I don't know what I'll be playing just yet, hopefully I'll get a spot in either the tuba or mello lines. The next camp is the 2nd weekend in December. It's really cheap and it's really the closest thing around. So I guess we'll see how everything goes.

42R to 11B

I've been thinking a lot the last couple of days about reclassifying MOS's. I mean the logic behind it makes sense...

I want to commission which we all know, but I want to commission into either aviation or the infantry. So why not switch to the infantry as an enlistedman and get some experience before I commission. I mean it makes sense to me. I'm not going to be any help to my men with only having enlisted experience as a bandsman. So I want to look into what I would need to do to reclassify into the infantry. The 86th Brigade here is making the transition from an Armored Brigade to an Infantry Brigade so this makes a perfect oppurtunity to make the switch as well. Plus once I get back to NJ there are infantry units everywhere so I will be able to drill anywhere instead of 2 1/2 hours away in Sea Girt.




Anyone have any suggestions or opinions??

The little things...

It's weird when you get those little things that just make you see the things you need to be doing. I found out I gained 10 pounds since BCT/AIT. That just sucks. I've been pretty lazy with my schoolwork and I know it. I've just been falling apart but I need to get my act together. Hopefully I can turn this all around.





Why is she ignoring me? I wonder what I did to make her be like this or it's probably the fact that she isn't mature quite yet.

Drill weekend...

Well this weekend was definitely an interesting one. I had drill this weekend which is always cool. Carrie and I decided that we would hang out Friday and since I was already staying at their house on Saturday it just made sense for me to stay the night there. We didn't really do anythign it was more of a relaxing night just watching TV and whatnot.

Drill yesterday was only the Veterans Day Parade. That was the only real work we did. After that we had a retirement party for Pat Evans, a tuba player, who is retiring at age 60. This means that the section is now down to just the 2 of us. Granted Andy is really good being that he used to be in the President's Own, the TOP Marine Band in Washington DC. Well actually it's the top military band in the country. But anyway, the retirement was funny as always. Nothing like putting a bunch of musicians together to make fun of each other. It only got worse later that night...

What happens when you put musicians and alcohol together?? One crazy weird ass party. This was the main reason that I was staying at Wendy and Carrie's house to begin with because I know Tom and Rob, who are my usual car pool guys, wouldn't want to go to the party. the party was pretty good. It would have been better if some certain people weren't as annoying as they usually are but you can only so much from them lol.

Today we rehearsed a little bit with the small christmas ensembles that we will be going around to all of the other units in the state and providing music for their family Christmas parties. I'm the tuba player in the only fully functioning brass quintet. All of the other ensembles are a mix match of about every instrument. The higher ups in the band didn't really break us down into any groups just broke us down by squad. But somehow we ended up with the exact instrumentation for the quintet *shrugs*. I think we're going to the Berlin and Westminster armories but I'm not entirely sure. After all of the rehearsing, lunch, a boring brief by the JAG, and goofing around, we had PT and it just killed me. I hate running and this was just ridiculous

I am just completely exhausted, I think it's time for bed...

What's next?

So some interesting things have been happening in the past week or so. This won't go in any specific order I'll just type it as it comes to my head.

So trying to get things rolling with the possibility of getting an Army ROTC scholarship for when I get my MA at Rutgers I emailed some CPT at their ROTC office asking for some more information pertaining to graduate students. I told him that I go to Norwich, that I'm enlisted and all that jazz. I hoping that he emails me back tomorrow with either information or a way to get some information. I've been trying to decide if I want to spend some time on active duty or not. I mean it would be awesome because I wouldn't have to pay for shit. Plus it's a guaranteed job after school. AHHH! More things to consider.

What prompted this was that Army branching was today. Being that my rook buddies are graduating this year I went to the ceremony. Here is how it all went out...

Barrett- Aviation
LaGrega- Aviation
Fleming- Aviation
Bennett- Infantry
Zike- Infantry
Scott- Signal Corps...branch detail Armor
Nabozny- Signal Corps...branch detail Infantry




So all in all Band Company made out pretty good with their choices. When I branch my top three choices are Aviation, Military Police, and Military Intelligence. But that is so far down the road, like 3 years or so lol. Baby steps Chris, baby steps...

I've finally got my act back together and started to watch what I've been eating and started PTing again. I have been so lazy and not caring at all that I am starting feel like shit. I've been so depressed lately and I think that is the reason. I haven't been taking care of myself.

Things have been progressing with Bridget, but I don't know where I want to take it. She lives so far away and I'm afraid to commit. I just don't know what to do. I mean she is an awesome girl but I just don't know what to do.

Carrie is writing a novel for some contest or something along those lines and she has decided to put a character based on me in it :-). I told her to make sure I don't die or anything haha.






I have way to much going on both in my head and in real life to try to figure it all out at once.

Mid-Semester Break!!!

I am so glad Mid-Semester Break is finally here. We don't have classes tomorrow, well today technically, so I am definitely sleeping in. Tonight I was hoping that I would be able to get over to the Rustic but Stewart and I couldn't find someone with a car to get there. It's funny, we had a D.D. but we couldn't find a car. Usually it's the other way around. So I spent tonight watching some TV and movies and just relaxing in the room. Which I guess isn't too bad lol.

...for some reason I decided to listen to Boys II Men, definitely very weird for me....

Tomorrow is going to be another busy day even though we don't have classes. I really need to clean my room (dust, sweep, mop, etc.), do my laundry and borrow a car to go to Walmart to buy some things.

The troop deployment gig I had yesterday was ok. I got to see most of the people in my unit which is always awesome. They are such an awesome group of people. You need to watch out when you put some of us together though, we tend to cause trouble no matter where we go haha. The best part about all of it is that I get PAID to do it! I mean seriously, it doesn't get any better than that. I don't see why every musician doesn't do this. It's just like being back in high school or college bands, but a lot more fun and you get paid for it all. Yeah you're in the army blah blah blah, but who cares, you get paid to do something you love. Especially all you music education/performance majors, you have no idea what you are missing!!

Saturday I still have the troop return ceremony for the helicopter med-evac guys coming home from Iraq. This will catch me back up with drill since I missed this month's for Parents weekend here at Norwich.

The days ahead...

Well the next couple of days ahead are some pretty busy ones, tomorrow especially. Tomorrow I have my Roman History test. It shouldn't be too bad considering I've been paying attention in the class, not because I have to but because I find the class interesting. I have my usual idiot math class as well. For some reason this very simple algebra class is kicking my ASS. I mean I don't understand it, I took pre-calc and physics in high school so you would think this would be a cakewalk but no. I've decided I should probably go around and get some reinforcement on the formulas. I guess if my professor spoke better english instead of a polish/russian/english mix it would be better.

After my math class I have to fly up to Burlington in about 20 minutes, which is usually a 45 minute drive. I need to make it there warmed up and tuned by 1430 in order to perform for a Troop Deployment gig. I don't remember what unit is going over there but they are headed to Afghanistan right near where my dad was when he was there. I always try to do these gigs even if it means I have to go way out of my way to do them. I feel that it is essential for us as the band to be there for them and their send-off ceremony. The chances of us being deployed is significantly low, so I feel that this is my only way of contributing to the war effort. As much as I would like to go overseas, I would much rather graduate from Norwich and commission then go over and fight.

Friday is Mid-Semester Break which means no classes. Extremely excited about that!

Saturday I have a Troop Return gig that I volunteered for. the 158th Air Ambulance (Dust-Off) Company is returning from Iraq. They are currently at Ft. Dix, NJ right now demobilizing and will be driving up to Vermont on Saturday. These troop returns are so much better than the send-offs. The moods are usually a lot happier because they are coming home rather than leaving. I need to be up there around 1200 to start playing around 1230.

I have no idea what else I am doing this weekend besides the gigs. I know drinking on Thursday is definitely in order. It's been awhile since I've been drunk and I could use it. I've been a bit stressed lately and the alcohol will help.


This past weekend I spent at home had it's ups and downs. I spent some time talking to the 2nd and 8th period bands about oppurtunities in military as musicians. I only got three interested people but you know what, I was doing my job and helped spread information to people that might otherwise not know about it. I did see Abby but not nearly as much time as I would have liked. She had to go to the football game on Friday night and she never called me afterwards so we never hung out that night. Saturday is a little more personal on her end so I don't think I should go into it here, so that eliminated Saturday night as well. But we did catch the last 20 minutes or so of the marching band rehearsal. Hopefully we'll hang out during Thanksgiving break.

First entry

Well I was getting a little sick with the way livejournal was working so I decided to go with this new site I found out about. So I think I might stick with this one since I like it a lot better which means I will probably post more often