If it's raining, it must be the weekend

More blog notes from Soulja Girl:

Sept. 21

PT and an AGR started our morning. Then it was chow and a march to "play" the video game range again. This time it was pop up targets and I did horribly. My eyepro kept fogging up and my helmet was falling forward. Both of these issues made even sighting a target impossible. I felt pretty bad, physically and mentally most of the day. Here it is almost October and it is still as hot as hell and twice as humid. Blah!

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Sept. 22

Happy Anniversary to me and my hubby! 8 years together and I cannot imagine ever loving him more than I do right now. Baby! You are the very best husband ever! In the whole world! I don't even remember anything about the day. My thoughts were filled with how I would spend our anniversary when I am finally out of this place!

[Editor's note: I didn't make any of that up.]

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Sept. 23

Today we marched. And marched. And marched. This was our 6-mile march in full gear. I managed to finish it but I fell all the way to the back. We finally got to Range 19 and had some breakfast -- lukewarm from the DFAC.

Then we got in line to shoot on the lanes we would be qualifying in. The pop up targets were at various distances: 50-75-100-150-200-300. I enjoyed the practice but was only able to hit 20 out of 40 targets. I don't even know the score I had the second time because my targets malfunctioned :( and I had a malfunction. It also would have helped if I had been firing at my own targets! Oops. It was a very long hot day at the range. We were all very happy to get on the buses home!

Never thought I would love buses so much -- or that I would think of the bay as "home".

Hot shower! Yes!!

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Sept. 24

Another motormove to the range today. I was able to shoot a 25 and a 27 (out of 40). Both are qualifying but I really want to get Sharpshooter. My last coach -- a guy by the name of Merkley helped me very much. I left the range with a good feeling. My goal -- Sharpshooter. 30+ targets!

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Sept. 25

I made my goal -- I think the prayer and coaching from the day before really helped. I shot 30 our of 40 targets on my first try -- both qualifying and getting Sharpshooter. Life is good.

I can't believe how many people we have lost. Our company started out with about 218 privates. We are now down to about 182. our platoon alone is losing 5 more people sometime next week. That isn't counting any from the other 3 platoons. Most are young too. Sad! :(

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Sept. 26

Today we got to sleep in until 6am! LOL.

Combatives was the order of the day. We got to spar each other. I got kicked in the head and saw stars but no other side effects. I made it through the sessions okay. Mostly everyone treated me like I was their mom, with a few exceptions. It was a good day overall. A little company "beautification" ended our day.

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Sept. 27

No phone call today. :( This one "lifeline" is the highlight of my week. It was a fairly restful day. Church was good. Bible Study was the best, and we got to go to the PX. If I had been able to make my phone call to my man it would have been a perfect day.

Oh well. It is BCT.

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Sept. 28

Today we did combat shooting at Range 19. It really was pretty fun and nerve-wracking as well. We had to run up to a barrier in the "ready" -- weapon pointed at the enemy. Then kneel and shoot the pop up targets. We had 3 magazines with 10 rounds each. Then we had to switch to the prone position and fire around the barrier from the ground. One of the the 3 magazines gave me a double feed. So I had to clear my weapon before firing on more targets. Next was firing from a standing position using the barrier for cover.

The first time I only hit 14 targets (standard is 16) but the second time I hit 18. I think we get to do it again. I hope so -- it was pretty cool even with the weapon malfunction. :)

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Sept. 29

Today we marched to the confidence course. (See David's letter for details.) [Editor's note: I'm going to have to dig through her letters for details on this. Watch for an update.]

The balance beam to the zip line almost took me out. I hated having such a hard time with it. For whatever reason I just couldn't wrap my head around actually walking across it. My DS was very encouraging. :) His push helped me finally make my way across. It was actually a really great day -- even marching back was fine. I conquered some fears and even had my picture taken (with the other golden girls) for the Facebook page! We won't talk about the video...

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Sept. 30

PT Test! I got 11 push ups! 59 sit ups and ran my 2 miles in 21:27. Total points were 204 out of 300. :) Then we spent some time at EST to practice close range combat shooting. 25m and less. I didn't do too bad either. Things are looking good.

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Oct. 1

We are going to the range this afternoon for some close combat shooting (live fire this time) and for night fire with Night Vision Goggles and a PAQ 4 laser. Should be fun... SO AWESOME!

Motormove to the range -- buses here are such a glorious sight! The shoot was for a streamer. We had to shoot at a silhouette target from various distances and angles. Total possible pts were 300 and I scored 294. :)

Not sure yet who won the streamer. The night fire was cool -- everything was green and surreal, and frustrating. It was hard to see since the goggles were not personalized to me and the laser was set to a larger circle (instead of pinpoint) and hid my target. Oh well, it was just familiarization anyway.

We got motormoved at 2230. Exhausted of course.