I was really excited to receive texts from two of R's friends who mentioned the CHP Recruiting Facebook page and the start of a new CTC III-14 album. And R is prominently shown in one of the photos! It was very surreal seeing him in the cadet blues, with the rest of his cadet class.It's exciting though, and although I don't want to post the picture here, it's a public album on the "CHP Recruting" page if you're interested.
Our first night apart was a smidge rough. Our dog Shay was unbelievably restless all night, I could feel her pacing all over the bed. Part of it might be that we stayed at my parents house in an unfamiliar bed. But we've stayed in hotel rooms before, and it's not like my parent's house is "new" to her, we go there weekly. She kept sitting by the door, glaring at me and it just felt like she was waiting for R to come home. I'm hopeful we have more sleep filled nights to come.
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R called at 21:50 and we got a decent amount of phone time tonight! He sounded really alert and not as tired today, which was nice to hear. It sounded like they had more time tonight to take care of nighttime duties "aka free time" but there's always lots to do in the academy so we kept it short. Here's what I got:
- He confirmed that he was wearing pants so big yesterday that he was indeed wearing 2 belts.
- The good news is that he was able to switch pants so they fit today.
- He seemed to really like him roommates, direct quote:"everyone is cool."
- He said the food was good (which surprised me) but their body fat hadn't been tested yet so no one was on the "training table" diet yet. So the food will likely change for him soon.
- But he also said he was surprised by his lack of hunger.
- They got their brass today and he's working on learning how to polish
- They're doing a lot of hiring forms right now in the classroom, so its not really bad yet.
- He said, "You don't realize how heavy your book is until you're holding it above your head."
Overall, it was so nice to hear his voice and how encouraged he seemed to be. Also, I think their call time is limited but I believe he had time to check and read texts before bed so make sure to send him a text or 2 if you'd like! Encouraging things, funny stories, etc. I wouldn't ask any questions via text because I don't know if he's able to respond in real time (if that's being monitored or not) but he can read texts.
It was so nice hearing his voice being relatively cheerful, and knowing he's working hard but probably enjoying it too. I did shed a few tears tonight because it hit me how much I missed him, when he texted me about how happy he was to get my texts.
To keep from flooding his text inbox, I've been keeping a timeline twitter-like feed in a notepad on my iPhone, giving updates to the things that happen during the day in real time. They're all things I would normally text, gchat or tell him in person like "I ate a cheese plate for lunch and my stomach hurts. I'm imagining that you would tell me to take those lactose pills I keep denying that I need." or "I texted someone telling them the puppies were being so good today and I swear 15 minutes later Hunter peed on the carpet." I figured it'd give him a sense of normalcy and I keep them short so he can read them super fast. Apparently he really liked it, :)
I've heard and read from multiple people that they don't get Wednesday night liberty for the first few weeks, which makes sense. But I'm hoping to get more phone time tomorrow... hey, a girl can dream right?
Also, I told R that he's got a lot of cheerleaders (male and female, of course no gender biases here), reading the blog and giving me great feedback. He sounded grateful that people cared how he was doing. :)
Sincerely,
E
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