Sure I can do this: I went to summer camp, you know...

We've just arrived back from field training, and while it turned out to be a lot more fun than I had expected, I'm not one to turn down a hot shower after breaking in the ol' combat boots by hiking through cacti and up steep hills covered with Blackjack for 12 hours each of a couple of 90 degree-plus days. What's Blackjack, you ask? Fellow northerners, I got some additional botanical training last night in the form a just about losing an eye to this stupid form of tree. They are nasty trees with thick, inflexible branches that are sharp and stick straight out from the trunk from ground level to the top of the tree and they were put on earth to prevent poor OBC students, such as myself, from walking in a straight line with compass in hand. The instructors really packed a lot of stuff into a couple of days worth of field training, and I have to admit that I learned some stuff that, while not particularly practicable in my life at the moment (and hopefully not anytime in the forseeable future) it was still some pretty interesting stuff, because absolutely all of it is news to me. Take Brazilian ju jitsu, for instance. Never heard of it until today. Weapons training? Sure. All I can say is that not only can I now assemble an M-16, but I also picked up a couple of self-defense moves of the aforementioned South American variety over the course of the two days. For all of you who are reading and laughing at the thought of me, your sweet orthodontist friend/daughter/sister tossing people around, well, I thought it was pretty funny, too, but required, so I don't laugh and do the best I can...yep, just tossin' people around. Man, I'm going to be dangerous down at the Riverwalk this weekend... The M-16 assembly exercise, to be honest, was actually pretty interesting. It's probably not going to surprise anyone that there are requirements about the speed at which you can complete this task, and it's actually kind of a challenge, but I'm positive that I will be able to do it in the time allowed- it's a surprisingly easy task to pick up. The thing that we spent the absolute most time on, though, was land navigation, which is basically orienteering, as my friend A. would call it ("Of course I can do this: I did go to summer camp, you know...") Anyway, you're issued a map, a compass and four coordinates for the points that you need to find...and this exercise yields so many hilarious stories that I'm going to have to post them later. However, just to end the suspense, I rocked out on my first individual navigation exercise and got the maximum number of points. While B.S.-ing with my classmates this evening, I heard one guy go, "No way, some girl found all four points? Wow." Actually, sir, there were two girls who found all four points, which is more than I can say for a pretty high percentage of the guys in my platoon. Hooah! However, right now the feet that made my successful land nav possible are super tired, so it's off to the bathtub and some rest...