4:00 am, wake up, eat one bowl of cheerios, get ready to go. Make sure I have my ID and Social Security card.
4:50 am, Martinez calls to tell me she's outside.
5:17 am, park outside the MEPS office, get out of the car really fast to get inside before all the people who are shipping out.
5:40 am, get a plasticky sticker tag that has my name on it, a bar code, which branch I'm there for, and what I'm supposed to be doing today, stick it over my heart and leave it there. Wait with Martinez until the cranky security guy let's me go upstairs.
5:50 am, Martinez leaves and I ride the elevator up. Put my little backpack in a closet, turn off my phone and wait.
6:30 am, get a packet that's supposed to have all my medical info in it. It doesn't. Go the Army liaison office, get the huge stack of paperwork that my physical therapist faxed Martinez. Go get my picture and fingerprints taken. Go back to the liaison office and sign some stuff while they watch, leave my phone with them. Go downstairs to floor 5, sign another thing while the testing people watch. Go, sit, wait.
Get my vision tested.
9:45 am, Go with a bunch of other girls and wait to do the urine test. One of the chaperone lady people changes her mind and sends half of us to get our blood drawn instead. This was upsetting, cause I really had to pee!
Watch my blood get drawn. Finally get to go to the bathroom! Interestingly enough, having someone watch you pee isn't that freaky. Wait some more, then get my hearing checked.
Wait. Talk to the doctor, who is very rude. And old.
Go into a room with a bunch of other girls, strip to my underwear and bra. Get measured and weighed. Put my socks and shirt back on. Get told we all have to strip back down to our bras and underwear. Do a bunch of exercises while a female sergeant and the rude doctor watch to see if we can't do them, or if our joints dislocate.
Get told to strip all the way down, and put on those papery hospital gowns. I go first while all the other girls wait. Go in, sit. Get ears, eyes and throat checked. Get heart and lungs checked. Get my tummy squished. Then, a really (and I mean really) FAST breast and pelvic exam. Surprisingly, not awkward. To my surprise (and then later to Sergeant Allen's) I passed!
Get dressed while another girl goes. Grab my paperwork, and go to the bathroom again. Put my paperwork on the front desk and wait to be told I can go.
11:33 am, they tell me I'm totally qualified and tell me to take my papers upstairs to the army liaison office.
11:46 am, Get to the liaison office upstairs and give them my paperwork, they give me a copy, and I get my phone back. Go check out (via my fingerprints! so cool) and get my backpack.
11:51 am, walk to the cafeteria for lunch and call Martinez to tell her I'm done. She says that Meadows is waiting for me downstairs. Nevermind lunch!
Meadows makes fun of me cause I can't stop smiling. So happy to have passed the physical!!!
Drive around to pick up one of Meadows' recruits, and drop off a different one. Start getting sick in Meadows' car. I forgot that that happens if I don't eat frequently enough.
12:20 pm, I have not eaten in 9 hours and feel so crappy! I dump my stuff on Martinez' desk and go upstairs to get some food(it's the mall so I didn't have to go far). Go downstairs and eat while I talk to Martinez and the station commander Allen. Martinez eventually goes upstairs to get her lunch and leaves me with Allen.
1:54 pm, I realize that Martinez had called me four times and I never felt my phone go off. We talk about job stuff, because that's really all that I have left before actually signing a contract.
2:44 pm, Martinez drops me off at home. She's pretty cool. I like her.
3:47 pm, I'm posting this very long blog entry.
