JournalJournal07Nov98
Yesterday was a good day. Actually, these last couple of weeks were great. On
October 28 I took another piano audition(my third one since I arrived here) and
I actually managed to pass it. That means that yesterday I was able to class up.
Classing up is when a person at the School of Music passes their incoming
audition and actually begins formal classes. This means that everyday I'll be
taking an ear training and theory class, drill(marching) band, dance band, and
various sorts of combos. It appears to be a difficult course considering how
much I have to progress on my instrument in 6 months, and also so because everyone
here is going out of their minds because of all the stress involved.
I took my mind of the stress here last night at a party. I can't believe that it only took 5 drinks to get me drunk. I used to have quite the tolerance but now.....Oh well. Today I mean to starch and press a couple of uniforms and maybe spit shine some boots. Maybe my friend Estrada and I will order a pizza and play some chess. I also need to put my practice hours in today. My instrument instructor is on duty tonight and he wants to work on sight reading and maybe play some duets. I'll most likely learn a lot. Thus it seems that I have a lot to do today and I'll have to leave a journal entry for another date.
~Curtis
28Oct99
It's 1130 pm now and I had an easy day. I had a few classes in the morn and the
afternoon was off. I received my first correspondence course today. These are
military classes by mail. The subject was section rehearsal techniques...it took
me around 15 minutes to complete. These classes are important for Sergeant and
later Staff Sergeant. They are pathetically easy.
Other wise it's been a boring day. I had a great time chatting w/ some friends and I'm sitting around right now drinking scotch just for the fun of it. I hope everyone back home is well...
~Curtis
7Nov99
I just got back from a German friend's birthday party. I left for this party on
Friday and it's Sunday now, so you can just imagine how much fun I had. It
started Friday night first at a small bar where we all drank a few beers just to
get warmed up for the club. There was a piano at the bar and I played a few
tunes before my friends wanted to leave.
Next came the club. Among my friends were two people that I had met that night: Christian and Niki. For a little background info they are a couple whose relationship is in a low spot right now. To put it mildly, she and I had a good time at the club. If her boyfriend were not there who knows what could have happened. As it stands I ended up with a phone number and a hangover.
The next day was the actual party. We didn't do much during the day other that watch cartoons and a little soccer. That night was the surprise party. Any German celebration involves a lot of alcohol. We drank beer for a little while and when the birthday girl arrived we broke out the champagne. I took one look at the glasses that we were drinking out of and said, "hmmm, shot glasses." lol....I pounded at least one bottle and that's where my night ended. Now I'm back home, sitting in front of the puter with a huge headache. Oh well: that's life.
I have Tuesday off and I'll call Niki, and later this month I hope to be promoted to Specialist. Check in here after 17Nov to see what happens. Well, that is the story of my weekend.
~Curtis
12Nov99
These last couple of days have been interesting. Yesterday I drove up to Frankfurt to meet Vinnie, a friend from chat. It was quite an unusual day to say the least. We drove around Frankfurt for 30 min looking for parking. After finally finding parking we went to Pizza Hut and then walked around and shopped for a while. We talked a bit and ended up at a coffee shop. When the time came to leave we walked around for another 30 min trying to find the parking garage. The night doesn't end here though. I had 20 L of gasoline in the tank and 200+ km to drive. A little less than halfway back I nearly ran out of gas, and all I had was 11 American dollars. Luckily, the gas station took dollars. However, German gas prices are about twice the American prices, so I only managed to go another 50 km. Luckily, the next town I stopped in was a town that I knew where the army base was, so I was able to get gas at American prices and use checks, which were all that I had left. After that it was a quick ride home.
That was yesterday. Today was complete hell. I've had the last week of work off. I didn't do much other than my trip, sleep, and chat. Today I had a military gig. Two of the days I had off the rest of the band worked. Imagine what I found. I get there ten minutes early to make sure that everything was packed and ready to go...just as I left everything. HA! I get there and nothing is where I left it and EVERYTHING is out of it's case and scattered all over the place. To top it off, three of the band members were giving me a hard time and my solo-ing was even crappier than usual today. The only song that I really played well was the last one, which we did just for fun because the crowd had already left. Oh well, I'll take care of my problem with my co-workers after I get promoted(should be this Wednesday.) I don't wanna screw up my chances for promotion or I would be doing it right now. Well, that's all I have.
~Curtis
17Nov99
Today is a good day so far. I'm on my lunch break, so who knows what will happen this afternoon. As I've said before, I was available for promotion today. Well, as usual, first thing we did was concert band. The rehearsal was going well until we reached what I call "the evil chime song." Its real name is Russian Christmas by Alfred Reed. I call it that because I have some chime solos that are just insane. Well anyways, we're playing it and I get through the beginning part fine. He cut us off around the beginning of the second page and then said, "let's skip ahead to my favourite part." This part is the evil part. I turn the chimes so I can see him and my music a little better and this little action placed the wheel lock right on top of the pedal, forcing the pedal to stay down which meant that I couldn't clear the sound from the chimes. We made it maybe three bars into the section before the commander gives me a nasty look and cuts us off. There I was standing frantically trying to clear the sound. He throws his baton and yells, "what in the hell do you think you are doing?" I hastily reply, "it's stuck sir." He just gives me a disgusted look and said, "get up here now!" I push the chimes and music stand out of my way and stand at attention 2 paces away from him. He then said, "I should just rip that rank right off your collar, what do you think top? [referring to the 1sg]" He then promotes me to specialist. Here the whole damn episode had been planned and he fooled everyone in the band. However, when he spoke to top he cracked a smile and those of us who noticed knew what was going on. He got a laugh out of it. Oh well, that's my day so far.
~Curtis
13Dec99
I just got back from my Kosovo/Macedonia trip. It was educational to say the least. We left on the 10th. to get to Macedonia we had to take a C-130. If you don't know the C-130 is the aircraft airborne soldiers usually use to make their jumps. Needless to say, we all were cramped and it was really loud. When we arrived in Macedonia that night we took a bus from the air field to CAS(Camp Able Sentry.) There we got out initial briefings and we put up for the night. That night had to be the worst of my entire trip. For starters, my Shampoo bottle had burst sometime during the trip and all my clothes were soaked in the stuff. I took them in the shower with me and cleaned them out and hung them up to dry. The tents that we were in were heated. One heating unit serviced two tents, but only one tent would have the thermostat. Well, my tent didn't have the controls, those were in the tent next to us that had only four females in it. In out initial briefing we were told that those tents that had the controls were to put them on the 20 C setting and leave them there. Never give a female technical information and expect them to listen. They had the heat turned all the way up and we were sweating. Because of this I didn't get out my sleeping bag and slept in a t-shirt and shorts. Sometime during the night it got hot in their tent and they turned the heat all the way off to cool it down. Well, when they did that they turned off the pilot light and the heat couldn't be turned back on. Of course, it got really cold in the tent, I was prepared for it and froze my ass off. A friend and I went out and fixed the unit, but sleep was out of the question for the night.
The next day we had a concert in the local town. It was great. I got to see a bit of the Macedonian countryside. Just before the concert a friend and I stepped outside to have a smoke. Realize now that the Macedonian people really dislike having the US Army in their country. The entire bus ride people were giving us dirty looks and such. Well, when I stepped outside there was a whole unit of Macedonian soldiers. It was a strange experience: one of the soldiers knew english and called us over to talk to him. We talked a lot about nothing, but the whole damn unit surrounded us wanting to talk. It was nice, the soldiers loved us.
That night we drove to Kosovo. The next day was our second gig. We were at Camp Bondsteel for this one. It was pretty big. When we left for Macedonia all but 5 of us took a Chinook helicopter. I volunteered to stay on the bus. It was daytime and I had a great opportunity to see the country. It was horrid. There were burned out buildings all over the place. The five of us had an escort of 3 humvees locked and loaded to prevent any trouble. That means that they sent 6 people to protect 5. The bus driver was an Albanian and he told us a lot about what happened. I have a much better understanding of why were are there now. If you ever want to know, email me. Anyways, it was a great experience.
~Curtis
18Jan00
Life is great! I've finally found myself a most wonderful woman. I've waited for a long time but it's finally happened! I'm sure you all would live her, in fact most of you know her. Crissi has to be the best thing that's ever happened in my life...I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot about her in here.
Other than muh girl things have been going quite normally. I just signed up for a college class. I'll be learning a little German. It's an evil language, but it could prove to be useful to me. I have another piano gig on Friday but that's not a surprise either. A lot of fun stuff has happened to me since I last wrote here. Let's see. In Dec I took my friend Jeremy down to the airport in Munich and spent the rest of the day at a brewery in the down town region. Soon I'll have my pics up from that trip and you'll be able to see me drinking a good ole stein of ale with muh friends. My xmas break was pretty much boring and new years was a joke. Let me tell you, it sucks spending your holidays a lone. This month I started working in unit supply. It's hard work but it's paying off for me. I'm already getting a little respect around here. Anyways, I've babbled enough for one day. Love ya all.
~Curtis
31Jan99
The last few days have been boring for me...yet a lot of things have happened. Where to begin *L* Well, Thursday at 7am I had my last ciggarette. I've been going out of my freaking mind. Nicorette doesnt do as well as it should, but it does enough to keep me from killing someone. Thur night I had my German class. I didn't get home from that til 930 and around 1000 I went to Jeremy's room to watch a movie. Around 1230 am when I got back to my room I got on to check email and was icqed w/ a friend's homepage troubles. So, I spend the next hour and a half helping her and didn't goto bet till 2 in the morn. I had the alarm clock set for 5am so I could get up and talk to Crissi, but it didn't go off. I was awoken by a knock on my door at 905 being told that I was late for work. Well, what I didn't know was that Crissi had to take care of some family issues the next day until I got to chat during my lunch break. So, to take my moind off her I ended up spending a lot of time right here working on the homepage.
Friday night was alright. I went out drinking with Jeremy and it was pure hell for me. Without cigarettes I swear that the beer just doesnt taste as good. I was pissy all night long and very easily offended. Jeremy made one comment that I didnt like so I hit him in the arm. He had picked up his Franken wine up at that moment and it spilled all over the bar. *L* Pete, the owner of the joined, yelled at me. I guess it was all good though. His birthday is next Sunday. He gave Jeremy and I an invitation to his party. The party has all free food and drink so I know that I'll have a blast. There arent that many invitations out there so I guess we got lucky.
This upcoming week is going to be great. Besides the party there's the monthly jam session on Wednesday. And then on Sat hopefully Vin and I will be getting together again. I know that we'll have a great time. I hope to spend ever moment I can with Crissi too cause god knows I love that girl. Oh well, you can see all is wonderful here.
~Curtis
07Feb99
This last week or so has been complete hell for me. Nothing but trouble seems to be finding me right now, though a few good things have happened as well. I guess the I am one of those cursed ones: the more I try to avoid trouble the more of it that finds me. I guess I should go to the start of all of this. Last Wednesday was your typical day. Nothing was out of the ordinary, that is, until I got off. I have never been the best at keeping a clean room and anyone who knows me would agree. Well, I had let my room fall into a state if disrepair and I guess it is my own fault that misfortune seems to be following me. Just as I got off work my squad leader informed me that it had been brought to his attention that my room was a mess. As "corrective" training he decided that I am to have room inspections ever morning at 615 for 2 weeks. I also had to have my room cleaned by 930 that evening for an inspection. Well, I couldn't get him to bump the time up and I really wanted to be out by 830 so I could go to the monthly jam session. Anyways, I had to do as told and passed the first inspection. He then informs me that he won't be doing a morning inspection because it was only "a few hours away." So, I go to the jam session. I was an hour and a half late and by the time I found the courage to get up on stage and play it was the last song and the house piano player always plays the last song. At least I got the phone number of the other piano player and we'll be getting together this month so that he may teach me a trick or two. Anyways, that's besides the point. I went to the Irish Pub to quaff a quick guinness before going home.
You'd think that's where my night ended....hell no. When I made it back to post I was pulled over by the mps and issued a series of sobriety tests. I had to walk heel to toe on a curb, touch my nose, and with my hands at my sides I had to stand on each foot for 30 seconds. I have very weak ankles and didn't do well on two of the tests. So to be sure they took me down to the mp station for a breathalizer. Mind you that it is 1 am now and I have to be at work at 7 am. Well, I took the test and passed it way below the legal limit. Instead of being allowed to leave they push a bunch of paperwork at me. I didn't even get home til around 2 am. It STILL isnt over. I was so tired from the whole damn ordeal that I didnt wake up for my alarm clock and was late for work. Lucky me, huh? So I'm in trouble for 2 things now.
Things got a little better over the weekend. I basically sat around and did nothing for a while and went to a party last night. It actually was Pete's birthday. He's an Irish friend of mine who owns the pub that I frequent. Well, the drinks were free and I had a great time. Of course I dont have pictures of it because I was too drunk to take pictures. I dont remember most of the evening or else I'd give a more detailed account. However, when I got back I suppose I stripped off my clothes and left them in the middle of the floor and had enough wits about me to set my alarm clock. The problem is, yet again I slept through the alarm. So, when my squad leader came to do his inspection I was not awake and had clothes in the middle of the floor. I failed the inspection thus and was counseled yet again! Yet, most of this was all my fault. I guess I have no right to rail against my boss or the army or anything else. It's human nature to try to pass the blame. I'll speak on this later.
~Curtis
11Feb00
I've had a lot on my mind lately. Finally I have found the answers within myself. I guess I've been troubled really since Aug98 when I arrived at the School of Music. I have been, since then, reactive to my environment instead of properly prepared for trouble and the unexpected. I have been guilty of the most base of human emiotions: selfishness. I had been thinking too much of myself and not enough of other people. I had professed that the army had not changed me, but it did. This wasn't in a positive way though. My self confidence had been destroyed and so too had my caring for others. Well people, watch out, the old jazz is back. I just noticed that I am even beginning to dress as I had before the army, and tonight I'm thinking in such a mind frame. Trust me, it's a good thing. I have somehow regained my self dignity. I have thus been faced with a few decisions. I know now that even if I am not going to stay in the army I must try my best to excell here. If I don't perform my very best then I am cheating only myself out of the experiences I could gain here and the time spent. I still dont really like Germany but I can attribute that to my nomadic nature. I've never really like staying in the same place for long. I'm staying here though. I'll have to make the best of it. I'm taking this chance here to try to redeem myself. The last journal entry has been edited, but not deleted as it is a reminder to myself more than anything. I apologize to all who may have been hurt by me. It wasn't intentional, but I feel badly never-the-less. I won't name these people but they know exactly who they are and I have faith that they will view this. Oh well, I have to clean my room now. I want it to look it's best in the morning. Love to all and peace to your souls.
~Curtis
09May00
It seems that I've gotten away from writing here for a bit. Well, what can I say about the last few months. I received an article15 in April. It's a formal form of military punishment. Thus the laurels are heaped at my feet, or the roses around my neck, whichever you prefer. Perhaps the roses are better...roses have thorns.
Anyways, I knew there was a reason for writing this. Last week I was in Stuttgart. There was held and International Military Marching Band show. Germany, Britain, Romania, Italy, the Ukraine, Hungary, and of course the US all had representatives there. It was a great time. The first couple of days I tried to keep to myself. The rest of the people in my band were acting rather hostile towards me so I didnt really want to talk to them. The second night of the show I began to make friends from other countries. I'll tell you, Italians and Brits are a lot of fun. It was a shame that after the last show we left so early. My new Italian and Hungarian friends both wanted me to party with them, but when the bus leaves it leaves. Anyways, this was the inspiration I need to start a 4th language. I've started to learn Italian. I figure that I've always wanted to goto Rome and now that I have friends there I should learn the language and make a visit.
Oh well, that's my life at the moment. Under a month left before I get to visit home. I can't wait. I don't plan on going back to the states for a long time after this next visit. I'll be sure to leave my mark. Anyways, I think I've bored you enough with my life so check back again some other time.
~Curtis