Kristie's Phone Call Home - July 12, 2009

Kristie just called. She gets to call every Sunday and talk for 20 minutes. She was so happy to talk to us.

She says she tries to write letters but lights out is at 9 a.m. They aren't allowed to use their flashlights at nigh. She says she is too tired to stay awake anyway. The wake-up alarm goes off and 5:30 and she says she feels like she only slept for 5 minutes. I told her I have this blogspot for her and she wants everyone to read this as sending letters out is really difficult. She did say that no one in her group has received any letters yet. Maybe they are holding them, she doesn't know. Eventually they'll get to her.

Yesterday in an exercise, the group was standing at attention (or something else) and she moved like a quarter of an inch and her drill sergeant saw her. The whole group got "smoked" and had to do 45 minutes worth of intense physical training. She was pretty sore.

Graduation is September 10th.

She talked to CJ and told him that it was pretty hot and humid there. On one inspection of the barracks they dumped all the garbage cans that had garbage in them. She said there were about 40 tampons on the ground. So, they found that if an inspection is going to happen, empty your garbage can. She also said that it wasn't unusual for them to throw drawers across the room or flip mattresses.

Kristie talked to Matt and told him about her OCD Drill Sergeant and told stories about having to tie their shoes after taking them off and tucking into the shoe before putting the shoes under the bed in just the right location. They laughed so I felt that was a good sign.

Overall, she sounded good, hyper as usual and talking a hundred miles a minute. I mentioned that in one of her letters she referred to someone as sweet as pie. I told her she had the southern drawl going on already. She said that everyone is either from the east coast or from the south. There is one person that she has met from Washington, one from Oregon, and her from Idaho. When she tells them she is from Idaho, they ask where that is. Pretty crazy.

Jodie