VACSTC STAFF 2008 – July 24th

So quite obviously I have not written in my blog for a LONG time… well that is because there is no internet here that we have access too easily. Well technically I still don’t have internet access but I am starting to go insane and I’m just way to damn lazy to write it by hand… so I have decided to start writing stuff in Microsoft word and then copy it into my blog at a later date. So whenever this gets posted….. I did not write it “today” I wrote it…. Today! As in today…. The 23rd of July… not whenever this actually gets posted… And that goes all of the stuff that has the title “VACSTC STAFF 2008 – INSERT DATE HERE”.
Anyway... to refresh on the past 4 weeks of my life…


Pre-course was fun…..…but EXTREAMLY HOT and EXHAUSTING. I met lots of staff and got to know lots of new friends. Lots of people I already knew were here so that was good too. Pre-course (for those readers who have no idea what the hell I am talking about) is a weeklong… “Test” I guess you could call it… for all the staff. It’s when they decided where we are going to be places for the summer. It’s basically lots of getting our kit, interviews, and lesson evaluations and so on so they can see where we want to go and if we are qualified to be there. Lucky for me, all the school of music officers wanted me there so I did get placed where I wanted… Worrall and Rowe both got placed where they didn’t want as did many people…. I was really lucky.
So anyway pre-course was fine and dandy… I also meet this really cute guy during pre-course… he is a snare drummer in school of music (though when I meet him he was in the process of being transferred out of ECHO COY). His name is Brandon Gonzalez and we are (hopefully) going to mess together… I’ll explain the hopefully later…


Intake went really well, I had really easy shifts, mostly escort from the airport to the base and only a small half hour shift of actual intake and all I had to do was check baggage. So intake went by really fast… and soon it was off to H10 to beginning training.
Of course before we beginning training we have to test and interview all the band course cadets and see whether they belong in beginner, intermediate or senior band... that was a gong show… but at least it was more organized than last year… I was in charge of making sure all the pipers went from the holding room to the piping test room then to the theory test room all without getting lost in the maze that was call H10… it was interesting… I almost got lost there were so many people… and to top that day off… we only ended up with like 5 pipers, 4 snare and 0 tenor starting in senior band…. It’s not as bad now (we at least have a larger pipe section of about 8 including staff, 5 snare with staff and 5 tenor/bass with staff…)


So once we got that sorted out we started training. It went pretty well and went by pretty fast. We are learning a sweet medley… or at least we were but I think they are calling it off because it is way too hard for people to earn (refer to the fact that we have no one able to actually plan in the senior band….) Nothing really remarkable happened that is to do with me teaching… other than that. I have been mostly teaching basics because I’m a lot better that the level tunes (Song of the Glen & The Fairy Lullaby) that Sgt. Lai and I guess I have lots of patience apparently… (Yea I know WFT right?). Anyway, yea that’s what I do…

So outside of H10, life on base is fucking crazy. The first week was chill… BRAVO won the pennant for the first time since 2004 and for the first time since GUARD COY was made… they DIDN’T win the pennant for the first week! I really shouldn’t be so happy about that because school of music is part of TRG/HQ not BRAVO but that ok… I’m BRAVO at heart :D

The first weekend wasn’t so chill… there was the first staff dance and there was a lot of DRAMA between me, Brandon Gonzalez and Redpath…. Long story but basically… Brandon asked me to mess…. Redpath was jealous... she was causing shit and made Brandon upset at the dance and continued to cause shit all weekend… It all turned out pretty well…. There is still a bit of a rivalry between us but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was that weekend.

Ooooh Don’t think I mentioned about the CSM’s this year… Uren was a candidate but didn’t pass so he got Pipe Major and senior WO of School of Music. Most of the CSM’s this year are males so it’s like a reverse from last year… and funny thing… the only male CSM from last year is dating the only female CSM from this year… lol or what? The TRG/HQ CSM this year is Scott which is pretty cool… he is really sweet guy… strict but not like… insane… BRAVO CSM is Koutte which at first I was really pissed off because he is not a band person and he is really like insane hardcore…. But I guess that’s why the wont the pinnate first week huh?

Anyway so BACK to my crazy life here at camp….

Second week of training went by VERY FAST… I really don’t remember much of anything interesting happening… except CHARLIE COY won the pennant which made BRAVO a little upset… and guard VERY MAD which I find hilarious.

So the weekend between the second and third training week is when things started to go REALLY CRAZY…
Well technically it started in like the first/second week but it didn’t affect me… I’m talking about the Vernon Virus… AKA the Black Plague…. AKA the Stomach Flu… It started in GUARD then moved to FOXTROT then to DELTA and to CHARLIE… that’s when it hit BRAVO and it all changed for the worse…

Until it hit BRAVO none of the officers were really affected and only a few kitchen staff where affected… but on one weekend so much changed… over like 500 people were put into isolation over that weekend and the beginning of this week because of the stomach flu and they even had to close one kitchen because so many kitchen staff were sick. BRAVO shares barracks with the MCPL’s and SGT’s so when they got sick we all got sick also. And after we got sick all the officers started getting sick. They had to call in military medics from Victoria to help isolate and shut down half the camp. It’s getting better now near the end of the week but there are still lots of cadets in isolation.

I got sick Tuesday morning and went to MIR, I wasn’t puking but I have bad stomach ache. They put me in isolation for what they called “four hours” but I ended up staying until Thursday morning… I was NOT pleased. There were so many girls that we took over the whole MIR for girls alone… the males had to be putting into the staff canteen that they closed off to turning into an isolation/treatment center… It’s still being used as one… so the staff dance might be cancelled for Saturday… none of the staff are very pleased about that.



Today was just the worst day of camp like EVER!

Started ok… I got out of MIR w00t! But found out They took away all my clothes so I have to go down to B3 to get combats so I could go to work… that pissed me off alone… but NO it had to be worse because I had to fight with the B3 staff to let me have a pair of combats… it was SO STUPID…. Then I had to walk up to H10 alone (cries). To top that morning off, my Boyfriend (Brandon Gonzalez) was all “pissed” at me because I supposedly ignored him when I came up to H10 after getting out of MIR… I didn’t though… he was the first person I said hello to but then I have to do teach so I couldn’t stay and chat… so I have to leave him… so he was pissed…. It made me really upset... after lunch I wasn’t feeling well so that made my day worse thinking about having to back up to the MIR again.. (Which I refuse to do BTW… NEVER AGAIN will they trick me with their “it will only be 4 hours” thing….) So with my stomach ache I went up to teach, that went well until we had drill for the last 2 periods then my stomach was really hurting but I HAD to go so I did… then I found out the Pipe Major didn’t go just because he was feeling a little “moody”…. Man was I pissed…. So was a lot of the other school of music staff…

Dinner and beyond is a whole other story…

K so on the way down from H10 Brandon totally just ignored me, I tried to talk to him but he was all upset and pissed off and just would not listen. So I went to dinner without him, but he joined me, Devitt and Lai at the mess hall. I offered him a seat beside me, but he didn’t even say hello or anything and sat beside Lai instead… He didn’t even stay that long… he just ate a little then took off before I even had a chance to really talk to him…

After dinner I had to go pick up laundry and I seen him on the way so we talked a little and it seemed ok... I left to get ready for a meeting and we planned to talk again after the meeting. That all went ok but near the end of our talking we both started to get frustrated… it wasn’t going anywhere…

GOD so frustrating… you see he is upset with me because I “ignore him” “Cut him off when he is talking to me because I leave to talk to someone else” and that “I never spend time with him alone”… I mean I see where he is getting all this from, but that is because 1) He talks quietly and sometimes I don’t hear him 2) I have like ADD talking… I talk to one person and jump to the next before I even finish…. I do it to everybody… like EVERYBODY…. Most people realize that it’s just the I am but he takes it so seriously… 3) I do spend time with him alone, but I mean it’s hard at camp, we are not supposed to date at all at camp so it’s hard to be together to begin with… that and I have lots of friends & I like to be arounf large groups of people… its like a comfort to me.,.. its why I like cities and large crowds…. I don’t even have to know the people… I know I’m fucked up… and it’s frustrating because I try and try to explain this all to him but it’s like it just goes over his head.

So yea I’m explaining this all to him tonight… and I’m late for barracks duty and I’m just so frustrated and he says to me “Just go, you want to leave anyway, you’re going to be late” and he said it like… so hateful… like he was really upset and mad at me… so I just left because I was like breaking down and about to cry and I hate crying in front of people…. Especially guys I really like…

So yea, I was pissed at him… he was pissed at me… and we have been not talking all night and we’re both still not really talking…. We’re texting but it’s really getting us nowhere…


Anyway… that’s basically what has happened over the past 4 weeks….. There is probably a lot more but it’s really late now and I have to wake up early and to go work tomorrow morning…