I'm going on a Camping Vacation.

Well, I have to say that I suck. Haven’t even thought about writing to you all more than maybe 35 times in the last few weeks and seriously, I don’t feel guilty one little bit. Ok… so I exaggerate. I intended to write but time is speeding by. In fact I leave for a three month vacation to Parris Island, South Carolina in two weeks and I won’t be posting anything for the duration. Time flew by. And by vacation I mean Marine Corps boot camp. Since pretty much only my family and friends are reading this blog at this point I figured I would write a little help me survive and know what you are talking about bit.

First of all it is the Marine Corps. Not the army and no it isn’t corpse like a group of trees or a dead person it is more like apple core. And boot camp is no contact except old school snail mail. No phones. No email. No anything at all that looks like technology or even passable mid century communication devices. But your letters are welcomed, in other words write me a damned letter. (You know who to contact to get the address) The only thing you get to mail is a piece of paper with your hand writing on it in an envelope with only the provided address, your return address and a stamp on it. No fancy smancy crud. But feel free to send bunches and if time allows I will respond. Don't get all heart broken if I can't.

I am officially out of your reach on Feb 12^th at 5pm. On a plane Feb 13^th at some, likely god awful o dark something, hour of the morning. Then 13 weeks of awesome start. There is this lovely matrix that will detail all of that and about.com has a pretty stellar description if you so wish. At the end there is family day, forgoing injury and illness, that will be May 10 and graduation will land on May 11. At this point I get 10 days of leave at the end of which, meaning including travel time, I need to be in North Carolina for MCT (Marine Combat Training)... and then one other school but let us not get to far ahead. I should be home by the end of August for staysies.

In the meantime I have set up a scavenger hunt for the awesome El Suave and he might check in every so often to tell you how it goes and probably to tell you I’m still living. Here (MCRDPI, USMC, LINKS)  are some other awesome websites to check out if you so desire and the awesome comic strip from Terminal Lance below. I have posted boot camp related strips but he covers all of the Marine Corps and is pretty much hilarious. For those of you who might not understand the point behind the strip visit the website where Maximilian Uriarte (the writer) does a brief explanation for each. (also, the comic is very much not PG13)

If you are really motivated you can watch (on Netflix on demand) Surviving the Cut or The Marines. Other than that I will see you all in a few months.