Elephant Tea

I know I haven't blogged in a while, about nine days, but now I'm back feeling kind of good about taking a small break. Things that happened while I was "away:"

Tim came over and spent the night.
Playing frisbee in the street.
Going to a big airsoft game at Splat Action.
Finishing my Physics.
New Shoes.
REI membership.
Trying to spend money.
More firsbee.
Lovely Weather.

In less than three weeks time I will be leaving for Texas on my first plane ride by myself. I'm really feeling good about it and I'm really looking forward to visiting Anna and meeting all the people at DTC. I feel kind of like this is just the beginning for me branching out and slowly being released from home. Not that I just want to leave, but that I'm excited about growing and having new freedoms and being able to put to use everything I've learned as a kid and growing up. 20 days until I leave.

John

Red Alert

Yesterday, after Sara's party had just ended, Adam got back from fixing airsoft guns at Airsoft Outlet NW. When he came in the door he asked if I would be interested in going with him to and airsoft skirmish at the Army National Guard Armory in Gresham. I thought that sounded like fun, so after we got all our stuff together and shoved some food in our faces we headed out the door to meet with the North West Operators, the guys who invited Adam, at Red Robin. When we got there it turned out that they were going to be eating there, so we joined them and ordered some chicken strips. After we got our food a couple of others guys showed up and Steve and Avery, the guys 'in charge,' got on with their airsoft meeting. After they were done there we followed Ben, the son of the owner of Airsoft Outlet NW, out to Gresham to the Armory. When everyone had arrived we had a little training session about basic room clearing techniques and ways to carry yourself and your gun. When that had finished we started to move a bunch of folding tables out onto the main floor as barricades in our skirmish. We played the first one for about ten minutes then switched sides. In the middle of the second skirmish, as things started to heat up, I moved to the left side of the main room and took cover in a side hallway that was out of the direct line of fire. In between shots I paused for a second to check the mag when I heard something out of the ordinary: an alarm klaxon. That couldn't be good. In a few moments, Avery, who was playing with us and is a Sergeant in the National Guard and has an office in the building that we were in came out and called a cease fire. When the firing had stopped he told us to take all our guns and gear and put them in his office. As soon as our stuff was in the office we started to pick up the tables and all the things we were using for cover and put them away. Avery was on the phone trying to get the alarm turned off while we got out mops and brooms and commenced cleaning up every single bb that was on the floor. In a while the alarm turned off and Avery called someone to inform them that it was a false alarm. When all the clean up was done we were standing around "debriefing." Adam and I left shortly after that. We had a good time learning about the team and some tactics and playing some skirmishes.

John