So last night I had an interesting and very real dream.  I don’t remember all of the specifics but I remember that I was in my Army uniform.  I was on a ship, old fashioned, heading across the Pacific to Southern California.  It involved some sort of challenge that required us to make our best time.  At some point my loyalty was question, to which I was tortured and my pinkies were cut off.

I made it past the torture and had no ill feelings towards the end of the mission.  A friend of mine was there (first time someone I knew was in my dream) and we were approaching the beach we needed to land on at a very fast pace.

The captain screamed out to brace ourselves as we were not going to stop before the beach.  I grabbed a hold of the side of the ship.  I was sitting down and the ship crashed against the shore, but it wasn’t just us sliding up.  The ship proceeded to roll one and a half times.  I was able to hang on during the first role, but bailed during the second.  I had to make sure that I survived without the railings of the ship crushing me.  I had no issues avoiding the railings when the ship rolled to the beach, but when it rolled back I was almost crushed.

I did survive though, and my grandfather was there to pick me up.  I crawled out from underneath the ship and saw him and rushed to him.  He asked me about my pinkies and I don’t remember exactly what I said, but it was something to the effect of it was a small sacrifice, I was fine, and I didn’t need them anyway.

Somehow the memory shifts to my grandfather washing my dog and us being informed that the ship I was on had broken a world record for speed of travel for an old style wooden sail ship.

At this point, I believe that my alarm clock rang for me to wake up and get ready for Army Physical Training.  The first thing I remember doing this morning was check my pinkies to make sure they were there and they were (making this a lot easier to type).  Then I checked the date because for some reason I thought I was out of school and that it was now June or July.  Which then confirmed that I was still at school when I checked to see what bed I was in.

To be honest, even though I lost my pinkies, I was disappointed that the dream wasn’t real in the end.  It was fun and felt like I was actually doing it.  I could feel the sand and I actually thought, in my dream, when I was wiggling my pinkies I thought i was wiggling stubs of fingers.  I wished I lived in the world that my dream took place in.  I felt important and needed.  I had a good time.  It was a great night’s sleep.  I wanted to go back to sleep just to return to the dream.  If only…

So, about a week and a half ago I was talking to a friend of mine and decided to run a marathon with her.  Now I know this sounds crazy, as I’ve never run a marathon, let alone a half-marathon before, but it’s one of those things that is on my bucket list and let’s be honest, I’m not going to be in any better shape later on in my life so now is the best time to cross this thing off my list.

I’ve started a training program i found online at http://www.marathonrookie.com and it’s a 16-week program that should help me have the ability to run that distance.  Thankfully I have more than 16 weeks until the marathon (it’s in Vegas in December), so I may get a little bit of speed training in as well.

Maybe I am crazy to run this marathon, but hopefully it will help my Army Physical Fitness Test Scores in the running department as well as lessen my weight.  But overall, I just hope to have some fun and be able to commit to it until it is all over.

On Friday I broke up with my girlfriend of about four months.  It was the right thing to do.  Albeit, the circumstances under which we broke up were not the greatest, nor was it most likely the appropriate time to end our relationship, but at least now I’m not feeling like I’m leading her on.

I feel like I’ve broken up with a past ex of mine in a similar fashion.  The girl asks questions to which she probably doesn’t want to know the answer, and instead of me biting my tongue and waiting for a more opportune time, I answer them.  Go figure.

So I really doubt anyone out there is reading this, but perhaps someone will just pass by it one day and be intrigued by what I write here.

I would like to start out by introducing myself.  I am a Second Semester Sophomore at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, quite possibly the best school ever.  I  also play football for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags, NCAA Division III.

I’m going to try and pick something from the News and comment on it.  I really can’t think of much to say but perhaps this will help me get something down on “paper”.

Everyone else has talked about the Christmas Day Terror Plot, so let me say my piece regarding it as well.

Let’s face it, our Intelligence Agencies let us all down that day and in the days leading up to it.  Don’t get me wrong, I know they all work hard and I do not criticize them out of spite or hate or anything like that.  But rather, we just need to listen to people who tell us that their son is dangerous and is radical.

But this is also the fault of international airport security.  The flight did not originate in the United States.  We need assistance from our international partners in order to keep our borders safe.  We can’t always be everywhere at every moment in time.

But that brings me to my next point.  We won’t be able to stop every attack.  Our only hope is to minimize potential damage and thankfully that happened this time.  Our people are safe and that’s what matters.

Well, that’s really all I have to say right now.  Hopefully I’ll have something more meaningful next time.  Until then, keep speaking your mind and defending your rights.