Back to Work....I Mean Back to School

Well, I have finally gone back to work and what that really means is that I've gone back to school. For those of you who didn't know I'm attending the Army's Command and General Staff School, which in a nutshell means that the Army is teaching me the skills that they think I need for the majority of the rest of my career.

You hear a lot of things from friends and peers who have gone through the year long class about how this is supposed to be a great year to reconnect with your family, maybe take a break from the break neck pace that has been the Army since 9/11, maybe take the opportunity to get yourself back in good physical shape, getting any medical procedures done that you might not of had time for at other places, and other things like that. Well the faculty here has done a great job during the inprocessing week to disabuse us of those notions, letting us know that the year will be academically challenging and there is a lot of work and reading required, although they do mention that it is a great time to find some balance. Their comments have been backed up by friends of mine who are in the August class who say they have had a lot of reading to do and just because you are done with class at 2pm, doesn't mean you are done for the day, you still probably have 4-5 hours of reading to do that night. So far, I'll have to agree with the faculty and the guys in the August class it does seem like a lot of work and reading and maybe those graduates are just "misremembering" how much work they had to put in. Of course I've also been told that it's only a lot of reading if you do it. Luckily for me most of the topics so far, I've covered while working on my Master's so it should just be a little brushing up.

It has been a little bit of a shock to get back into the swing of things after being "off" for almost 50 days but it is good to get back into a rhythm and with me being gone most of the day now, Macen seems much more interested in playing with me when I get home. Although he is still a Momma's boy if he falls or bumps his head, and bath and bed time still remain a Mom and Macen time, although he is letting me give him a bath and I have gotten him to go to bed for me once with out help from Shantel, it's not much but it is a start.

OK time to go get caught up on the readings for tomorrow.

James