Day 1: Does a group of 32 know the alphabet?

My day started stressed....

I tried my best to have everything ready last night. Clothes out and ready to go, folder in the car....I should have known something was going to go wrong.

I woke up, took my shower and went to put on my shirt. Well, my shirt had a hole in the elbow. The only other shirt I had was wrinkled. Katrina quickly ironed it, I threw clothes on kids and headed out the door. But, mother nature decided to slow me down by putting frost all over the car. I ran back into the house, grabbed a scrapper and went to work on the car. I cleared a few holes all the way around the car, jumped in and headed to get some gas. $7.00 later, I'm flying down Hixson Pike. I finally pull onto Amnicola Highway at 7:30. I had 15 minutes to go 1/2 mile. It almost took that. While I wasn't the last one to arrive , it was close and I still had 8 minutes....

We all gathered in the hall to await instructions. We then were told to go into the classroom and take a seat. As I went to sit down, it was decided that we should all sit alphabetically. After some discussion we all found our correct seats.

The day started and we had several introduction speeches and basic orientation stuff. A key rule that was established early was to make sure we sign our names legibly, no autograph signatures. This was hard for me, since I scribble my name. But, I conformed and did a pretty good job with the name. After more orientation from our Chief, we went to lunch.

Subway was great...I finally go to try their new buffalo chicken sandwich. Very good.

After lunch, we came back to the classrooms, and found name tags on our desks. Of course they were in a different spot. So after we moved our notebook and such over to our new spots, we broke into three groups. My group headed over to the supply building to get our turnout gear. After that we were fitted for our Uniforms. The final stop was over to the turnout table. There they had a professional fitter, who got sizes for bunker coats, pants, boots and gloves.

We then headed back to the room were we watched a short film. After that, we were told to head to the gym. In alphabetic order we went into the gym, stacked the chairs, lined up in lines, and did push ups. We were all still in our coats and ties (well not the ladies). The crime? Messy Handwriting.

I've never been through a boot camp, had military training, or anything quite like this, but I tell you what. I'm excited and I can't wait for more on Monday.