Week One: I left Ginger with some friends from work for the week, which I was a little nervous about. You all know what a nutcase that dog can be, and other than her running through the screen door--everything went pretty well with her. As for me...all of us from work met up and took off in a state van. It was about a 2 hour drive North through the Mountains. The drive was really boring and awkward the first week, because even though we all work together--we really didn't know each other. There were six of us who went from our facility. We got there a little bit early, and the week began. We got paired up by the Academy staff with a roommate. My roommate was a middle aged lady who had bleach blonde 80's hair--It was really big on the top, and she would rat it up every morning. We got along really well--she only lives about an hour from me, and we had a lot in common. She was a little bit wacky... she told me about her house, her boyfriend, and her cats. After a few days, of her talking about her cats--I asked how many she had. To which she replied 19. Ummm... Wow. So, other than her being a crazy cat lady--she was pretty cool. I quickly learned that crazy cat lady was one of the better roommates to have. One of the girls from work ended up with a lady who was at least 65 years old, and wore depends, had false teeth, and snored really loudly all night long. Her room smelled like dirty diapers all the time. It was pretty gross. We each had to clean our rooms, make our beds Military style-- you know with the 45 degree corners, 18 inch pull backs, and 6 inch folds. Each morning, they would inspect our rooms with a ruler to be sure all the bed lines were correct. They also would check our uniforms--to be sure our gig-lines were straight, we didn't have any lint on us, our shoes were shined, and our hair was not touching our collar--fun stuff like that. If they found anything wrong with your person or your room you received a demerit. After 20 demerits in the three weeks you would be sent home--which also meant that you lost your job. So, it was stressful. When they inspected, you were to be waiting outside your door standing at attention. When the Lieutenant would come by to inspect you, he would look at one of the roommates and say, "Would you bet your roommates life on this room being clean." to which you would respond, "Yes, Sir" then he would look at the other roommate and yell, "ARE YOU READY TO DIE?" It was pretty intense--he would take a flashlight and belly crawl under the beds looking for a single hair or speck of dust. We would also have a cleaning detail to complete each day--the first week I was assigned to vacuuming the hallway. If the Lieutenant found anything wrong with your cleaning details, you would receive a demerit. You could get a demerit for pretty much anything. You also had to do well on your tests, and if you failed more than once you would be sent home. I was so tired by the time the first week was over! We would get up at 5 am, clean, shower, clean more, get dressed, get inspected, march to chow (which was always disgusting--usually biscuits and gravy), March to class, sit through 8 hours of class, March back, eat chow (it was usually something that involved pork--i mostly only ate salad--sometimes I only ate because I was so hungry and there was nothing else), march back to the dorms, study, be in bed by 10, lights out at 11...wake up and do it all over again. When we would march, we would have to yell cadences.
We usually did "They say that in the Academy" its really supposed to be "they say that in the Army", but they had us switch out army with academy. It went something like this.....They say that in the Academy the coffee is mighty fine, it looks like muddy water and tastes like turpentine. Oh Yeah! OOOHH YEAH! They say that in the academy the chow is mighty fine, the chicken jumped off the table and started marking time. Oh yeah! OOOHHH YEAH! They say that in the academy the biscuits are mighty fine, one rolled off the table and killed a friend of mine. Oh yeah! OOHH YEAH! They say that in the academy the training is mighty fine, last night there were ten of us and now there is only nine. Oh Yeah! OOHH YEAH! They say that in the academy the pay is mighty fine, they give you a hundred dollars and take back ninety nine. Oh yeah! OOHH YEAH!
We also did this one. My Girl is a pretty girl. My girl's a vegetable, She lives in a hospital, But I'd buy her anything, To keep her alive. She's got no arms or legs, Steel rods and wooden pegs, But I'd buy her anything, To keep her alive. She's got her own TV, They call it an EKG , But I'd buy her anything, To keep her alive. My girl is lot's of fun, She's got an iron lung, But I'd buy her anything, To keep her alive. One day I played a joke, pulled the plug and watched her choke, But I'd buy her anything, To keep her alive.
It was funny at first, but after 3 weeks of that song--i got pretty sick of yelling it over and over as we marched down the middle of a college campus. Everyone would stop and watch and laugh.
Week Two: Was pretty much the same crap all over again. This week my cleaning detail was the bathroom. It was awful!!!! I had to clean 5 showers, 4 toilets, and the sinks each morning. This week we all started to get on each others nerves--well, mostly it was just one girl in our group that annoyed everyone else. This week was less in class time, and more work on the mats--learning self defense moves and stuff like that. They brought out the "shock knives" this week. The Shock Knives are these plastic knives that deliver a taser like shock if you get hit with it. It feels like you are really getting cut with a knife. I can't even describe the feeling. We used those on each other, to learn how to defend against a weapon attack. I got the knife all down my back--it truly feels like you were cut with a large butcher knife.
Week Three: By the time the 3rd week rolled around, we were all exhausted physically and mentally. We had two tests and a final all in this last week. I did really well on all of them, because I didn't want to have to do this all over again--also because I was trying to get an academic award. We were also getting really sick of the one girl--we all said if this had lasted any longer we would have lost our minds. She was so annoying and really selfish. She also got herself in some hot water--which made us and our facility look bad. We were all really fed up with her. It was this week that we got OC sprayed. OC is short for Oleoresin Capsicum, or pepper spray. I was really nervous and excited for this all at the same time. First they used the "Clear out" on us. Clear out is something you use on crowds--it causes coughing and sneezing--and let me tell you it burns like crazy inside your throat and nostrils. It sucked! After we got that, my mind started racing--like could i really do this? Then we got to use the OC on a target. It was really windy out on the day we did this, so as I sprayed the Mark IV some of it came back and i got the overspray in my one eye. GREAT! I pepper sprayed myself. WTF? Who does that. My eye instantly shut, and it was all i could do to get it open. I had to literally hold it open--Both my eyes started watering and my nose was running. I thought, awesome--this was only Mark IV (we were gonna get fully sprayed with the Mark IX--which is about 2 times stronger) how was i going to make it through this. I watched most of my classmates get sprayed--they were screaming, cussing, crying, snot was flying everywhere! i was terrified. Soon, it was my turn--i tried to pump myself up. I was jumping up and down and was telling the instructor "let's go--Spray me" She lined up and hit me with it. I opened my eyes and thought she hadn't hit me--it didn't hardly hurt. I started laughing--said "is that all you got?" I kept laughing, she hit me again this time right in the eyes. Then it started burning, but not really bad. I decontaminated in the water. They rubbed baby shampoo in my eyes, and thats when my eyes started to burn. I dabbed it off, but it didn't really effect me. That is until the evening--the longer i sat there the more and more it burned. It felt like my skin was peeling off my face, it was terrible. The first shot she got on me, landed mostly around my lips and mouth. By the evening, my tongue was on fire, my lips hurt so bad. I then had to take a shower. When I took my hair down, it got released into the air, so there I was in the shower coughing until i gagged from it, my lips and forehead were on fire. The other girls in the shower were screaming--it was terrible. The skin on my lips peeled off for the next few days, i couldn't get enough chapstick! For the next few days, every time i showered it would reactivate and i would turn blotchy red. I was permanently red for days. This is a photo when i got home the next day.
It is hard to see, but my upper lip was all red and spotty. My hairline was the same, as well as, my cheeks. It made my normal redness even worse. It also made my acne really inflamed--it was terrible. I don't recommend it. :)
We had to design shirts with a class motto. This is the back of our shirts.
(The photo is backwards, because i took it with my computer.)
They say WV Corrections, To the Xtreme Class 214. The front of the shirt has a copy of the WV corrections badge. They turned out pretty good, compared to the ones from previous classes. My roommate did all the designing of them--she was pretty artistic.
We graduated on Friday. Four of the six people from my unit came, along with the Warden. They took me out to lunch after the graduation. The graduation was pretty military style. We did marching drills, and stuff like that. I did not get an academic award--I had GPA of 98.00 and the girl who got the Academic award had a 98.06. I did however get the Lead Trainer Award. You got this award if you had no demerits the entire three weeks. So i had to stand at graduation and be acknowledged--which looked pretty good in front of the Warden.
It reads: West Virginia Corrections Academy Lead Trainer Award.
For outstanding discipline and attention to detail during your training at the West Virginia Corrections Academy. Your superlative achievement in not receiving any demerits is truly noteworthy and is in keeping with the highest standards of the Division of Corrections.
This is the little diploma that we all got.
It was hard work, but I met some pretty cool people. In all I had a good time, but I have never been more happy and ready to get back to work! :)
When i got home from the academy I found this.
Yeah. Nice, huh? This is a sideways photo of my garbage closet, filled with those little sugar ants. It must be summer in the Mountains. It looks completely disgusting--and it is. I now have ant killer out every where. I also found two spiders. Gross. I killed one, and when I went to kill the other one--he took off and is now in the witness protection program. I will find him--that bastard.
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