culture shock

I'm in a bit of "culture shock" right now. I have not had an alarm wake me up for a couple years now and let me tell you, I had it gooooooooood. 5AM comes WAY too fast. How do you guys do it? Seriously! Granted, my days are extra long right now because we're trying to get set up, but I'm exhausted!

Today is my third day and although I LOVE it, I'm ready for the weekend ;)

I would not think that after only two days I could have hit so many road blocks. There are 6 other new recruits (from this police department) going to the academy with me and I am the only one that has had "issues" so far. Allow me to explain.

Yesterday we were issued our gear. We arrive at the Police station, go down to the basement, and are handed boots to try on. They take one look at me and say, "wow, you're kinda small." That was the beginning of what would be a LONG day of hearing that. End result, 6 recruits get new boots, 1 doesn't.

Next stop, the uniform place to get fitted for our pants. Similar story. 6 recruits get pants, 1 can't fit any :(

Employee: What size are you?

Me: I don't know, I don't buy men's clothes.

Employee: Try these (30 inch waste).

Me: I think these are too big, but OK.

I walk out of the dressing room looking ridiculous. By this time I'm the last one trying on pants so everyone is lined up watching me.

Employee (plus my two training officers): Hmmmmm.....

Training officer 1: Will they stay up?

Me: If I don't have to run, jump fences, or for the most part do any police duties.

Training officer 2: Lets try women's pants. Are you a 6 or an 8?

Me: Try a 2 or a 4.

Training officer 2: Damn. Forget that.

All of this would have been pretty funny if I wasn't STARVING hungry (aka.....getting even smaller) and if I didn't NEED these pants THAT day. We have to wear our uniforms today, no exceptions.

So, they finally found one pair of 28's and they had to order two more. So, I'll just be doing a lot of laundry until my other pants come in. I also got boots at that store, but they had to be authorized by the department because they were more money since they weren't issued by the departments stock room.

Don't even get me started on the vest!!!

I made it though.