Birthday Ball

1500 arrive in ward room to await instructions to load vans with swords, a bell and the flags
1530 receive word vans were loaded at 1400
1600 Mindy arrives all dressed up
1610 1st convoy of vans leave for the Sheraton Universal Hotel in the Starlight lounge (big room with dance floor on the 21st floor with a panoramic view of LA)
1730 practice sword arch on the dance floor
1900 meet back up with Mindy downstairs and head back up for the birthday ceremony

The Ceremony: watched messages from some admirals and generals about the 235th birthday and honoring past service members, particularly members who served in the Korean war. Stood at parade rest forever as the CO of camp pendelton gave a long ass speech, it was much appreciated, however my feet and hands hurt like hell for holding my sword in the same position for a long ass while and having to wear shitty ass dress shoes. had a cake cutting ceremony, come retired Cpl and then a freshman MO from USC got the 1st bites of cake. after that long ass ceremony we had dinner, steak and potatoes was the main course for both mindy and me. I ended up finishing one other persons dinner too so that was nice cuz i was starving, i think i am officially labeled the trash can of the unit, if food needs to be eaten im the guy to do it. after that we had the traditional videos presented by USC and UCLA to bash on eachother, ours kicked ass and i will try to get a copy. we did an 8 clap at the end and USC tried to respond but we out shouted them and they failed. its funny cuz the CO of the ROTC unit (both the USC and UCLA branch) is an SC alum, so each year he is real impressed with UCLA out does SC in the videos.

most memorable quotes:
"Hurry up and get your ass over there next to cuddle nuts"
"If one of you fucking messes up im taking the flag and stabbing you with it, you see how fucking pointy this shit is?"
"Faix, is this your date? Well, get your fucking ass out there and dance!" (i know you wont believe me but everyone just got up from having dessert and was milling around talking about the videos and introducing their dates to the staff and other MIDN, THE DANCE FLOOR WAS EMPTY i wasnt being an ass and not dancing, and for the record i did dance and had some awesome moves with amis and conte, who had better moves than i....)

after the ball i had a great time hanging out with a bunch of MIDN and our dates at one MIDN's place...