We left Breezewood, PA and caravanned the three hours into Quantico to make it to noon registration.
We arrived at the Marine Base and learned we were at the wrong entrance so we went to the next check point only to find that we were still in the wrong place. The moral of that story is that the Quantico Marine Base is ginormous.
We finally made our way to the FBI building where young FBI Field Agents in training acted as bell-hops. I think FBI agents are getting younger and younger because they look around 13 years old (this is no correlation to my getting older). I was shown to my room and it was pretty much what I expected. The dorms have two beds and an adjoining bathroom that we share with two other ladies. There is one shower so I’m not exactly sure how this is going to work. Four women sharing one bathroom is difficult for me to conceptualize at this point. Since this is session #249, I’m sure it’s been done successfully 248 prior times so I’ll let it work itself out.
Here is the essence of what I learned should you ever find yourself going to the NA. The earlier you get there, the more stuff you will acquire. The students from the last session have purchased coffee makers, refrigerators, printers, etc. and they leave them in the storage rooms on each floor because they don’t want to lug them home. This proved advantageous for my Chicago group (one in particular who pillaged every floor whereas I stayed on my own!)
My roomie arrived and I was delighted to learn that she is from the Big Island in Hawaii. I was even more delighted that she presented me with some Kona coffee. Based on this gesture, I think we will get along just fine.
I left the base to go get some supplies and immediately got pulled over by the Military Police. Apparently they frown upon driving 20 miles over the posted limit while talking on a cell phone. Huh.
I got persuaded by the Chicago boys to go for a run on Sunday morning and learned quickly that I could not keep up with them. Despite my turtle pace, I was still lapping those who slept in! I did climb a rope so I redeemed myself slightly.
When I got back to the room, my flatmate was still sleeping. It was only 9 a.m. so I dismissed it. She hadn’t moved by 11 a.m. so I assumed she was dead. I got really close to her face and she started moving which was a relief because I would likely be a suspect. As it turns out, she was still adapting to the time difference.
Most of us spent Sunday unpacking and getting our dorm rooms organized to make it as much like home as possible. 10 weeks is a long time and I’m only on day 2. Sunday night was a trip to the “Boardroom”. This is code for the bar. It’s likely I’ll be attacked for divulging this NA secret so if there are no subsequent blog posts about my experience at the NA, you know why.