October 2001

One of the responsibilities of an ROTC cadet anywhere is to keep their hair cut to a certain standard. In keeping with these guidelines, I went to the Campus Unisex barber last week to get my hair cut.

Most military guys get their hair cut short on top with a short taper on the sides. In fact, when I ask for that, I usually get a pretty decent haircut. So what happened this time?

There are three barbers working in this little shop at the Union. I was sitting there in the waiting room hoping not to end up with Tony, who tends to be a bit arty with his tapering. The other lady had cut my hair before, and I was really hoping that she would finish first so I could go with her. But then a third woman whom I had never seen before (apparently new to the establishment) walked through the door and yelled “Who’s next?”

Still happy that I didn’t end up with Tony, I decided to give the new woman a shot. It almost immediately turned sour when her clippers just grabbed my hair and pulled. I kept telling her I thought there was a problem with them, but she insisted that since she had just purchased them the day before they must be functional (somehow implying my hair was the cause of their malfunction).

So I finally insisted that she ask her colleague for another set of clippers. She agreed hesitantly, and borrowed the other lady’s set. Before I could check if she had the right attachment (to cut the top of my hair at 1/2 inch) she put a cut right down the middle of my head. It looked way too short, and I asked her what she had it set at. She reassured me that it was set at “one half.” The woman next to her said “Now be careful, those clippers aren’t in inches. The one half is the clipper size, where a 4 is one inch.”

So yes, I have once again become the victim of a barber’s incompetence. My hair was indeed shaved to a close one-forth inch. Now I told her that it definitely was shorter than 1/2 inch on top, and she said that she was sure it wasn’t. Later inspection with a ruler proved that the hair was less than 1/4″ on top.

Now I could live with hair only 1/4″ long (although very cold for this time of year). But the kicker was all of the missed spots along with the brand new mullet I have growing in the back… now I definitely didn’t intend to look like Billy Ray Cyrus from the early 1990′s.

The Mohawk Battalion web site will soon receive some much-needed updates. On Friday, I was appointed the new webmaster of the site, to work closely for the next few months with Cadet Bill Sweet, the former webmaster. Keep your eye on that web site for new updates coming soon.

On top of everything I miss about living at home, I definitely fell a certain longing for being in the kitchen again. It’s partially about the cooking, and partially about the food, especially when I’m stuck with cafeteria food 24/7 (except the turkey last weekend).

Lucky for me, my dorm does have a small kitchenette only one floor up. It’s not much, really. However, they do have a stove and a sink, which is enough to make yellow cake with chocolate frosting!

Apparently I’m not the only one who longs for home-cooked confections. A few minutes after Michelle and I put the cake into the oven, people started to stop in and ask about the smell of the cake spreading through the hall. We didn’t realize that the smell of fresh cake could spread so quickly.

The hard part was transporting the cake from the kitchenette to my bedroom (we couldn’t very well eat it in the kitchen in front of everyone). Several people, including the student Resident Advisor (RA) passed us commenting about how good it smelled (which basically means they would like a bite when it cooled).

In the end we made it back to the room, frosted the cake, and ate about half of the 9″x13″ sucker with half a gallon of milk. Michelle and I definitely enjoyed that, what a treat!

The first seven weeks of school ended this past weekend with a relaxing vacation and some much-needed sleep.

Friday night was definitely the night to catch up on sleep. It seemed like moving day at RPI when just about everybody headed for their cars carrying pillows, sheets, suitcases, everything one needs for a fun weekend away. So with everyone gone, the dorms were definitely quiet for a change.

After a sleeping in for most of the morning, I talked with my family back in Cairo for about an hour. Michelle and I went to dinner at Houlihans in the Crossgates Mall of Albany. Following dinner and some pet store visits, we saw Hearts in Atlantis (an amazing movie that everyone should go out and see).

On Sunday, Michelle and I made dinner consisting of turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and peanut butter brownies for dessert. None of it really turned out too well (we’ve learned that the turkey from Price Chopper isn’t the best thing in the world!).

Monday has basically been a day to do some homework, pick up friends from the airport who went away for the weekend, and do some preparation for classes on Tuesday. I feel completely rejuvenated after this weekend, even though it was only three days long!

This coming weekend is the mid-semester break. I can’t believe I’ve made it this far! The plan for this weekend is to just crash and catch up on sleep. And perhaps we’ll get some more of this web site functioning. So keep checking back in here and look for something new!