MEPS: 1.3

Day three of MEPS started out much like the first day, except I had some bacon with my eggs and I was feeling like a veteran, since I had been there the day before. (Yeah, been there, done that.) It happened exactly like it did the previous day. Breakfast was the same, the conversations were basically the same, and the MEPS staff made verbatim, the same speeches. I was flabbergasted when some guy turned over a knife when the guy outside of MEPS said no weapons. Was he asleep the first 30 times other people said that?

Anyway, it only got different (except for breakfast) after we got in the building. Per instructions, I went along with the people who needed consults, so I didn't have to wait in the really long line to check in at the medical desk like the people who were there for a full physical.

There were a few of us who needed consults and we headed back outside to a waiting van. My stop was the first. We stopped at a troop clinic on base and a couple of the guys got out with me. We went in together and followed instructions to the optometrists' offices. It looked like any normal clinic, except everybody was wearing the same thing. It was kind of funny. They were all in their BDUs. That's the outfit that's all camo with the big boots. We checked in with the receptionist in the optometrists office and had a seat in the waiting room.

My name was called, I had my eye exam, and the doctor verified the prescription I got at MEPS was correct. When all of us were done, we let the receptionist know so she could call the van back to come pick us up. We went up to the main waiting area like she told us and we waited about an hour before the van showed up. It turned out that she forgot to call them. :P

After getting back to MEPS, we went to the main waiting area and waited for our respective branches to call our names. I waited for that about 3 hours. I saw so much House of Payne and Everybody Loves Raymond during that trip... I can't even think of an analogy. Just know it was a lot.

Let's see... The Navy called my name and I went down to their office and a lady lead me to a room with a couch, a couple of chairs, and a coffee table. That's where I was able to write a statement describing myself and why I thought they should make an exception for me. My strong glasses prescription has no affect on my daily life, blah, blah, blah. The waiver lady was really nice. She told me what sort of things they were looking for and she let me rewrite my statement. They were looking for specifics: how long I have been wearing glasses, what I do at work, that I can drive at night.

After that, there was nothing left to do until the waiver came back, so it was time to wait for a shuttle for a few hours again, this time, to take me home.

Next Time: MEPS: Part Two