Another Phase Comes to a Close...

IN as they call it is now over other than the test Monday. More of the same, not a whole lot to share. Lots of by hand calculating, conversions, plotting, ratios, working with charts (not maps mind you, apparently that's a swear word around here) and various other tasks. Spent all day today reviewing, then reviewing what we reviewed, then reviewing what we should review on our own again before Monday. Insanely boring. This test should be my best shot at 100 so far, as it's mostly problems, and the only way you miss those is by careless mistakes. We'll see what happens.

Big ol party goin on in the quad, celebrating another classes drop night. One of the guys here actually bought a bus, one of those short ones that seats like 10. Literally a yellow school bus. I dunno how legal that is, but he has it decked out with a massive audio system, and has it parked out there just blasting music, pretty good stuff. Finally been getting some beautiful weather, so it has been close to 90 daily and around the 70s at night. Makes for good nighttime running, although I've slacked for a couple days due to a weird sleeping schedule. I've talked to the gf at least once a day via the webcam, which really does wonders for morale. I've always been a morning person anyway, so getting up early to talk during her lunch break works out fine.

Oh and my appointment for my waiver got moved up to June 2nd instead of the 17th, which is now before the June 10th cutoff for me having to be off DNIF status and able to fly. So that's one problem handled, but I'd still have to get the waiver approved and turned around fast enough that it is back here within like a week instead of months like some of them take. So it's still an unknown factor, but it's no longer a sure thing that I'll be rolled. It would be great if I didn't, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up.

Wind, Oh How You Give Me A Job.

Believe it or not, I've actually had fun during the last two days of class. They've entirely consisted of CBT or Computer Based Training which is of course my preferred method of learning, and better yet we've been learning how to do a truckload of calculating, something I've always been good at and picked up quickly. On Monday we learned about 30 different kinds of conversions that we can do with our little whiz wheels, all of which made total sense to me. I breezed through all the quizzes at the end of the sections, rarely making a mistake other than a random careless one due to the speed at which I was working. My plan on the test is to do the entire test twice without looking at my answers from the first time the second time through, that way odds of a careless mistake are miniscule, and who knows if I can manage to get the other half of the test that isn't problem solving down pat I might end up with my first 100. From the sound of the other section a couple days ahead of us it supposedly gets much harder sometime in the next couple days, but I'm not impressed thus far. I'm really happy about the way things are going though, and feeling confident about the rest of the course. This is supposedly the time people start getting weeded out, and I can already see that happening in some respects, but it's going to have to get a lot more challenging before I'm worried about being in that boat.

Unfortunately still no news about whether I'll get rolled back, which would really be disappointing. They're already spoon feeding us it seems like, and I wouldn't really gain anything from doing nothing for six weeks. All it would do is delay my career some more, although I'll still get paid in the meantime. I like the situation I'm in, and I tend to be resistant to change at times. Guess I'll have to work at that.

We finally got my webcam working through my multiple firewalls, so my girlfriend was able to see me for a brief minute or two before I had to zip off to class after lunch while she was volunteering near one of the computer labs there. She seemed quite pleased, and I'm more than a bit bitter that vice versa still isn't possible because she's still waiting on the password to be able to log in to her new internet. It's been like two months that we've been waiting on this, and it really would help a lot to be able to see each other on a regular basis, even through a computer.

Managed to get off my ass and go running tonight, and also managed it Sunday, so trying to get into the every other day thing again before I attempt to take it even further in a few weeks. Quite a bit out of shape, just a three miler leaves me pretty breathless.

And in other random news, two rather strange hits to this blog have come from someone connecting through www.house.gov and www.doj.gov. That's right, the House of Representatives and Department of Justice's websites. Wonder what they found to be so interesting. Guess that's why I don't discuss politics. :)

A Trojan Tragedy and a Television Travesty...

Woah gettin all creative with the blog titles. Okay let's see what's been the happenins.

Finished API in JSUNT, took the test on Friday, and managed to miss one that I really shouldn't have missed. So thus far I've missed one on all three tests, putting me somewhere in the middle of the pack most likely. The good news I've been waiting for is that we're finally starting the IN phase or Introduction to Navigation, during which we finally start crunching numbers, spinning the whiz wheels, and working problems for more than half of the eventual test for that phase. This is what I excel at, and what I feel will be a great place to catch up.

The bad news is I found out Friday unless I get my appointment moved up, I'll definitely be rolling back to another class after being put on medical hold. I find out Monday most likely if they're able to bump me up somehow, if not I'll probably be chilling out for three weeks doing nothing again. It'll be a bit depressing to leave the group of people I've hung with for my entire Air Force career thus far, but I guess that's what happens whenever you PCS to a new base, so I might as well get used to it. More about that on Monday or Tuesday when I find out what the deal is.

We'll cover next American Idol, which yes I must admit I've been watching these last few weeks. Actually not watching since I have no TV, but I've been downloading the episodes. AI is particularly annoying about their commercials, especially during the results show when it takes them an hour just to let you know who got eliminated. And speaking of which, I really have to comment on what a travesty it was. Latoya London's version of "Rain on my Parade" is easily in my top three songs from the show during all the seasons combined, and easily the best of this season. I haven't a clue how she got the boot, and it's quite sad. Nothing against the other three, but she was top dog. Prior to her belting out that one my favorite had been Diana, and I guess we'll have to see if my original choice ends up holding up. I'm actually glad I already knew she was rejected before I watched the show, or I probably would have been floored. America gets 1 out of 7 M's for screwing that one up.

On a more positive note, this weekend's fare was the epic Troy. I went in expecting a Gladiator style action flick, and I got all that and more. Peole I know had given it medicore ratings, and so I was expecting some decent stunts and action, but I totally disagree. The panoramas of this one are amazing; the CGI is top notch. They obviously used truckloads and truckloads of extras, but on some scenes in particular you can't even tell whether it's just a TON (or actually several tons) of them or they've actually been backed up by CGI for the most part. I must draw particular attention to the hand to hand combat scene between Hector and Achilles, basically one of the climaxes of the film. The choreography of the battle is superb, and puts together a fabulous sequence. You can see the actors' faces for basically the entirety, which means they must have spent a hell of a lot of time practicing, because it is entirely believable and very powerful. We all know I love dramas, and this one is way up there. Some plot elements don't make much sense, such as an entire battle between armies shutting down for a battle midway through between two major characters, as if the other thousands of people would just pause the bloodshed and watch and then continue, or as in the case of the movie call it quits for the day. Other than that though, great drama, some great acting by some power players, a very believable Achilles by Brad Pitt who must have put on 20 pounds of solid muscle for the movie and looked it, and an equally impressive soundtrack that wasn't overbearing except when it was supposed to be, which is something you don't always see. A solid 6 out of 7 M's for this one, first time in a while I've seen that quality in the theater. And to think it's only the beginning of the summer season...

More Space, Fewer Problems...

The comp was down for a while over the last couple days as I made some changes to the hardware. The new sound card arrived as well as another 250gb drive which will allow me to use the previous solely for backups for the most part, to avoid any further fiascos with lost data. Unfortunately with my new case to remove or add screws to the far side of the drives requires taking off the backside of the case, which in turn requires detaching the motherboard from basically everything, since it's screwed directly into the back wall of the case. This had been something I was planning to do along the way anyway, in order to redo some of the wiring in that area and hide most of it behind the motherboard. The result is a much cleaner looking viewable side, with the focus being on the light show rather than the mess of cables. Somehow I managed to put it all back together and power it up and have everything work on the first try, something that usually doesn't happen. I'm up to 620GB total, which should last me quite some time. These adjustments pretty much finished off the interior, the only remaining hardware item missing is the video card, which I should be adding within a month or two upon its release. Backed up the main data drive onto the old 250gb that had the lost data issue, so barring the whole apartment burning down (knock on wood) I'll be safe from random drive failures in the future.

The last few days of JSUNT have been pretty uneventful, just various classes for API which we finally finished up today so we can take the test tomorrow morning. Most of it was about weather, with some pretty basic stuff about airplane instruments and so forth as well. Not a whole lot we didn't already know, other than going a bit more in depth into weather than we had previously in NIFT, and going over some of the instruments that will be in our panel that we hadn't seen previously. Following the test we move on to the next phase of Introduction to Navigation or IN as everyone calls it, where we'll get more into the nitty gritty of the nav logs and what we'll be doing on a regular basis.

I also found out I'll have to go to Brooks for an examination to accompany my waiver package before they confirm/deny it. Doing some research through their website showed that of the 162 or so AF personnel in the database with substandard depth perception, all but four were given waivers, and of those four none were solely due to the depth perception problem. So other than a few more hoops to jump through I'm not all that worried about the final result. As usual worst comes to worst I'd get rolled back a class, which just means more sitting around.

Today's "Idiot" Award...

Shoutout to the person residing in the Santa Ynez apartments at UCSB connecting through SY196132.resnet.ucsb.edu.

They decided to be slick and sign me up for various e-mail listings such as a Russian bride mailing list, and were unfortunately too stupid to realize that in the confirmation e-mail that would be sent to me to confirm it was in fact me who made the request (which it obviously wasn't and is why they send confirmation e-mails in the first place) it would say "Request was made on Wed May 12 05:50:57 2004 (Moscow time) from IP-address 128.111.196.132" Go figure, that's the same IP that's been screwing around with the GuestMap whose posts I just deleted there as well.

So I was kind enough to send the network admin at SB an e-mail informing them of the various things that person has been doing. Unfortunately I'm not able to see when their connection actually gets shut off, I can only hope they give me some more ammo to use in case it doesn't happen shortly.

Nothing more satisfying than putting idiots in their place.

Feel free to post more on the GuestMap those of you who do actually have brains, always nice to see where people have ended up or are currently located.

More later, class is calling.

Woah, Blogger Went Nuts.

Totally new format to the page, interesting new interface, major changes from the previous. So far I think I like the changes, interesting that right on the main page it says my blog has 541 posts. Given it's been up for over 2.5 years I'm averaging a little more than one every other day. I've got about 50 more pages of 2003 to go through and edit, which should go pretty quick since I was in training most of the time, then I'll zip through this year and finally be done with the Word doc of the whole thing. Edited for spelling and grammar, chronological, and very, very long. Also just about done with siphoning out all the Air Force related posts through OTS, for those curious about the process and so forth arriving at the page and not wanting to sift through all the "other stuff." E-mail or IM is a good way to acquire either file, although I can't imagine why you'd want the first unless you're well, really bored?

Didn't accomplish much this weekend, but caught up on sleep so that was good. Tomorrow we have a 0700 call time at the BX parking lot and no one knows why. Rumors of initiation of some sort but I'm guessing we're being voluntold to do something. Then unfortunately it's a full day of classes, about more stuff we already know for the most part because of NIFT. We have yet another test this Friday though, so I'll have to be digesting it all as it comes. I hear this one is a lot harder, who knows maybe making it more difficult will help me ace it. Yeah, that makes sense.

Did I mention how cool wearing flight suits all day is? The idea of having to wear blues or BDUs now, or worse yet being in corporate america in a nice shirt and tie, really makes me want to upchuck.

Survival, Sort Of...

Man, falling a bit behind here. Luckily my section has a flex day today so I have nothing to do but stuff like make my bed and fold clothes and post blogs.

We'll start with the nav school stuff as it's pretty brief. On Monday we headed into the altitude chamber for a spin, and that was good times. Initially one of my ears was giving me issues, probably as a result of the cold over the weekend. Eventually though after some prodding there was a satisfying pressure release (pop) and I had no problems for the rest of the journey up to 35,000 feet. Got some sweet pictures of myself in the helmet and oxygen mask, looking like a fighter pilot extraordinaire or something. There were all sorts of demonstrations that took place while we were in there, including a night vision one where we got to see what happens when we go on and off of oxygen and try to focus on text and colors. The funny part was the hypoxia demonstration, where one half of us then the other took off our masks at 25000 or so and then waited the three to five minutes for hypoxia to set in. Some people felt symptoms almost immediately and had to get right back on oxygen, but I ended up barely feeling anything for quite a while. A bit warmer and more dizzy than usual, and apparently I had some nice cyanosis (blue lips/fingernails) goin, but other than that I was still able to do math problems and whatnot even late in the period. You can definitely tell the difference when you put the mask back on though... Then it was the other side's turn and we got our chance to laugh at them and their symptoms. One of the typical ones is euphoria, so people suddenly get very smiley and giggly which is funny to watch.

Eventually we returned to earth and got ready for the second portion of the chamber, the rapid decompression or "rapid D" as they called it. Basically they put us in a separate smaller chamber at sea level and took the main one up to 16,000 or so, and then basically opened the door which caused the whole thing to equalize at around 10,000. They ran us through the steps of gangloading the regulator and putting on the "quick-don" as it's called, but then gave us some long boring information with the phrase "a rapid D could happen at any TIME" being the buzz word, after which the technician outside initiated it, which basically scares the bejeezus out of you because it sounds like a mild explosion that you're totally not expecting. We all got on oxygen in a hurry without any problems though, so I came out of the whole experience pretty confident with the equipment that I'll probably very rarely ever use.

The next day was spent entirely on survival, most of which was pretty boring, only because we'll have to go over this much more in depth when we go to Fairchild for land and Pensacola for water, and this was just a brief runthrough in case something happens to one of our T-43s. It's not like landing somewhere in west Texas would require living off the land for a month and instead we'd probably be found within the hour, but hey. We then had a test immediately the next day which was yesterday, and I managed to miss one again. Interestingly enough there was one almost half the class missed that I got right, but it might get thrown out which means there will be a lot of 100s, and I'll be stuck with having missed one yet again. It's amazing how long it has been since I've aced any kind of test. Well they only get harder, so I guess if I keep up the minus one pattern and everyone else drops, I'll be doing ok.

Still gotta blab a bit about the weekend, probably tomorrow. We start Aviation Preflight Indoctrination (API) tomorrow, so I hear it's a lot of memorization of regulations and whatnot, and the test is pretty tough. I've become my section's photographer, so I've got a site up with the guy from the other section with tons of pictures from the last few weeks, and it will be updated throughout the course. IM me if you want the link.

Birthdays in the Military...

I guess you have to get used to this sort of thing.

Massive brownie points to the one person outside my family and relationship who called me today to wish me a happy birthday without me having to tell them beforehand. I guess I haven't been doing as good a job keeping in touch with people as I thought, alas.

I spent the day sitting through classes, then did a bunch of loads of laundry, then sat around studying for another test tomorrow and waiting for the phone to ring, which it basically didn't. More later, didn't want to clutter up the pretty little May 4th on this post.

It happens.

All Sorts of Airtrains...

That's what I used to call them as a kid, pointing up at the sky, not knowing I was off by a bit. Okay so I've actually had somewhat of a life the past few days but that just means more for you to read today. Fear not, oh ye who are bored. Strangely I randomly clicked on my guestbook wondering why its been months since I got an e-mail saying someone had signed, and lo and behold there were a bunch of posts I hadn't read! I guess maybe that e-mail got shuffled to junk or something, who knows. Nice to see that those whom I slave away for to satisfy at least a few minutes of boredom every once in a while take the time to say hi. Keep hittin it up, repeat posters are extra special.

I'll update all the JSUNT related stuff today at least, got about a half hour before I gotta hit the shower and head in later than usually today for the altitude chamber. So last I left you was Thursday, the day of our first test. Well to get that out of the way I missed one. I really don't have an excuse for it either. I actually sat there for about 10 min staring at it, and eventually just went with what my first instinct had been, as they tell you to do, and it was the other one. So not exactly starting off on the perfect foot, although I'm better off than some. Bunch of 100s though, so I'm already not where I'd like to be. Optimstically however, the stuff I really excell at is the navigation and mathematics related to it and whatnot, so looking forward to getting into the sections that are apparently much more difficult so the pack can thin out a bit. We got our results right afterward which was nice, no waiting overnight or anything like that. We then had the rest of the morning off until we came back at noon for some of the emergency training for the T-43. They had one of those slides down from where the stairway normally is inflated, and we all got to take turns jumping off and doing what you always wanted to do when you read the safety card in a commercial airliner (at least if you're that bored) with some people getting interesting results. A lot of landing on people's asses instead of feet, it's sort of a strange feeling. Most slides you just sit at the top of and push yourself til gravity takes you, this one you actually have to jump out and away from the plane and land on it already movin pretty quick. Fun stuff. Then we got to put on the hood from the oversuit thing whatever it is that you'd wear in case of toxic smoke or gas or whatever which made it pretty tough to breath, when you were breathing you were fogging up the mask, usually there's an oxygen pack on the back that cycles it through the mask but this was just for practice. So then we went down the slide again, which was funny because you couldn't tell who was who so the people who really ate it escaped the usual torment. Then we went over to the other side and practiced exiting over the wing via a rope and sliding down the slats. I dunno about you but when I sit commercially over the wing I always look out the window and want to go play on it, so these opportunities were quite neat. Oh I forgot, prior to all this they showed us how to put on the oversuits or whatever they're called in class, and I was called on to volunteer to demonstrate... You're supposed to be able to do it in a minute, and I ended up only being able to get one boot in that fast... Alas that's why they train us, by the end of the class I had it down. Had someone snag some pics of it, they're "one size fits all" so that made some people's appearance pretty hilarious.

After all this we headed over to the pool at the OClub, where they'd set up a 20 man raft for us to have fun with. First we put on our life preserver things and you know how they always say on the airline "pull the red tabs" and you wonder how cool that would be to inflate something like that? Yeah it's pretty cool. We only got to do one because we had to practice manually blowing up the other side, but the side that we pulled was suddenly smooshed against our face, making it look like we had huge yellow cheeks. Quite hysterical especially once we got in the water. Off to the other end of the pool we went and eventually people jumped in/were pushed and we all got into a "life chain" basically linking arms or holding on in a circle or whatnot. Some people did their best to drown me but failed, not quite figuring out that if you just sink down low so that most of your weight is underwater you can float without even having to kick. We then made our way towards the raft, and practiced getting in. It's actually not as easy as you'd think, the sides are about two feet tall, so without the ramp on the side you'd have some problems. They had the first two people get on either side of the ramp, and basically you'd yank yourself up to where you could extend your elbows to them, and they'd just grab you and hurl you into the raft. I was one of the last in, and I basically got launched onto my head, so people found that to be pretty funny. We ended up with about 26 guys in a 20 person raft, so we were quite cozy. Then we worked with the various aspects of the raft, including the hot pink canopy that ended up making it about 100 degrees on the inside. I should mention we did all this in our full flight suits, which was quite a strange feeling when you're used to just swimming in bathing suits. Eventually we finished that aspect of training and were cut loose for the day, all in all a very fun day as training goes. When we're sitting in the classroom for hours at a time I'm sure I'll wish there was something else we could learn in the pool.

Friday was Command Day, which was not as cool as I was expecting, but still very cool. It was the briefings that sort of dragged it down, basically they had every airframe that had a representative there give like a 10-15 min schpeal on it. Unfortunately the majority of it was just the bios and stats of the airframe that most of us already knew, and not as much about life as a navigator on each of them. Some were more informative than others, but basically no matter what they're talking about if you're sitting in the same seat from 0700 to 1230 with a few short breaks, you're going to get bored. I spent some of the time text messaging the girlfriend, I think she could tell I was desperate for alternative forms of entertainment. Part of the problem was I had gotten sick that day, and by the middle of the day felt like a train wreck. I went home and took a nap, not being able to participate in some of the classified briefings because my security clearance hadn't been completed or something, but I can't say I missed out on much based on what other people said, just more of the same "we'll have the new WJERLSKJS2348923 next year, which will be state of the art" which doesn't mean a whole lot to us at this point. Waking up when my alarm went off I literally felt pretty horrible and wouldn't have gotten up for much of anything, with one of the things being worth it the fact that all the airframes were sitting out on the flightline waiting for me to go take a look. I snagged my camera and headed out there, nose imitating a faucet and all.

It was my first time seeing the vast majority of the planes, and I got to climb all over them, up into the cockpits, back around the main section, basically see everything there was to see. The only one I didn't get up inside was the B52, but I've actually seen one of those at an airshow and seen a lot of video of the inside so I wasn't bothered too much, given the line was like an hour long. It's also actually one of the few aircraft that based on what I've been pondering over the last few weeks is on my not preferred list when it comes to what I get on the way out of here. Honestly though, being in anything would be pretty awesome, just focusing on earning the wings at this point. The only other planes I'm not tremendously interested in are the RC135 and E3, both of which have large crews and focus more on the intelligence side of things, the former gathering signals information with a team of linguists and whatnot in the back, the latter being what AWACS uses to control battlespace, mostly by flying in circles or "orbits" as they refer to them as. Above them in order of preference is the KC-135, which does pretty much all the tanker work in the Air Force. They're pretty massive planes, but the briefer really made it seem like the nav's role really isn't that important, it was basically some lieutenant who knows his job is probably the easiest there is, and wasn't afraid to let us know. This leads me to think they'll probably phase the nav out of that airframe first, and the others might have better long term potential. The bases these along with the B52 are located at aren't ideal, and the mission just doesn't interest me as much as some others. What that leaves is the C-130, HC-130, EC-130, AC-130, and MC-130. Basically that won't mean a whole lot to most of you, but they're all variations of the same aircraft with the C-130 "Slick" being the base model. The HC refuels helicopters, the EC focuses on electronic warfare, the AC is the gunship that recorded most of those videos in Afghanistan of stuff getting blown up, and the MC has three varities all of which focus on special ops, one focuses on refueling while the other two drop guys off and pick them up, lots of low level in the dark stuff. I'd probably be satisfied on any of the varieties, so other than the bases they're located at, there probably won't be much to distinguish them for a while.

When it comes to the concept of EWO, I'm really not feeling the vibe at this point, although again I haven't had much to go by thus far. Just doesn't seem like as good a fit for me, and two of the five airframes that come out of there being the B52 and R-135 aren't on my desperate to get lists, so right now I'm leaning towards staying in the 562d. Took a load of pictures, including a bunch of the pair of F-15Es that were also there, my first time seeing them in person. For a long time that was my dream, but in hindsight given the whole depth perception waiver being passed through as we speak, I might have gotten rolled out of there anyway, I'm guessing it would be near to impossible to get a backseat slot there with that problem. It just goes to show, the world isn't over when you get the news at OTS, you might end up enjoying the job over here better anyway.

My spot in each of the 130s looked pretty comfy, nice fur covered chair or whatever it is, like those car seats that are oh so nice. I'm right up there on the upper level with the cockpit crew, so I'd be able to see out the windows, which isn't the case in some of the other varieties of airframe. So we'll see how things pan out. The good news is the C-130 base model is the airframe handed out to somewhere around half of each class, so if nothing else that should be available when the time comes.

Alas I have an appointment with the altitude chamber this morning, gonna get to put on one of those nifty looking helmets and oxygen masks you see in top gun and all fighter aircraft for the first time. Definitely gonna have to snag some pics. Had fun this weekend too, more later.

Suddenly Not as Much Time...

...as I used to have... Today was quite filled with all sorts of interesting blogging material, but it's almost midnight and I have to be in my seat all cleaned up and in uniform tomorrow at 7am for Command Day, which should also be awesome. So big blog tomorrow night probably.

Around and Around He Goes...

Today's classes were markedly more interesting than the previous. We had one on acceleration, all about the G straining maneuvers and whatnot to keep blood flowing to the brain, and got to watch cool videos of people in centrifuges and so forth practicing proper technique, and then some guys that didn't and the different results.

We also had one on spatial disorientation, which is common while flying, and how you can recognize it, and even learned about those types you can't recognize and what you can do to prevent them. They had this little chair with a circular bar around it that we used for some of the demos, and we'd sit in it and get spun around at great speed and then once we were used to the motion would have to try to lift our head or sit up straight or do things our body would eventually not appreciate us doing very much. Lots of good pics from that one, fun stuff, reminded me somewhat of the teacups at Disneyland.

After that we had the night vision class and I volunteered to be one of the people wearing this really nifty red goggles (cept not really) for a half hour prior, which made the whole world look quite strange during that time, but eventually when we had the class in total darkness, they had us take them off and we were able to see much more than the rest of the class much sooner when it came to the dimly lit slides projected on the wall. We could easily distinguish patterns, most people couldn't even tell there was anything there. Some other cool examples too about the different aspects of flying at night and how long it takes for your vision to recover from light and fully adapt to the darkness.

I'm ending up with barely any pictures of myself doing any of this, I'll have to start passing around the camera for some stuff to get my ugly mug up in there. We then had a test review and finished the day early, so I snagged a haircut and some insoles for the new jump boots we were issued. I should also mention they moved all the T-43s (the plane we'll be flying) over to a section of the flightline very near one of the roads I take on the way to the squadron, so I'll be getting some good exterior shots tomorrow morning on the way in. I'm guessing this is because the main section of the flightline will be used for all the planes flying in for Command Day on Friday, probably mostly tomorrow. I might just go out and sit near the runway with a book or something when we're done for the day and see what I can catch a glimpse of as they come in. I'm sure I'll hear them wherever I am, that's for sure.

Now it's studystudystudy for our first test tomorrow, 25 multiple choice, should be pretty basic. In other words, if I get 100, I'll be happy. And I just won't say anything else.

Oh So Fly...

Missed a few days there, but you didn't miss much.

Basically long story short apparently my depth perception isn't perfect. Interestingly enough I still have 20/20 vision, and don't even need to carry around a prescription like some of the guys in my class, much less wear glasses like some others. But alas this will require a waiver, which is probably as we speak on its way up to Brooks to be processed. Of the last six depth perception waivers applied for from Randolph the doc said five have been approved, and I find it hard to believe the guy that got the shaft was 20/20. So it's a bit of a worry until it gets resolved, but not a whole lot I can do about it in the meantime.

The rest of the flight physical was inherently boring, ended up taking most of the day. I'm not exactly sure what I did with the weekend, oh wait now I remember. Just about all of Saturday was spent trying to get the new puter up to par, which now appears to be running somewhat smoothly. The data that was lost was eventually recovered, although all the data I downloaded while the previous was gone ended up lost when the previous returned. If that makes any sense. Basically more of a pain, but since it was basically all installers and I had already installed the programs, I won't need them until I have to install them again, in which case I'll have to do it all over again. Hopefully not for a while. The last few pieces of the aesthetics and logistics of the case should arrive in a couple days, and I'll be finishing up the case fan extensions and molex connections for a few more pieces. Then all that will be left to add at a later date is better sound and video, but alas the cash flow isn't what it should be at the moment. It definitely looks spiff already, but it shall be all the spiffer as it all comes together.

Yesterday we just had our one on one interviews with our FC, just random questions about things that might affect us during training. I spent the rest of the day running around trying to get the waiver process started and running various other errands.

Today we had our first full day of actual classes, although sadly we're still not learning about navigation. This is all stuff we need to know, but man is it boring. Aerospace physiology is basically all this week, all about the way your body reacts to altitude and whatnot, the different symptoms to look for or solutions to problems or whatnot. Interestingly enough our first test is Thursday already, based on the material from today and tomorrow. They don't waste much time. Upcoming days should be more interesting, as we'll eventually be in the altitude chamber having fun with hypoxia, and on the chair spinner thing that I'm pretty sure is designed to make you barf, or something.

Was pretty nifty walking around in flight suits all day, we actually looking like we might be here for training now or something. Beats BDUs and Blues any day that's for sure. Now if I can just figure out some sort of workout schedule that fits in with our eventual biweekly PT sessions as well as the typical 7-4 workday...

Sadly on a regular basis I'll be getting home from work after 4 or 5, and that means it will be too late to call Germany, so we'll end up only being able to talk a couple times a day briefly, when I first wake up and am getting ready in a hurry and she's in the middle of her day, and when I'm on lunch for a little while and she's at home. I guess weekends will have to make up for it... Well, no one said it would be easy I suppose.

Would be nice if I had something more interesting to post, but alas.

It Must Be Raining...

Because it feels like it's pouring. Physical didn't go as it was supposed to, then while trying to distract myself from that setting up my new puter my most important hard drive lost about half its data while making the switch, so now I'm reeling from multiple directions. More when I feel like it.

Pajamas At Work, Coming Soon.

Gah, I finally decide it's time to hit the sack and continue the fun tomorrow and then I realize I haven't blogged yet today and I was trying to be motivated enough to do it every day. So here ya go.

The morning consisted of the FC's indoc brief basically telling stuff how things were going to go, and much more extensively how things were NOT going to go. As expected he wasn't as lax as he has been the last few days, and pretty much laid down the law underlining and boldfacing items such as "I am NOT your friend." Still not a whole lot has been shared schedule wise about the way things will be laid out for the course, but I'm sure that will come with time. Need to know basis and all that. Then came two hours of filling out excessively boring medical paperwork in preparation for our flight physicals tomorrow. Thanks to the alphabet I managed to draw the 8:30 time slot instead of the 7am, so I'll get an extra hour or two of sleep.

At lunch we were hanging out in the lounge of the 563rd eating free food given by the spouse's club, and an EWO stopped by to answer some questions one of the guys had about that side of the house. By the end of the convo at least a few people at the table were seriously considering heading that route, but I find whenever I talk to an EWO I want to go that way, and whenever I talk to a Nav vice versa is true. He did have a bunch of good info though.

Following lunch we headed over to equpiment issue, which was pretty fun as we basically racked up like $600 or so worth of items that we'll be needing, mostly clothing. This of course meant that I got to try on a flight suit for the first time. I don't think I've ever wore a one piece anything before, so it was quite strange trying to get my arms into the holes at first. Once it was on though it was quite comfy, although warm even in the air conditioned store. Something tells me long sleeves when it's 100 plus outside won't be too thrilling. After Blues and BDUs for several months though, it will be nice to be able to get ready in less than a minute. We also got issued some jump boots, which aren't required to be shiny, so that will safe a bunch of time too. We then took the flight suits over to an alterations place off base to get the patch velcro material and rank sewed on, so when we pick them up on Monday they should be good to go for Tuesday, the first day we'll wear them. I think this will be the first really cool day here, much like the first time at OTS when I had my name sewed onto a military uniform next to the words U.S. Air Force and finally felt like I was part of the team. Slappin my nametag (albeit without wings) onto my flight suit and zippin off to class should be a neat feeling as well.

Nothing but the flight physical tomorrow, should be done after a 1230 dental appointment by early afternoon. Which is good, because I have lots of tinkering to do.

When I came home in the middle of the day on a break I found two boxes outside my room, which was weird because although I was expecting a CPU and motherboard, I ordered them from the same place and figured they'd be in the same box. After bringing them in and analyzing the situation, I realized one of the boxes was from FTD.com, and was paid for by a "3rd party." Very suspicious. Upon cutting it open I found one of those cold packs usually used when shipping different kinds of food. Even more suspicious.

What I eventually unwrapped though was a pretty amazingly cute early birthday present. It was a gigantic fortune cookie close to the size of my head. I immediately knew who it was from, and if you remember back a few months you will too. I called her up to thank her and tell her she was the cutest ever, and that's when she informed me of something I hadn't even noticed, that the whole thing was dipped in white chocolate. I LOVE white chocolate. It's just ridiculously yummy. She of course knew this, and hooked me up in a big way. I was so impressed with the gift that the motherboard and CPU sat unopened until much later after I returned home for the evening and she had gone to sleep. If you know me, you know new computer parts are usually like gold, so clearly there has been some priority rearranging along the way. She even knew that I was expecting computer equipment in the mail, and timed the shipment to get here at the same time so I would be quite bewildered and eventually very surprised, as I was. One thing is for sure, I'm just kind of a lucky guy. :)

JSUNT Begins.

Well sort of anyway. Yesterday 20 April was the official report/start date of Joint Specialized Undergraduate Navigator Training class 05-05, but in reality the entire first week is spent indocing, and the first day of actual class isn't until next Tuesday. So this blog will finally be relevant to those Navigator types looking to see what it's like. I'm going to try to post on an everyday basis now, even if they're short and sweet, just to keep everyone reading the blog interested in a navigator journal or navigator blog will be updated on what it's like.

The first two days were pretty horribly boring, so I figured I'd spare you and talk about them both at once. We reported at 0730 over in the 563rd building where many of the classrooms are for both the 562d and the 563rd (Navigator and Electonic Warfare Officer Training Squadrons, respectively) and hung out in blues for a while. Well when I say 0730, I really mean 0715, because the rule at nav school is you're either 15 minutes early to an event, or you're late. Basically if anyone was still missing at like 0720 then whoever was in charge or led their section or whatnot would have to get on the horn and getting their asses into their chair. So basically that means I'll be wasting a truckload of time sitting around waiting for things to start. Theoretically I guess you should be studying or whatnot, but given we haven't really started anything yet, basically it's been a get to know the guy next to you kind of deal.

The majority of us know each other already from OTS or from the last six months of sitting around and doing NIFT, so there weren't too many new faces. The girlfriend will have nothing to worry about as I only have one female in my class of 35 or so, and she's not my type. We also have about seven Navy guys, none of whom we'll be competing against as they obviously go to Navy planes in the end. They actually already completed the first phase, so they'll be sitting around for the first three to six weeks or something while we do that, then rejoin us for the majority, then leave about three months before us as they don't require the last phase either. They've been sort of cliqueish over the first few days, but I guess that's to be expected, we're sort of headed in different directions.

The first day opened with a long briefing on how to take tests without failing, and what to do if you do fail. Quite boring. Then came many more briefings on safety and various things I don't even remember, just stuff you have to do so they get it out of the way. The Vice Wing Commander for the 12th Training Wing spoke to us, as well as the 12th Operations Group Commander or Vice today, and last up was the 562d Squadron Commander. Lots of welcome to Randolph, you're embarking on a wonderful journey, yadda yadda yadda.

We've gotten a couple hours for lunch the last couple days, and today we had our flight pictures taken, the little indivudal ones they put up on the board in the lobby and in the base paper eventually when you graduate along with your name and where you're going and what you're flying. They had little temporary wings we put on for one of the pics then took one without, that was sort of a trippy thing I wasn't expecting. I've never worn wings before, even though I certainly haven't earned them yet. Should be a different feeling when someone pins me on in nine months.

Speaking of which, glancing at a schedule they had up in my instructor's flight room the "drop" date, meaning the date when we find out what planes are available I believe, and thus can figure out by class ranking who is taking what and who is going where, is December 3rd of this year, with my actual graduation date being Friday February 4th, 2005. Talk about a long time away. It'll probably be nice to have holiday leave in there towards the end, the last phase of training I've heard is the easiest, and given you already know where you're going all the stress is off. Until then though, I expect it to be one of the more stressful times of my life.

My flight commander seems pretty lax, which can be good and bad I suppose. Tomorrow morning he's slated for a two hour block to start the day and I think that'll be more of what we're really going to be doing over the next nine months, what will be expected of us, and the way things are going to go. Something tells me he might get a bit more serious, who knows. He's Navy, so at first us AF folk were confused because he was listed as a Lt on our board in NIFT, but in the Navy the rank structure goes Ensign, Lieutenant Junior Grade, then Lieutenant, rather than the AF's 2d Lt, 1st Lt, Captain. So in reality he's an O-3, comparable to AF captains, which puts him way above any of us. Towards the end of the day today we went around the room saying our names, hometowns, commissioning source, and what we wanted to fly, and a surprising number of people just seemed interested in getting their wings, regardless of the plane. I'm guessing some people just didn't want to say. There were also a surprising number of people who wanted the C130 (Slick) which typically about half of each class ends up on anyway, some not by choice. Given our large class size we may get a greater variety of planes than most, which would be nice. I'm pretty clueless as to what I want at this point, or even whether I want the EWO or Nav track, so we'll see how it goes.

I'm really looking forward to 30 Apr of this month, as we're having a Command Day which they do about once a year where they're bringing in folks from all the different airframes to show us videos and talk to us about what they actually do for a living, which for most of the airframes will be my first contact with someone who actual does the job and lives the life. Then the best part is they're actually bringing in all 13 or so airframes to Randolph, and we'll actually get to go out there and see the planes on static display for a couple hours, most of which I've never even seen in person, from the AC130 Spectre (Gunship) to the E3 Sentry (AWACS) to even the F16CJ which I guess is an option on the EWO side of the house, which I didn't even know was possible. Interesting concept there, I thought to go fighters you had to come out of Pensacola, but based on what was said today that isn't necessarily true. It might be a one slot a year type thing though rather than at least one per class like most planes, so who knows.

More indocing tomorrow, we've got the Flight Commander for a couple hours up front followed my medical pre-screening getting ready for our full on flight physicals that'll take up all of Friday. Monday we just have one on one interviews with our FC (get used to that acronym and a million others) and then most of us will get out of the all day newcomers orientation briefing that was extensively boring and took up most of the day when we first got here, which the people who just arrived in the last couple days like the Navy folk will be forced to attend. Then come Tuesday we actually have our first classes, I'm sure I'll find out more about the layout of the classes tomorrow. All I know is I got about a one foot high stack of paper yesterday consisting of only some of the reading material for the next nine months. Fun stuff.

So will try to update daily with the happenings on the path to flapping my wings.

Surprise. Part 2.

Okay so where was I.

Oh that's right. The most warmest bestest hug ever.

Let me teach you about today's word of the day boys and girls. It's called "reciprocation." That is to say "a) a mutual exchange b) a return in kind or of like value." This boys and girls, is the coolest thing EVer.

You'd actually think I'd be somewhat familiar with this feeling, through prior relationships or whatnot. Maybe it has just been a long time, but I really don't recall it being anywhere near as great as this. I truly felt when we hugged that she missed me as much as I missed her.

I wish I could describe her face when she saw me but it's pretty tough. I can do a pretty good impression of it though, ask me sometime. I guess it's a bit of a shock to see someone who you think is several thousand miles away suddenly several feet away. She really did seem happy though. And boy, I was too.

So we bid adieu to the best friend who must now go to work rather than the spa as was previously claimed, and we end up wandering around the base for a bit while she finishes up a few things and introduces me to various officemates. Kind of funny meeting people who recognize you upon sight, even though you've never seen them before. I guess various pictures had been passed around or whatnot. Eventually we meandered our way back to her place, and I got to see the infamous apartment. Only about five times the size of mine, at least. More like eight actually. I have no clue what I would do with all that space, that's for sure. By this time my body finally figured out that it was very far into the wee hours of the morning my time, and I eventually crashed for a while. That evening we got a pretty late start thanks to my snoozing and headed out to a German restaurant which I definitely wouldn't be able to pronounce even if I remembered the name. There I found out how to translate apple juice, as well as different kinds of meat before eventually handling the rumbly in my tumbly. It was fun hearing the gf converse with the waiter, at one point they used a bit of Spanish and I was able to follow along. But for the majority of the weekend I was helpless as can be when it came to speaking, and would just sort of look at her and smile and she'd handle it.

I also will admit to a gross cultural error when we were trying to find somewhere to park at the restaurant... Basically cars were all over the place, in the town there was no real curb or sidewalk or anything so cars were sideways and backwards and on the wrong side facing the wrong way, and we ended up just parking over near some bushes in what didn't look like a spot, so without thinking I said "What, they don't have any parking nazi's over here?" and then as soon as it came out was glad I was in the car and not anywhere where someone was within earshot. Just goes to show even I who claim to be politically correct do still ocassionally use terms such as that or "gestapo tactics." Pot calling the kettle black at times I guess.

I should say something about the weather, it really was quite nice the whole time I was there, somewhere in the 60s probably, and not below 40 at night, sunny both days. Wandering around at night was thus quite peaceful, rather than bone jarringly cold. I had hoped to see it snow, which I've still never in my life witnessed, but alas that will have to wait for another trip. After dinner we headed to downtown Frankfurt, which was actually quite surprisingly big. A really nice river flowing through it, I guess that's a common theme in Europe which is kind of neat. Some seriously tall buildings, and the usual parking strangeness although on a lesser scale. Our destination for the evening was called "O'Reilly's Irish Pub" which as you can probably guess isn't my typical fare. Alas I was not on my home turf and thus I was the tagalong to wherever she desired.

This is apparently her typical Friday night experience, and thus the most important reason for me to accompany her was so that she could flaunt me in front of various other regulars who continuously hit on her previously, and thus advertise that she isn't available. In my experience being unavailable just tends to make people want you even more, but what can ya do. There was much socializing and whatnot, and eventually she and her best friend took over the stage for a rendition of "I Need A Hero" off the Footloose soundtrack, quite a good choice for Karaoke. I'm not quite sure how but at some point I also ended up stage for an encore performance of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" with a few other people, I guess I got caught up in the moment. Been a while since I've held a mic, that's for sure. If you remember "Gotta Getaway" then you remember the last time I sang with a mic on stage, and I'm impressed. Pretty sure we still have video of that one, which luckily didn't get busted out when the girlfriend visited. Phew. I bet my mom will be sorry she didn't think of that.

At some point she and the best friend headed into the dancing section and I was reaching the point I could barely breathe because of the smoke, so I went outside for some fresh air. Enjoyed the downtown Frankfurt scenery for a bit, was pretty dead given it was 3 in the morning or so. But then through the night I heard the familiar rhythm of Usher's "Yeah" which was somewhat of a theme for us during ASBC. Like a wildebeest to a mating call I responded, immediately moving towards the dance floor. Conveniently she'd just left it looking for me, so we walked in a circle opposite of each other for the first minute of the song, before finally she stopped long enough for me to catch up. I've never claimed to be a hotshot when it comes to dancing with those of the opposite sex, but I feel about eighty times more comfortable in public with her than I do anyone else. Whether we're dancing or just being affectionate without being totally gross, it really seems like we're the only two people in the world at times. The next song up was "Get Busy" by Sean Paul, and yeah, there was a whole lot of bootyshakin goin on. Mostly by me mind you. Eventually the heat of too many bodies in too enclosed a space forced us to take our leave, and we made our way out of the place.

More riding on the freeway came next, which mostly consisted of me trying to pronounce place names, and her laughing extensively. I was particularly entertained by their word for the freeway exits, or "ausfahrts" as they're called, assuming I'm spelling that right. I was sure to announce every one I saw. Definitely seems like a cool place to have a fast car. Don't think I saw any going over 150mph or so though, I've heard it gets pretty crazy.

K now she was pretty dead by the time we got home but of course having slept some of the day away I was wide awake, so as is almost always the case when we're together one of us is always tired. Mass laziness ensued, and we didn't actually end up getting out to see more of Germany until around 4 in the afternoon. Out we went a bunch of clicks (kilometers for all you miler people) to a place where I've also forgot the name, to see a castle that was pronounced "Schloss" or something. I asked her where the "Schwinners" were who must have beaten the "Schlossers" in a major battle or something, but she just kind of stared like she does sometimes when I try to be funny, so I guess that one was sub par. I had actually never been to a castle before, so it was quite neat. It was up basically on a cliff overlooking a village and a river, and had a beautiful view all across the river valley. While we shared a hug looking out of the expanse I mentioned that although this view was pretty neat, I could only imagine how many more neater ones we'd see in the future. I must have been in a gushy mood because as we wandered around through the castle grounds we came up with another gross couple idea... We both love hugs, and she especially loves being squeezed and the affection it shows, so at some point I mentioned the idea that she should always try to stay freshly squeezed, and found my own pun quite hilarious. Strangely enough she is almost as big a dork as I am, and so we decided that she should definitely remain freshly squeezed, and if for some reason that isn't the case she should draw my attention to it with an exclamation like "I'm not feeling very Tropicana..." Aw doesn't that just make you want to vomit. Then again you might think we're soooo cute. I can probably guess which is more likely.

Oops skipped the fact that we ate prior to going to the castle, at a nice little restaurant in the area. I ordered pepperoni something or other as an appetizer, thinking pizza bread or something of the sort, and boy was I wrong. That would translate as PEPPERoni, meaning a plateful of jalapenos with a huge glob of garlic. Mmmm. Actually they weren't too bad, I guess I'm not as sensitive to spicy foods as I used to be, after all I love a good bowl of jambalaya, we all know that. They had a couple mirrors in the place, and I did my usual fool the girlfriend trick when I say "WOAH check out that girl, dang she's definitely worth a second look" and in a huff she turns around with an irritated glare only to see her own reflection...

On the way back we stopped at a gas station type thing and they had all the typical candy bars, but they were all in totally differently desigend wrappers, which I found strange. Different tastes on different continents maybe? A long overdue trip to the bowling alley was the next stop, where due to some temporary chemical imbalance in my body or a skewing of the polarity of the earth during the first game she managed to win. I recovered during the next two miraculously, including three strikes in a row that she pretended to not be impressed by. We're both competitve, but she's nicer about it than I am, which makes me feel bad sometimes. Something I'll have to work on. Later that night we went over to her office just to hang out for several hours since I was going to have to leave the following morning. Basically just did lots of cutesy things like reading blogs to each other, since these things tend to take on new life when spoken by the author. Her office is pretty nice, very large, two captain's chairs and a couch, and a nice leather chair for herself, although it's too tall for her and too short for me. Tried to eat all the candy she had but failed, she probably had some stashed away where I wouldn't be able to find it anyway. At some point after the clock struck four times, we were even more tired than before and we took a short nap for a couple hours, eventually having to get up and go home to pack and head to the airport.

I tend to get quite sad at this point of our times together, I guess that's understandable. There's always a question mark as to when we'll see each other again, but it's never quickly. Time passes so fast at times, and so slow at others. We just stood there outside the security area for about a half hour, since I'd gotten there well in advance of the flight. It's amazing how I can get lost just staring at her. There could be hundreds of people passing by, and I wouldn't be able to tell you what any of them looked like, or even tell you that they passed by at all. I could go on and on, but I guess you wouldn't really understand unless you experienced it. Eventually I did go through the security checkpoint, although I turned back to wave at least eight times. Even as I walked away out of view, she was hopping along between the gaps of the conveyor belts and screening machines waving and smiling through the several glass windows separating us. At the last one I paused and we signed I love you repeatedly, but alas, no matter how we try to stretch, our time together eventually ends.

It was a long trip home, alone. I had a chatty person next to me, which kept me busy for an hour or so along with the movie, but then I got so bored of a stewardness blocking my view to talk to someone for literally at least five full minutes I fell asleep, and missed the rest of the movie and the entire second one which was Lost in Translation which I wouldn't have minded seeing. Oh well. Obviously the first one wasn't that good I don't even remember what it was. I did see the Steve Martin one about having twelve kids on the way over, but I can't remember the name of that one either and I'm too lazy too look it up. It was only decent anyway, a little laugh now and then, 3Ms for whatever it was. They did have good TV on for both directions, Trading Spaces, West Wing, JAG, Whose Line Is It Anyway? to name a few, the latter with Whoopi Goldberg which was quite hilarious. I also almost completely completed (good english there) the crossword puzzle in the Delta magazine which was pretty difficult, and busied me for like an hour. Overall the trip back wasn't nearly as bad, although I was much more sad. Uneventful trip back to pick up my car from the economy lot and drive home, although as usual the songs that remind me of her seemed like they were on repeat on the radio. Jet lag wasn't really an issue since I wasn't there that long, I just always regret sleeping so much when I'm with her, if I could just stay conscious longer we could spend more time together. After all I can sleep any time.

The next time I'll see her is probably the end of May if a trip she's planning works out, and I'll get to show her where I work and sleep. If not it'll be sometime in July when she comes out to Ohio for training and will probably be able to pop down on the weekends. Meanwhile we'll keep doing what we're doing, and it'll all work out.

Ever travelled between continents to surprise someone? I highly recommend it. The trip was well worth it, and if money and getting permission to take leave wasn't an issue, I'd sit on a plane for twenty four hours in a weekend, every weekend, just to spend the time in between, together.

Surprise.

Yes, there was a reason I wasn't blogging for a few days. Alas, the general readership of this blog consists of people whom I was unable to include on the inside of a surprise I'd been planning for quite a while. It actually was quite annoying because I was wanting to blog about all the complicated steps taken as preparation, and I wasn't able to as it would have spoiled it.

I really outdid myself this time. Those who know me know that spontaneity is the name of the game, and I've been known to do some VERY crazy things for people, from spur of the moment road trips, to jacking the father's car in the middle of the night and driving several hundred miles to spend a few hours with someone and immediately come back, to blowing gambling winnings on a totally random trip to New York City to see RENT. I love surprises, even though I somehow always manage to spoil the ones aimed at me. The one's that people have managed to put over me though always blow me away.

But seriously, this just crushes everything I've done in the past. There's only one person I would have done something this grandiose for, and you can guess who that is. To quote an earlier blog around the time we first met: "Germany. It?s a country in Europe quite far away."

As of last Thursday, I had been all over the United States, but had never left the country other than Canada. I'd never been on a plane longer than about five hours. I'd never been somewhere I didn't speak the language. These are just a few of the firsts that took place over the weekend. And there were a lot.

Due to JSUNT starting in the next few weeks, I will be unable to take basically any leave at all other than Thanksgiving and Christmas and thus will be unable to do any sort of travelling to see my girlfriend during that time. That pretty much left these last few weekends as my only real chances to ever visit her where she lives and works at Rhein Main Air Base, Germany. She had been led to believe that taking international leave was basically impossible, but in reality it just requires a bunch of extra paperwork and legwork. Basically the last thing she would have ever expected is that I'd actually just show up on her doorstep in person. She'd mentioned it once or twice, and I'd just told her that "she knew what the situation was" and not told the truth without really lying. Just sort of skirting the issue as they say. I have a new motto when it comes to life in our relationship. With me, ANYTHING is possible.

I researched plane ticket prices and after consultation with the father it was decided that the trip was worth cashing in some frequent flyer miles for. The next problem was the lack of a passport. Having not ever gone anywhere, I'd never needed one. Now all of a sudden I needed one in a hurry. The only place that did them in an expedient manner was Houston, a few hundred miles away. Better yet they only did them by appointment, and closed by 3pm each day. Thus I had to make the latest possible appointment, and then haul ass over there from San Antonio after my morning muster to make sure I got there on time. Funniest thing that happened that day was coming out of the elevator and opening the door of suite 1600 where I thought the passport center was, and finding absolutely nothing. A completely bare suite, no furniture or anything. Beautiful views of downtown Houston in all directions, but just a bunch of totally empty rooms. As I stood by a floor to ceiling window looking out over the city I called my dad to double check the address, thinking to myself that it was April 1st, and someone might have played a really horrible April Fools Day joke and I'd driven all this way for nothing. Turns out it was suite 1400, and I was soon on my way in the right direction. Was pretty funny though. As it was I made it in plenty of time, but was lacking passport photos, thinking they did them onsite. Paid some ridiculous amount to have them done at one of the little places sprinkled around the building, and headed back upstairs. The whole passport process was pretty painless, just had to make sure you had all the right documentation. They ended up getting it done within about an hour, so I only had to go down and refill the meter at the sweet parking spot I snagged once. Sucks to have like four cars fighting through the lot to get to where you're headed to see you put more money in and walk away, but that's the way it goes. So yeah eventually I get the little blue booklet called a passport with my interesting looking mug on the front page. Then came the sitting in traffic for hours ride back to San Antonio, during which she called a couple times, but I had to make up lame excuses so she wouldn't figure out I had been driving continuously for several hours and want to know why.

Passport in hand, I then began the lengthy process of getting my leave approved through the squadron. I'll spare you the gory details, but basically multiple safety briefings were required, anti-terrorism training, signatures from various higher-ups, and a multitude of forms and paperwork. Somehow this all got squared away a couple days before my expected departure. During this time I'd managed to get the e-mail of her best friend from her, she of course thinking that it was so I could send her flowers or something.

We developed quite an elaborate plan on various levels to get me there unannounced. She actually took it further than even I expected, even from what I hear making a "scoresheet" for their "apartment cleaning competition" so that my girlfriend wouldn't be embarassed by the state of the place when I just appeared out of nowhere. She also planned various events throughout the weekend so there was no chance of my girlfriend trying to skip town or whatnot.

So finally everything was set, and I left around 10am for the airport, happy as a clam. I packed light and thus had a carryon for the few days I'd be there, which made things quite easy along the way when it came to not having to check luggage or send it through customs. Totally overestimating the time it would take to get to the gate, I checked in with no line whatsover at the Delta counter, then basically walked through security without ever stopping, and was at the gate a while before 11, with my flight not departing until 12:30. Ordered one of the covered pizza things you usually see somewhere like Sbarro from the italian place inside the airport, since the guy said it had like four kinds of meat in it or something and it sounded good. As it turns out I'm pretty convinced he must have said four kinds of BEET or something, because there were way too many vegetables for my liking. I eat veggies, but not on my pizza. Of course this was only the first of many food orders gone wrong during the weekend.

I was a bit apprehensive as I finally boarded the plane, as it was a 767 and I was on the aisle of the middle section, and with someone large next to me would not be able to sleep in any sort of comfortable position as I tend to need something to lean on. Of course someone was in my seat, when they were assigned to the middle one, so I had to bump them over, and sadly as expected my row was a full one. It was only several minutes later when the stewardesses came by with papers that they said the flight was far from full and we were welcome to move to a more spacious area if we liked. I asked the guy in the middle if he wanted to move, and he responded in gibberish, which was the first time I realized the language thing was going to be an issue during the trip at times. Through hand signals we communicated somewhat and I decided to take over the row in front of us while he moved into my seat. This put me about two rows from the big screen, prime viewing for the movie and tv shows that were to come. My strategy was to tilt the center seat back all the way and leave the other two upright, so I could use them to lean on with a pillow on either side of my head to compensate for shifting back and forth. This would have been a really good strategy, had I not been so nervous. I maybe got two hours total sleep on the trip over, which pretty much sucked. There was only one movie, then an hour or two of tv, and then they shut everything down for the night and the last four hours were pretty much boredom. Too nervous to read AF literature that I'd brought with me, I amused myself with the crossword puzzle and read USA today cover to cover, and basically just did a lot of lying there with my eyes closed thinking about the hundreds of possibilities that might come up when I tried to surprise her and how each of them might result. Eleven or twelve hours of flight later I touched down in Frankfurt, Germany, at around 8am the next morning. Unfortunately we'd been circling for the previous half hour due to traffic in the pattern, lengthening the already lengthy flight some more. Nothing like watching the little airplane on the compass tracker on the big screen soooo close to getting there and then turn around and go the opposite direction. Depressing. Out I popped eventually, into what I thought would be bitter cold, but turned out to be nothing I wasn't used to. Customs consisted of showing my passport to someone and having them stamp away, and then off I went to wander the airport following the exit signs. Luckily they had everything in English too, so it was pretty straightforward, although my gate was as usual about a half mile from the main area of the terminal. I eventually made it there and the best friend found me, with a big grin on her face that brought a big grin to mine as we giggled about what was to come. She then made a beeline right through the place to where she was parked, as I did a lot of neck craning and staring like a typical tourist. Was my first time in a Porsche, wasn't brand new or anything, but hey I can't complain.

The Air Base actually shares a runway with Frankfurt International, so it was a very short trip over to her place from there. We made a quick stop to pick up a couple roses that would signify two months together, and then went over to the best friend's place to call my girlfriend and see what she was up to. Turns out she was still over at work finishing up a few things even though she had the day off, and said she'd be over in about ten. We developed a hide in the kitchen and pop up behind her as she walked in strategy, which was foiled as ten min later we called again, and she was still there fiddling around, so we made up an excuse and said we'd meet her over there. So over to one of the office buildings we went, as my pulse started to double and triple as usual when she's in the general vicinity. I just kept smiling thinking about the possibilities, and knowing I'd come so far, and I was almost there. We had her best friend go in first, and tell her to "close her eyes and count to eight." Now this is what I had planned for LAX back a couple weeks ago when I was going to surprise her but instead messed up her surprise so I expected the number eight would tip her off right away. As it was though after some rebuttal she just closed her eyes and began to count.

As she finished I strode in from the other room, the last few steps of a several thousand mile journey, duffle bag and roses in hand, smiling as bigly as ever. After opening her eyes, my girlfriend followed her best friend's gaze towards the doorway, and as soon as she saw me...

Sounds like a good place to pause. Wouldn't want to make this post too long.

Pardon The Interruption

Bit of a hiatus here, should have another big chunk of blog in a few days or something.

Interesting Humor

K so now that the monstrosity of a post is out of the way down below, I'm going to try to have this be a sort of convoluted thought process post when I feel like it because something weird happened kind of site. We start with something I read on someone else's blog:

"My grandfather died on April fool’s day, my Grandma always says something to the extent of “he didn’t fool us, he went and did it.”"

I found that kind of hilarious, although it's obviously a sad subject. Something tells me that's the attitude I'll have towards sad events in my life, always trying to make it funny or cheerful so it doesn't bring others down as well.

T-mobile started a new plan that anyone with them should look into. My old plan was 600 anytime, free night and weekend, for $39.99. The new one is 1000 anytime, free night and weekend, for $39.99. Sound strange? Yeah my old one doesn't even exist anymore, so I called up and upgraded. Anyone still sitting around on the 600 plan should probably get around to doing that too, unless you don't want 400 free minutes or something.

Bill Cosby is coming to San Antonio the weekend before my birthday. I remember listening to old tapes of him in the car on long trips repeatedly and laughing every time. Think I'll go catch the show.

The Way Weekends Should Be, Mostly, Part 2

Man, I really should have blogged the second part sooner. Now I'll probably forget stuff. Gr. Anyway, where was I.

So we soon arrived at the reception which was actually in quite a beautiful location. It was up near the top of the peninsula in Palos Verdes overlooking the ocean with a gorgeous view. The theme was movie related, and there really were about a million cute things about the way everything was set up. Being in the wedding party was kind of nifty, as we got to be announced by the DJ and enter to rowdy applause before taking our place at the head table. I tried the elbow wrist elbow wrist beauty queen wave thing, not sure how well that worked out. Got some giggles anyway. So the first part of the reception I had to be at the head table and thus my poor girlfriend was left to fend for herself with various cousins, with mixed results or so I'm told. She and my brother's girlfriend became buddy buddy though so that worked out well. Eventually came the various toasts which were quite funny, punctuated by my father forgetting a major portion of his and the DJ adlibbing the jeopardy music in the background to cut the tension. Eventually I was able to meander my way over to the gf's table and it was no longer necessary to speak in sign language from across the room. Unfortunately that's when we realized we had missed the sunset again, which would have been quiet beautiful from that locale, and really disappointed us both.

Then the music started, and we forgot all about that and began just having a blast. Now the really trippy thing here is after they did the bride and groom's first dance, and the bride and father of the bride and so forth, the first dance where everyone was invited onto the dance floor was of course when I took my girlfriends hand and we made our way out. Only then did I notice that the song that was playing was the same one she sang to me on the night we made things "official." We're talking major creepness here folks. The first dance we ever shared is also the first dance we shared at my sister's wedding, the first dance in public so to speak. The song was "At Last" and I'm sure you've all heard it at one time or another. So yeah, we shared a knowing look as we started to sway, and that was just kind of a cool moment.

Eventually all kinds of varieties of music were played, and we ended up dancing to most all of them, from a raucous conga line around the room to a song where I finally tracked down my mom to share a few twirls to what was the highlight of the evening for me, and I'm sure many of the spectators as well. Late in the evening once everyone is high on life on comes "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by the Charlie Daniels Band. Now on those long cross country trips as a kid we had certain tapes that would literally be on repeat for eight hours a day, and my dad's favorite had this as one of many songs recorded on it. Thus we all know the words by heart, and being the animated family that we are, can get quite into it when it's played. So randomly here we all are suddenly from various corners of the room in a circle on the dance floor, screaming lyrics at the top of our lungs and acting out the scenes as we go. There was a whole lot of air fiddlin goin on, and I'm pretty sure my girlfriend keeled over from laughing so hard. So yeah, a few minutes pass, the song ends, and we return from whence we came back in reality.

Did I mention how wonderful she looked? I did? Ok, but seriously, I mean seriously, wow.

We must have smiled for like 88 pictures while dancing, and were even caught on video several times unbeknownst to her, so I'm hoping to acquire as much film and footage of the event as possible, so I have lots and lots of evidence that I was in fact dancing with someone who looked that durned good at some point in my life.

K to avoid getting too gushy (TOO LATE) we'll move on to Sunday. The rest of Saturday consisted of cleaning up, trying to stay awake, carrying a bunch of stuff home to the parents house, and listening to the girlfriend speak gibberish in the car while sleeping and pretending to listen to what I was saying. Then we attempted to get up early and raid the parents house for conversation prior to the family brunch starting, but no luck. Something about not getting much sleep for days at a time really makes a person tired. And now Blogger won't let me widen my edit window so that it keeps scrolling back and forth to the sides. Very annoying. Anyway, yes the brunch. We arrived fashionably late and it was more of the same from the days prior, a lot of introductions to those I hadn't covered yet, and conversation with various relatives about the way things have been, the way things are, and the way things are going to be. As far as I can tell a good impression on all was made by the gf, and I was quite pleased with the results. Who knows when she'll see some of those people again, so it was sort of a one weekend shot kind of deal to please the family, and I think she did. Many more "hang on to this one Matthew"s and "treat her good becaus she's a keeper"s. After an hour or two though we took our leave, as we had other plans for the day, those being to head North to Six Flags Magic Mountain. If you know me, you know I love amusement parks. So spending time with someone awesome at one is really just a wonderful thing. The lines were pretty average I'd say for the most part for a decently busy day. We had to miss out on a few of the rides due to the length or them being down for "technical difficulties" but for the most part she got a solid taste of the park. Both Superman and Deja Vu were busted though, and those are two pretty incredible rides, so I guess at some point in the future we'll just have to go back. Highlights included us playing that hockey game that isn't air hockey but has an actual puck that shoots out of the center of the glass dome and you whack at it with little hockey guys and their sticks, kind of the hockey version of foozball. Hadn't played that since I was a kid, and after a lengthy session of both os us pretty much sucking ass, she eventually launched a perfect shot with authority... directly into her own net. So I won 1-0. Haha. I also reestablished my dominance at the whack-a-mole booth, beating down the opposition (probably some little kid but hey, I need my testosterone boost) and snagging a cute stuffed animal puppy that was appropriately named "Winner" on the spot. But alas that was not the end as we later passed by a booth that had Tweety as a prize (consider me impressed if you remember the last time Tweety was involved in my life at an amusement park) and the eager smile on her face meant I had to give the water gun game a shot. Well turns out it was the big prize and after losing the first time (the gun sight was bent I swear) I had it lined up for the next two in a row and Tweety was given a new home. How she managed to stuff both these animals into her suitcase I have no idea (Tweety's head was as big as mine, WHOA DANG THATS BIG), but she said no one had ever won her something at an amusement park, so I was happy to oblige.

At one point she was talking about something pointless that was irritating her, so I decided to invent something I hadn't tried before. "Couple Pauses" or "CPs" as we began calling them (stop reading now if your gag reflex is hard to control). Basically whenever one of us thinks the other is worrying too much or dwelling too much on something, or for whatever reason isn't being the nicest ever, the other can call for a CP at any time, after which there must be some sort of action signifying we're a couple, such as a hug or a kiss, to remind ourselves of what's imprtant. So we agreed no matter what the circumstances that we'd stop and realize our priority is each other and refocus. I'm sure there will be half-hearted hugs in times of anger along the way, but at least that will signify the other is still loved. It's a very good tactic for when someone is "sweating the small stuff" as they say.

So eventually comes the downer for the weekend. We get out to the convertible, and I vaguely remember her side door opening before I actually clicked the thing, which meant it had been left unlocked. It might have been I didn't click the lock button on the keychain as we left it in the morning, or it might have just been jimmied by some jackass. But anyway, even though it was buried under stuff in the back seat, her wallet and cell phone get stolen out of her purse. We actually didn't even realize this until we'd gotten all the way back to the hotel, after stopping by my parents house to chat some more and watch the video of my OTS graduation so she could laugh and negatively critique my Adjutant skills before my frowns suggested she do otherwise. Not that it would have helped if we realized it in the parking lot, whoever it was was probably long gone, and all over the parking stub it says they aren't responsible. I guess if you're going to break into a car, a converible is a nice choice. So we finally get back to the hotel and I'm dead tired, and try as I might I keep fading in and out of consciousness, while she spends hours on the phone with various credit card companies and banks trying to get everything cancelled and blocked. She'd actually just got the cell phone about six weeks prior, and had luckily just shown me all the pictures she'd taken with it. I felt really bad, and it really was kind of a downer way to end our time together. At one point during the night I pretty much broke down, quite pissed at myself that I couldn't seem to stay awake, even though it was obviously a time when she needed me to console her, and she'd flown like three times as far to get there as I had. Eventually everything got taken care of, and she'd luckily given me her military ID to carry into the park so she'd have some sort of identification on her, so not all was lost.

I think we eventually took a nap for like an hour or something, but then it was already time to leave for the airport, as she had a flight leaving just after 8am. Word to the wise, if you're flying on a Monday morning internationally, they're not kidding about two hours early. The check in line was so long that by the time we got to the front it was past the time when she could check her bags, so for about half the line she was pretty much in tears trying to figure out how she was going to get back in time to go to work. Again, pretty much a really bad scenario for how to end a weekend. By some miracle the guy behind the counter is able to put her on the very next flight leaving an hour later, which arrived in time for her connecting flight to Frankfurt in Dallas, which just ended up giving her a shorter layover. Then came the real sad part though, all of a sudden she was rushed to get on this flight, which meant getting through security, and that wasn't somewhere I could go. So we went from thinking she might be stuck and we'd have a few more hours to all of a sudden only having a few minutes. Nothing like dealing with all this crap while also trying to say goodbye to someone you love for what could potentially be a number of months.

Needless to say tears were shed, and eventually after a huge hug and about 88 waves goodbye from across the terminal, and after I left and came back for one more, I finally made my way back to the rental car. Worrying the same thing might happen to my 11am flight, I hoofed it back to return the car, and conveniently forgot to fill it with gas. So I go to get gas and while I'm at the pump some guy walks up to me and gives me this story about how his wife and child need an extra four bucks for gas to get home while indicating a car with a woman and child across the way, then mentioning the police were right across the street if I felt threatened, and he just needed a little help. Well feeling generous I give him a five, since I don't have four, and seeing that I have a few ones he then asks for just two more ones as well and that's all they need. So I give him that and he thanks me for helping a Vietnam vet or something and goes galloping across the gas station towards the car. You'd think I'd come out of this feeling at least ok, but then I see him give the exact same speech to the people in the car, while indicating another car somewhere else. They ignore him, and off he goes to somewhere else. It's a good strategy really. No one will have $4, so while they're reaching for the five or whatever you can see what they really do have and ask for more. Come up with some story to at least hold their attention, and you can probably make at least $20 an hour. So eventually I return with a car full of gas having been conned out of $7 by some guy who I saw at the next intersection riding across the pavement on a bike at full speed. I guess that's what I get for being nice sometimes.

Did I mention the end of the weekend kind of sucked? So then I end up like two hours early to my flight because self-service checkin (which you can't do on international flights) takes like five seconds so after doing nothing in the terminal for all that time I get to sit on a plane for hours trying to figure out when I'll see her again. She actually apparently got upgraded to Business on her flight because she was so sad and the flight attendant felt sorry for her, which was a very nice thing for them to do. It's tough, but no one said it was going to be easy.

I suppose I could mumble something about what's been going on for the past week or so, but it's almost 11:30pm, which means it's almost 6:30am there, and time to be her human alarm clock and tell her good morning. So yeah. We had a great time, but if only it were longer.