Back to work!!

Back on night check. I secretly missed it a little bit, not the hours though lol- especially compared to C school!!! But i checked back in to my command, and my buddy up in admin told me that i am eligable for the next advancement (to E5) exam in march. thats like less than 2 months away!!! ahhh. Such good news but i got to start studying meow. So my outlook for the next couple weeks/ months is im def cutting back on making to trips to fresno to fly, which will be good for my finances, and i think i stopped at a pretty good spot to pick up once we come back from the boat. I'll just be studying really hard for this upcoming exam, cuz this is the big one, this has to do with my life, so i really wanna focus on this rather than other stuff, plus i dont have much time to do so. time to cram!! bout to go wash my jeep off, eat some chow, then get back to the books!

My own room!

Forget to tell you guys that when i returned from San Fran that weekend, i came back to my own room. That friday i found a paper on my door kicking my roommate out. Finally!! i was so happy and couldnt wait. so then later that week, i went to walmart bought an inch and a half temperpedic for a king size, and also sheets and comfortor as well as two pillows. it looks really nice, and my set up is wonderful. im so excited, and its super comfortable to lay in. got my tv set up, started watching the new girl. life is good!

Off roading

So a couple of buddies of mine invited me to go four wheeling with our jeeps on sunday. we had sunday night off for the holiday, so i gladly said yes. it was 2 hours away in hollister hills. we drove there, only 5 bucks to get in. lots and lots of trails. labeled like skiing trails- blue green and black diamond. we deflated our tires quite a bit to get some better traction. started off with some green trails that led us to a beautiful overlook, then went a little harder. eventually went down a black diamond which was very steep and bumpy- bottomed out a couple times, other than that it was exhilerating. Next up was a little play area for off roaders. aka a mud pit. this was a lot of fun. we just blasted right through the mud and it sprayed alls over the jeep, did that a couple times. my buddies jeep ended up stalling out after he went through, and it wouldnt turn over. but the battery was still working. my Father taught me how to pop the clutch when i was younger with my truck, so i thought we would do that- cuz he never did that before. they gave me a push, popped it, started right up, had to turn it a little, and lost it.then he wanted to try it, and went down a bigger hill, and ended up getting it to stay. So by this time, we were ready to head out. we came to a fork in the road and stopped to look at directions. just so happened that a grandfather and his son were blazing the trails with a pretty intense 4 wheeler. they needed help pushing it in their trailer cuz they broke something. so we helped them out- took a little bit, and they offered us a beer. a nice ice cold dos equis. that beer was soooo delicious, and we just talked about life. Turns out hes pretty high up for the company esurance. you could def tell. after we parted ways we took to the streets, filled up our tires and got something to eat. then headed on home. long exhausting day- but fun.

Flying Solo

So ive been trying to solo in an airplane for like a week straight meow, but the weather hasnt been up to par. meaning the visibility is not far enough for me to fly by myself. So we schedule my next solo for a little later in the day for the weather to clear up -10am. I get there, check the visibility, and everything is perfect. cept for the fact that i havent flown in like a week, and i was a lil nervous. Everyone was in a good mood though. SO we take off in the airplane. and head over to another airport, this is an airport that i have not yet been to yet, so it was different. we did everything the same, i didnt feel very confident at first, and i just felt like a blob sitting there, but eventually, by the 3rd landing with my instructor, he was ready to get out. which really got my adrenaline going. i dropped him off and taxiied back to the runway. full throttle and i was off. My smile was from ear to ear, and it was just so peaceful not having someone yelling in my ear. i was free and flying. i did everything correct, and landed beautifully 3 times. the last time i landed was soooo amazing, like landing on a cloud again. i was so proud of myself, i think my instructor was too, he just didnt want to say anything. By this time i was drenched in sweat and ready to head back. We went back, i got a picture, a certificate, and some little wings. boy it was fun.

San Fran Weekend

So the weekend came up, got ready saturday morning, headed out that afternoon to san fran. Drove andersons car up there, started getting a little cloudy and rainy. boy was it nice to see the rain. San fran is actually a sister city to boston i guess? so it was equally as challenging to drive in as well. Little rough, but we made it. Stretched our legs out in the main city area, grabbed a cup of coffee, then went to look for our hotel. ended up being right on the water front, just as i suspected. So beautiful, literally in the middle of everything. they let us check in early, and parking was only like 40 bucks extra, where it woulda been so much more expensive if we were out on the street. We put our things down, and explored the city. It was a beautiful afternoon, everything cleared up, and the sun was shining. we walked down the boardwalk looking at all the street performers, and expensive touristy stuff. then we went out on a pier to get a better view of the golden gate bridge. beautiful. The sun was setting, and it was time to get some dinner. We saw a pretty cool place on the way there, so we stopped by, got a nice cold beer, and some bread bowls. man they were soooo good. hit the spot perfectly. after that, we did some shopping, then went back to the hotel to go swimming before it got to late. the pool was like 80 degrees, so it was nice. got out, and went to bed. Sunday morning came a lot earlier than expected, and we got up and checked out of the hotel room, since we were gonna be gone for a while. We start our walk to the pier where our boat is located, took like 15 minutes, and got in line. Got on a nice little boat to head over to Alcatraz. We got off, and the place was pretty small, and very beat down. we walked around, up and down, and alls over. the coolest part was the actual jail cells. we got to see the holes the prisoners made in the walls to escape. they went through an awful lot to get out of there! i would go crazy, and probably try the same thing. but these guys were isolated from the main land, this was torture. but it did feel pretty cool to walk the halls of this once prison. after a couple hours on the island, we were a little wiped out, so we grabbed some pizza and headed back to lemoore. bout a 3 hour drive, got home and passed out. best sleep ever.

Upcoming Events Jan-Feb 14

So, some things to look forward to in the upcoming weeks that go by. C school ends January 17th. So my little vacation will end. Back to my squadron it is! and i will be on night check, with a lot of cool people, so im excited. should be a good time, plus ill be pretty high up. So until then i will probably be doing flying lessons up the wazoooo. oh yeah! I just booked a hotel for san fran this weekend the 11th saturday into the 12th.... cuz we are going on a tour of alcatraz!!! ahhh im so excited!! The hotel looks over the bay area, its got like a pool and everything. I think we were going to try and do a hike early on saturday too, then relax at the hotel that night, and we got an early bird special tour through alcatraz. very cool. Thats gonna be with Anderson, Arce, and maybe Stiers, but she doesnt know yet. It will be a good time though. After that, more flights, and learning and studying. Then January 31st- off to fallon (if im on the list of people going) which i hope i am, cuz i have never been there before, and i would like to go. This should be a fun little event until february 21st. then come back to lemoore for a month, then off to the boat for 3 weeks, then back here for a little, then to the boat again for a couple months to cruise around the pacific ocean, go to hawaii, then rumors are we are switching aircraft carriers in japan? i have no idea, but japan would be a great place to see as well. So a lot is going on. Still need to bug one of my higher ups for my own room, but i have a feeling it will come soon. Just like my private pilot license. that will come in due time. but a lot of adventures on the horizon, and i got alls the time in the world, so i guess ill see where the tide takes meh. But all good things to come.

Back to C school/ Stage Check 1.5

So monday marked the beginning of the end of C school. I have been going to the gym like everyday, then we had class for like 2 hours. it was rediculous. I texted Matt to see if we could schedule some flying times this week. He agreed for tuesday to fly with him, and then finish off my stage check for just the part i failed. Which i was still a little nervous and queezy about. So Tuesday comes, i wake up early, get to the airport, have some good conversation with everyone there. Felt like there was a good vibe in the air, and that everything was gonna go smoothly. Matt and i had a great flight. went over what we had to go over real quick, i had two landings, and it truly was like landing on a cloud. maybe cuz im always on a cloud, i should know how it feels. Anyways, next up was to do the same exact thing but with a different flight instructor. I was still nervous, feels like i forget everything when im with someone else. ughhh. so we get in to the plane, everything was going fine. i just hate everything up until take off, i dno what it is, but once i take off, i feel a lot better. Anyway, he said i was going a little fast on the ramp. i may have, whatever, no big deal. we took off and headed out to chandler, a different airport. It was super hazy and i thought i was going the right way, but i wasnt too sure. So he asked me where we were going, and why were we climbing above 2000 ft. our altitude restriction hadnt been cancelled yet, but i contacted tower and asked for some directions, they graciously helped. finally i could see the other airport, and checked the weather over it, then started communicating with everyone else in that area, telling them my intentions. got down to pattern altitude, did everything right, landed once again beautifully, took off again, then started spiralling upwards, cuz thats what i went over with matt, but he asked me what i was doing, in which i told him, he thought it was strange, but it was perfectly normal. I got the weather for fresno airport, then reported back in on their frequency. Made radio contact and entered the airspace. woopdidoo, thats alls i had to do to pass right there. so i did it. we flew back to fresno, entered everything perfectly. my landing was outstanding once again- its the most fun part by far. Taxi'd my plane back and couldnt wait to get out. Once i put the plane back, i went up and spoke with him, he told me some stuff that i could work on, and different perspectives on how to do things. but its human nature for different flight instructors to teach things differently. So i took his stuff into consideration, but matts way of doing things will probably be my go to since im with him the whole time. It felt good to pass. Meow it was on to phase II of my private pilots license. This is the solo/ cross country portion of my training. It also consists of short field landings and take offs, which i heard was pretty hard. im up for a challenge though. We scheduled my first solo for thursday at 9am. we are gonna go to another airport, land 3 times, then he is going to get out and let me land and take off 3 times. Scary, but i cant wait. its gonna be awesome. Also, theres like 10 ground lessons and 10 flights in this stage II, he wants to try and front load these lessons, so we can finish them by january 31, because that is when my squadron is going to Nevada for some training until Feb 21st. So im planning some stuff out, ill do my homework, and see where this takes us. But im excited to learn some more stuff and engrave everything else that i already have learned.

A little B&G

also known as Barracks and ground. I came back for that friday, which just so happened to be my duty weekend too. such a terrible weekend to come back to after such a wonderful leave. Needless to say we didnt do anything at work friday- we were on a palm period where people could take leave, so classes were suspended until the 6th of january. Thus they just give us busy work to do to pass the time. Im talking more of mopping mops and crap like that. Im so happy i only had to tolerate that for a day. Then duty weekend comes and i only have one watch, which just so happened to let me miss colors on sunday. No one likes raising that huge flag and taking it down. but i got the watch from 4am to 8am then we are secured till the 2100 muster. and going to colors require being in your peanut butters, which are by far the most uncomfortable uniform there is. i hate it. So anyway, i didnt have to do that. But yeah. got back from the airport just fine, unpacked all my stuff. Awaiting on my own room. should be happened soon. i just gotta keep buggin the people, and itll happen. Oh by the way, its pretty hott here compared to friggen nh. its actually really nice. finally shorts weather again :) but that weekend, i just mostly relaxed and got back in the swing of things i guess. Classes start back up on monday.

En route to New Hampshire

Unfortunatly, there was no first class oppertunities on the ride up to NH lol. We left at 7 am, made our usual stops at dunks, got on the highway. Said our goodbyes to the family. Always so nice to see bro and christie :) probably see them soon again anyway. So we started our trip. Paps drove, then Mom, then me. It kinda went like that for 17 hours straight. we didnt get back until 129 am. but i mean it was nice to be home in cloud. mmmm cloud. it was great to be back home and sleep in my own bed. Slept in a little bit that friday. Went to the mallski with durso and marcus. Picked up a skibag for my skis so they could go on the plane. Marcus and Durso did some shopping! as well. a few returns, exchanges here and there. Typical after christmas shopping lol. We went back home, got some proscuittos with marc, met andy there, and saw the whole mcnamera family there! so nice to see friendly faces all around town again. Got a buff chix calzone. mmmm so good. After that we split ways, and i ended up packing up some stuff and heading up to portsmouth. There, i went to dinner with caleb. got a delish cheesburger, and we started drinking. Eventually Jared showed up out of the blue. Very excited to see him. his drink of choice was wine lol.So we drank the night away and went out to a couple bars, i had a lot of fun. Next day i stayed up there and just hung out watching hungover movies all day, which was perfect. Sad to see jared go, but colorado was calling his name :/ So a lazy saturday passed and it was time to start drinking again! By the way i ended up seeing all my friends from college out in portsmouth which was awesome, we had a great time. Saturday night we went out again drank some beer, probably some shots LOL! and just enjoyed each others company. wow. Sunday morning i woke up and drove home to meet my cousins for dinner at our place. Had some delish meatloaf. oh my it was really good. bacon, applesauce, ketchup. everything you ever wanted. my mouth is watering meow actually. So we hung out with family for a while, shared some laughs and giggles, and caught up. That night was just a relaxing night. Thomas just got in from cali, so i think i went to say hello to him and his family for like an hour. i was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. Went back home and passed out. Next morning i inquired about a military discount at the local workout club. Just so happens that the guy who picked up was prior navy, and said he would take care of me, which was very nice of him. So i got like 2 free days at the gym. Worked my butt off, maybe i was secretly starting a new years resolution. After that i probs went home and nap, i feel like. I made some delish eggs, i do know that. But tom and i wanted to see anchorman 2, so we went to a matinee. lame i know, but it was cheap!!It was an alright movie, i feel like i was forcing laughter most of the time, cuz it was very hyped up to begin with. but who knows, nothings ever as good as the first. Then we split ways, and ended up playing risk over at toms with jazz, dan em, pat, and tom. I ended taking them out one by one. it was like boston rob in survivor. the luck of the die was with me. i enjoyed the game, but felt bad killing off so many people, not really though. Then i went home and slept in my own bed once again. mmm Up next was new years. A masquerade party up at portsmouth. One heck of a time. All the music i loved and enjoyed on a regular day to day basis. I wasnt too too drunk, but i was feeling pretty good, and danced my butt off. i was sweating so much, and i was such a good dancer. i just wanna thank bowen for my skills to this day. thank you. I had a realy good time though. Made it till midnight!! so did marc!!! So we all had a lot of fun, and break was already coming to an end. New years day was a day of rest period before my flight the next morning. I did what any normal person would of done- got jay house. Chinese food. mmmm. I had a very relazing day, and packed up all my stuff. grabbed a suitcase from my parents so i could pack a lot of stuff, and slowely move my belongings out here. wahhhh. decided to go against the uniform on the way back. I didnt want attention lol and i wanted to be comfortable, gosh. Both of my flights got delayed like 40 minutes due to the cold, ended up making it our before the storm hit.

En route to South Carolina

So its the night before im suppose to go to the airport. i had everything planned out- i was gonna drive clay and i to the airport, and park my car there, and i was gonna wear some comfortable clothes too. Well late that night clay tells me that we are getting a ride from his 2 new friends that just checked in, and he was wearing his peanut butters on the plane. I was like hmmm interesting. Maybe i wanted to look good for my Mother, when i got off the plane. So i said why not. That morning, i woke up, packed light, and threw on my dress blues. Man i looked good, and i had the crow already sewn on there, so it looked even better. Get dropped off at the airport, security was a breeze. Got starbucks, and just waited around for a couple hours. First to board, which was always nice. Had a window seat that i was happy with. Then i lady asked me if she wanted to switch for extra leg room since she couldnt fit in those seats since the arm rest couldnt move. I gladly switched with her. i popped in my ear buds and prepared myself to knock out in my now extra leg room seat. As i was resting my head on the side of the plane, we were all aboard, and ready to taxi on to the runway. A flight attendant comes over and tells me im being upgraded to first class. Best feeling in the world, i just got a lot happier. I made my way up to first class, got some claps and "yeah petty officer"s. Its what you get when you wear your uniform i guess. I end up passing out in first class, very comfortable. i wake up after about an hour, still got like 2 hours to go. Guy across the aisle starts talking to me. Telling me how he was happy they moved me, and then told me they had free drinks. I immediatly ordered a mimosa, and that ended up turing into five real quick, then he told me to put a shot of smirnoff in it. Im not gonna not do that. Wasnt that bad, but i just needed to live up my reputation of being a drunken sailor. I would say i was succeeding. On my last drink i asked for the flight attendant asked me if i would be alright to get to my connecting flight. Pshhhh of course i will be. Got off the plane, a little stumbly bumbly, but i was doing just fine. Had like an hour and a half till my next flight. Amazingly, Dallas has a USO. Woah wait- the only way i found the USO was cuz i asked if the airport had a dunkin donuts lol. it was on the way to the dunks. and all military can check in there- movies, food, sleeping positions, storage, anything you ever wanted. movie theatre. amazing. so i dropped my bags off and grabbed some dunks. mmmm mocha ice coffee. after that i went back to the USO got a chicken sangwich, chips, a mountain dew, plotted myself down, reclined and watched monsters inc for a hot minute. mmmm great movie. Headed on to my next flight, first on the plane again which was nice, there was no first class here though, a very small plane, so once again i just slept the ride away which was nice. Landed at about 5pm EST, and got picked up by Mother and Father. so happy to see them!!! hugged them, and we got back in the car and drove off to bro's house. bout a half hour drive. lasagna was being cooked for dinner. first home cooked meal in a while!! i was super excited. ANd Christies family was there too, Christie had to work that night unfortunatly. Christmas Eve night by the way. So we had some dinner, some beers, and played some dominos. Always a great time with that family i tell yah. Specially when the drinks are being kicked back, we had a lot of fun. Then drifted to sleep on the airmattress. The next morning we went to church all together, finally got to see Christie. and of course the dogs woke us up, they were always happy to see company. We went to church, then stopped at starbucks on the way home. Once there we started cooking dinner, and we opened some christmas presents!!! yayy!! That was fun, and dinner was delicious, some form of steak, i forget what it was, but it was superrrr delish. Then i ended up taking a nap lol. rough day right?? that night we did a little yankee swap, drank a little bit and played some apples to apples. which was a lot of fun. i was so close to winning too. Had to get some rest though- cuz 7am the next day we were driving back to nh! ahhhh

Squadron Christmas Party!!

So while my c school is going on, and im doing all this flying and such, my squadron was having a christmas party on the 11th of december. I got my ticket, and there was gonna be like raffles, and promotions, and free food, etc. It was bound to be a good time. I told my C school about it, and they let me leave class early to go to it, which was very nice. I got back to my room and put on my sunday best, as did everyone else. The of agers pregamed a little bit, and we were all just excited to go out and have a good time. We walk over together being fashionably late, which i guess was not the norm. Everyone was sitting down eating at that point, whoops. But we all walked in and gave hugs all around. It was amazing seeing everyone i worked with out of uniform. I was so excited to see these people too because i didnt recognize them at first, and i may have been a little drunk. oh well. Then our chief called for a game of musical chairs, so of course a bunch of us run up there to play. I thought my strategy was a pretty good one of walking slow rather than right behind the person in front of you, but it didnt end up working. someone pulled a chair right out from underneath me. meeep. oh well. i was out of that game and just hung out on the side for a bit. After that, they raffled off some prizes. I didnt win squat, but 3 people did get promoted which was nice to see, because those were the people that deserved to get promoted. good for them. I had a beer with lander after that, and then left to go home and go to sleep. i had a fun night, but it was an early night cuz i was tired. Christmas time has finally come!!

Landing an airplane/ Stage check

So i looked back on my calendar that i have, and after my frocking, which was right after thanksgiving, im pretty sure i had a long hiatus of not flying for a week or two, and my next lessons were on landing an airplane. Doesnt seem that bad right? Not really. The first lesson back i was very mellow and felt way out of my comfort zone. I felt like i was starting over every time i didnt fly for a while, and i couldnt remember anything. I was really getting down on myself. That lesson was terrible. I did another lesson the next day and felt a little more comfortable going through the motions up to the landing, but my flight instructor wasnt really letting me land just yet. Everything had to be perfect. There is so much going on when youre about to land, and you need to be constantly checking all your instruments and adjusting. It is a huge cluster of emotion at the beginning, but i meow understand what he meant when he said that if you do everything right at all the check points it should just come together like a beautiful chocolate chip cookie mmm. Just a sneak preview- my landings are like landing on a cloud meow. but thats to come. But since i was on nights at C school, i had all day to just hang out and do nothing- what better way to spend my time then crushing out these lessons- especially since this was the hardest part of the flying. So doing this all in a row, i remembered a lot more, fixed my mistakes, and crafted a beautiful landing. I was even hopeful to get my solo in before christmas break, but that didnt end up happening. But still, i was flying like every other day, just kept practicing my landings, and eventually emergency procedures, etc. Everything was going great, and once i was in the air again, my love for flight immediatly comes back, its so nice. I wont lie, i get nervous on the 45 minutes drive in to fresno, but once i take off, my mind kicks in, or something happens, and im just so extremely smooth at the controls, and make precise movements, and i finally feel like i have control of the aircraft and can make it do exactly what i want. such a great feeling. At least when i was with MY flight instructor lol. The Saturday before Christmas break, i had a stage check scheduled with another flight instructor which is very nerve racking to say the least. its a test 2000 feet above the ground. We went over everything- stalls, slow flight, emergency procedures, landings, takeoffs, radio communications, and coming back to our airport. I nailed everything, except the one part i missed was not asking for a clearance in time to get back in to the airspace which consisted of our airport. So i failed my stage check. I was a little upset, but happy at the same time, because i didnt feel fully comfortable in what and when i should be doing stuff, so it kind of brought out my weakness for me to work on. So i had a little bit of studying to do over christmas leave. But boy did i know how to land that aircraft.

Back track real quick/ Frocking

Little bit over month getting back on this thing, and i really needed to update it. so i'll try to remember everything after i left off. I might remember stuff mid post, so bear with me lol. Its January 7th of the new year! HAPPY NEW YEAR! yayy. So anyway, a lot has happened good, bad - not really bad persay, and a lot of learning experiences. I'll continue where i left off. Indoc came and went, got to miss class for that, which was really nice. Then when was it, thursday? or wednesday. oh! wednesday, my command was holding the frocking for all the new people getting promotions. I headed over to my command around 2pm struttin my stuff in my Peanut butters, and peacoat looking fineee. Thats what you had to wear to get promoted, cuz its just a pin that they put on. We went in to the hangar bay to get in alphabetical order and stand in ranks. We had to pick someone of higher rank to pin us with the crows, so i picked Lander. He has been my mentor through everything, and taught me a lot of things along the way, and is just has a really good head on his shoulders when it comes to his job and life. He's always grabbing me to come help out and teach me new things along the way, and i couldnt have thought of a better person to do it than him. emotional, i know. So anyway. Once the CO stepped out, everyone came and put our pins on, and the CO came around shaking our hands and giving us our certificates. Mine was the only different one though since i was a push button, and i didnt have to pass a test like everyone else. So we were all finally frocked. felt great. clay and i were on cloud 9 by that point and just so extremely happy. it was a great day. Its so nice to finally have some crows on my uniform. gives me a little edge over other people, which is really nice, and even a little more respect, its amazing. In the mean time, i have been paying my friend from the shop Pierce to sew on some of the crows on my uniforms. He did a pretty dang good job, ill tell you that. very pleased with my decision. So the promotion was nice, and im not 100 percent on this, but i believe i am eligible to take the next advancement exam for E5, which would be amazing. Im a pretty good test taker, and wouldnt mind studying my butt off for that to try and score high. I think i showed up to C school a little late, but everyone was happy for me, and i was happy as well.

C school!!!!!

So i started C school today. Woke up at the normal time, and headed to school. I filled out some paper work, and was getting worried about Petty officer indoc since my other command was doing mon, tues, wed, i wanted to make sure i didnt miss out. So i kept asking about the people who passed the exam, and what they would do with them. I finaly got an answer saying that tuesday the would have a 4 hour indoc for all the new petty officers. Pretty excited about it, and then i would be getting frocked on wednesday with my command. even better. Anyway. People really want night check at c school. its a lot more laid back, and you dont have to stand watch during the week, only the weekends. hours of class are like 3-9 with a 2 hour chow break in the middle, its a walk in the park, like a vacation. I was nervous i might not get nigth check but i kept my hopes up. So right when i got there, i immedaitly sat next to this kid, we started talking, mostly just nonsense stuff, we hoped we both got on night check. seemed pretty cool, and we kept in touch throughout the day. So after we got a couple speeches and lectures, our supervisors told us to drink up for a urinalsys later that day. Low and behold i drank way too much way too quickly and ended up holding it for a whole hour. it was a tough hour, but i ended up being the first to pee in a cup, and then off to our 2 hour lunch break it was!! When i drove back, i ended up stopping at the store and bought some 3rd class petty officer supplies to put on my uniforms, since it was coming up so fast, i thought id be prepared. I get back from lunch, and still got a solid hour before i have to go back to class, so i take a nice 20 minute nap. End up getting to class a little early, so i go see my check in guy, and he ends up telling me im on night check for c school. Everything was working out so well, it was unbelievable. We seperated into our classes, and that same kid i was talking to earlier ended up being in my class as well. Turned out pretty well. We were told (since we were night check) to be back by 315 to start class. So we all met back up, talked for an hour, and then were told to go home. It was awesome. Got a feeling its going to be a wonderful 37 days. I also found out on the day before thanksgiving that our command will be going to key west in february. 85% of the command will be going, so i can only hope ill be on that list. We were orignally going in january, but it got changed into my favor for some reason. i was so happy to hear that!! Anyway, im extremly tired, and i have indoc tomorrow, so ill try to do another blog tomorrow explaining my upcoming promotion, and activities, and christmas, and alls that good stuff.