Got a flight scheduled to Bagram for later this morning. Happy to be getting to my base so I can settle in and start flying. Planning on keeping myself busy with work and exercising, then MBA classes in August.  And hopefully SOS in correspondence when the captain's board results come out. I am going to try to keep a blog or email chain updated while I am gone. However, I have not had much success with blogging regularly, or keeping in touch via email, so we'll see how it goes. These  first couple blogs will be posted after I am settled in Bagram, because of internet short comings here in Manas.

Deployment journey has begun

Starting my first deployment. Just getting in country is a huge ordeal. Started traveling tuesday. It is saturday, and I am still waiting for my last flight to get me in country.

Well, MC-12 tour take two has begun. More time away from home, more living in California. California is a sort of scary place. I feel like things are more intense here, maybe there are just more people in a smaller place than I am used to...also things are a lot more pricey. I am nervous again about starting the program. Nervous that I will stink at flying, nervous that I will be in the wrong place on day one, nervous that I don't actually exist in the system (my name isn't on the roster yet), nervous that I will be late, just nervous in general I suppose.

Date Night

Josh and I finally had a special date night this weekend. It has been a while since it has been a real date. Though we do tend to meet for lunch and spend us time together frequently, this was more. We went to a fancy pantsy restaurant on the river called Brave New Restaurant. The place had delectable food, a romantic atmosphere, and higher than average prices. Perfect for a dress-up date night. The place proved to be an interesting location, tucked indiscriminately on the second floor of a business complex away from downtown, but close enough to provide a gorgeous view of the skyline over the river. If a person was not looking for it, they wouldn't find it. And even if they were looking, it might be difficult. Thankfully, I had perused online reviews and learned of this oddity beforehand. After dinner, we saw a movie, The Hunger Games. We have both been reading the books and thought we would see what we thought of the movie. Not sure what the director was thinking, perhaps he was intoxicated for the movie's making, but that camera work felt as if an iphone camera was doing the shooting - constantly out of focus, jumpy, and not actually clued in on what the audience wanted to see. I was just thankful that it was right-side-up. Who knows with the artsy nonsense, the director could have gone even more ridiculous with the iphone camera phone filming and spliced it together sideways and upside down. The actual plot and characters did a very good job of portraying the book, and I hope the second and third films are not as plagued with overzealous camera work.

I had the privilege of having both of my brothers visit me at the same time. It was great to be together again. It felt a lot like hanging out when we were all at home. Of course there were vast differences. For instance, it was my home, my one brother was on his way to being stationed on a Pacific Island, and the other is working and going to school full time to be a computer scientist/programmer. Life sure is different than I pictured it when I was 16.

California again. This time there are no forest fires to mar the horizons. And I am finding it has a strange beauty. The hills roll on forever and are back-dropped by far off mountains. Dry light brown grass covers the hills and little forests pop up randomly and litter the sides of the taller hills and smaller mountains. And the trees! There are so many different kinds of them. A few evergreens, some ones with all their leaves gone that look like gnarly African savanna trees, and other regular oaks and such that I don't really know their precise names but notice them from other parts of the US. I have been running close to sunset each day and boy those sunsets sure are gorgeous.
Oh ya, I suppose I am here for training - deployment training at that. So, not tons of fun. But it'll be a good thing, supporting people that need it and good for the career, all in all a good thing. The training is supposedly 6 days a week, which pretty much blows, but it better than 7 days a week... And they are nice enough to give us a 4 day break for Thanksgiving and even a 3 day weekend for Veteran's Day. Huh, this will be the last Veteran's Day that I am not myself a war veteran. Dun dun dunnn. Finally getting to do the J-O-B.

Today marks the two weeks of marathon training. It's going pretty well, and it feels really nice to have accomplished a goal again. Recently, with moving and training, I haven't kept up with much of what I set out to do. So, two weeks of sticking to a running schedule feels really good. Rest day tomorrow! And last day of MC-12 IQT, which hopefully means heading back home Tuesday morning - as long as the money people back home get themselves straightened out. We'll see. Monday morning means bugging them until they break and do their jobs!