July 4th

It's been a while, for sure.  Today is July 4th, and I am here at home around 9pm.  Why am I not out watching fireworks, you ask?  Because I have to be up at 5am to go to work tomorrow. :)  However, there are firecrackers that neighbors and the like are setting off.  They, in turn, are setting off my dog. 

Yes, I adopted a doggy.  Her name is Macy (as in Nordstrom's).  That's her and I in the picture.  She is a wonderful dog.  Her story is a sad one.  Someone found her and her 6 puppies abandoned on the side of the road.  The people who found her took her to an animal rescue and, as the norm would have it, people came to the rescue and adopted the puppies, but no one wanted the mommy.  So I adopted the mommy.  She is amazing.  She was fully trained already.  Sits, stays, rolls over, fetches, HOUSEBROKEN!  That anyone would have simply abandoned her breaks my heart.  She looks like a rottwiller but she is actually half rottweiller and half sheepdog according to my vet. She is my running partner and she can keep up for the entire 2 miles now.  She keeps me safe!

I started my masters program at LA Tech (go bulldogs or something like that).  That has been keeping me very busy along with work.  Of course, work would keep me plenty busy without school, but what can I say, I am a glutton for punishment.  If I play my cards right, I can actually finish this degree in 2 years.  So I will be done before my next assignment.  Whoo hoo!

It is my intention to update more often!  Happy 4th everyone!

my old friend...

Before leaving for the Air Force I had a friend.  Lisa Palazzo.  Or maybe now, since she got married a year ago last month, it's Lisa Jones.  I am really hoping that maybe she will be ego-surfing or something someday and she will type her name into Google or another search engine, see my journal entry, and know that I am thinking of her, and that I miss her.  We had a very close friendship for close to three years, and then she married and moved to North Carolina.  She gave me her phone number there, which I tried to call recently and the number had been disconnected.  I tried to email her, to both email addresses that I had, and the email addresses are no longer good either.  If you're out there, Lisa, all my info is still the same. Cell phone, email, and my name.   I would love to hear from you and hear how everything is going in your life.  I miss my sushi dining partner!

Today, in Bossier City, LA things finally started shaping up.  It was 80 degrees and the sun actually came out around noon time.  I really needed that.  Till now it's been either cold and sunny or cold-lukewarm and raining.  Very depressing.  I was starting to think I would never see the sun again.  I hope it stays this way for awhile. 

Back to normal...sort of

When I started this journal, I was at the begining of a tremendous life change.  I was changing careers, cities, and my life as I had come to know and enjoy it.  I had worked very hard to create the life I lived back in South Florida, and I was content with it.  (Obviously not TOO content or I wouldn't have searched out new and exciting things, right?)

So I have been here in Bossier City, LA for just about 2 months now.  If you put together the total time it has been since I left Florida for the Air Force, it has been closer to 5 and a half months.  In that time, I have had some tremendous experiences and met some extrordinary people.  But now, I find that I am reaching for some sense of routine.  Not that I am necessiarly looking for the life I left behind, because the life I have now is just fine, thank you very much, but I am looking for that sense of familiarity and I find it seems to be more difficult to locate than I had expeceted. 

I suppose the reason why it feels that way only now, and not over the entire 5 months, is because I was prepared for several months of change and movement.  Now, I am here and settled, at least for the next 3 years or so, and to be honest, I think I am experiencing a bit of culture shock.  Bossier City is a far cry from South Florida.  That there are no Bloomingdales or Nordstroms here for me to shop in is one thing.  I can always drive the 3 hours to Dallas to find some decent stores/shopping.  But that aside, the entire culture here is different.  The people move slower, and are more easy going.  There is nothing wrong with that.  As a matter of fact, I find it to be a nice change of pace.  On the other hand, I went to a local Albertson's this evening for some Starbucks hot cocoa (yes, there IS a Starbucks) and when I got in my car to leave, I noticed not one, not two, but three different sets of people getting out of three sets of cars and every one of them spit upon exiting their vehicles. Females included.  I was mortified.  I felt like I was watching a Jeff Foxworthy skit come to life.  Once I got over myself, I actually had to laugh.   I found myself being very thankful that this is only a temporary stop in my life!  

On the other hand, as I suppose with the bad, thereis always some good,  I listen to the radio in the morning on the way into work, and the traffic report always says something pretty close to the following:   "Good morning, Shreveport/Bossier! There are no accidents to report and the roads are all clear, but if ya'll see something, go on and give us a call!"  I gotta tell you, I LOVE THAT!  My commute in south Florida was nothing but an hour and 15 minutes of accidents, bumper to bumper traffic and road rage.  This is a welcome change from that. 

I am sure that as time goes on, I will find I am able to work around those things that I am not used to.   I may even learn how to live like some of the locals do.  Adopt some of the local customs for myself.   But I don't expect I will start sptting when I get out of my car any time soon. 

getting settled in

I have been here in Bossier City, Louisiana for almost a month now.  I miss my classmates and the new friends I met while at COT and HSA, but I am begining to feel settled here in Louisiana. 

I am in my new house, and I really do like it.  It's big, and bright, and I just had tile put in, so now it is just about perfect.  I have a garage which is a nice treat.  Especially since it seems to rain here an awful lot, and I don't like to get wet getting out of my car.  The weather here is, at the very least, wierd.   Get this...two days before Christmas it snowed and got down to 17 degrees for like a week, and this whole week it has been in the 70's.  But on Thursday it's supposed to get back down into the 40's again.  But, on a bright note...I have a FIREPLACE!  Gotta love that.

Work is going well, I am not finished inprocessing yet, but that is mostly because we had the last two weeks of the year filled with holidays and folks out of the office.  So I ended up being scheduled for inprocessing items this week instead of last year.   I am working in Facilities/Logistics at the moment, but as I have learned, that could change in the near future.  I am unsure what the plan is, but I am sure they will let me know, and I suppose, although I am happy where I am right now, that I will have to go to the section they tell me to.

My father and his girfriend are driving out here this coming Friday from Floirda and will be staying with me in my new house for a week.  I am very excited about them coming.  We will go exploring around together and find some new restruants to try, I am sure. 

Anyhoo, I am going to go for a run now.  It's beautiful for going for a run in this area.

Busted flat in Baton Rouge...

Ok, so maybe I am not in Baton Rouge exactly, but there aren't any songs that I am familiar with that have the name Bossier City in it.  So I put a little bit of Janice Joplin in there.  I left Sheppard yesterday morning.  We had our dining out (picture above)and graduation on Thursday night.  To be totally honest, I went into it thinking my Thursday evening could be spent much more productivly either packing, or getting ready to leave Sheppard, but going to the dining out, meeting my new commander, and seeing all of my HSA classmates looking and feeling happy as they were was surprisingly fulfilling.  When Maj. Cullison, our course director, called each of us up for the graduation 'ceremony', I found myself feeling very good about the whole thing.

My flight, Alpha flight (yes, i was in alpha flight this time too just like I was in COT), won the overall athletic award.  SWEET!  The next morning, Friday morning, we all met up at the schoolhouse again for some final briefings and farewells.  I was a little taken aback by my reaction.  I actually got teary.  I was surprised at how much I realized I was going to miss some of the people that I was leaving.  Some of these people I had gone through COT with as well, which pretty much meant that we were stuck together for the past 4 months in anything but a 'normal' environment, and we became close.  One person in particular I became very good friends with.  He restored my faith in people really.  He is someone who doesn't drink, enjoys discussing books we've both read, loves tea, is intellegent enough to discuss philosophy and social issues, and likes watching documentarys on the Discovery channel, just like me.  It was really nice to be able to share some down time with someone I had so much in common with, and wasn't interested in how much drinking we could get in and still do PT the next morning.  He cooked too.  Have mercy, that boy could cook a meal.  I will miss him especially. 

So now, I will start my life here in Louisiana.  I am in a hotel right now, which is not the nicest place on the planet but it's warm and clean, and a home of my own will soon follow!  Woo hoo!

The begining of the end

It's Sunday, and tomorrow begins my last week here at Sheppard.  I went out early this morning to Target for my last purchase of water for my room, some warmer waterproof gloves for an upcoming exercise and my Starbucks hot chocolate.  YUMMY!

Then I needed to go to Lowes an buy a water hose for my washing machine which broke before I left Florida.  Actually, the hard water in Florida simply made it impossible to unhook it from the wall so I just left it there and bought a new one.  So it will stay in my car until I get to my new home!  On my way to Lowes, I passed one of the restaurants that some of us in HSA frequented, The Texas Roadhouse.  I had never heard of it until I got here, but turns out it is a chain.  Very good food.  I found myself a little sad when I passed it.  I am going to miss going there with the gang. We had a lot of laughs there.  Good memories.

Louisiana is giong to be great.  I am going to be working in Logisitcs.  It was a one in 6 shot where I would be put to work, and logistics will probably be a challenge.  Not the most feminine of duties, but one that I would have had to learn eventually so it will be fine to get it out of the way in this first assignment.  I will be heading up a Mil Con project (military construction).  Hee hee.  It oughta be interesting.  I wonder if they make steel toe combat boots in a size 3 XW. 

Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving weekend.  It's been a long while since my last entry back in September.  HSA school is almost over, and even though graduation is only about a week away, I decided to fly home to Florida for Thanksgiving.  I paid way too much for a plane ticket, but I would have paid more to see my family as I got to do yesterday and today.   There are some things just more important than money. 

I have enjoyed HSA for the time that I have been here, and for sure it doesn't feel like it's been almost 3 months that I have been in Texas.  This is a good thing.   It sure helps to be having a good time where you are.  One of the best parts about HSA has been the PT in the morning (if you can believe that!).  But we did our normal running, pushups, and situps 3 mornings per week, but then we played volleyball in teams right afterwards.  I had such a blast playing volleyball.  I pretty much sucked at it, but it was an awful lot of fun.  Spurred some great, healthy competition between the flights.  We had our final PFT (Physical Fitness Test) on Wednesday (right before turkey day), and I did well.  At least as well, if not better than I had done in COT. 

Academically, HSA was not as intimidating as I had anticipated it to be, and I was quite pleasantly surprised to find such a large group of bright young (and some older) people all in one place.  Sure there are one or two that you find yourself wondering how they ever even made it past the 0-6 interview, but you get that in every group I suppose.  Then there are one or two that I have come to know, respect, and care an awful lot for as well in the time I have been here.  The past 4 months between COT and HSA have been anything but normal, and you just tend to get close to those who have shared similar experiences.  Generally speaking, the folks I have been here with are well above average.  Instructors too, which surprised me.  Very sharp individuals.  Some can be a bit hard-nosed, but nothing you don't get over a few minutes after your nerves have been tested.  Of course, as I have gotten older, I have chosen my battles more wisely.   

For now, I am going to get to bed.  I have the most pathetic flight schedule tomorrow for the trip back to Texas.  I will be in 5 different airports by the time I get home.  But the good news is that parking at the Airport in Wichita Falls is only $2.00.  How un-real is that???