Saying Goodbye

Well folks, I made it through training and I lived to tell about it. I have roughly 1 million pictures to post so as soon as I figure out how to do it I will. (My computer died while at training so I stepped into the modern age and bought an apple.)

(That's my half-face you can see towards the back of the picture.)

During one of our final days we went out to the ropes course, which was amazing! Part of this consisted of walking out on the 'toothpick' which is a forty foot high telephone pole that is parallel to the ground and sticks off the side of a tower. You climb up a bunch of stairs, get strapped to the safety wire, and off you go. The best part was the 40 mile an hour winds so you could feel the pole wobbling under your feet. You walk out to the end, do a u-turn and walk back. Pre u-turn was the only time during all of my training where my knees were wobbling because I was so scared. But let me tell you, when I got back on solid ground I was ecstatic! When you get back to the tower you repel off the side of the building to get down, which was also amazing and only slightly terrifying! My camera was dead by this point so I only have pictures of the ropes course, but just trust me when I tell you it was really high and really scary but also really fun.

I'm in Biloxi now and looking for a place to live. The area isn't the best I've ever seen but hopefully I can find a decent place. The base is RIGHT on the beach and I can see waves hitting the shore when I drive on and off base, it's pretty awesome. I start work tomorrow so I'm a little nervous but after the first couple weeks I should be good to go. The homesickness comes in waves, but I'm not too far away so I can visit pretty often. Mostly I just want to see me dogs!

Thanks mom, Alison, and Carrie for coming to my graduation- it really meant a lot to me to see you guys there! I had a ton of fun at COT but it was also the hardest thing I've ever done in my life so having loved ones there to see me march was really special. Mom recorded it and should be posting the video soon, so if you want to watch it you can.

And I know you've all been very concerned, so this is the update on my cankles- they are almost back to normal! Apparently the MREs we were eating are made mostly of sodium so I was retaining water like there's no tomorrow. Hopefully by next week I'll be completely ok. I'm also waiting to re-weigh myself. I can't remember if I mentioned it previously but according to the scale in the gym I gained about 8 pounds while in training. Meanwhile everyone else in my flight lost about 10, but whatever. I know for a fact that some of it is muscle because I can see the difference in my arms and legs. As well as the fact that my shorts and jeans no longer fit- thanks to the extra junk in my trunk. I'm practically pure muscle now, I'm just sayin'. HA!