Biloxi!

These are the pictures I have of my new surroundings. Thus far, I LOVE it! I can walk to the beach, I can walk to work, I'm surrounded by good food- what's not to love?! I found a place to rent that is literally right outside the base gate so as soon as I move in feel free to come visit. The train goes by every now and then but I think I'll get used to it pretty quick.

This is where I'm staying until I move into my own place. The room I'm in is just like a regular hotel room but with a little fridge/freezer, toaster, coffee maker, and microwave. It's a pretty good setup actually.

This is a water tower on base. I just liked it.

This is my view as I'm driving off base.

This is the view at the first stop light outside of base. See how close I am to the beach?

This is the house I'm hoping to rent. I'll post more pictures if it ends up working out. It's roughly a three minute walk to the beach and a ten minute walk to work. (It's only a 30 second walk to base but the hospital is all the way at the back).

In summary, my life here is pretty hard so far.

I'll post more pictures as I get them! I should be able to move into my own place in two or three weeks, I think. Then my dogs can move down too hopefully!

Pictures and pictures. Oh did I mention pictures?

Prepare for image overload!
I have about 500 more but this sums it up nicely.

I was freezing cold during a field day so I was laying on this warm platform to warm up. The instructor told me there was no sunbathing allowed at COT- he called it my iguana rock and let it slide though.

About to do the ropes course.

The entire flight posed at the beginning with a thumb's up. I was supposed to squat for it but the platform was too small for maneuvering. The pose is probably only funny if you've been down the BOT hallway at Maxwell.

The first stretch of the ropes course. I'm about ten or twelve feet off the ground I think. Each segment got higher and higher and had different ways to cross, they weren't all like this one.

Case in point. This is coming up to the final stretch of the course. I'm on the far left waiting to cross the bridge. You had to jump from plank to plank and they didn't want you to hold on!

Climbing ropes is hard work.

Napping in the shade after a hard day of rope climbing. Technically we were only supposed to eat lunch and then head back out to the field...

Posing under the sun shade.

This was funny at the time...

Briefing my flight on an obviously engaging topic. Had I not chugged a cup of coffee immediately before this things may have gone more smoothly. I turned tomato-red towards the end of it and felt like my face was on fire. Note to self: chugging coffee and then putting on an overcoat and giving a presentation is not a great idea.

Very flattering shot of the sit-up competition. We didn't win...the winner did 107 in two minutes. I won't mention what I did but it was nowhere near 107. Therefore, I don't feel bad for talking through the first fifteen or so. Even with full concentration, breaking 100 was not an option!

Eating dinner off base for the first time.

My new personal make-up artist.

Playing a little afternoon frisbee.

Hangin' at the O-Club.

Kilo's love to dance!

This was the postal officer for the flight and when he saw how many cards I was getting he asked to be adopted into the family. So this is my adopted cousin.

Lining up for the debrief after a field exercise.

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!

CANKLES?!

So I'm working out last night and doing the leg press machine (or whatever the technical name may be) and I look down at my ankle and think- "Hm...I never had a fat roll overflowing out of my shoe before...that's new." Being the ever vigilent nurse that I am, I press my thumb into this fat roll and what do you know? My thumb leaves an indentation! Holy hell, I've got pitting edema! I'm hoping it's simply from sitting in class all day and/or putting way more stress than I'm use to on my ankles with all the working out and marching and what not, but ew- cankles. I'll be spending my night with my legs elevated against a wall, in case you were wondering.

Also, today we did an evalutated obstacle course type thing. Each member of the flight had to be the 'leader' and get the team to complete a certain mission. For example, crossing a 'river' (square vat of water) using only a toothbrush, cement block, and pool que (these were not actual items we were given, FYI)- without touching certain 'mined' areas (parts painted red). Generally this means cross the water without falling in and don't touch anything. It's pretty hard actually because none of us are capable of flying. My turn to be a leader ended with a mission complete! (I got all my people across the course) And when I went to get evaluated by the flight commander she said I was her only mission complete all day. Go me!

On a similar note- when another person was leader I was a participant (one of the people that had to get across) which meant I needed to shimy across a rope which had just been tied into place (sounds safe, I know). I got halfway across when the horn blew (time's up). So I'm just-a-danglin there, which was really funny after a minute because I lifted weights the previous night so my arms were already squishy. Add to that the wall climbing, knot tying, team member-lifting I had just done to get to the point I was at, and you end up with me being dangerously close to falling in the water. Luckily I pulled it together and my team member pulled me over the wall by my belt. Close call.

AAANNNNNDDDD today was my day to be flight leader- so all day wherever we went I was the one calling marching orders. Forward march! Column right march! And so on and so forth. I did pretty well too for my first time- I think the guidon bearer only marched into a tree once or twice, so that's good.

I think that just about covers my week thus far. We have another day of obstacles tomorrow so that everyone gets a chance to lead so we'll see what happens.

I had a piece of pie at dinner- my first one since I've been here- and it was delicious.

Kilo Kings

I have a few spare minutes today so I'll try to add some details to what I've done so far.

[Just to clarify- my flight, which is Kilo flight, is the group of 14 people I spend almost all my time with. We all stay on the same hall in the dorms and eat, sleep, study, and work out together. And I really lucked out because rumor has it, a lot of the other flights don't get along so well. Other people are asking what our secret is. Unfortunately, you can't learn awesome, you just have to have it.]

A few things I've learned about myself- 1)Four hours of sleep is plenty to get through a 16 hour day. 2)Running three miles before six a.m. isn't always a bad thing. Unless it's day three of said running in which case leg muscles no longer respond to command. 3)Salad at every meal sounds like a good idea but is really only a good thing for about a week. 4)I am capable of so much more than I ever would have imagined!

With the help of my flight mates I made it through the obstacle course, sprinted, ran, and push-uped my way through PT, and am making some really great friends along the way. This has been the most fun I've ever had despite the exhaustion and stress. I did, however, finally get singled out the other day for being out of regulation for my hair and it was the final straw on this camel's back. Yes, ladies and gentlemen after three weeks I finally cried. I recovered, however, in just a few minutes and have been happy as a clam ever since.

Allow me to paint you a picture:
I'm on my way to class and a few of us decide to go through the BOT section- basic officer trainees. They're the ones actually get yelled at all the time and having to do pushups for blinking. Their training is far more like actual boot-camp than mine. Needless to say, their instructors are infintely more angry than the ones I deal with.
So I'm cruising through the BOT hall on the way to class and I hear "Lieutenant...LIEUTENANT." And I think to myself "we're all lieutenants... so..." But then out of the corner of my eye I see an evil little woman looking at me and she says "lieutenant are you familiar with the Air Force policy on hair regulations?" and I say "yes ma'am." so she asks what they are and I rattle them off and she says "and..." well, i've already listed them off so I look a little left trying to think about it and that of course is not allowed at the position of attention so she barks at me about that. Finally, she tells me that my ponytail is not allowed to be hanging free because it counts as loose ends and according to AFI-36-2903 no loose ends are allowed. [Which by the way, is COMPLETELY wrong according to footnote number 8 in said AFI manual.] However, I didn't know the page number at the time so I said "yes ma'am" and turned to go to class. Which of course was improper because I should have said "will that be all ma'am" waited for her to say yes and then ended with "good morning ma'am" so I got barked at for that as well. Awesome.
So I finally head off to class. CRAZY ANGRY because I got called out for something that I wasn't in the wrong for and I'm standing by my seat waiting for class to start, gritting my teeth and trying not to cry (keep in mind I've been running on about 5 hours of sleep per night for 3 weeks and have academics and general stress tiring me out) and my flight-mate sticks his arm out and pats me on the back and says "it'll be ok." at this point my composure is still somewhat maintained. But then this other guy turns around and says "don't worry about it. we're outta here in two weeks." At which point I crack. Long story short, I hurry off to the bathroom, gather myself together, and continue on with my day...
Wow, that was long! But all details were necessary. Other than that, I personally have not been yelled at for anything. And just as a general comment of the team work and awesomeness of everyone here- a couple days later a guy in my class, but not my flight, sees me in the chow hall and comes up to me and asks if I'm ok. He says he wanted to check on me because he saw that I was upset the other day and wanted to know if I needed help with anything. Personally, I thought it was really nice of him.

*I apologize in advance for all grammatical errors as I was trying to get this done in time for lunch.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for...PICTURES! These are just some that I have on my camera. One of my flight mates made a slide show with a bunch of really good ones but he has them on his computer/camera so that will come at a later date.


This is at the air show Saturday. The weather turned out perfectly!


Air Show- these are some of my flight mates. They didn't all come out at once.


I got my first military discount this day too. One of the planes that you could go in asked for a $1 donation and when I went to pay the guy said "you don't have to pay- you're active duty. Thank you for your service." I was so excited!


The girl on the far right is my roommate. The one in the middle is in the room across the hall from me. And on the left is me of course.


This is at the pizza social we had. Just hangin' in the kitchen. We had to wear those white plastic name tags until everyone got nametapes sewn on...which was until this week.


This is my whole flight posing with the chalice we won for being honor flight of the week.


This is the flight room where we have a lot of our classes. We're either here or in one of two auditoriums most of the time. Can you see how thrilled I am?


And definitely not at all tired. The guy in the back is building a tower out of our flashlights. We like to be as productive as possible with our free time.


View of the campus from my dorm window. Thank goodness I'm on the bottom floor. We have to use the stairs so the third floor would have been awful.


My dorm room. My bed/desk/whole set up is the one closest to the window.










Studying the constitution. It's how I spend my free time of course. This picture definitely was not posed and it didn't take ten tries to get it right...


The campus again, just a different angle.



More to come later!!

I'm ALIVE!

So it turns out I don't have an email address I can use for personal business so this post is long past due! We just got privileges this week to connect to the network with our personal computers and of course mine didn't work. Awesome. So my flight-mate fixed it- yay! Until one minute later when the screen went dark for no reason- still could see the desktop but too dark to do any work. Awesome. So this is coming from another friend's computer which means I can't put pictures up, but I promise they're coming soon- and they're pretty good, so get excited.

The past three weeks have flown by and have been waaaay more fun than I ever expected. The yelling is tolerable and tapered off for the most part after the first week. I conquered the obstacle course, I got an 87.9 on my first physical fitness test, and my flight is made up of 14 really awesome people! To sum it up, I'm taking the Air Force by storm!

Marching is the new walking so I'm getting pretty good at staying in step. We have a guy in our flight that's really good at coming up with chants so we march everywhere entertaining people with our awesome-ness. Besides getting almost no sleep and getting sick of cafeteria food I'm having a really great time. We have privileges to go anywhere on base this weekend and there is an air show so my flight and I are hoping to eat somewhere on base besides the chow hall and maybe even go bowling. Other than that it's studying and the air show!

We just took our second physical fitness test this morning which is the official one that will follow me to my first base. Round two: I added 5 push-ups, 7 sit-ups, and took a minute off my mile and a half run. If I had ran six seconds faster my score would have gotten into the excellent range! My final score was 89.75! A 90 is excellent- I was robbed!

Starting last week awards have been handed out at the end of the week for the best flight academic-wise, athletic-wise, and overall. Last week and this week my flight took all three awards!! The other flights are pretty angry about it because I'm in the flight that gets in the most trouble for goofing off- apparently we're still pulling our act together though! After flight awards they hand out squadron awards for the same things which just means it's up against more people (this is getting confusing!) At the squadron level my flight got academic flight! Next week is the last week for awards and we have a test Monday, and a 5K Friday so we're hoping to take all three on both levels (so six awards total if we 'bring home the gold'!) Another advantage my flight has is that we all get along really well. From what we hear from other flights people are not meshing as well as we are. I really lucked out!

With any luck I'll get my computer back up and running or in some other way get pictures posted. So keep checking because my updates are likely to be sporadic!

The Final Countdown...

I've starched and ironed my uniforms, trimmed off all loose strings, buttoned all buttons, set up moving my household goods, and cashed in my free blizzard card at Dairy Queen- as far as I can tell all loose ends are tied and I'm ready to go!

I'm getting excited but also anxious and nervous that I'm forgetting to do something. I can't believe it's almost time for me to leave! I'll be driving to Montgomery this Monday afternoon, but the excitement doesn't start until Tuesday.

From what I've gathered I'll have limited access to the internet and can only send or receive email from the account they give me- and who knows when I get that. So I'll let everyone know how I'm doing when I can...I just don't know when I can.

*Please have a moment of silence for me this Tuesday around 2 or 2:30 in the afternoon, as that will be when I officially check in and, from what I hear, when the yelling will begin.

I'll update as soon as I can and hopefully get pictures at some point of what I'm up to. With any luck that will be before my graduation from training on April 9th. (Should anyone be interested in coming to said graduation please contact my mother. She is definitely attending and will therefore be getting the bulk of information regarding the festivities.)

Until then, farewell and wish me luck!