Kristen came to visit!

Another beautiful day at Bonita Lakes here in Meridian, MS

 I flew the MC-12 three times this week! It was awesome.

My first ride was on Monday and we flew to Downtown Mobile Airport and did touch and go's.  That was pretty cool because we have some pretty neat stuff on our plane.  It looks just like a civilian plane except we have a cool paint job and a bunch of weird stuff sticking out of it.  It felt like everyone around the airport was looking at us like "what/who is that"? Haha.  It was pretty cool.

So my first flight went well and my IP was really cool too.  It was weird while in the plane because even though I was flying with an instructor, since I have my wings now I feel like I am more friends with the instuctor rather than being evaluated.  Which could be bad I guess, but it really let me relax and fly a good jet.

On Monday night I found out that I wan not on the schedule for Tuesday.  And it just so happened that Mardi Gras was the next day in close by hometown New Orleans!!!  Hummmm.... So what was I to do........ I went of course! 

Nice beads

Mardi Gras was nice to go to.  I missed it last year while in pilot training (That was a funny story all in itself when I showed up on Fat Tuesday in my flight room all depressed last year thinking.....this just isn't right).  But not this year!  Kristen and I met up with our good friends Tori and Mike (who just got done with Meridian) in Metairie, LA (just outside of New Orleans) for a "quiter" Mardi Gras.  It was probably good that we did because the weather was bad.  It rained on us a few times.  But I saw a few old friends and had a good time so that was nice.

Each stack has 10 letters in it!!!!!!!!!!!

I picked up mail that was sent to my house when I went home.  One of my packages was a bunch of letters.  150 letters to be exact.  My uncle asked if his son, my cousin's class could write me while I was deployed.  I said yes of course because I thought that would be cool.  But I got A LOT of letters.  Not only from my cousins class (7th grade), but 6th, 5th, 4th and 3rd!  Wow!  It was a little more than I was expecting.  There is no way that I can write all 150 students back individually so I am writing one letter back to the teacher, and she can read it to them all.  I hope that's OK...?

I had my second flight on Thursday where we just did stalls and stuff like that.  I HATE almost stalling an aircraft that has no ejection seat..., it just dosen't seem right.  But I think that might be my last time doing it for real because I'm sure in the C-5 we just do it in the simulator.  Wheeeeeew.  There was a funny moment in the flight though..., the other student had to pee and the toilet wasn't working in the plane (standard).  He asked if we could land, taxi back and he could run in.  Our instructor wasn't to pumped up about it and suddenly I remembered....I have a piddle pack!  Haha.  I have never used a piddle pack before, nor have I ever even seen one until I got here.  And for those who don't know what a piddle pack is it's a small thick plastic bag with some type of crystals in it.  You are supposed to pee in it and the the crystals turn into a gel substance.  It's freekin' sweet!  Haha.  Well, I remembered I had one and offered it up. The other student used it.  Maybe this is a gross story..., I thought it was cool.

Kristen got here on Saturday!  Yaaay!  I didn't fly.  Which was OK because we got to spend some QT together (That's a military acronym for Quality Time) at B-Dub's (That's a civilian acronym for Buffalo Wild Wing's).  Haha.

I flew today again, Sunday.  It was my first semi-real-simulated mission. We got to take the plane up and not worry about doing stalls and falls or a million touch and go's.  We started to learn how to fly it like we'll be flying it in the sand box.  We got paired up with one of the back seaters who I'll be doing the rest of my training with.  He seems cool.  Which is good because we'll be paired up for the next three weeks or so.

After bragging last week about how my mom always calls me on Sunday and keeps my weekly clock updated she she called me this week to tell me that she loved reading that.  One problem..........., she called me on Saturday.  It was so funny.

Tonight Kristen and I went and bought sheets and towels for my deployment (sigh).  It's getting close.  My good friend Mike is leaving tomorrow for the sand box.  He's going to a different location than I am so I won't see him till we both are mission qualified on our own planes living in Dover.  That seems like a lifetime away but in a year from now I'll be back from the sand box, mission qualified in another airplane (C-5 Galaxy) and living in Dover, DE!  Awesome!

Mustache march is in full effect right now.  For those that don't know it's a tradition in the Air Force flying community to grow a mustache for the month of March.  At the end of the month you see how crazy, long, ugly, funny but mostly creepy it looks.  It's really funny to see people walking around here with mustaches on their face.  I'll save a picture of my face for next blog.  I have to shave mine off this coming Saturday for a wedding on Saturday night.  But I'll take a picture to show how awesome it looks.

By the way, my small pox shot is looking a lot better.  No picture of it either this week.  I'll have one next week for yall (Last week I got a few messages from people that the photos were gross anyway).