Do you have any pants?

This is just going to be a quick update, since it's been about a month since I last posted. While nothing is going on in my meaningless life I do have two things to report. First, I'm sexy. That's all you need to know...I'm sexy. If you're wondering where this is coming from just look at any picture you might have of me (if you don't have one just look at old posts I've made, there are some there) and you will see that I speak the truth. I'm sexy. I'm sure you're just jealous that you can't look as sexy as I do, but hey...not everyone can be blessed like I am. :D

Ok, now that the nonsense is out of the way I'll get right down to what the two things really are. First, I'm no longer going to be flying to the desert on my birthday. No, the Air Force decided that they don't love me enough to give me a birthday present like that. Instead, I'm leaving a few days earlier. So I'll actually be in the desert on my birthday rather than spending it in the air. Wasn't that nice of the Air Force? Instead of making me spend my "special day" in the air where I would actually end up losing most of the 24-hour period that is the 14th to flying over to SW Asia, I get to work a 12-hour shift in the world's litterbox. Oh, and I don't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but this deployment will be a 6 month deployment, compared to the 4 month one I did last year. Time just isn't going fast enough in my opinion. I'm so ready to get out of here and get away from my squadron. Oh well, next week will be a short week for me since I have a two day training I have to do for my deployment, then the following week is Christmas; and I can't wait to go to work that night. Then the following week I have off and I plan on going up to Washington DC and attend the temple, in addition to attend one of the singles wards up there (where I know there are good looking women.) But the temple actually leads me to the other point I wanted to make.

So this past week I finally got my temple recommend back. I haven't actually had a recommend since right after I got married, but haven't been worthy to attend the temple since I got married, to be completely honest. But I have done a lot of soul searching over the past few months and made some major changes in my life and I finally feel worthy to attend the temple. That having been said, I was planning on going up to Raleigh to the temple tomorrow evening before I had to be to work, but since the temple in Raleigh is one of the small temples you need your own clothes. Not a problem, I have my own. Well, before I went to work today I pulled them out to make sure I have everything, which I do. Only thing is, my pants still haven't been hemmed and I'm pretty sure they're too small, since the tag (which is still on them) says that they're a 34" waist. When I saw that I just had to laugh. It never fails, any time you want to do something that the Lord would want you to do Satan is there to make sure things aren't working out so you can do what you're supposed to do. I was sure I had everything I needed but upon further investigation I found that I'm not quite prepared. So now I need to find a new pair of pants and get them hemmed so I can attend the temple anytime I want. Since I don't have to be to work until 3:30 in the afternoon, and since the Raleigh temple is only about 1:20 away, tops, I will be able to go a lot, and I'm thinking that once a week will be good. But first, I need to thwart Satan's plan and get some pants.

Shoot someone in the FACE!

So this is going to be a really short post. I was talking with Scott the other day and he told me that I needed to put this in here so I'm doing so now. The other day (I think it was last Tuesday) I went to the sheriff's office and got my permit to purchase a handgun and joined the wonderful world of manhood and gun ownership. I'm not really sure why, but everywhere I went people were trying to sell me a .45 and I had to tell everyone that I only wanted a 9mm...ammo is so much cheaper; buy like $4 a box. Well, I looked around for the past month or more for what gun I want and discovered a few things: 1) I hate Glocks. They feel so cheap like they're going to just fall apart in your hand when you fire them. 2) Most makes aren't very "user friendly" when it comes to locking the slide to the rear and releasing it. Some of them the only way I could get the slide to go forward again was to pull it back with one hand and then release the lock with the other...too time consuming. 3) I wanted something simple, easy to use and yet safe...so I went with a Beretta 92SF. That's the civilian version of the Beretta M9 that the military uses (which is the one in the pictures. Those were taken over in Iraq last year.) Mine looks identical to the M9, it's just not all covered in white dust like the one in the picture. So yeah, I'm a thug now cause I have a 9mm. I tell people that the reason I was buying the gun is so I can shoot people in the face, especially people that I work with. Since I'm the supervisor of my shift I use that as a means of threatening people to do my bidding...hasn't worked yet. I guess I'm just not all that threatening...or thuggish. Oh well.

The greatest gift

So I was thinking the other day about gifts; and obviously birthday's come to mind when you think of receiving gifts. So I was thinking to myself, "Self, what do you think would be a great birthday present this year? I mean, there's nothing you need so what sounds good to fill a want?" Well, I'm happy to announce that I didn't have to actually answer that for me because the Air Force has seen fit to give me the greatest birthday present anyone could ever which for. I know, what employer ever gives its employees a gift they want, especially when your employer is the government, but the Air Force has done just that.

This past Friday I was given my gift in advance. After working all night and coming home to sleep I was awoken at about 0900 and told that the Air Force loves me so much they wanted a urine sample from me so they can have a little bit of me all the time. So I complied and filled the cup above the line (just so they have a bit extra so I can't be called greedy) after which I went over to my squadron building to give our deployment people the sizes of ABUs (Airman Battle Uniform) that I wear. *NOTE: That's not me in the picture. Anyway, to continue with the story of my birthday present; so I dropped off the sizes of the ABU that fit me the best (why they decided to completely change the sizes from what BDUs are is beyond me). Now, before I explain anymore let me first say that the reason I was taking my ABU sizes over to the UCC (the people that deal with deployments) is because I had received an email saying something along the lines of 'You've been nominated to deploy' like it's an award that I was trying to win. So I take my sizes to the UCC and ask them what the chances of me actually deploying would be and they said that as far as they're concerned I'm going. So I'm like "Oh goody...I get to go on a sandy vacation again." Well, before I left the UCC I looked at the board that shows all the different taskings for my squadron to find where and when I'm heading over to that wonderful place around the world...and that's where my birthday present actually given to me. I found out that on January 14th I will be flying away to the Middle-East. Happy birthday to me!

Honestly, this won't be too bad. I'm only going to Qatar, and while it's not the United States there aren't any rocket attacks like there was in Iraq. In fact, last time I was in Qatar (that was the base we stopped at both going to and coming from Iraq last year) I was told that the Church Service Group would take a trip for FHE out to the Persian Gulf. So it's not like I'm going to have to just sit on base and do nothing. I'll actually be allowed to take trips into Doha (the capital of Qatar) and I hear; I repeat and emphasize I hear they actually have camels...since Iraq doesn't. Another positive is that there's a pretty good group of Airmen from my squadron, to include my good buddy that I've worked with for the past two years. So I'm actually looking forward to going, if for no other reason than to get away from the people that run my squadron...they drive me insane.

I'm hoping also, that I'll have orders down to San Antonio, TX when I get back from Qatar (not sure when that will be, don't know if it's going to be 4 or 6 months.) I'm hoping to be selected to go to Lackland AFB, TX and teach at the Supply tech school. I will be able to submit my package in March, and you better bet that I will do just that. So I'm hoping that I'll find out, when I'm over sweating off the few extra pounds of jiggly stuff that have found a place of abode above my belt, that I will be going to Lackland. Now, how does this wish affect my desire to get into the PA program you might be wondering. Well, it's going to allow me to do as much school in the evenings as I can handle since teaching at Lackland is a 4 year tour where I won't be deployable. And if I can't finish those four classes I need in that 4 year period then I just don't think I ever will. So don't think that I've just given up on doing something with my life that actually matters...I'm just going about it in a bit of a different way so I can get away from Pope.

What's done is done

So yesterday I finally finished ALS, and boy am I happy. Things got a lot easier as they went along, not only because the different things that were overwhelming me at the beginning were slowly being completed, but because I began to learn just what I actually had to do to pass the tests and be ready for class. Once I figured this out I was golden. Not really sure what my GPA would be, since I'm not allowed to actually keep the tests or other graded projects, but it's probably somewhere in the mid to upper 80s, so I think I did rather well. Not that the actual GPA matters, since it's all pass/don't pass to be honest. The only thing my grades actually would have done for me is allowed me to win an award...which is really only for the praise of man, so who needs an award? And no, I'm not bitter that I didn't win one. I'm just happy that I'm done with the course. And now that I've officially graduated from ALS I can officially be an Air Force supervisor. That's right, I now am allowed to be given Airmen as subordinates and they're entire Air Force career, in a sense, will be in my hands.

I say that they're career, in a sense, is in my hands because even though ultimately everything any subordinate that I supervise is responsible for they're own career since they're the ones making the choice to follow the rules or be a DB (that would be a dirt bag), I'm the one that gets to rate they're performance. And how I rate a person will actually help determine if they will be allowed to remain in the Air Force or if they will have to get out at the end of they're enlistment...or sooner. That's a lot of power and responsibility that I have just acquired, and I'm really not sure if I am ready for it. Especially since the way pretty much everyone handles the EPR (Enlisted Performance Report - the thing used to rate someone's performance) is everyone is a 5 (the highest you can be, or "Truly among the best") even though it's impossible for everyone in the Air Force to be a 5. So the question I'm now faced with is do I just rate everyone as a 5 to make things easy on me and allow everyone the chance to stay in the Air Force, or do I rate people in an honest and fair way which would lead to disgruntled people and people being unable to reenlist? To be honest and fair means that I'm going to have to take a very proactive role in any subordinate's life rather than the "everyone's a 5" attitude which would allow me to not really care and just put a 5 on the paper. I know what kind of supervisor I want to be, but the real question is will I actually do it?

Well, I went over to work prior to my ALS graduation to sign my training records and while I was there waiting for my supervisor I was given a piece of paper, a CRO (Change of Reporting Official) that I needed to sign. This is the piece of paper that lets you know who your supervisor is, so before I signed it I looked and noticed that I was the supervisor and that I was signing to agree to supervise someone else. Holy crap! I hadn't even graduated from ALS and I already had been assigned to someone fresh out of tech school. So not only was I given the power to actually supervise yesterday, I was actually given someone to supervise...and I don't even know who this person is. Look at that, I'm already a DB supervisor...go me! What are these people thinking giving me a new Airman to supervise? I feel sorry for this new Airman...I mean, I'd hate to have me as a supervisor...I'm lazy! But in all honesty I am a little worried, not because I doubt my ability to lead, but because I have never had a good supervisor so I don't have anyone I can turn to when a problem arises. Well, here's to hoping I don't totally screw up this girl's life.