The Roller Coaster Ride Continues

Well, how quickly the pendulum can swing. I was thinking I was on the home stretch and man was I wrong. I started out the week with failing a flight due to my landing. I performed well for 99% of the flight, but the 1% took me down. It was a formation landing and I couldn't land and had to go around and try it again. Then the next day, we got to the range and right in the middle had to come home for severe weather...so it was incomplete. I had academics Wednesday and then there was Thursday. I failed my flight in the first 15 minutes of the brief...yes, I didn't even make it to the jet. I didn't know a few answers to a couple of questions and next thing I know, I was getting the speech "that you might not be cut out for this line of work" and that I needed to take extra time to study. Apparently, 24/7 isn't enough. I was about as low as I have been on Thursday and I felt like I had the towel in my hand and my arm was going forward to let it fly. Then came Friday. I had a very good brief, flight was very good, and the same instructor that failed me on Thursday, recommended I fly my next flight solo because of how well I did. Talk about my emotional meter pinging off both pegs in a 24 hour period...I am getting too old for that.

However, due to some paperwork and some other things in the course syllabus, I will be "simulated solo" on Monday. That means there will be an instructor in the back seat, but he will have his mic off and just be observing. I guess this is like when they told you that you could have a driver's license, but then said your parents had to be in the car with you and you couldn't drive at night or on the highway. Anyway, the week ended on a good note, but it was a week to forget. I have six flights, two sims, and two classes left. They still think they can get everything done this week, but it will have to work out perfectly with no hiccups. I really hope I get done so I can go to the BSU game in VA, but I didn't do myself any favors with my poor performance this past week. We will just have to see how it works out.

In other news, we had a very exciting weekend! I don't know how many of you follow my Twitter/Facebook posts, but we spent Saturday registering for baby stuff. I never knew that you could have that much fun scanning rubber nipples and bibs. I didn't know that decisions on what bottle inserts to buy would rival decisions made on a presidential level about the direction of our country...these are potentially life altering decisions. The thread count of a three square foot piece of cloth that has only one purpose to obsorb urine before it reaches the plastic crib pad is not something you can decide on in a mere 10 minutes...rather, the decision must be made reading every word on each of the four seperate packages that look alike, BUT ARE CLEARLY NOT ALIKE, and then pondering the outcome of your proposed choice for twenty minutes in the store...all the while, the New York Yankees are playing on national television and going unwatched by a guy from Idaho that is cussing the Air Force for taking him away from an area where there are other able and willing family and friends that could take his position during this crucial decision! I doubt that the world's longest run on sentence can describe the awesome experience I had at Babies R (Costing) Us, but I tried.

To make up for it, Candi went to a Texas high school football game with me on Saturday night. You always here about it, so we got to experience it. It was a good game and we got to see the number seven and the number fourteen ranked high school players in the nation. It was very similar to going to BSU games when I was in high school and even into the first part of college...seriously. The one exception was that they had a lot more school shirts, hats, pom-poms, etc. than BSU had back during that time. BSU has obviously changed in the last six to nine years, but back in the day it was very similar. There were about 11,000 fans and it was nationally televised.

Just to put into perspective, there were more band members than there were students in my graduating class. No joke, here is proof. Each school had a 250 piece band, not to include the dancers, cheerleaders, flag wavers, etc. It was a cool experience (at least for me), until it came time to exit the parking lot with 11,000 teenagers. That experience was back up there with the registering for baby stuff.

Anyway, we are hoping for a flight fail free and productive week. I really want to go with Candi to the BSU game and be complete with this program by the end of the week. Your thoughts and prayers will be appreciated. Other than that, Candi and the baby are doing well. Candi continues to work and is excited to go to DC for Labor Day and watch the Broncos, even without me. I don't know how anyone could be excited to be possibly without me, but that is a whole other story. She spends a lot of time planning for and researching all things to do with the baby, for which I am very grateful. I fully expect her to have all the parenting answers and information, to which she will be able to pass me the Cliff's Notes, when I get done with this course.