Weekends

When I was deployed, I couldn't even imagine what having a two-day weekend was like. What would I do with all that extra time? I had one weekend at home before I left the following weekend for NCO Academy at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.

After trying to get settled back into my kitchen my first weekend home I reported to work Jan. 3 to get the rest of my return-from-deployment checklist done. That's when I found out I'd be leaving for the Academy in six days. In that time we managed to fit in getting new brakes on the truck, two trips to military clothing sales, a trip to the tailor, two nights at an indoor water park with adjoining arcade, the best spaghetti sauce I ever made, a hearty chili made with roast, a board game night and a visit with my Aunt Daphne & family.

During that week I met three awesome NCOs. The newly-promoted staff sergeant in our finance office who helped me with my return travel voucher who knows everything there is to know about military travel, pay and benefits; the technical sergeant photographer who just returned from a one-year remote deployment to Afghanistan who you can tell cares about the job and the people he works with including me and I had only known the gentleman for five minutes; and the staff sergeant serving as the command chief's aide who made it possible for another chief on base to give us our NCO Academy pre-pep-talk Jan. 3 as to not interfere with our family's planned mini-vacation.

There are, I think, nine other NCOs from Fairchild AFB here in Colorado Springs. I've met more Fairchild members here and on my deployment combined versus actual people at Fairchild. Crazy, huh?

I'm still adjusting to the time change which is making afternoons difficult to stay awake so I usually drink coffee all day - but I'm dehydrated, I can tell. We're also at a high elevation here and the instructors have been warning us about how we'll feel it when we exercise this week at PT.

Attending the Academy right away is really the best thing for my family and my office. I couldn't imagine being settled and in the grove for two months then come here in March like I was originally scheduled - disrupting whatever routines and responsibilities I would have adjusted to and/or taken over.

The only real disappointment with timing was that the second-row concert tickets I bought JG for his birthday to see Sarah McLachlan the first week of February I'll miss and JG says he doesn't want to go without me. I'm trying to convince him otherwise - we'll see what happens.

JG is planning to fly down to my NCO Academy graduation. I can't wait to see him again. Although we've been spending a lot of quality time on skype this weekend, it's just not the same as actually being there.

As far as the Academy goes I figured I could just blend right in and be under the radar for the next six weeks as I readjusted to being back in the U.S. Well, first day of class they made me the "flight commander" of our 14-person flight based on my date of rank - Dec. 1, 2006. I was very surprised they didn't give the yellow rope to people with line numbers for higher rank of master sergeant.

This weekend was busy - mostly catching up on rest and fun. Friday night I went out with some flight members - Chipotle, Green Hornet and out for drinks; Saturday was the headache reminding me I had too much; Sunday was Panera, waxing, nails and a haircut to ensure my hair fits properly under my flight cap for Tuesday's inspection. And, today, I'm getting my uniform ready and completing two writing assignments.

I plan to take a week of leave when I get home to study for promotion and then again when JG's mom flies out the first week of April. JG and I will be able to do an overnight trip somewhere to celebrate our anniversary. I can't wait! That's probably the best thing about being at the Academy now is that we are assured spending that special day together.