Decisions

As if to help break up the mundane around here, there's a couple items that have come up recently requiring me to make a decision and both of which have resulted in a stalemate for awhile now. First off, I cannot for the life of me decide what class I want to take this upcoming semester. There's two that have really captivated my interest and, if I was admitted to the program and not deployed (or at least on the schedule that we're on right now), would consider taking both. The one class is Project Management and the other is Integration Manufacturing Control Systems. Now to be honest, although I am interested in both, the Project Management class is actually more intriguing to me. However, I think it might also be offered during the summer and the other one is not, so it might be more to my advantage to take the Integration class. Then again, they may not offer PM during the summer. Either way, I have to decide soon because classes start in a month from today and I still need to sign up and get books ordered. 

The second item that is causing consternation right now is what marathon I should run upon return. Again, this is all going to be dependent on when exactly our return date is. Again, it's down to two: the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa and the White Rock down in Dallas. Now this might as well be a very easy decision if we are not back before Thanksgiving as that will rule out Tulsa, but I (and Katie as well) have this inkling that we'll be back before Thanksgiving. Tulsa was such a fun race; maybe because it was my first marathon, but the atmosphere was really festive and the race was well organized that it was really enjoyable (well, not including how I felt physically after mile 20). On the other hand, I have already run it and it might be nice to try a different race, such as White Rock. The other advantage to White Rock is it will give me an extra two weeks to train. What I'm leaning towards right now is just plan for Tulsa and if I feel like I need more training, just add the two weeks and run down in Dallas. 

Otherwise, it's just more of the usual right now. We did go off base a few days ago for some driver training. Its refreshing and frustrating all at the same time. Refreshing because I can feel like a normal person and forget I'm deployed for a little bit. But, then I look around and see so many Westerners running around that I get frustrated at how they get all this freedom to experience the culture and city and I'm lucky to get off base twice a month. Honestly, as long as Katie could be with me, I wouldn't mind if we had to live here for a year or two. We'd probably get really tired of the heat and brown/tan surroundings all the time, but that's not really too different from Oklahoma right now anyway. Maybe the Air Force could send us somewhere that involved color and a nice beach.....that's not really too much to ask for, right?

The bad thing about goals....

Is they are so incredibly hard to keep and maintain. Just like my goal of consistently updating my blog......that one hardly lasted two weeks. As Katie pointed out to me, it has been almost 1 month exactly since I last blogged. One nice thing about goals is they are always there and no matter how many times you don't follow through on them, they never really go away; unless, of course, you replace it with another goal. Since Katie is gone camping over the next couple of days, maybe now is a great chance to get back on track.

Anyway, it is has gotten much hotter since mid-June. I don't think the low has gotten below 90 at night, maybe upper 80s at the lowest. Thankfully the humidity has died down some, but it's not exactly fun no matter what time of day you're outside. Plus, there's a camel farm or something hideous nearby that decides to stink only at night making the slight relief from the heat almost pointless because of the odor to puts off.

Flying has been alright, long just like last year. We did have a few days where we had to sit on the jet for 5-6 hours because of various issues; temperatures over 100 plus the inside of an aircraft without a cooling cart isn't very fun. We came back pretty drenched on those days. We're just coming off the end of our duty cycle, so we'll be back to flying here shortly. Duty hasn't been bad at all, just manning a desk for a few hours, pushing a few papers, typing up some flag certificates and catching up on corresponding with people back home.

From the non-work related standpoint, I have finished the book on George Washington and started the Southwest Airlines book which is almost complete as well. At the rate I'm going, I'll probably have all my books finished by the end of August which won't be a bad thing considering class will start in August anyway. I'm still very undecided on what to take, not for lack of interest, but because I can't seem to pick between 2-3 classes. I might consider taking a couple, but I have to be careful with how many I take because I'm not yet admitted into the Industrial Engineering program. Hmmmm, choices.....

Well, I don't want to bore everyone and it's getting late. Plus, I still have yet to email Katie. Due to the lack of electrical power and outlets typically associated with the great outdoors, our talk time is somewhat limited over the next several days. I usually don't realize how much I miss her until we have our talking time cut....and right now I'm missing her alot. But, it's only temporary and I'm glad she's getting to spend some time with her family.....even if she is visiting Maine and eating fresh seafood every day (so jealous). Oh well, tis life I suppose and I still love her all the same.