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Hello all. It’s Sunday night before work, so I thought I should take a little bit of down time here to record the events of the last two weeks.

So, yes, I was awarded Senior Airman Below The Zone. I specifically use the passive tense there because I feel like even though I deserve it, there is more than one person to thank when someone gets this award. To the supervisors and senior people in my unit go a good deal of thanks, because they’ve been the guiding light, constantly pointing me towards higher levels of military professionalism. I may never become the perfect Airman, but I think I’ve made great strides since the day I hauled my starch-drenched luggage off the bus at BMT, in no small part thanks to those who’ve given me guidance.

Well, after I was given the awards and various pats on the back, I did my PT test and scored… 89. Just one point shy of being excellent. Oh well… I just have to work that much harder to get excellent next year.

Then I went on leave, for 2 weeks, back to sunny LA. It was GREAT. I got to hang out with almost all of my friends (Sorry I didn’t get to meet with you, Alex. Thanks for the CDs!), I got to watch alot of the summer movies (Nacho Libre, Cars, Pirates 2, A Scanner Darkly, Superman Returns), meet some new folks (mostly from Alvin’s church group), and basically just relax the fuck out. I never checked my work email, never called in, never got called… it was great. I didn’t even play WOW all that much… I just didn’t want to do *anything* constructive. And I succeeded. So much for not being able to sit 2 minutes without feeling compelled to build something… I spent 2 weeks doing jack shit and it felt great.

I ate out alot. I spent most of my lunches at Farmers’ Market, and boy let me tell you… there’s this BBQ place that makes a great chopped steak sandwich. It’s near the parking lot, closer to the grove, rather than further from it. I also had my fill of In ‘N Out, got food from Jack in the Box one or two times, had some Weinerschnitzel, and also some Tito’s Tacos. DAMN I wish I could bring those restaurants out here. They’d be fuckin rich. No joke.

Well, I came back last Friday, and since I’ve been back I think I can safely say I’ve been out of my dorm room more time than I’ve been in. *Somehow*, and I have to thank God for this, the people I’ve gotten to know through APAH are finally connecting with me. Perhaps it’s my lowered level of stress, or maybe I regained some of my swagger and self-assuredness because I didn’t have to kiss butt for 2 weeks to EVERY PERSON I CAME ACROSS, but I spent pretty much all day Saturday hanging out with… someone… and other friends. That was cool, to say the least, and for now I’ll keep the rest to myself. But at the very least I can say that I finally enjoyed a day where I was 85% spending it with friends, and not by myself. I like having shit to do.

Then today, I stepped out of my dorm room to get lunch, and 8 hours later I finally return from a trip to Denver. As it happens, I was walking out to my car, and I heard my name as I walked out to the parking lot. That turned into “what are you guys up to”, which turned into an invitation, which turned into somewhat of a road trip in a decked out car. We watched a good part of Dodgeball going up, and a good part of Crash coming back down.

And now… I need to go to bed so I can get up and kick some ass at work tomorrow. There’s alot of shit I need to catch up with, so I’ll be busy for a good long while catching up/excelling my career.

It’s time for me to hit the bed, so tomorrow I can hit the ground running. Good night, America.

-TJ