Weekend update

I am REALLY over these fires. The smoke is creating havoc with my allergies and the whole breathing thing - you know, sort of important - is honestly quite painful right now. My nose is stopped up, so I have to breathe through my mouth, but I've been coughing so much that my throat hurts and so air down my throat isn't fun either. I would kill for a full night of easy-breathing sleep right now! Halls cough drops are a livesaver right now, but unfortunately, not smart to sleep with.

I finished most of the presentations I was working on last week. I don't know if they're any good or not - the only other person who has seen them that I know of is the recruiter, although I've asked a few others who know about the project to look them over if they get the time. I'm pretty pleased with two of them, on the fence about a third, and not really sure what else I can do with the fourth. I also got stuck doing a fifth one now, which the recruiter had told me not to worry about because he thinks it would be too difficult for me, but a couple other people have asked me to start and given me some ideas. It's not that it's difficult, it's just another of those "I'm not really sure what information they're looking for" situations, so I'm just going through all of the questions I had on that topic and trying to answer them. We'll see, I guess. It's not like they can kick me out for bad work - they technically aren't even my unit!

On that note, I'm also getting a LOT of "face time" with the unit command. Granted, it's a relatively small group, and with so few full-timers, it's hard to not see them, but it seems like any time the recruiter has any reason to talk to anyone, he drags me along. The DO (director of operations, the major who would be considered second in command, I guess. He's the one who actually took my Oath of Enlistment, so I knew he knew me by face but didn't realize he actually remembered my name) asked why I wasn't working up at the 148th yet. I explained what was going on with the temp job and training, and he wanted to know if I wanted to stay with the 216th after the temp job was over. I said I'd love to, but knew that the 216th doesn't take non-prior service 1C6s, so it sounded like I was stuck with the 148th for the time being. I did mention that I'd applied for the officer slot, even though I felt I was only barely qualified, but he said that working with the unit for a couple months would help that out a lot. (I'm idly wondering if that's also one of the reasons that I'm getting stuck doing all these briefings - the 216th IS a ultimately a training unit, after all) Now he's been telling people that "she's with the 148th, but we're going to steal her."

I'm REALLY trying not to get my hopes up for the commission - I KNOW the odds of getting it are not good, since they would really like to get someone they don't have to train so much - but it would be awfully nice. They're also still working on trying to get the ANG Space 100 class going for November, and it sounds like it might actually be a real possibility, which would send me to Basic really soon and therefore pretty much cut the odds of getting the commission for at least a year or two. Either way, it will be nice to get at least SOME training in so people would quit asking me why I'm not in uniform =P

On the other hand, for a "it'll just be answering phones and filing some papers" job, it's been kind of a steep learning curve. Nothing major, and it's not like I've been super busy or stressed, but it IS a little frustrating because the recruiter is gone a LOT and I don't really feel like I know enough to be able to really deal with things when he isn't there yet. Mostly, it's the fact that I don't know where to find a lot of the information that people are calling and asking for yet, or who to direct them to, so I take a lot of messages and cross my fingers that he'll be in soon enough not to frustrate them. I'm afraid to go too far because I'm NOT the recruiter and I don't have any authority (or clearance or contacts) to ask for certain things, but I don't like leaving people hanging either. He'll be gone most of next week, though, so I'm going to have to figure something out.



Anyway, in real life, I really like the new stuff in kickboxing and have learned that I am scared of tackles. It's the idea of falling, I think. And I landed wrong on my knee the other night - didn't hurt the knee itself, but landed right on the nerve and my whole leg sang for the next hour or so, and it's all sorts of bruised now. Helping out with testing next weekend, but just holding boards, I think.

Oh, and go see Music Man in Solvang!! I saw it last night and it is SO MUCH FUN!! Definitely worth the drive. They close next weekend, though, so hurry!!

Off to run errands. Have a good weekend!