Sometimes

Sometimes I feel pretty great abotu what I do. There are a lot of perks to being a flyer. You get to wear the flight suit, you get to wear wings, you get to know you are part of less than 1.5% of the enlisted AF and most of the other jobs either exist to directly or indrectly serve you (meaing to get you in the air and keep you there, not serve YOU specifically). Whenever there are check rides there is check ride beer and in very few other jobs would you finish with a mission and sit around and talk about it while you drink FREE beer (unless it's your check ride, then you're buying the beer).

My AF coin, a thing every AF member is supposed to have on them at all times for the coin chellenge game (someone throws down their coin with an audible slap and everyone has to produce a military coin of their own. If they do NOT have a coin, they buy the next round. If they DO have a coin, YOU buy the next round. This can make for a fun time) is a bottle opener with my wings on it.

We're a very proud people.

But flying jobs are limited both to aircrafts and to bases. My particular plane is INCREDIBY limited and as a result you see a lot of folks stay at a base for far longer than a non-flying enlisted AF member (some people stay upwards of TEN years before moving, some even SIXTEEN meaning they would go ONE other place and probably retire). I joined the AF to see the world and pay the bills and hopefully have a lot of fun along the way and while I AM having fun (now more than ever in my career), I am about to turn in my cross training paperwork to ground myself and get a different job.

Part of me is bummed about it. I know a lot of people are going to ask why I wanted to LEAVE flying when so many people are trying to get into the fields, and the wings are permanently attached to my uniform (it's a rule) so I'll always be open to those questions, but I want to go more places and see more things. I want to go back to Tucson, and go overseas. I don't want to be limited.

That's pretty much it. I don't want to be limited.

So while flying is awesome for some people, and is something that I would probably enjoy if I weren't surveillance (perhaps a boom operator, or load master), I'll be leaving it (hopefully) soon.

Meanwhile, let me tell you about this morning:

We woke up, and took Annie to the Air Museum because she loves planes. It's odd to see her love things that we don't really expose her to, but she comes to naturally. I think the thing she loves more than anything in the world is trains. All the time, if she sees a train, she's happy and she wants to touch it or play with it. She loves trains. She loves planes too. And cars. She's very tomboy.

Of course she loves guitars too...

Anyway, after the museum we went to Cracker Barrel and ate, then went to Target and picked up some assorted chemicals and the movie Cars for Annie.

It doesn't SOUND like a lot, but to a two year old it is. She went down for a nap and she really went DOWN. I think she was asleep within five minutes of closing the door.

Awesome.