Leaving Reston

At about 12:30 on Thursday our instructor advised us that the coming weekend is generally considered a holidy or at the very least a special event for many people. This seems to have come as a surprise to a lot of people - however, he informed us that if we could get a flight "this afternoon", we could go home.

Imagine the scrambling. Phone calls were made to respective airlines and people were wanting to leave quickly. I, too, started the mad dash - made a call to the airline and was able to change my Friday 3:17 departure to Thursday 3:17. Remember, this all started around the 12:30 time period so now it's leave the training site, drive back over to the hotel, get gas for the car, pack, check out, drive to the airport, drop off rental car, take the shuttle over to the airline, check in, go through security and board plane.

When one has pre-planned those events it can generally be done in a nice leisurly pace. You know,, ease over to the hotel.. make sure you've packed everything,,, have a little snack, go get gas for the car..etc..etc. I was able to complete this process and make it to the departure lounge at Dulles airport with about 40 or so minutes to spare. It really wasn't too bad, but everything had to click or I would not have made it. I'm not so sure about other members of the class - but, hey,, I made it so that's what counts.

Another part of the complication was our deployment assignments. We received them Thursday morning as well so it was also a matter of contacting our respective travel professionals and getting hotels / flights / cars set for next week. That too was part of the morning's agenda. People in our class are being scattered like leaves in the wind. I was quite fortunate to be going to Colorado - Ft. Carson near Colorado Springs. Not too far that coming home every other weekend should be too bad.

I understand that Colorado Springs has some mountians and stuff, so once I get there I'll be taking a few pictures to post - look for that in the future.

We're all pretty excited about getting started with real work. While the class room can be a challenge enough - we know going to the real world with our new found knowledge will continue to be an opportunity to learn. See how this really works out in the field.

It will be a fast weekend here. Get a new or updates set of clothes - repack and leave Sunday evening. But that's the job... hopefully, it will be as exciting and fun as promised. Some old hands have been around the class room the last week and they have indicated the job is actully very good. More to come on that.

Until next time.. thanks for checking in. I'll be seein ya.

Joe

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