So today was our official last day of class.  We rehearsed graduation and then went to the airport.  Oh!  I have lots of cool photos to post (later).  Then I went to this great Peruvian restaurant for lunch with friends and had a wonderful time, took a nap and then joined my friends for dinner and drinks by the pool.  

Everything was going GREAT until I found out that my 3 favorite people that are going to be based in Charlotte with me all got an apartment together... without me.  I talked to them about getting something too.  Maybe I should have been more aggressive?  But... I really had plans (I thought) to look for a place together with my one good friend.  

So I don't know, I'm trying not to be a cry-baby about this, but I was already stressed out about finding a crash pad.  Now the 3 people that were potential roommates are suddenly all together.   Now I have no potentials and I'll be looking on my own.  I'm sure it will be fine, I always seem to land on my feet, but...  it hurts being left out.   I really wanted to live with at least one of my friends. 

Sometimes I feel like because I always seem so happy and independent or whatever that people forget to worry about me.  NOT the case.  I'm just as nervous and insecure as everyone else.

OK-- just needed to vent.  Everyone on the east coast is either asleep or out partying now and I can't really bring this up around here.

 

Saturday was a relatively fun day.  We got to wear casual clothes and after a couple of lectures, we had to jump down the slide so we would know what to expect during an emergency evacuation.  I found this kind of terrifying, I'm not the biggest fan of heights and going downhill, so there you go.  Here I am pictured above paralyzed with fear.

Next we changed clothes and got bused over to ASU's campus for a life raft exercise in the pool.  

I thought this would be really fun, but it was 60 degrees outside and we ALL crammed on the same raft shivering and complaining.  ha ha ha....   (me far left and then far right)

I was so much looking forward to our day off that I didn't even care about freezing in the water.  One of my best friends from undergrad lives in Yuma, AZ right now and she drove up to visit me!!  We went out in a big group for another trainees' birthday and then danced all night like we were 22.  It was a great way to blow off some steam.

The next day we headed over the Phoenix's Desert Botanical Gardens

 

I finally got to see something nice in Arizona!

Of course there were plenty of cacti, which was cool

But they had this great butterfly house too

 

On the way there, a little out of order, but look how cool this looks!!  I felt like I was in a Wiley Coyote/ Road runner cartoon the whole time.  WOW!  It really looks like this out here.

I learned about Seguara Cacti.  I like these now.

Yea for my friend Michele!

cool plant sculpture

two cacti, two friends

I really loved whatever birds these were...

So I finally got to enjoy some local sights and nature in this god-forsaken city.  It was a super great day.  Then I went back to the hotel to cram for our last test!

Me with my friend Natalie in our first day of uniforms!

Everyone was excited about wearing uniforms so we took 100s of photos yesterday

Gina and I happened to pick the same combo.

  

Today's combo!

My friend, Brian picked the guy version of this combo today, so here we are.

**In other news I found out that my base assignment is going to be Charlotte!!!  I JUST, just eeked by with enough seniority to get my first choice.  Even though I got my choice of bases, a lot of my friends are going to be in Philadelphia.  That combined with the all-too-real realization that I was going to have to think about setting up yet another life in Charlotte was overwhelming.  I cried.

Today I was a bit more stable.  We got our assignments for our practice run that we have to do to graduate.  I will fly out to Philadelphia on the 17th (St. Patty's Day party in my hotel room!!!)  Then from there to Fort Lauderdale and back and then back to Phoenix on the 18th... then our big graduation on the 19th!  I'm so lucky too-- I get to go with my friend Natalie (pictured above).  She has been a flight attendant before, so she knows a lot of what to do and she is also really, really cool, so hooray!

Now that we've all got through the last of the tests, no one is in danger of being kicked out any more.  It is a great feeling... just one more week of training!  Wow

I leave the door and have to remember to take out my nose ring, have my badge on and other things that will put me up to code (panty hose, makeup, hair back..)

Then I get to practice disaster preparedness for about 10-12 hours a day

raft!

The hotel food is getting (always was) pretty miserable.  The most nutritious meal of the day comes from the food truck at lunch.  My friend Nikki and I show off our green.

Week 2 was seriously rough.  We lost a bunch of really cool people and I had a couple of really bad days personally.  By the time Saturday came around, I was dying to blow off some steam and get some real food and beer.

where have you been, my lovely?

It was a super fun night.   It was nice to get to know some of my classmates better outside the training center and the hotel.

With the help of some social lubricant, of course

View from the Top!! (subtle flight attendant reference)  

I found this rooftop bar which I dragged my friends too.  It was nice and reminded me a little of the beer gardens in Japan.

This is what I feel like in this terrible, terrible, terrible state.  Why would anyone want to live in the desert?  why!?!  My skin is so dry.  Everything is bleeding.  I look like I fell off a bike-- my skin is so dry that I have like a red scrapy looking rash.  Nothing helps.  I need to be dipped back into the humidity of Florida.  I have never hated a location as much as I hate Phoenix.  

...and back to disaster training!  Here my friend wears the PBE (protective breathing equipment)

Also, a large portion of the class is still sick.  The teacher brought in masks for us to wear.  The challenges to this program are endless.

 

I feel so relieved now that we are over "the hump" of week 2 and the three tests in a row at the beginning of week 3.  Now we are on a roll.  At night, students gather in the hotel lobby to study and practice "choreography" like the safety demo above, which we have to perform perfectly (no worries, I did)

Me, earlier this week practicing my shouts at the passengers

 to jump out of the plane onto the slide in the event of an evacuation.  I get tested on this tomorrow... wish me luck!

 

We did CPR too.... nailed it!

about to do something in the equipment room today

Oh yeah, we went over O2 systems, including the pilots' mask (above)

Thankfully, I realized that my friend from grad school, Leah, became a prof at ASU, which is in Phoenix!  

She picked me up and took me to a delicious restaurant (with these cool murals)

and a millions different Tequilas to choose from.  ha ha ha

It was so, so nice to get out and away from the hotel and training and ride in a car and talk to someone NOT involved with USAirways.  Phew, I really needed that. Really looking forward to some more R&R this weekend.

In other news....  I've become sort of the class comedian and quite popular!  Just by being my weird-ass hyper self  If we ever get our base city assignments, it won't be hard to find some roommates.  Also, it is rumored that a couple of dudes have crushes on me.  I guess they are not all gay after all.  I'm really not used to this level of attention.  Must.run.back.to.Florida!

Oh would you look at that, it is already 11pm, I cannot believe I am not sleeping, argh!