Well, that's like, your opinion, man...

Well, almost another month has come and gone, and more stuff has happened. One of the biggest things being that I'm now off first year pay, which is awesome. I basically just got a 90% pay raise. I pretty much get paid every two weeks now what I used to get paid in a month. Awesome.

Also, for those of you who care, I will also cease to continue calling Salt Lake City my home in September. My lease expires on my apartment on the last day of August and I do not plan to renew it. Though SLC has been good to me, it's never felt like home, so I'm moving back home to St. Paul. A friend of mine owns a condo in downtown St. Paul and he has a room available starting in September so I'm moving in with him. I've also put my bid in to transfer to Chicago, which will be a little quicker commute for me than the 2.5 hours it takes to get from SLC to MSP.

This past weekend I was in Seattle for my third wedding of the summer. This time my good friends Nick and Chrissy were getting married. It couldn't have been any nicer weather in SEA if we had planned it that way. Gorgeous. I was the usher for this wedding, which was outside in a little park right next to a lake. Beautiful setting. Anyway, it was a good chance to see some people who I haven't seen in quite awhile. So much fun, and since some of those people live in the Cities, I can't wait to see them on a regular basis!

I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on...

These last few weeks haven't been too bad. The first weekend of the month, I was home for a weekend to attend my 2nd of seven weddings I'm going to this summer. The two who were getting married were my friend Dan and his (now) wife Jenni. I met Dan through another friend, Tim, who I've known for about 7 years now. Anyway, it was a really nice ceremony, and afterwards at the reception they had a live band, which my friend Tim and a couple of my other friends played at. Anyway, they needed someone to run the sound system, so I reprised my role as sound guy for the first time in about 2 years. It was a blast. Anyway, since Tim was not only playing in the band but also in the wedding party, his fiance, whose name is also Jen, had no one to go with, so she called me up the night before and asked if I wanted to be her date, which was fun as well. I also dress myself. God I love having good taste.

This last trip I went on was one where I flew out of Atlanta quite a bit. I have some good friends who live down there whom I haven't gotten to see in quite awhile, so on one of my overnights we all got together and hung out. It was pretty sweet really.

Not too much to report other than that really. I've kinda gotten screwed on my June schedule cause I have only two days off between my trips, which means there's not a lot of time to go places and do things. Oh well. I'll survive.

Speaking of survival, I would recommend reading First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung. It's a novel about surviving the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia in the late seventies. It's really a moving and compelling story.

Since my last post regarding this books, which was April 1st, I have read:
A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
The House on Mango Street – Sandra Cisneros
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling
Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
First They Killed My Father – Loung Ung
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling

All really good books. The last Harry Potter book comes out in July, so I'm trying to read them all before that, so I'm re-caught up on the whole story.

Easy as 1-2-3, Simple as Do-Re-Mi

Well, another month has come and gone and I have slacked in my blogging. It's been a pretty full month. The biggest thing that prolly happened was my 10 days off towards the end of the month, in which a LOT of stuff happened. First off, my little brother graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Can't tell you how old that makes me feel, but we're all very proud of him.
The next day, I celebrated my 25th birthday. Holy crap. I'm getting old. I know, I know, Bebe. I don't get to say how old I am/feel. I got some pretty good stuff, mostly cash. Which was expected and always appreciated. I was also looking over my logbook, and found that that weekend (the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st) has had quite a bit of stuff happen in the past. The 18th of May, 2000 was the day I got my Private Pilot certificate, thus serving as my entrance into the aviation world. The 19th of May, 2006, was when I heard that I was accepted for employment at SkyWest. The 20th of 2006 and 2007 are my friends Sarah and Casey's wedding anniversary and my brother's graduation, respectively, and the 21st is my birthday. Quite a packed couple of days.

The day after my birthday, my friend Ben and I went hiking along the north shore of Lake Superior. We were joined by our good friend Chris, who works in Duluth and happened to have the days off that we were going up there. We hiked between Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse, which is about 14 miles of hiking over two days. We camped out there too, which was awesome. I love camping.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, until the weekend when I went ot my college roommate's wedding. It was great to see people, and we had a lot of fun at the ceremony, which was held in Stillwater, about 30 minutes from the Twin Cities.


I also, just for the heck of it went to a site that I heard about, www.politicalcompass.org. This site has you answer a few pages of questions, then plots your answers on a graph to show where you stand politically. I'm happy to report that I am a Social Libertarian and well as an Economic Leftest, which puts me in the same area as the Dali Lama, Nelson Mandela, and Ghandi. Good old G.W. is on the complete other side of the scale from me. Woot. (My exact points on the graph are Economic Left/Right: -6.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.08
for anyone who wants to compare themselves with the greatness of me.)
That's it for right now, but I'll try to be a little better about this. In the meantime,

"Don't worry if your jobs are small, and your rewards are few,
Remember that the mighty oak, was once a nut like you." -Anon.

I listen for returning feet, and voices at the door.

I know, I know, I suck at this blogging thing lately. I really do. Sorry, but sometimes there's not a lot to report sometimes, just work. I think however, that after two weeks I could probably say something. I have made a couple of non-work related travel trips in the past few weeks, so I share them with you now.

The last weekend in April, I went to Albuquerque, NM to see my college roommate Tim, whom I lived with for 3 years in college. He's getting married over Memorial Day weekend, and in April I wasn't sure of my schedule for May and therefore wasn't sure if my schedule would allow me to attend. (I now know that it does, so this trip turned out to be a little bonus.) Anyway, he lives down there in a house that he and his soon to be wife Wendy live in. They also have quite a number of animals as well. There's the two cats Tweak and Lucy, (though Lucy is a very bitchy and FAT cat that I renamed Jabba the Hut) and two dogs, Max and Mia. I got there on Friday night, and at that point we just hung out. On Saturday, we went and took a tour of the place where Tim works, Eclipse Aviation. Eclipse is a very light jet manufacturer (Very light jets: think of a small 5 person airplane like the ones that I used to fly only with jet engines instead of a propeller.) and it is scheduled to deliver its first aircraft to its first costumer here in the next few months. I got to see the whole operation and see how the airplanes are put together from start to finish. Go to www.eclipseaviation.com to see the airplane if you're interested.

We then picked up Wendy, and went to "the" Mexican place in Albuquerque. It was very good to say the least. After that, we went up to the Sandia Crest Mountains, which are on the east side of town. They have a road, so you can drive right to the top. Beautiful view of Albuquerque. Apparently, I was there on one of the nicest weekends that they've had so far. Not to hot, not too cold. I left on the first flight on Sunday morning, which was at 10:30. This left Tim plenty of time to go back to his place to watch NASCAR, of which he is a huge fan. I would be posting pictures with this post, however, Tim has yet to email them to me, since he's in Virgina right now with his Best Man getting drunk and watching a NASCAR race live.

Another topic that could be brought up is my impending quarter life crisis. Yes, in less than 20 days I turn 25. Holy crap. Apparently, having a quarter life crisis is now a semi-recognized psychological condition. It's symptoms include, but are not limited to:
* feeling "not good enough" because one can't find a job that is at his/her academic/intellectual level (This is pretty well taken care of)
* frustration with relationships, the working world, and finding a suitable job or career (No frustration with any of those)
* confusion of identity (I'm Ty. A midwestern boy at heart living in SLC.)
* insecurity regarding the near future (Unless the airline goes under, I'd say the future's going well)
* insecurity regarding present accomplishments (Uhhh, it's been a pretty good year for me)
* re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships (My friends are still my friends)
* disappointment with one's job (I fly for a living, and travel for free.)
* nostalgia for university or college life (This I do have.)
* tendency to hold stronger opinions (I've always been quietly opinionated)
* boredom with social interactions (I thrive on them, in fact, I need more of them)
* financially-rooted stress (I'm in debt up to my eyeballs, but staying afloat)
* loneliness (Only cause I'm in SLC)
* desire to have children (Someday, but not now.)
* a sense that everyone is, somehow, doing better than you (I'm doing quite well, thank you)

I'd say that I'm doing quite well as far as all this goes. I'd still like a new car to go along with my crisis though;)

Any minute now, my ship is coming in
I'll keep checking the horizon
I'll stand on the bow, feel the waves come crashing
Come crashing down, down, down, on me

And you say, be still my love
Open up your heart
Let the light shine in
But don't you understand
I already have a plan
I'm waiting for my real life to begin

When I awoke today, suddenly nothing happened
But in my dreams, I slew the dragon
And down this beaten path, and up this cobbled lane
I'm walking in my old footsteps, once again
And you say, just be here now
Forget about the past, your mask is wearing thin
Just let me throw one more dice
I know that I can win
I'm waiting for my real life to begin

Any minute now, my ship is coming in
I’ll keep checking the horizon
And I'll check my machine, there's sure to be that call
It's gonna happen soon, soon, soon
It's just that times are lean

And you say, be still my love
Open up your heart, let the light shine in
Don't you understand
I already have a plan
I'm waiting for my real life to begin

On a clear day, I can see, see a very long way
On that clear day, I can see, see a very long way.

Money can't buy happiness, but it will pay your bills...

Being off training pay is soooo nice since I'm finally making some money again. Not great money, but some money non the less. The past few weeks have been pretty good. I've been flying quite a bit, and my crews have been pretty cool. I wish I had more to report on that front, but I don't. It's pretty much been the same thing. Wish there was more.

Anyway, I'm going to be on a four day trip starting day after tomorrow, and then hopping a plane back home to the Cities for two days. Called Mom today to tell her and she said that I'd be coming into town the same days that Uncle Rick and Kelsey were coming into town to check out the U of M. Little surprise there! I won't pass up the opportunity to see family!

I'll see if I can get some pictures up here of my new job as a jet pilot, so you can see the new stuff that I'm flying!

For now I leave you with one of my favorite poems.

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Thank God that's over

Well, IOE is over, and I'm officially a First Officer again. My tests and everything are done until this time next year, when I have to get my annual performance check. Woot!

My Captain for IOE was a really nice guy, and I had a lot of fun. The first trip that we did was just a two day trip, and we went to Spokane, Rapid City, and Orange County, CA. Rapid City was especially cool for me, as I've never seen the Black Hills from the air. The Black Hills are really weird in that it's surrounded by brown. Nothing to see for miles, then it looks like someone was just like "I think I'll put some hills and pine forests here," and there they went. Very strange. Saw Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial from the air, which was pretty cool.

The next trip that we did was just a quick one from Salt Lake City to Calgary, Alberta and back. This was my first experience flying into Canada as an airline pilot, and it was kinda interesting. We had to go through customs into Canada, and then go back through US customs too. It was weird. Especially since we weren't even staying, we were just turning around to go right back home. The Canadian version of the Transportation Security Administration are also tough to deal with. While the crew is going through customs, they have a nasty habit of planting things on your aircraft, such as suspicious notes, or ever fake wood guns, to see if we catch them. It sucks. We refer to them as Nazis.

The last trip of IOE was the long one. The first day we went from SLC to San Francisco, then to Medford, Oregon and then spent the night in San Fran. Didn't get to do as much there as I would have liked, so I'll have to come back to explore downtown. The next day was the long day. We flew from San Fran to Boise, the Boise to Denver, the Denver to Cedar Rapids Iowa, then Cedar Rapids to Chicago, and finally Chicago to Green Bay, WI. Long day to say the least. The third day was back to Chicago, then a round trip to Syracuse, NY and the to Moline, Ill. (Which is basically the Quad Cities area) The fourth day we just flew back to Salt Lake City. So thankfully that's over with.

I have two days off before I have to fly again. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it, but I'll figure something out.

This last one is for my dad, who thinks that I don't read anymore, which couldn't be further from the truth. So I've been keeping track. Since the beginning of the year, I have read:

Watership Down – Richard Adams
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – Robert C. O’Brien
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff – Christopher Moore
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
Montana 1948 – Ray Watson
And I'm about halfway through A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson (Thanks Uncle Tad, by the way. You gave me that book for my 21st birthday. I read it then and had forgotten how good it was.)

So that averages about 2 books a month, and for two of those months, I was in ground school,simulators and doing IOE! So how you like them apples!?;)

Quite a twister I've been in...

Well, it's been quite awhile since I've posted last. Sorry about that, let's see if I can update a few things since I last talked to you all.

When I left off, we had just started the flight training devices. Needless to say, that went well. After that, we started simulators, which also went well. Our instructor in the simulators was someone who had been with the company for a LONG time, so he really knew his stuff. As an example, my employee number is 26808. His was 536. He's been here awhile. After four days of simulators, we had a week off. It was unusual to have such a long break in the middle of sims, but I didn't care. I needed a break. I got home on a Wednesday night, and Thursday morning. The snow hit St. Paul. A LOT of it.

I woke up the next morning to closed airports, businesses, streets, everything. There was quite a bit of snow. Thankfully the snow gods were looking down on me, and my neighbors decided to have a "snow blower" war to see who could clear out the most sidewalks first, which thankfully, included our front walk. All I had to shovel was the area from the back door to the garage. My dad borrowed a snowblower from the people across the alley from us for the apron of the garage, and all that was taken care of! I was surprised that my parents hadn't bought a snowblower yet, since Drew and I aren't there regularly for manual labor, but they really don't need one with all those snowblowers that our neighbors have! My parents were gone for a few days up in Duluth during the time I was home, and I got the pleasure of puppy sitting Hayley. I didn't ever really realize how much having a dog is like having a small child. Let her out, be home to feed her, blah, blah, blah. There was one day that I went over to my friend's house, which he and his fiance had just bought, to help paint. I was gonna be gone the whole day, so I just called the neighbors and asked them to let the dog out and feed her. Outsourcing, you gotta love it.

When we got back to SLC, we had three more simulator sessions before we took our checkride. We did very well, and our instructor (the one who had been with the company for a long time) said that my sim partner and I were some of the best that he's taught recently. So that was a nice compliment. Our checkride went equally well, even though our checkride pilot was known for being a hard-ass. We passed, and passed easily. Pretty awesome.

We had a day off after that, and my sim partner flew his wife out from Sioux Falls, SD and we all hung out and went up to Park City. It was a beautiful day that day, almost hitting 70 degrees.

The next day my sim partner and I went to Santa Barbara, CA for our aircraft checkride. SkyWest is different from alot of companies in that before we go up and fly with people in the back, we get to go up with an empty jet at night practice. That was alot of fun! While we were in Santa Barbara, we went swimming in the pools, and took bikes that the hotel supplied down to the beach. Gorgeous! My sim partner took pictures and I'll post them when I get copies. We got back into SLC, and I had a few days off before I had to go to St. Louis for just a little more training, but I talked to the travel people in my company, and they let me go a few days early, so I've been hanging out with family and friends since then! It's been pretty awesome. I go back to SLC day after tomorrow. I then have two days off, then I start flying people! Yikes! More to come after I know it, and I promise I won't take so long this time.

One more thing, I suppose you're all wondering about Pinky, since I haven't talked about him in a little while. I suppose it's safe to talk about it now, but he was lying low from the police ever since an unfortunate incident involving Aqua Net hairspray, Ramen noodles, extra chunky peanut butter and a Moped. It was quite tragic, but thankfully, no one was hurt. More about that later I guess, I don't want the cops to catch the trail.

I leave you with this:
"God is a comedian playing to an audience who is afraid to laugh." - Voltaire

I can't think of a title. Oh well.

Forgive the unoriginality of this post. For the first time in almost a year, I have a cold. It's not a big one, and I think that I'm getting over it already, but it still sucks.

As for class, last week was when we had all our tests, which I am happy to report I aced them all. The first test was on Monday, which was the big systems test. Got a 96% on it! Our other tests were emergency procedures and limitations tests, which again, I'm happy to report I did fine on.

We had Friday off, so I used that time to go get a new aviation medical, so I can continue flying. Again, no problems there!

Yesterday we started FTD or Flight Training Devices. It's basically a complete mockup of the cockpit with moving buttons and switches, but unlike a simulator, it doesn't move, so it's cheaper for the company to operate. The first day went very well, and the instructor seemed to be impressed with my sim partner and I. We had today off, and tomorrow we start again and don't have a day off for a week. Hopefully things go as well for the next week as they did yesterday!

All these things that I've done...

This past week has been a rather full week of new things. First off, for those of you who didn't know, I've been awarded a transition to the CRJ. (The kind of jet we fly.) I'll still be based in SLC, but just flying a new airplane. So last Monday I started ground school again. It hasn't been going too badly, but this who waking up at 6 am on a regular basis is kinda kicking my butt, but oh well, I'll deal with it. Our class is divided between new hires and transitions. There are 15 new hires and 15 transitions. The thinking behind that is so that the new hires can be pared with someone who has already been here for awhile to kinda show them the ropes. As it turned out, someone who I knew from UND was one of the new hires, and so now he's my sim partner! Nice to have someone I know as my sim partner.

The CRJ so far, is a lot easier to understand as far as systems go than the Brasilia (the airplane I used to fly). When they designed the systems for the Brasilia, they must have been on drugs. (Don't get scared or anything, the airplane was by no means unsafe, it was just difficult to understand why they put things together the way that they did from a technical standpoint.)

Today a bunch of us are going to a sports bar in downtown SLC to watch the Superbowl. Should be a fun time and a good way to relax after a very full first week. I'll write more when I know more!

Now on to an airplane that sucks and blows...

Well, after 8 months with SkyWest, I'm transitioning over to the CRJ (Canadair Regional Jet). This is kinda unusual, as SkyWest has what's called a "seat lock" in place, meaning that whatever airplane you start out in, you're "locked" into that airplane until a year is up. Well, they need CRJ pilots so badly, that they're releasing people out of their seat locks early. So this means I get to transition sooner!

I'm excited to start ground school tomorrow. I'm sure that it'll be challenging, but I'm not as worried about it as I was the first time going through, cause now I know what to expect. A bunch of people who were in ground school with me when we were new hires are also going through transition with me, so I'll know a bunch of people in class already.

Today was mostly filled with running errands, especially getting food. I'll hold a regular schedule for about 3 weeks now, (8-5 Mon-Fri) so I'll actually be home to eat dinner. So I needed to get food to eat! Class starts tomorrow at 8 am, I'll write again soon to let people know how it's going!

The two pictures above were taken on Saturday, when I got back from my last trip in the Brasilia. The first picture you see is the flight deck of the Brasilia, my "office" so to speak, for the last 8 months, and yes, I do know what all those switches, knobs, buttons and gauges mean/do.

Seeing the world through rose colored glasses

It's been awhile since I've posted, and I suppose it's about time again. After spending a wonderful 10 days in Florida/St. Paul, it was inevitably time to go back to work. I flew a four day trip with a pretty cool crew, and got back in town on the night of the 8th, just in time to see Ben and Alison one last time, or so I thought.

Ben and Alison are moving back to the Cities, as the job market here stinks. I can't blame them. Anyway, I called them on Monday night and they said they weren't anywhere close to being ready to go. I spent most of Tuesday (Happy Birthday Drew) helping them load up their trailers, and bid farewell to them that night. They called me the next morning. They were still here. Apparently the weather decided to turn foul in Idaho and Montana, so they stayed another day. I said goodbye to them again that night. They called the next morning. The weather was now in SLC, and most of yesterday was a slippery mess. I bid them a final farewell last night, and they should be well on their way by now.

I have a couple of trips left this month, then I transition over to the jet. Yay! I have alot of limitations and emergency procedures to memorize by the 29th of January!

One more thing - I have glasses. Got them yesterday. Look pretty good in them I must say. My distant vision is just not quite what it should be, so I needed to get them so I could pass my aviation medical that I have coming up in Feb. I'll take some pictures and post them when I can!

The Year in Review

Well, another year has come and gone. Almost. But I'll probably be busy with general revelry at the time the new year comes about, so I'm choosing to do this now, while looking at the Gulf of Mexico in the sun. It's been quite a year, and I've decided to do one of those "flashback" blogs. Kinda like sitcoms sometimes do when the writers are too tired/bored/lazy to come up with new material. So here it goes.

January:
The beginning of the year started out easily enough. I had no clue what waited around the corner. I was excited, because I had gotten 3 multi-engine students on my schedule, which meant more multi engine time for me, which meant I was even closer to being able to go the the airlines. How soon, though, was something I didn't realize. I was quite content in my flight instruction job and didn't really feel the need to move on yet.

February:
Feb. 4th my two good friends Alison and Ben got married in the Cities, and I was an usher in the wedding. While I was down there, a lot of my friends were there who had moved on and done other things after UND. They basically all asked me waht I was still doing there, as I had more than enough flight time to be able to leave. On the drive back up to Grand Forks, I realized that for the first time in a long time, I actually didn't want to be driving back up to GFK. So Ben and Al, somehow your marriage lit a fire under my butt and got me to start getting out of Grand Forks. The rest of the month carried on like any other. I flew, hung out with friends, got the resume and cover letter together, and started the process of getting out of Grand Forks. I also passed 1,000 flight hours in the latter part of the month. Another major milestone!

March:
March, as I recall, nothing much happened. Spring Break happened, but I'm pretty sure I just went home. Still sending resumes out to airlines, and hoping they called back.

April:
April was actually a pretty full month. My grandmother passed away, which I think was a blessing, as she had held on for so long with Alzheimer's, and she wasn't the person she once was. See ya later Grannie. Jes and flew down to St. Louis, which I think was over Easter. That was a lot of fun, and we got to see all our friends, as well as my relatives. It was in the last part of the month that I got my first two airline interviews. Andrea, a friend of mine from UND, was working in the HR department at Atlantic Southeast Airlines, and she helped me get my resume to the top of the pile and get me an interview. I drove home to the Cities and then flew down to Atlanta for the interview. Being it was my first one, I was really nervous, but the interview crew was really cool and made it very relaxing. After I got back from the ASA interview, I stayed at home for a few days and then drove over to Appleton, WI to interview at Air Wisconsin. Again, the interview crew was really nice, and made me feel completely relaxed. I did have a weird feeling about that interview though and about a week later got the "thanks but no thanks" letter from Air Wisconsin. Oh well.

May:
May was another big month. It started out with an interview with SkyWest, which was my top choice. I flew out to Salt Lake City for the interview which I thought went pretty well. It should be said that back in February, I had set a goal for myself to be going or gone from Grand Forks by my birthday, May 21. That day was rapidly approaching. About a week later, Ben, Alison, Jesica and I road tripped to Rocky Mountain National Park to attend the wedding of other set of friends of ours, Sarah and Casey. While we were there, I got a garbled call from my parents that said I had received a package from SkyWest and had been offered a job and that I started on June 5th! It was May 19th, two days before my birthday. The rest of the month was filled with packing, getting everything in order, etc.

June:
You guys can look up the specifics of June in past posts on this blog, but suffice it to say, it was busy. I started groundschool in SLC. UND had really prepared me well for this sort of thing, and I really didn't find it all that hard.

July:
July was flight training devices in Fresno, CA and simulators in Long Beach, CA. After sims were done, I began my first of several road trips across the country. This time it was out to Fresno, where I was based for a month. Fresno is hot, hot, hot. That's about all that can be said about it.

August:
I finished IOE at the beginning of August, and then I became a full first officer. Woot! I spent most of my time inside, as it was really too hot to do anything. I did manage to make it to Yosemite National Park for a weekend though, which was really cool and fun. Most of my days off, however, were spent going to SLC trying to find an apartment, cause I was going to live there starting in September. I eventually did find a place to live, and bid a forever farewell to Fresno at the end of the month.

September:
September I moved to SLC and life got tremendously better. From here on out, things started settling into a routine, and everything in Sept. and Oct. I pretty much the same. My parents did come out to see me, which was pretty cool. One other thing that happened, in my blog at least, is the imaginary friend of mine, Pinky. I know some of you don't understand Pinky, but that's ok. I just got bored writing about my own life one day so I decided to come up with a new character for you all to read about and perhaps have a few laughs with. Don't worry, it's not as if I think he's real or anything. I'm not crazy, though I'm sure some people would tell me that that's debatable.

November:
No, I didn't skip a month here. Like I said, Sept and Oct. were pretty much the same. In November, the world of my high school friends was changed when my friends Ben and Sophia had a baby, Marcus. He's the cutest thing ever, and will definitely grow up to be a great musician like his dad.

December:
December was a pretty good month. I finally had enough seniority in SLC to hold a schedule, instead of being on reserve. I also put in for and got a transition to the jet at the end of January. Back to ground school but as of next June, I'll get a much bigger pay raise! Woot!
The end of the year was spent with my dad's side of the family in a house on the beach on St. George Island in Florida. What a way to end the year!

All in all, this has been a pretty full year for me. Hopefully next year continues to be jst as good, but a little slower would be nice. This year almost burnt me out.

I'll leave you all with a quote from my brother regarding life and vacations:

Drew: "Which kind of mac and cheese would you like?"
Me: "I dunno. The Velveeta is good, but the Kraft stuff is good too."
Drew: "I know, that's why I'm having trouble deciding."
Me: "Well, the Kraft is a good classic. Velveeta is good too, but it's extremely cheesy. You want the extreme cheese?"
Drew: "You know, I love vacations. A week and a half ago I was worried about tests, and all these freaking papers I had to write, and now my biggest decision is which kind of Mac and Cheese to have."
Me: "Ain't life great?"
Drew: "Damn straight."

Happy New Year people. Even if things aren't working out for you as you planned right now, there's always next year!

It's the most wonderful time...well maybe.

It's that wonderful time of the year where everyone is trying to get someplace to be with the ones we love, and yet it's also the time when I think most tempers get lost. Being in the cockpit, the captain and I get to miss most of it, thankfully. Although most people are very pleasant, there is the occasional bad apple. On a flight to Sun Valley the other day, we had one. This time of year, Sun Valley flights are full of rich people going up to ski. The baggage compartment is always filled to the brim with the 400 pounds of baggage each person brings aboard, and the flights are always full. Well, on the flight before the one to Sun Valley, someone was coming out of the bathroom when we hit a little bit of turbulence. The person grabbed on the the closest thing they could to stabilize themselves, which happened to be the lavatory door, and the weigh of the person on the door knocked the door off its tracks, making it not able to close. When we got to SLC, maintenance came to fix it, but it took longer than anticipated, thus delaying the flight a little. The passengers started to board and one of them was already disgruntled about the late boarding. Then he decided to complain that it was too hot in the airplane, mind you he was wearing a jacket at the time. Anyway, with all the people on board, and all their flippin luggage, it took us a little while to get the numbers right to make sure we could take everyone and their baggage without kicking people or baggage off, thus delaying the flight further. In the end, we got out of the gate only 10 minutes late, which is damn good, given all the crap we had to take care of. That guy still complained to the flight attendant for the rest of flight. Whatever. In 7 days I'll be on the beach in Florida sipping on Caucasians and Coronas!

I love life.

Well, December is the first month I hold a line and guess what? I got displaced on my first 4 day trip. What does that mean? Basically, my Captain was probably a check airman and they needed him or her to do an IOE trip. (You remember IOE right? I did that back in August.) Anyway, once they displace me, the trip comes off my schedule. Scheduling has until 72 hours before the trip was supposed to begin to put something else on my schedule to replace it. If they don't put something on my schedule by 72 hours prior, I am officially released from duty (in other words, they can't put anything on my schedule at that point) and the best part...I STILL GET PAID FOR THE WHOLE TRIP AS IF I ACTUALLY WENT ON IT. Freaking sweet. So, since they didn't put anything on my schedule, I still get paid for that four day trip, and counting the days off I had prior to and after that trip, I have nine days off! So what am I gonna do? Travel to Alaska? Spain? Rome? Hong Kong? Hawaii? Nope. I'm gonna drive home. That's right. 1800 miles each way and I'm gonna get all my things from my parent's house so I finally have them ONCE AND FOR ALL. I know. I'm nuts. Seriously. How many times can someone drive halfway across the country in a 5 month time span? We shall see. Mom, Dad, if you read this tomorrow morning, the 1st of December, I'll prolly be somewhere in Wyoming by that point. Give me a Jingle! God I love my job...

Rock stars have kidnapped my son...

Well, I had a three day weekend this past weekend in which I was going to try to go to Atlanta to see a few friends from college. This being the week before Thanksgiving however, the flights were all super full, so that didn't work out so well. I tried for the first flight, didn't make it and was told that it just got worse as the day went on. So there I was in the airport with a packed bag with no place to go. So I checked the flight loads to the Twin Cities, they looked good, and so I went home. Good times. I had the chance to see the newest addition to my high school friend possee: Marcus James.

Marcus was definitely not planned, but his parents, two of my best friends, have made the best of the situation and the kid is absolutely adorable. He was born on Nov. 3 at 11 am. I've never gotten to be an "Uncle" Ty before so this is kinda a trip!

This week I have three days worth of flying. I fly tomorrow just for the day and then fly on Thursday and get back Friday in time to catch the last flight back to the Cities. I get to spend Thanksgiving in St. George, UT. It's not as bad as it could be though. St. George is one of the nicer hotels we have, and at least it's not Los Angeles!

"The best things happen to those who make the best of the way things turn out." - Anon.

They certainly do.

There's quite a lot in my skull

Two posts in as many days? Holy cow! This is like I was back in groundschool and had nothing else better to do. Nothing is really new to report since my last one a couple days ago. I did a quick overnight in Sun Valley last night. It was kinda fun. I reported for work at 8 PM, we got to Sun Valley at about 10:30, went to hotel, met again this morning at 6:30, flew back to Salt Lake and I was done by 8:30. Nice. Sun Valley was really cruddy this morning, snow and low ceilings. It was kinda hair raising coming out of there, knowing we surrounded by mountains on all sides. We made it though, as is illustrated by the fact that I'm sitting here writing this.

Pinky has been enjoying the bed verily since I got it. I told him no cookies in the bed, as always, he was high on cottage cheese when I told him so I think it went in one elbow and out the other. So though I have crumbs in my bed, if I'm ever hungry in the middle of the night, there's usually enough of them to equate to an entire Chips Ahoy! cookie. They are definetly a thousand chips delicious. Pinky is also no closer to the realization of his dream that the world lose their affection for pants and wear Bermuda shorts. His new drug of choice, however, is to supplement his peanut butter addiction (seriously, a jar of JIF will send him into a frenzy much like cat nip on a feline) with a propensity for rendering himself unconscious by hitting himself on the head with heavy mining equipment. He was surfing the internet the other day and muttering something to himself about how a Caterpillar 994F Front End Loader was so grossly overpriced that a normal creature like him could never own one privately. I'm gonna have to keep an eye on him...

Utah and Salt Lake City are nice places. Don't get me wrong. The scenery here is gorgeous, and there's more outdoor stuff to do here than I can deal with. It does have some drawbacks though. There's not as much shopping. Before you get on me for being a woman, let me say that it's annoying to have to drive 20 minutes to the nearest Target. Growing up in the Cities where shopping is about prevalent as snow, it's a bit of a shock to have to travel to get to the nearest mall. There also aren't as many theaters, museums and concert halls here as there are in the Cities. You know that the Minneapolis/St. Paul area has more theaters per capita than New York? That's a fact you can take to the bank. There's also the fact that I have a whole load of friends up in the Cities. If Ben and Alison ever decided to leave the Salt Lake area, I wouldn't be too far behind. My lease on my apartment ends in February and I'm going to renew it for another 6 months. The rent's cheap and it'll give me an opportunity to save some money, cause if I did decide to move back to the Cities, rent would go up as housing is more expensive there. I flew with someone the other day who lives in Minneapolis and commutes here to SLC. He says the commute isn't bad, and never has a problem. So basically, what I'm saying is that while SLC is a really cool place, I'm not sure that it's a permanent home. Who knows. This time next year I could be still here, or I could be in St. Paul. I dunno. Mmmmm. Uncertain my future is. Search my feelings I should.

Leave you with a quote from Pulp Fiction:
"Who's motorcycle is that?"
"It's not a motorcycle baby, it's a chopper."
"What happened to my Honda?"
"Oh baby, I'm sorry. I had to crash that Honda."

It's funnier if you watch the movie. Trust me.

Come on over, come on over baby...

Well, another couple of weeks have come and gone. I haven't been posting much recently cause there hasn't been too much going on. They really didn't use me for about 2 and a half weeks or so, but they've started putting stuff on my schedule again, so that's nice. Seriously though, even though a long time has passed since my last post, there's really not all that much to report. I did finally get a bed, which is the best thing since sliced bread really. After sleeping on an inflatable air mattress for 2 months, one really begins to appreciate the little things in life, such as a full size bed.

I may be in trouble for this one, but I went to St. Louis last weekend. Gasp. I know, I know. I didn't see everyone, which I was really sad about, but I got to STL on Saturday night at 9, and left on Monday morning at 8:30. So not a lot of time. For those of you I didn't see, I promise I'll be back, for longer this time.

I'm going to Atlanta to see some of my friends that live down there next weekend. I have a three day weekend so I'll be able to stay a little longer than this past weekend where I only had two days off. I found out today that I'm working on Thanksgiving, and will be in St. George, UT for Thanksgiving night. Oh well. I do get back in time on Friday to make the last flight back to the Cities, so that at least is pretty sweet. I don't know what my schedule is for December, but I'll let everyone know as soon as I know!

They were making and breaking alliances like tube socks in a dryer

Well, another month has almost come and gone. Still sitting reserve here in SLC, which I half expected since it is one of the more senior bases, but life is good. I keep moving up the totem pole by about 4-5 people a month. The good news is that I am high enough up on the list to get whatever reserve line I want, so though I'm still on reserve during November, I have Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays off. Not bad at all.

Pinky has been complaining to me that there is still a severe lack of furniture in this apartment. He says that while it's true that girls want guys with great skills, they also want ones that have places for them to sit when they come over. I guess my rugged good looks and boyish charm will only take me so far.

Last weekend our friends Casey and Sarah came over from St. Louis to play in the mountains with us for a few days. We went hiking to Doughnut Falls (the same place Ben and I went a few weeks ago) and saw a moose. It continually astounds me how stupid people are. This particular moose, which will be henceforth named Mortimer (Pinky's idea), was grazing in an open field near the parking lot for the trail we were going to take. There was a guy there and a college age idiot (more on that in a minute) and his girlfriend. Anyway, the college idiot seemed to be out to prove that Darwin was right and through acts of sheer idiocy remove himself from the gene pool. This guy walked to within 10 feet of this moose, which outweighed him by a good, I dunno, lets say a conservative 900 pounds. He then proceeded to use his FLASH on his camera, spooking the moose. The moose grunted, and moved forward a few feet. At this point the kid did the smartest thing he could at this point, which was to turn and back away. Alas, if the moose had decided to charge, which would have done us all a favor and prevented the idiot from spawning, the chase would have been short lived, as we soon saw when he turned around that his shoes were untied and he was smoking. Wonderful. If only the moose had decided to go his moose way home through this guy's midsection, we'd be saved from this obvious drain on society. Sorry. Not much pity from me on this topic.

On Sunday, Kelly, Casey and Ben went rock climbing. Since I still haven't developed the need to dangle above the ground on a rope, I went with the girls hiking. It was a good time to say the least. We hiked up a canyon on the south side of the city. It started to get really steep near the end. We found this really cool waterfall, much of which was ice. (It was a nice 55 degrees in the valley that day, but the mountains were a little chilly!) I wish we had run into more people cause I could have introduced Sarah, Alison and Julie to those people as my wives. Hey, we're in the land of the Mormons, why not milk it right?

This week was spent sitting on reserve and not getting called. It gave me plenty of time to run errands and the like, so that was good.

One other thing, Kelly and Julie had a Halloween Party last Friday, and I needed a costume quick, cheap and easy. With all the trash and packing material I had around the apartment from all the boxes I've had shipped to me, I duct taped them to a big black lawn bag and went to the party as white trash. Get it? It was pretty sweet. Nice play on words too. Anyway, I post more as the days go by. For a music suggestion, I'd recommend anything from the early '90s. I've been on one of those kicks lately. Also, Michael Jackson's album, Dangerous, is pretty sweet. Not gonna lie on that. Pinky's getting pretty good at the moonwalk.

Mmmm. Reading I have been...

Since the beginning of September, I have began reading quite a bit more. This is probably due to the fact that I have alot more time sitting in hotel rooms while on overnights. Anyway, since September, I have read:

The Complete Walker 4
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Into Thin Air - John Krakauer
Under the Banner of Heaven - John Krakauer
The Relic - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Reliquary - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Thunderhead - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
The Codex - Douglas Preston
The Mole People - Jennifer Toth
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Our Endangered Values - Jimmy Carter

I am currently out of books. Feel free to make suggestions as to ones to read. Thank you in advance.